Biography in the aspect of cultural communication of an artist and audience

The purpose of the article is to reveal the communicative potential of the master's biography, to prove its influence on the cultural dialogue between humanity and the achievements of the artist. The research methodology is to apply a number of approaches: analytical – to comprehend the literature on the topic of the article; interdisciplinary - for a comprehensive study of factual material and in obtaining new knowledge; systemic using a whole range of methods (biographical, semiotic, culturological, hermeneutic, historical, theoretical generalization) – comprehending the stated quest, etc. Scientific novelty – for the first time in the national humanities, biography is explained as the way of civilizational contact between the creator and the public, the translator of the most important meanings of the era. Conclusions. The publication states that the artist's biography is an important component of the communicative space of nowadays. It embodies the anthropological dimensions of history, the worldview of the day through the coverage of the hero's life, his significant achievements. The author of the chronicles builds the life strategy of the master in such a way that he becomes clear to the recipients of any period. An analysis of the chronicle reveals the richness of symbolic forms of cultural contact associated with works of art, epoch-making features and social circumstances, and so on. In unity, they affect the perception of the artist's image. This process is carried out by the public as a result of decoding spiritual information in accordance with existing norms, traditions of a particular time, awareness of the existential and creative experience of the character. Biography as a means of communication demonstrates freedom from ideological, social limitations, as it allows communication of individuals of different eras, removes territorial, speech, social, and others barriers. Due to their ability to embody the universal concepts of civilization, the chronicles express not only the story of the artist, but also allow the modern recipient to express himself. Thus the listener (viewer) through the biography is in contact with the master, his time, humanity. Keywords: biography, cultural communication, artist, audience.

(Post)colonial Chronopolitics and Mapping the Depth of Local Time(s) in Global Literary Studies: an Itinerary to Guinea-Bissau

This article is an attempt at deconstructing the chronopolitics inherent to the (post)colonial way of thinking about the world. As it is argued, what should replace it is a vision of multiple, overlying temporalities and forms of time awareness, reaching deeper than a literary history reduced to the cycle of colonisation – decolonisation – postcolonial becoming, originating from just a single maritime event: the European exploration and conquest of the world. The essay brings forth a choice of interwoven examples illustrating the variability of local time depths, associated with a plurality of origins, narrations, forms of awareness and cultivation of cultural belonging. It shows the lack of coincidence between the dominant and non-dominant perceptions of the past in such places as the archipelagos of São Tomé and Príncipe, Maldives, the Gambia, Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau. Their ways of living the global time, as well as embodying significant texts (rather than simply preserving them) stretch far beyond the frameworks created by competing colonial empires, such as the Portuguese or the British one.

Quality-Certified Hotels: The Role of Certification Bodies on the Formation of Customer Behavioral Intentions

This study attempts to explore the role of certification bodies on the formation of customer behavioral intentions. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from hotel customers in Spain. The results of the structural equation modeling indicate that a certified hotel’s image will positively influence stay intention and willingness to pay a premium. At the same time, awareness of, and trust in, certification bodies both have a positive effect on a certified hotel’s image. Finally, awareness of certification bodies also exerts a positive effect on trust in certification bodies. The results offer hoteliers potential strategies for customer behavioral intentions enhancement.

Online Consumer Reviews on Hearing Health Care Services: A Textual Analysis Approach to Examine Psychologically Meaningful Language Dimensions

