Portable Objects Research Articles

The Aboriginal Material Culture of the Wellesley Islands and Adjacent Mainland Coast, Gulf of Carpentaria: Social and Environmental Factors Affecting Variations in Style

Similarities and differences in aspects of the culture of the Aboriginal people of the Wellesley Islands, has been noted by European writers. This remote island group is situated in the southern region of the Gulf of Carpentaria, northwest Queensland. Observed differences appear to demonstrate dissimilarities in certain cultural manifestations between the North Wellesley Islands (Mornington and Forsyth) and the South Wellesley Islands (Bentinck and Sweers). These include language, social organisation, land-use, ritual and ceremonial practices and manufactured objects of material culture. However, other cultural practices, namely an economy based on marine resources, are shared throughout the region. The data used here focus on items of portable material culture used by the people of the Wellesley Islands and the adjacent mainland coast at a time before intensified social disruptions to Aboriginal people in the area was brought about by increased European presence and by the establishment of missions in the region in the first quarter of the twentieth century. All items are from museum collections and were collected no later than 1916. Using a relational database, the morphological variations present in the objects are quantified and analysed. The study area is divided into three regional zones; the North Wellesley Islands, the South Wellesley Islands and the Adjacent Mainland Coast. In the region, four different languages are spoken and the data are also analysed by language group. The aim of the study is to determine whether quantifiable regional variation can be demonstrated. This article intentionally focuses narrowly on portable objects of material culture. For references to wider cultural aspects of the study area, see Roth (1897, 1901, 1903), Tindale (1977), Trigger (1987), Robins et al. (1998), Evans (2005), Memmott (2010), whose work has previously explored similarity and difference in the culture of the region as well as theoretical discussions of the reasons for these differences.

A Rare Engraving of an Italian Rococo Parade Apartment of 1736: Andrea Bolzoni's Print of the Interior of the Palazzo Cervelli in Ferrara

AbstractEngraved images of real secular interiors are rare before 1790. Even more rare are illustrations of nonroyal houses in which the domestic and parade apartments are depicted fully furnished, with portable objects that were actually in use. An illustration by Andrea Bolzoni (1689–1760) accompanying the publication in 1736 of a poem by Jacopo Agnelli (1701 or 1702–99) celebrating a grand festival given by Fortunato Cervelli (1683–1755), the Holy Roman imperial consul in Ferrara, on the occasion of the marriage of Maria Theresa of Austria (1717–80), female heiress to the Habsburg dynasty, provides an exceptional record of Cervelli's nonroyal suite of parade apartments decorated in a unique “chinoiserie” variant of the Rococo style. The actual decorative interiors represented were prompted by a special set of political and commercial circumstances designed to project the Habsburg interests abroad in the Papal States.

Portable Palaces: On the Circulation of Objects and Ideas about Architecture in Medieval Anatolia and Mesopotamia

Abstract This essay examines two categories of portable objects: ceramics and ephemeral architecture (such as tents, palanquins, litters) for clues to the transmission of ideas about palatial architecture and the creation of a shared taste for a certain kind of palatial form and decoration between Christian and Muslim states whose artistic production is usually considered separately. The time period investigated is the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, and the geographical area investigated spans Constantinople, Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia. Without denying the importance of traveling craftsmen as vectors for artistic exchange, this essay argues that portable objects and portable or ephemeral architecture helped create the taste and demand for a supranational palatial architecture.

Blessing for sale? On the production and distribution of pilgrim mementoes in Byzantium

The so-called eulogies (“blessings”) were portable objects used as souvenirs of pilgrimages to Christian shrines and holy places. These mementoes were credit by the faithful with miraculous properties: they could protect against any danger known to man, provided miraculous cures, even protection from the hazards of travelling. Acquiring them was an essential part of religious practice on a Christian pilgrimage. Aim of the article is to explore economic aspects of these artefacts, namely the modes of their production and distribution. Therefore, the most know categories of this kind of devotionalia were study and in connection with the written sources their economic dimensions were explored.

Women’s work: The dedication of loom weights in the sanctuaries of southern Italy

Loom weights are a common find in the sanctuaries of the ancient world. These small, portable, and inexpensive objects, however, are often marginalised in scholarship as merely remnants of weaving that took place at the site, or as low status dedications. In this article, I emphasize the importance of loom weights as offerings rather than tools, presenting an example of intentional votive dedication and exploring the significance of these dedications for women within the sanctuary context. I focus on loom weights found at the Samnite sanctuary at Valle d’Ansanto, where the finds date from the 5th- 3rd centuries BCE, and place these loom weights within the context of finds from Magna Graecian and Italic sacred and domestic sites in other areas of southern Italy.

