Stylistic Attributes Research Articles

Unravelling Paunar

Paunar has become a site of contention in the field of archaeology ever since the discovery of sculptures during the construction of the Vinoba Bhave ashram. The disputes surrounding this site primarily revolve around three key aspects: the nomenclature of the place, the interpretation of the images found, and their stylistic attributes. Divided into an introduction and five sections, this paper aims to shed light on these controversies. The first and third sections delve into the discourse regarding the identification of Paunar as Pravarapura, a name prominent in eastern Vakataka copper-plate inscriptions. The central question addressed in these two sections is whether Paunar can truly be equated with Pravarapura or if it was situated elsewhere. The second and fourth sections focus on a reassessment of the religious identity and nomenclature of the discovered images. Lastly, the fifth section investigates the origin of the images themselves, aiming to determine whether they bear an indigenous regional affiliation or if they were introduced from either the northern or southern regions of India. By delving into these aspects, this paper seeks to contribute to the discourse surrounding Paunar, ultimately aiming to provide a more comprehensive understanding of its historical significance and cultural context.

Some style tendencies of Hellenism which formed the basis for the pictorial canon of Eastern church rite

The article systematically presents and substantiates the stylistic concept of some unique artistic tendencies of Hellenism, which share a common sacred nature with the pictorial canon of eastern churches. It also proposes updated retrospective artistic principles to reassess the role of these tendencies. This finding allows us to reveal additional roots of the pictorial canon and review the cause-and-effect relationship between the narrative-symbolic-decorative attributes of ancient funeral rituals and the spiritual-philosophical foundations of early Christian art. It suggests filling the gaps in art history and cultural studies within the framework of relevant themes by introducing modeled and unified conceptual-categorical constructions into scientific circulation. The purpose of the research. The main purpose of the article is to rethink and systematize some artistic and stylistic tendencies of the Hellenistic’s era in late antiquity, from which all Eastern church pictorial traditions drew their conceptual and stylistic foundations during their formation period. The methodology. A combination of specialized methods was applied: historical-comparative method for identifying key artistic tendencies; cultural-deductive method for formulating artistic categories; abstraction method for delineating key stylistic features of sacred attributes, as well as for identifying differences and similarities; expert artistic assessment method for theoretical characterization, substantiation, and expansion of conceptual-categorical components; stylistic correlation method for unifying newly discovered stylistic connections of Hellenistic artistic products and the Christian tradition. The combination of the listed methods allows us to reveal the concept of the stylistic basis for the pictorial tradition in the church paraphernalia of the Eastern rite and to systematize the existing authoritative evidence base regarding to origins of the pictorial canon of the Egyptian and Greco-Roman periods. Conclusions. Our analysis shows that in the broad context of the formation of the pictorial canon, peculiar to the churches of the Eastern rite, some artistic trends of the first centuries of the new era turned out to be an unchanging and stable conceptual basis for the pictorial canon in a complex artistic and philosophical coordinate system. Thus, the artistic canon of the Eastern churches, formed between the VI and IX centuries, is nothing more than a borrowed status-functional category for the multi-level gradation of Christian value aspects with specific techniques and means of Hellenistic fine art of the times of ancient Egyptian and Greco-Roman syncretism. Their intermedial nature and appellative character in relation to the Theogony of the ancient world limit the traditional interpretation of the Christian symbolism of the vast majority of canonical images in the artistic plane. The scientific novelty. For the first time our research analyzed the cause-and-effect relationship between canonical Christian stylistic attributes and Greco-Roman and Egyptian features as the ideological basis of the latter for the formative role of the former. It reassessed and re-evaluated some Hellenistic artistic tendencies in terms of their significance and complexity. A number of expanded cultural and art historical concepts and categories of the ancient world are proposed and substantiated.