Purpose The study examined psychologically meaningful language dimensions (i.e., social and emotional dimensions, health dimensions, and personal concerns) within online consumer reviews on hearing health care services using an automated textual analysis approach. Method Nine thousand six hundred twenty-two consumer reviews of hearing health care services, including an open-ended question (i.e., free text response to the prompt “share details of your own experience at this place”) and an overall rating (on a 5-point scale ranging from “very good” to “very poor”) were extracted from Google.com from 40 different cities across the United States. In addition, some metadata about the cities (i.e., region, population size, median age, percentage of older adults) were also recorded. Text responses were analyzed using the automated Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software for selected language dimensions. The language dimensions of online hearing health care reviews were descriptively compared with language dimensions observed in the natural language of typical bloggers. Language dimensions from free text responses were correlated with quantitative overall experience ratings. Results Automated linguistic analysis showed that consumer reviews on hearing health care services had higher social processes, positive emotions, hearing, health, money, and work, and lower negative emotions and time-awareness when compared to typical bloggers. Examining the association between overall experience rating and the language dimensions reveled two broad findings. First, higher engagement of consumers in terms of social processes, positive emotions, hearing, and work dimensions was related to higher experience ratings. Second, higher engagement of consumers in terms of negative emotions, time awareness, and money was related to lower experience ratings. Conclusions Online reviews contain information about various dimensions (i.e., social and emotional dimensions as well as personal concerns) that have bearing toward the way in that they rate their health care experiences. Automated linguistic analysis of consumer reviews appears helpful in identifying gaps in service delivery that may influence consumer experience.

THE STUDY OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN THE MARKET OF BAKERY PRODUCTS IN THE CONDITIONS OF BRAND MANAGEMENT

Bread and bakery products are the traditional main component of the Ukrainian market basket. However, in recent years, there has been an annual reduction in the consumption of bakery products. According to the state statistics of Ukraine, the average annual consumption of bread products in 2015 was at the level of 103 kg per person, while in 2020 this figure was 98 kg per person. According to experts, one of the main reasons for the decline in this indicator is the decrease in consumer demand. Thus, the study of consumer behavior in the market of bakery products is a very relevant and indispensable issue. The object is the consumer behavior in the market of bakery products. The subject of research is a set of factors that determine consumer behavior in the market of bakery products. Methodology. To study consumer behavior, there was conducted a consumer survey at the oblast level using an external questionnaire with 15 questions to gather the necessary information. Since bread and bakery products are goods of daily and primary demand, the article determines that the general population is the entire population in the region. Their confidence probability is 95%, the confidence interval (error) is 5%, and the sample size was 500 respondents. The questionnaire was compiled using Google Forms software, and survey data were processed using Excel computer software. As a result of research, commodities were reduced, what actual to the consumer in this time, awareness about present brands, factors that induce the consumers of bakery products to render a preference to the separate brand. Nowadays, there is a need to supply the population with quality bakery products of a wide range, as well as those that take into account the consumer’s wishes. Manufacturers of bread and bakery products have every opportunity to meet these requirements, and the creation of a strong brand will help ensure the competitiveness of products. Research results may draw on the construction of the future general strategy of the enterprise. They will help in the construction of a strong brand of products for the achievement of competitive edges, an increase of market share, and the general profitability of enterprises.

Analysis of Advertisements from Different Sectors in Turkey within the Context of Gender Equality

The concept of gender equality, which is among the most frequently discussed topics in our country, especially in recent years, appears as an area that has been examined intensively in the national agenda. As a result, different discussions may arise about the conceptual dimension. Even today, gender equality can often be confused with different disciplines. The best example of this is the misconception of the concept of feminism as gender equality. However, contrary to popular belief, feminism does not have the same meaning as gender equality. Although feminism is related to gender equality, they are not really substitute terms. Nevertheless, in many articles or researches, it can be seen that they are described as if they were the same. And yet, when the recent studies on gender equality are examined, these misunderstandings are observed to have begun to be overcome. At the same time, awareness is raised about gender equality thanks to these contents, and it is gradually increasing with the support of non-governmental organizations, big brands and platforms. The biggest indicator of this increase is the increased number of advertisements based on gender equality and the granting of awards related on the topic. For this reason, within the scope of this study, literature review is conducted on the advertisements that ranked in the category of Gender Equality at the 2019 Crystal Apple Award Ceremony and semiotic analysis methods, and interpretations are made on the advertisement pillar of the gender equality movement and the perception of gender in our country.