Fallax Imago: Ovid's Narcissus and the seduction of mimesis in Roman wall painting

In the late first century CE, the myth of Narcissus became one of the most frequently represented subjects in Roman wall painting. The well-known, often reproduced images from the House of Octavius...

Abnormal Behavior Recognition Based on Multi-Information Decision in Power Generation

So far most research of human behavior recognition focus on simple individual behavior, such as wave, crouch, jump and bend. This paper will focus on abnormal behavior with objects carrying in power generation. Such as using mobile communication device in main control room, taking helmet off during working and using umbrella in high place. In global environment, there are some almost fixed features for portable objects of workers, such as clothes. So we adopted edge detecting by color tracking to recognize object in worker. The sequence of 3D human behavior data would be expressed by geometric character of skeleton and its angle. Since specific time and space of behavior definition, it is of importance for recognition system using describing information in a comprehensive way. Take account of information complementary perspective, this paper introduced a method of making decision from multi-information by spatial pyramid and fisher score discretion for behavior recognition. And the method was proved to have advantages than some previous algorithms.

Image, Memory and Ritual: Re-viewing the Antecedents of Writing

This article addresses the visual culture of the Neolithic Near East, in particular that found on seals and sealings, objects often associated with information storage and administration. It considers the connection between those images and a broader Neolithic cosmology and, finally, the ways that both changed as cities replaced villages. The evidence is a set of imagery carved on small, portable objects such as palettes and seals, as well as their impressions on clay. By and large, seals have been studied as administrative and economic tools, part of a developing system of record-keeping in the millennia preceding the first writing. Their imagery, however, reveals elements of a basic cosmology, suggesting a religious context and meaning that precedes evidence of their use in administrative contexts. I posit that a) there are recurring motifs in the visual culture of the Neolithic Near East; and b) the subject matter of these motifs relates to religious beliefs and practices. I argue that to fully understand early seal use, we must proceed historically rather than ahistorically, first considering the primary association between these objects and cosmological concerns, and then broaden interpretations of later seal use, archive systems and ultimately writing, to consider how the content or meaning of the glyptic imagery may relate to those contexts.

A Comparison of Energy Expenditure Estimates From SenseWear Activity Monitor Armbands During Exercise

The SenseWear Pro Armband (SWA) (BodyMedia, Inc.) is a commercially available portable objective device that provides an estimate of energy expenditure (EE). The SWA has shown acceptable validity and reliability in previous studies examining various exercise modes and intensities. The SenseWear Mini Armband (MINI) is the next generation of this technology that has allowed for a downsizing of the SWA. However, the EE estimated by the MINI and SWA during various modes of exercise has not been examined. PURPOSE: To compare the EE estimated by the SWA to the MINI during various modes of exercise. METHODS: Thirty subjects (age: 25.2±4.9 yrs; BMI: 24.4±2.9 kg/m2) were randomized to three of five exercising conditions (walking, n=18; elliptical trainer, n=19; stepping on an adaptive motion trainer, n=18; stationary cycling, n=20; outdoor cycling, n=15). Each exercise session was 20 minutes and performed on separate days. For each exercise session the subject wore the MINI on the left arm and the SWA on the right arm. EE was estimated using proprietary algorithms developed by the manufacturer (software version 7.0) and indirect calorimetry served as the criterion measure. RESULTS: EE estimated by the MINI was significantly higher than the SWA by 19.4±9.7 kcal during walking, 22.7±13.5 kcal during stepping, and 11.8±8.0 kcal during elliptical exercise (p=0.001). There was a non-significant difference between MINI and SWA in EE of 9.1±19.9 kcal during stationary cycling and 2.5±15.8 kcal during outdoor cycling. Indirect calorimetry was significantly associated with EE during walking (r=0.91; r=0.90), stepping (r=.75; r=.84), elliptical exercise (r=0.65; r=0.73) and outdoor cycling (r=0.59; r=0.59) for the MINI and SWA, respectively (p<0.05). EE during stationary cycling was significantly associated with indirect calorimetry for the MINI (r=.48, p=0.03), but not for the SWA. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that while the MINI provides EE estimates that are greater than the SWA for selected exercises, these data are significantly correlated with measured EE from indirect calorimetry. This next generation of this technology may be a viable alternative to the SWA for estimating EE. However, additional research is needed to confirm these findings and to potentially refine the proprietary algorithms used to estimate EE.