Returning to Makekur: Re-evaluating the Occupational Sequence of the Early-Middle Lapita Site of Makekur (FOH), Arawe Islands, Papua New Guinea

The site of Makekur, located in the Arawe Islands of Papua New Guinea, has for some years been considered unique amongst the sites of the Lapita distribution. Representing one of the earliest Lapita sites in the region to have evidence of long-term continuing occupation from the Early through to at least the Middle Periods, the radiocarbon and pottery records of Makekur form a key foundation for understanding not just the lives of the Lapita people that called it home, but also the emergence of the Lapita Cultural Complex and the changes it underwent over time and space. However, a new chronology proposed by Specht and Gosden (2019) has raised doubts as to the validity of these original interpretations. This study uses Bayesian statistical analysis and stylistic analysis to re-assess the radiocarbon chronology, form, and decoration of pottery assemblages from Makekur. It looks to understand whether a multi-phase occupation spanning the Early to Middle Periods can be identified within both the radiocarbon and ceramic records, and in so doing evaluates the reliability of the stylistic attributes used to differentiate deposits of differing ages. The study concludes that Makekur was occupied during the Early Period between 3274 – 2803 cal. B.P. and continued into the Middle Period starting between 3059 – 2889 cal. B.P., followed by slightly later occupational events in the same period between 2998 – 2855 cal. B.P. and approximately 2709 – 1402 cal. B.P. Finally, it further concludes that pottery of the Early and Middle Periods was stylistically unique, and clearly delineated between deposits of differing ages.

Archaeological Collections from the Jōmon Period in the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera)

This article presents an analysis and additional description of archaeological items of the Jōmon period from A.V. Grigoriev’s collection (No. 1294) at the Department of Archaeology of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) RAS in St. Petersburg. The study focuses on the description of decorative motifs and the stylistic attribution of selected samples of pottery. The analysis is based on the published data about the Ōmori shell mound (Tokyo, Honshu Island), visited by Grigoriev in 1878 as a part of the expedition from the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. The early stage of the Japanese archaeology is described with reference to the Ōmori shell mound. Special attention is given to specific features of the Jōmon decorative style. The geographic location of the site suggests that the samples are associated with the Kasori B and Horinouchi styles. Contrary to the Russian tradition, the emphasis is made on stylistic interpretation rather than technology and typology. The combinations of large zonally arranged rectangular designs and spiral motifs are typical of the Kasori B style, to which several samples belong. Others reveal vertically and horizontally arranged patterns consisting of incised arcuate and straight lines, typical of the Horinouchi style.

Multimodal Content Analysis Using Deep Learning

Abstract: The multimodal content analysis platform combines sentiment analysis and neural style transfertechniques to process and improve various types of digital content. The sentiment analysis module utilizes natural language processing (NLP) algorithms, such as recurrent neural networks (RNNs) or transformer models like BERT, to extract emotional signals from textual, visual, and auditory inputs. Signals are classified into predefined sentiment categories, providing granular insights into the emotional context of the content. The platform employs neural style transfer algorithms, such as style transfer networks (NSTNs) or generative adversarial networks (GANs), to transfer stylistic attributes between texts. By training on a diverse range of artistic styles, the system learns to apply these styles to input text while preserving semantic meaning. This process enhances the visual representation of textual content, making it more appealing and engaging to users.

LINGUODIDACTIC FEATURES OF TEACHING ADJECTIVES IN THE COURSE OF UKRAINIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

The article delineates the nuances surrounding the meaning, morphological features, syntactic functions, and stylistic attributes of Ukrainian adjectives as a focal point for foreign learners, accompanied by a proposed set of exercises tailored to foster practical proficiency and fluency in their application within speech. It underscores the close association between adjectives and nouns, wherein their interdependency epitomizes the essence of their lexical meaning and grammatical categories. The semantics of adjectives is linked with word-formation structures, encompassing both derivative and non-derivative forms, as well as processes of substantiation. In teaching Ukrainian to non-native speakers, particular emphasis is placed on elucidating the autonomous nature of morphological categories – gender, number, and case – when adjectives assume the role of a noun or predicate. A comprehensive array of morphological variations within adjectives is delineated: 1) forms of word change by gender, number, case; 2) forms of adjectival comparison; 3) short and full (conjugated and unconjugated) forms of adjectives; 4) forms of adjectives by the final consonant of the stem (hard, soft, mixed group). Consideration is given to the formation and utilization of grammatical forms in tandem with the lexical and stylistic nuances inherent to adjectives. Moreover, the article underscores the distinctive approach employed in textbooks targeting Ukrainian as a foreign language when addressing the topic of adjectives. Authors extensively employ tables, instructional rules, generalizations, and grammatical exercises with a communicative emphasis, supplemented by explanatory commentary. It is essential to exercise creativity in leveraging the grammatical content within textbooks, critically evaluating presentation modalities and sequential learning patterns, and devising a comprehensive range of exercises and tasks aimed at cultivating practical aptitude and proficiency in adjective usage within speech. The efficacy of addressing these objectives hinges upon the methodological proficiency of Ukrainian language educators catering to foreign learners. Key words: Ukrainian as a foreign language, adjective, practical grammar, morphological features, syntactic functions, methodological competence.