The Level of Knowledge and Awareness About Sex and Reproductive Health Among Adolescents in Kashmir

Background: A human body keeps changing physiologically, biologically, and psychologically from birth to death. There is always a change in all human faculties. But adolescence is a phase earmarked where a human body experiences drastic changes among all these faculties. And any such bodily change carrying baggage of shame, insecurity, stigma, and concealment demands on-time awareness and intervention. Aim: The aim of the study is to understand the knowledge and level of awareness regarding sexual and reproductive health among the school-going adolescents of Kashmir Valley where majority of the population belongs to Muslim conservative culture. Methodology: Due to COVID-19 lockdown, the inability of access to schools and children gave the researcher the opportunity to utilize the alternate places and a total of 550 students from classes 8, 9, and 10 were selected for the purpose. The permission was sought from the respective teachers and then the parents. The sample was a combination of boys and girls, students from both private and government-run schools. The researcher collected the data and it was tabulated systematically and analyzed using Microsoft Excel. P value was evaluated by using an application “P Value: A Statistical Tool” from Play Store. Results and Conclusion: The results depicted that higher the level of class, more the knowledge they had about the matter. Girls had a little knowledge about sexual and reproductive health than boys. This study felt a dire need of educating both parents and adolescent boys and girls regarding sexual health. The shame does not lie in educating the children but in the mishaps that may result due to unawareness about the same.

Reasons and Awareness Levels of Farmers on Residue Burning in Indo-Gangetic Plain of India: An Exploratory Research

The study examines reasons for the burning of crop residue, awareness of the impact of the burning of crop residue, and government approaches to mitigating the burning. Data from 180 farmers from three districts of the state of Haryana was sought. Rank Based Quotient method was used to identify reasons. At the same time, awareness was assessed by direct questioning. The study concludes that the short window time between paddy harvesting and showing wheat was a primary reason for stubble burning. Research also shows that harvesting is expensive and time-consuming, causing farmers to burn. Most farmers were aware of the various adverse effects of burning on soil health (73.89%), air health (100%), and human health (81.66%). Everybody was aware of the ban on crop residue burning and other government measures, but they have no other viable options other than burning. Policymakers, therefore, must focus on feasible options that are acceptable in farmers' socio-economic conditions.

A Time-Aware Hybrid Approach for Intelligent Recommendation Systems for Individual and Group Users

Although personal and group recommendation systems have been quickly developed recently, challenges and limitations still exist. In particular, users constantly explore new items and change their preferences throughout time, which causes difficulties in building accurate user profiles and providing precise recommendation outcomes. In this context, this study addresses the time awareness of the user preferences and proposes a hybrid recommendation approach for both individual and group recommendations to better meet the user preference changes and thus improve the recommendation performance. The experimental results show that the proposed approach outperforms several baseline algorithms in terms of precision, recall, novelty, and diversity, in both personal and group recommendations. Moreover, it is clear that the recommendation performance can be largely improved by capturing the user preference changes in the study. These findings are beneficial for increasing the understanding of the user dynamic preference changes in building more precise user profiles and expanding the knowledge of developing more effective and efficient recommendation systems.

Western listeners detect boundary hierarchy in Indian music: a segmentation study

How are listeners able to follow and enjoy complex pieces of music? Several theoretical frameworks suggest links between the process of listening and the formal structure of music, involving a division of the musical surface into structural units at multiple hierarchical levels. Whether boundaries between structural units are perceivable to listeners unfamiliar with the style, and are identified congruently between naïve listeners and experts, remains unclear. Here, we focused on the case of Indian music, and asked 65 Western listeners (of mixed levels of musical training; most unfamiliar with Indian music) to intuitively segment into phrases a recording of sitar ālāp of two different rāga-modes. Each recording was also segmented by two experts, who identified boundary regions at section and phrase levels. Participant- and region-wise scores were computed on the basis of "clicks" inside or outside boundary regions (hits/false alarms), inserted earlier or later within those regions (high/low "promptness"). We found substantial agreement—expressed as hit rates and click densities—among participants, and between participants' and experts' segmentations. The agreement and promptness scores differed between participants, levels, and recordings. We found no effect of musical training, but detected real-time awareness of grouping completion and boundary hierarchy. The findings may potentially be explained by underlying general bottom-up processes, implicit learning of structural relationships, cross-cultural musical similarities, or universal cognitive capacities.