Developing a 3-D Digital Heritage Ecosystem: from object to representation and the role of a virtual museum in the 21st century

This article addresses the application of high-precision 3-D recording methods to heritage materials (portable objects), the technical processes involved, the various digital products and the role of 3-D recording in larger questions of scholarship and public interpretation. It argues that the acquisition and creation of digital representations of heritage must be part of a comprehensive research infrastructure (a digital ecosystem) that focuses on all of the elements involved, including (a) recording methods and metadata, (b) digital object discovery and access, (c) citation of digital objects, (d) analysis and study, (e) digital object reuse and repurposing, and (f) the critical role of a national/international digital archive. The article illustrates these elements and their relationships using two case studies that involve similar approaches to the high-precision 3-D digital recording of portable archaeological objects, from a number of late pre-Columbian villages and towns in the mid-central US (c. 1400 CE) and from the Egyptian site of Amarna, the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten's capital c. 1300 BCE).

Online Portable Microcantilever Biosensors for Salmonella enterica Serotype Enteritidis Detection

The micro- and nano-technologies coupled with a deep knowledge of organic/inorganic interfaces guarantee an exceptional sensitivity and specificity of the sensor, while the lab-on-a-chip platform reduces assay times and limits sampling and/or sample preparation, providing compact and portable objects. Therefore, the development of innovative biosensors such as antibody-immobilized microcantilevers can overcome the evident limits of nowadays technologies, such as time consuming, expensiveness, difficult automation, low sensitivity, accuracy, and precision for quantitative methods. The present study proposes two device designs for the detection of food pathogens, exploiting an antibody-immobilized microcantilever biosensors, a novel class of mass detectors. For the first one, we integrated the mechanical sensors on a microfluidic platform (lab-on-a-chip) to perform online analysis, directly in liquid environment. We showed that our portable biosensors could easily detect the presence of pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella enterica serotype enteritidis in concentration 105 cfu/mL in just 40 min, without any enrichment and/or sample preparation. To increase the mass sensitivity of our analysis, we also fabricated microstructures optimized for vibrating in vacuum environment. Using a dip-and-dry technique, we showed that, in such configuration, the experimental limit of detection is as low as 103 cfu/mL. Due to the extremely small volumes needed, our biosensors operating in vacuum have the potentiality of detecting the presence or absence of a single cell.

Ultra-low power data storage for sensor networks

Local storage is required in many sensor network applications, both for archival of detailed event information, as well as to overcome sensor platform memory constraints. Recent gains in energy efficiency of new-generation NAND flash storage have strengthened the case for in-network storage by data-centric sensor network applications. We argue that current storage solutions offering a simple file system abstraction are inadequate for sensor applications to exploit storage. Instead, we propose Capsule—a rich, flexible and portable object storage abstraction that offers stream, file, array, queue and index storage objects for data storage and retrieval. Further, Capsule supports checkpointing and rollback of object state for fault tolerance. Our experiments demonstrate that Capsule provides platform independence, greater functionality and greater energy efficiency than existing storage solutions.

Imprints of the Neolithic mind – clay stamps from the Republic of Macedonia

The presence and unusual structure of clay stamps found in Neolithic settlements often give rise to multiple interpretations to define their character. The small dimensions and specific shape of the stamps suggests that these portable objects were important in the social relations and visual communication between members within the same community and, possibly, more distant communities. The definite patterns distinguishe their function in maintaining the visual traditions of the populations inhabiting southeastern Europe. They had an important role in building the Neolithic image modularity, so that they fitted into the comprehensive decorative structure of Neolithic iconography, and the patterns present on the stamps are related to several aspects of Neolithic material culture from the Balkans and Anatolia. This homogeneity of patterns indicates that they were actively included in the transposition of cognition into visual metaphors.

A Study on Space Embodiment of Supermodern Fashion Design

Abstract The purpose of this study is to grasp the change of modern space concept and analyze how to adopt and embody the change in modern fashion. The study researched wearer's costume space and analyzed space shown in supermo-dern fashion design by classifying it into response to non-space, allowance of wearer-based space, scientific space of architectural skill and embodiment of space image. As a study method, literature and study material of sociology, anthropology, fashion sociology and design field were referred. For picture data of supermodern fashion work, spe-cialized book, designer, brand collection material and internet site pictures were collected and analyzed. The study result shows the following features of fashion design space embodiment corresponding to the change of supermodern environment. First, supermodern design secures closet space like pocket for portable objects and uses design space in order to provide the space for convenience of movement. Second, supermodern design creates wearer-based independent space in order to secure person's physical and mental stability in city environment. Third, supermodern design uses space scientifically from the aspect of detail and shape by applying space of architectural skill to space. Fourth, supermodern design shows aesthetic feature that embodies interpretation of space by conceptualizing space image and using fashion.