Exploring the relationship between GuaYi levels and microbial-metabolic dynamics in Daqu

Daqu is a crucial saccharifying and fermenting agent in the production of Baijiu, with GuaYi referring to the white fungal colonies on Daqu's surface, serving as a critical indicator for sensory evaluation. However, the correlation between distinct GuaYi and the consequent internal modifications in Daqu remains to be elucidated. Our investigation delineates that Heavy GuaYi Daqu (HGY), distinguished by an elevated prevalence of white microflora (notably Saccharomycopsis), sustains enhanced moisture levels internally. This environment is conducive to the proliferation of Aspergillus and Kroppenstedtia, resulting in significant increases of 50.95% and 40.75% in the concentrations of alcohols and pyrazines, respectively. Conversely, Light GuaYi Daqu (LGY) creates a comparatively arid environment, favoring Thermoascus and Staphylococcus growth, which is instrumental in the decomposition of complex biomolecules such as starch, reducing sugars, and proteins. These insights elucidate the nuanced interplay between GuaYi and Daqu's quality and stylistic attributes, providing an invaluable theoretical framework for the refinement of sensory evaluation standards for Daqu.

A comparative analysis of VGG19 and Magenta models for Neural Style Transfer

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has witnessed remarkable progress, with deep learning techniques playing a pivotal role in this transformative journey. One prominent facet of this progress is Neural Style Transfer (NST), a domain within computer vision and image processing. NST entails merging the content of one image with the stylistic attributes of another, resulting in a seamless fusion of content and style. This paper presents a comprehensive comparative analysis of two influential style transfer models, VGG19 and Magenta, shedding light on their strengths and limitations. VGG19, a well-established convolutional neural network, excels in feature extraction, dimensionality reduction, and image classification, making it ideal for computer vision tasks. In contrast, Magenta, a creative content generation framework, specializes in producing innovative content, such as music and art, while promoting human-AI collaboration. Evaluation reveals that Magenta's generated images tend to exhibit softer colors but higher clarity, while VGG19 produces vibrant and faithful color reproductions with finer details. The choice between these models should be driven by specific task requirements. VGG19 is suitable for tasks emphasizing color fidelity, while Magenta excels in image clarity. Future research directions may involve enhancing algorithmic capabilities to harness the strengths of both models and improving efficiency in style transfer techniques. This analysis empowers researchers, practitioners, and enthusiasts to make informed decisions when selecting a model aligned with their objectives, contributing to the evolving landscape of AI-assisted creative content generation.

Fast style transfer for ethnic patterns innovation

Minority ethnic patterns in China, reflecting diverse cultures, serve as symbols of ethnic identity and cultural heritage. However, the current artistic domain of minority ethnic patterns faces dual challenges: limited artistic styles and insufficient innovation efficiency. In addressing these issues, this study proposes a novel approach for ethnic pattern innovation, named Fast Style Transfer for Ethnic Pattern Innovation (FST-EPI), aiming to enhance innovation efficiency and diversify artistic styles. FST-EPI comprises three key modules: background generation, background fusion, and fast transfer. Firstly, the background generation module utilizes the Visual Geometry Group network (VGGNet) to extract features from images, generating a background image with the desired style while preserving the necessary stylistic attributes. Subsequently, textile patterns are fused with the stylized background image, forming a content-background fusion image. Finally, the selected stylistic patterns, along with the content-background fusion image, are input into the fast transfer module to produce the ultimate innovative pattern. Experimental results demonstrate that the generated images not only fully retain the core features and cultural elements of minority ethnic patterns but also successfully integrate the unique styles from one or more reference images. This proposed method exhibits outstanding efficiency and feasibility in a broad range of experiments related to ethnic pattern style transfer, as evidenced by thorough comparisons with state-of-the-art methods. Ultimately, the processing speed of this method achieves a real-time output at the level of seconds, reducing processing time by nearly 50% compared to traditional approaches.