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Social Implications of Mobile Telephony: The Rise of Personal Communication Society

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Social Implications of Mobile Telephony: The Rise of Personal Communication Society

Reflecting materiality: reading sport history through the lens

If historians have been reluctant to engage seriously with photographs as evidence, the problem is even more pronounced in sport history. This article examines two photographs of Solomon Islands' divers in order to consider the larger idea of photographs as historic documents. The focus is less on the content of the pictures and more on ways of reading photographic images as material objects. Materiality as a methodological tool for considering photographs has been used in anthropology (e.g. Elizabeth Edwards, Chris Wright) and has potential for sport historians. It involves considering photographs as three-dimensional objects as well as two-dimensional images, and considers how the creation, distribution, consumption and recycling of photographs constructs, shapes and influences meanings. One image, published by missionary George Brown in his 1910 book Melanesians and Polynesians, depicts children leaping from a tripod into the sea. The second, published in a Sydney newspaper in 1918, shows famous Solomon Islander swimmer Alick Wickham attempting a ‘world record’ dive. While both images offer opportunities for deconstructionist readings of race and representation, this article pursues a different tack and argues that content is not the sole repository of photographic meaning and that content analysis is not the only possible approach to reading photographs. Instead, this article considers the importance of the medium in which a photograph is published, accompanying text and other images, various ‘gazes’ or acts upon the photograph, and ways in which images are recycled over time. Photographs are seen not only as sources, but also as histories in themselves. It is argued that materiality is central to the power of images as historic documents, for it is as physical and portable objects that photographs are transmitted, exchanged, viewed and ultimately understood.

Symbolic language in Torres Strait, NE Australia: images from rock art, portable objects and human scars

The Torres Strait is often in the research literature – unsurprisingly since it is not only a key area for early settlement but one where ancient and modern practice resonate. Rock art is a prominent archaeological source for the region – but not the only one. In this study the author shows how rock art interconnects with imagery on portable artefacts and scarification – scarring patterns on skin – to define cultural zones of the last few centuries in territories occupied by both horticulturalists and hunter-gatherers.

Method for driving a vibrating device for a portable object that comprises a coil and a moving mass

The drive method consists in setting in vibration a moving mass of a vibrating device for a portable object using a series of voltage pulses provided to the coil of the vibrating device, which is electro-magnetically coupled to the moving mass. In a phase of driving the oscillations of the moving mass after a start phase of the vibrating device, followed by a resonant frequency measurement phase, successive rectangular voltage pulses of alternating polarity are provided to the coil by a drive circuit. The width of the successive pulses is modulated in a substantially similar manner during each successive oscillation period which allows a substantially sinusoidal voltage wave (S F ) of determined amplitude to be defined whose fundamental frequency is adapted to the resonant frequency of the moving mass. By modifying the oscillation period, it is thus possible to act on the amplitude of the moving mass oscillations which depends on the sinusoidal wave amplitude defined by the rectangular pulse width modulation.

Une sculpture paléolithique inédite : la silhouette féminine en bas-relief de Gouy (Seine-Maritime, France)

The subject of this note (a little depiction of a female body in left profile) belongs to the Palaeolithic cave of Gouy (Seine-Maritime). Executed in bas-relief (on limestone), it comprises pre-defined volumes comparable with the graphic conventions of figures of the Lalinde/Gönnersdorf type. Despite these convergences, the example from Gouy has no known equivalent at present, since this is the first time that the technique of bas-relief is encountered among these systematic silhouettes. The subject depicted is closely associated with a vertical cleft (that of a vulva), which forms the whole of its left edge. As analysis has progressed, various intentional traces have also been encountered and described, which are more or less comprehensible and slight; they only permit a few hypotheses. By revealing the presence of different vestiges (preserving shapes) that are truly carved in the cave's rock wall, the bas-relief highlights the use of sculpture in Gouy – this is a crucial fact – which only just escaped being totally unknown, because of the destruction of the front part of the cave. Together with the revelation of the variety of techniques used in Gouy, data have gradually been gathered together, which argue in favour of a frequentation of the cave over a long period. For the moment, there is no evidence enabling one to choose between the two probabilities of the bas-relief being either a ‘portable object’ or a ‘wall fragment’.

DSSV-méthodologie. Approche de validation d'applications logicielles à l'aide de la modélisation et la simulation à évènements discrets

Our work focuses on the modeling and simulation of discreet events applied to the context of the validation of software architectures at a high level (the specifications level) of abstraction. We have developed a methodological appraoch callled the DSSV generic approach which meets these criteria. We have proceded to validate the method on an application in the field of telecommunications and also modeled a component of the CORBA architecture- the Portable Object Adapter. In addition to validating our approach this method allows for validate of dispersed software architectures before their actual physical implementation through the use of modeling and simulation at the level of specifications.