Cultural Character Analysis on Architectural Elements of the Chinese Temples’ Buildings before the 19th Century in Central Java

The research provided an in-depth exploration of the architectural nuances of pre-19th century Chinese temples in Central Java, Indonesia, emphasizing their cultural significance and relevance. A detailed examination of a range of temples identified unique architectural features that reflected a sophisticated synthesis of Chinese cultural elements and local Javanese traditions. Applying a qualitative method, the research integrated historical scrutiny with architectural analysis, meticulously examining stylistic attributes, construction methodologies, and decorative patterns typical of these temples. The key discoveries highlight an intricate amalgamation of traditional Chinese architectural principles with native materials and craftsmanship, culminating in a distinctive, hybrid architectural form. This fusion not only symbolizes the cultural convergence and assimilation between Chinese immigrants and the indigenous Javanese during the pre-colonial era but also underscores the role of these temples as pivotal preservers of Chinese cultural heritage in Java. Furthermore, the research contributes to a deeper understanding of the diversity within architectural practices and offers insightful perspectives on the historical and socio-cultural dynamics in Central Java. The novelty of the research is anchored in its focused examination of a historically and geographically specific context, its interdisciplinary and thorough approach, the revelation of a unique hybrid architectural style, and its significant insights into the cultural and sociological dimensions of Central Java’s architectural legacy.

Explicitly-Decoupled Text Transfer With Minimized Background Reconstruction for Scene Text Editing.

Scene text editing aims to replace the source text with the target text while preserving the original background. Its practical applications span various domains, such as data generation and privacy protection, highlighting its increasing importance in recent years. In this study, we propose a novel Scene Text Editing network with Explicitly-decoupled text transfer and Minimized background reconstruction, called STEEM. Unlike existing methods that usually fuse text style, text content, and background, our approach focuses on decoupling text style and content from the background and utilizes the minimized background reconstruction to reduce the impact of text replacement on the background. Specifically, the text-background separation module predicts the text mask of the scene text image, separating the source text from the background. Subsequently, the style-guided text transfer decoding module transfers the geometric and stylistic attributes of the source text to the content text, resulting in the target text. Next, the background and target text are combined to determine the minimal reconstruction area. Finally, the context-focused background reconstruction module is applied to the reconstruction area, producing the editing result. Furthermore, to ensure stable joint optimization of the four modules, a task-adaptive training optimization strategy has been devised. Experimental evaluations conducted on two popular datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. STEEM outperforms state-of-the-art methods, as evidenced by a reduction in the FID index from 29.48 to 24.67 and an increase in text recognition accuracy from 76.8% to 78.8%.

Methodical Aspects of Stylistic Attribution Arrangement of Pop-Vocal Composition

The purpose of the research is to theoretically develop methods of characterisation and attribution of the style of arranging a pop-vocal composition. Based on the task of identifying active means of music expression, the most suitable methods for determining the characteristic features of style were used; the specific features of form, textural, temporithmic, timbre, melodic-thematic, and ladoharmonic organisation of the musical material of arrangement were analysed. As a result, the algorithm of analytical actions in the process of hearing expertise on the specific features of the musical language of arrangement is aimed at identifying the genesis of the stylistic profile of pop-vocal composition, which usually has features of genre-style synthesis of different areas of popular, jazz, folk, or academic music. In this regard, the parameters of temporithm and phonism are defined as basic criteria for recognising the stylistic dominant of the instrumental component of the song genre. The scientific apparatus of stylistic analysis methods, along with conventional musicological research methods, were used, as well as definitions of constant and aconstant types of the sound image of arrangement as operational criteria of stylistic differentiation of recyclic and through-dramaturgical principles of development of the sound idea of pop-vocal composition. During the comparative hearing analysis of the sound recordings of the famous Ukrainian song «I will go to distant mountains» in the original author's performance of Volodymyr Ivasyuk and its cover version performed by Kvitka Cisyk and arranged by Jack Cortner, the method of comparative stylistic characteristics of arrangements was carried out on the principle of contrasting comparisons or comparisons on the similarity of creative methods of instrumentation, formation, tempo-rithmic, melodic-thematic, and ladotonal organisation of musical material of instrumental accompaniments. The result of the study was the systematisation of the procedure of stylistic attribution of cover versions arrangements of works of popular song genres. The conclusions substantiate the need to consider the criteria of musical novelty and aesthetic value in evaluating the results of stylistic rethinking by the arranger of the original song musical text, which in the new version can appear as a unique, individualised concept that has actual artistic importance for modern listening audiences.

Features of English for Science and Technology and Translation Strategies under the Perspective of Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance ---- A Case Study of Geological Translation

In the contemporary era, there is a burgeoning trend of intercultural communication among nations, prominently encompassing interactions within the scientific and technological (Sci. & Tech) domain. Within China, there has been a conspicuous dearth in the realm of Science and Technology translation, notably concerning the precise rendition of intricate professional knowledge across specific specialized fields and the requisite translation calibre. This deficiency has been accentuated by the absence of pertinent theoretical frameworks. Within this context, this research delves into the stylistic attributes of English for Science and Technology (EST) and elucidates translation strategies within the framework established by Yan Fu. Initially, the study scrutinizes the distinctive characteristics of EST, encompassing lexicon, syntax, and textual structures. Subsequently, it extrapolates these findings to the domain of Sci. & Tech translation. The ensuing section chronicles the evolution of domestic translation studies, culminating in the exposition of Yan Fus translation standards-namely, faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance. The paper concludes by summarizing the targeted translation strategies for Sci. & Tech translation, encompassing meticulous preparation, the pursuit of precision, and rigorous review and refinement processes.

Attribute Selection Hybrid Network Model for risk factors analysis of postpartum depression using Social media

Background and objectivePostpartum Depression (PPD) is a frequently ignored birth-related consequence. Social network analysis can be used to address this issue because social media network serves as a platform for their users to communicate with their friends and share their opinions, photos, and videos, which reflect their moods, feelings, and sentiments. In this work, the depression of delivered mothers is identified using the PPD score and segregated into control and depressed groups. Recently, to detect depression, deep learning methods have played a vital role. However, these methods still do not clarify why some people have been identified as depressed.MethodsWe have developed Attribute Selection Hybrid Network (ASHN) to detect the postpartum depression diagnoses framework. Later analysis of the post of mothers who have been confirmed with the score calculated by the experts of the field using physiological questionnaire score. The model works on the analysis of the attributes of the negative Facebook posts for Depressed user Diagnosis, which is a large general forum. This framework explains the process of analyzing posts containing Sentiment, depressive symptoms, and reflective thinking and suggests psycho-linguistic and stylistic attributes of depression in posts.ResultsThe experimental results show that ASHN works well and is easy to understand. Here, four attribute networks based on psychological studies were used to analyze the different parts of posts by depressed users. The results of the experiments show the extraction of psycho-linguistic markers-based attributes, the recording of assessment metrics including Precision, Recall and F1 score and visualization of those attributes were used title-wise as well as words wise and compared with daily life, depression and postpartum depressed people using Word cloud. Furthermore, a comparison to a reference with Baseline and ASHN model was carried out.ConclusionsAttribute Selection Hybrid Network (ASHN) mimics the importance of attributes in social media posts to predict depressed mothers. Those mothers were anticipated to be depressed by answering a questionnaire designed by domain experts with prior knowledge of depression. This work will help researchers look at social media posts to find useful evidence for other depressive symptoms.

Christian Sinding’s piano works: the experience of a post-romantic world perception

Statement of the problem. Christian Sinding is the first composer after Edward Grieg, whose name resonated in wide circles of the musical community not only in Norway, but also in Europe, in particular Germany. His works were widely performed and aroused general interest, being evidence of the high status of national Norwegian music. In Ukraine, the figure of Sinding is little known, and his works are performed very rarely, despite the fact that his heritage, in particular the piano one, deserves attention and study as a vivid expression of the national style in the music of the early and first half of the 20th century. The style of performance of Sinding’s piano works was also not the subject of special research either in the world or in Ukrainian musicology. Recent research and publications. The creative personality of Sinding appears in generalizing studies on the history of Norwegian music (Rowbotham, 1916; Qvamme, 1949; Grinde, 1981; Herresthal, 1987; Holth, 2014), and the composer’s piano heritage is included in the context of the evolution of European piano art (Herresthal, 1987). The figure of Sinding is also highlighted in works in the genre of creative portraits (Altmann, 1936, Gaukstad, 1956) and in biographical studies. These works contain brief descriptions of the musical material of a significant part of the composer’s works. The dissertation of the Norwegian singer and scientist Per Vollestad, dedicated to Sinding’s vocal work, should be considered the most thorough study of his creativity at the moment (Vollestad, 2002). Nevertheless, in the mentioned sources, the piano music of Sinding, in particular, large-scale genres, did not become the subject of a special study, as well as the question of its stylistic attribution in the context of post-romanticism. Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The purpose of the study is to present the individual composer style of Sinding as of an experience of post-romantic worldview in the context of the trends of the modernism era based on the performance interpretation of large-scale piano works (Sonata and Concerto). The scientific novelty of the topic is determined by the lack of information about the specifics of Sinding’s piano style and artistic thinking in available scientific sources; in particular, we rely on self-own experience of interpreting Sinding’s selected works. The following methods were used in the study: historically typological that helps to outline the stages of evolution and stylistic trends of European piano art; the genre approach that identifies the established models of instrumental music of the European tradition (sonata, concerto); stylistic one revealing the regularities of the Norwegian artist’s individual way of thinking; and interpretative method that allows to understand of the composer’s embodiment of the sound image of the piano in the light of post-romanticism. Results and conclusion. Sinding’s large-scale piano works, the Concerto (1890s) and Sonata (1909) belong to the post-romantic European tradition. The thematic, functional and compositional analysis of the composer’s text of these works made it possible to reveal the fundamental principles of the author’s thinking, which bases on the synthesis of classical-romantic and national Norwegian musical language. Among the leading principles of piano style should be singled out: – the significance of the melody as the main carrier of the author’s thought, which serves as the foundation of the textural and timbre decoration of the theme-image; – a thematic presentation in octave duplications, which makes the piano texture close to an orchestral sound; – double national-stylistic identity: intonation (melos, mode, rhythm) has national-Norwegian roots; compositional regularities follow the German Romantic tradition; – frequent use of the technique of re-harmonizing motifs and phrases, the great role of polyphonic development (including imitative ones: canonical exposition in the development of the 1st movement of the Sonata); – the concert nature of the piano texture; – the richness of the orchestral accompaniment (in the accompanying part, solo horn and woodwinds as personification of the “voices of nature” should be noted). Thus, the post-romantic thinking of C. Sinding in the conceptual genres of piano music serves as an artistic counterpoint to the European style of the border of the 19–20th centuries, enriching its national component, universalizing and conceptualizing the romantic due to expanding of musical language means.

THE SANTA CLARA PASSION PANEL AND THE POOR CLARES OF PALMA DE MALLORCA: A PRELIMINARY REPORT

The large panel painting of the Passion in Palma de Mallorca is an impressive but little-studied work. This essay introduces a long-term, collaborative project that will examine the panel’s religious, historical, and art historical significance. While earlier scholarship has largely focused on questions of dating and stylistic attribution, we also explore possible explanations for the panel’s anomalous style as well as its meanings to the Clarissan nuns of Palma de Mallorca, who, we believe, were the panel’s primary viewers. We argue for the importance of this female community in commissioning the altarpiece and determining its key subjects and themes. These Clares shared with their powerful allies, the Franciscan Order, the papacy, and the royal house of Mallorca, a desire to serve and strengthen Christianity throughout their known world. The nuns could not participate in missionary activity abroad, but close to home were the non-Christian residents of Mallorca. For the nuns of Santa Clara, the presence of Jewish neighbors was especially disturbing. The Mallorca panel of the Passion was primarily devotional; it does not overtly preach through its pictures a Christian supremacy over “infidels”. Nevertheless, the far-reaching goals of the Church and the Franciscans affect the panel in concrete ways, from its Byzantine-inflected style to its unusual attention to the Jews of the Passion story.

Eastern and Western Influence in Wall Paintings of Abuna Yemata Guh Church (Ethiopia)

The rock-hewn church Abuna Yemata Guh, situated in the Gheralta Mountains of the Ethiopian Tigray region, houses one of the best preserved and least studied wall paintings of medieval Ethiopia. The pictorial program is dated to the second half of 15th century, by stylistic and iconographic characteristics. In fact, no well-proved date has been suggested so far. This research seeks to bridge the existing scholarly gap by conducting a comprehensive analysis of the iconographic and stylistic attributes of the paintings. It also considers the historical backdrop of the church, identifying key conduits of cultural influence. Furthermore, the study incorporates a scientific examination of the pigments employed in the paintings of Abuna Yemata Guh, comparing them with those found in other Ethiopian churches. The artistic motifs found within the paintings of Abuna Yemata Guh indicate an amalgamation of influences, notably drawing from Osman and Goan Christian art traditions. Additionally, traces of the iconographic style seen in the Roman icon Salus populi romani are evident, with a copy of this icon only arriving in Ethiopia after the 1570s. Consequently, the most plausible timeframe for the execution of the wall paintings falls within the latter part of the 16th c.

Song authorship attribution: a lyrics and rhyme based approach

In this work, we apply authorship attribution to a large-scale corpus of song lyrics. As a sub-category of poetry, song lyrics embody cultural elements as well as stylistic attributes that are not present in prose. We draw attention to special characteristics such as repetitive sound patterns and rhyme based structures in lyrics that can be key to ownership, and present opportunities that cannot be employed for authorship attribution of other types of text such as tweets, emails, and blog posts. We first create a new balanced, large-scale data set of 12,000 song lyrics from 120 different artists. We propose CNN models for authorship attribution on this song lyric data set, in order to use structural information included in the lyrics, similarly to image classification. We conduct experiments at the character and sub-word levels that mostly reflect positional information. In addition, we use phoneme level features, which intrinsically involve attributes such as repetitions, rhyme, and meter, and represent elements unique to verse-based textual compositions. We attempt to discover idiosyncratic features and consequently author and genre associations by working with variants of CNN architectures that have been successfully used in other text classification domains. Our architecture choice results in a particular focus on lyric attributes residing in neighboring regions, since CNNs fail to apprehend long term textual dependencies. Finally, we empirically evaluate our results in comparison with the findings of previous test classification research from different domains.

From theories on styles to their transfer in text: Bridging the gap with a hierarchical survey

AbstractHumans are naturally endowed with the ability to write in a particular style. They can, for instance, rephrase a formal letter in an informal way, convey a literal message with the use of figures of speech or edit a novel by mimicking the style of some well-known authors. Automating this form of creativity constitutes the goal of style transfer. As a natural language generation task, style transfer aims at rewriting existing texts, and specifically, it creates paraphrases that exhibit some desired stylistic attributes. From a practical perspective, it envisions beneficial applications, like chatbots that modulate their communicative style to appear empathetic, or systems that automatically simplify technical articles for a non-expert audience.Several style-aware paraphrasing methods have attempted to tackle style transfer. A handful of surveys give a methodological overview of the field, but they do not support researchers to focus on specific styles. With this paper, we aim at providing a comprehensive discussion of the styles that have received attention in the transfer task. We organize them in a hierarchy, highlighting the challenges for the definition of each of them and pointing out gaps in the current research landscape. The hierarchy comprises two main groups. One encompasses styles that people modulate arbitrarily, along the lines of registers and genres. The other group corresponds to unintentionally expressed styles, due to an author’s personal characteristics. Hence, our review shows how these groups relate to one another and where specific styles, including some that have not yet been explored, belong in the hierarchy. Moreover, we summarize the methods employed for different stylistic families, hinting researchers towards those that would be the most fitting for future research.

Saxophone in V. Runchak’s Chamber and Instrumental Creativity: TimbroExpressive and Technical-Performance Aspects

The conceptual aspects of using the saxophone's timbre and expressive capabilities in V. Runchak's chamber-instrumental work are characterized from the point of view of a comprehensive analysis of ideological and figurative paradigms that reflect and represent the artist's spiritual and philosophical searches. It has been found that the composer's appeal to ancient layers of culture, historical styles of the past is not accidental in this sense. The characteristic features of the enrichment of the intertextual content of V. Runchak's chamberinstrumental works are explained by the skillful use of non-traditional and modified performance devices and techniques of playing the saxophone. The factors of the formation of an imaginary artistic and performing image in the process of stage interpretation are determined in each program musical work. They appear in author text inserts and comments. The specifics of V. Runchak's use of the saxophone's timbre and expressive capabilities in chamber-instrumental creativity are described, taking into account the technical and performance capabilities of the specified instrument. It has been proven that the artist uses non-traditional and modified performance devices and techniques of playing the saxophone exclusively as a compositional and textural calibrated "movement", and not as a " invention for the sake of invention". The specific means of implementing elements of other compositional systems in the author's language are substantiated, taking into account the historically and factually determined ontological significance, aimed at: creating in the listener's imagination "author-controlled" images, ideas and feelings; expansion of stylistic attributes and involvement of a wide range of new or updated technological techniques, polystylistic principles, classical and romantic genre invariants; creative search for conditionally coexisting two opposite genre-forming factors — conditional dialogue between genre classical, historically composed prototypes and author's form-creating innovations and genre paradoxes; application of modern compositional techniques — aleatorics, cluster modeling, layered polyphony, sonoristics, etc.