The Sound of Architecture

Acoustic atmospheres can be fleeting, elusive, or short-lived. Sometimes they are constant, but more often they change from one moment to the next, forming distinct impressions each time we visit certain places. Stable or dynamic, acoustic atmospheres have a powerful effect on our spatial experience, sometimes even more so than architecture itself. This book explores the acoustic atmospheres of diverse architectural environments, in terms of scale, function, location, or historic period—providing an overview of how acoustic atmospheres are created, perceived, experienced, and visualized. Contributors explore how sound and its atmospheres transform architecture and space. Their essays demonstrate that sound is a tangible element in the design and staging of atmospheres and that it should become a central part of the spatial explorations of architects, designers, and urban planners. The Sound of Architecture will be of interest to architectural historians, theorists, students, and practicing architects, who will discover how acoustic atmospheres can be created without complex and specialized engineering. It will also be of value to scholars working in the field of history of emotions, as it offers evocative descriptions of acoustic atmospheres from diverse cultures and time periods.

CULTURAL DISTORTION AND HARMONISATION ON INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS: THE PANACEA FOR SUCCESS

The purpose of this paper was to study and unravel the implications of cultural distortion on businesses, gains and gradual harmonization of culture across national boundaries globally. Despite the national and political boundaries around the world, the activities involving cross-border operations have always persisted, but have had a dramatic growth since the Second World War. Successful business operations globally depend largely on the understanding of the cultural differences of countries which enormously have the tendencies of affecting the degree of business relationship. It is very obvious that every institution across nations of the world is deeply attached to societies with diverse cultures such as language difference, different tradition of trust, individualists and collectivists tendencies which globalization concept intends to harmonise and be accepted by the local market around the world. As a consequence, it is very imperative to strive for gradual harmonization of culture. This however implies making suitable changes on the differences among national norms, traditions, values, beliefs and rituals of different nations in order to achieve uniformity. KEY WORDS: Culture, Cultural Distortion, Cultural Harmonization, Globalization

Opportunities and Threats Analysis Caused by Social Media

With the advent and widespread use of information and communication technologies, the need for information has become part of the daily work of individuals. Recently, social networks are one of the most important topics in cyberspace. This study seeks to identify and rank the opportunities and threats of social media for the society. Three hundred seventy students active in social networks are selected by clustering sampling method. A conceptual model is developed based on the review of theoretical literature and five opportunities of social network including electronic learning, filling leisure time, organizing social groups, getting to know about diverse cultures, possibility of conversation, as well as five threats include sharing anti values, abusing, dissemination of misinformation, internet addiction, and malacious communication have significant effect on the students.

Raising Students’ Cultural Awareness and Developing Their Intercultural Communicative Competence: The Case of the Greek State Primary School EFL Textbooks

The present study focuses on the critical evaluation of the cultural content incorporated in the 5th and 6th grade English textbooks, which are taught in the Greek state primary school. Given that we are living in the era of increasing globalization, it is deemed essential that aspects of diverse cultures should be reflected in the English textbooks, thus enabling contemporary EFL learners to master the ability to use the English language efficiently in their intercultural interactions regardless of their socio-cultural background. The research findings succinctly reveal that the vast majority of state EFL teachers in Greece are fervent proponents of an intercultural approach in their teaching practices. However, they are not reliant on the prescribed textbooks under scrutiny for promoting the intercultural dimension in their educational methodology, since their cultural input is assessed as deficient and inadequate for dynamic intercultural instruction.

A Collaborative Autoethnography on Raciolinguistic Experiences and the Construction of Linguistic Identities During an Intercultural Exchange

This research is a Collaborative Autoethnography based on personal experiences as Au Pairs in the United States. It aims to analyze the contributions of an intercultural exchange towards the construction of the teacher’s identity. It also seeks to analyze the current foreign language teaching practices in Colombia. We achieved more significant English teaching insights from our reflections, considering a flexible language structure, more comprehensive vocabulary, and English variety. Besides, this life-changing exposed ourselves to a target context that enriched our global notions and enhanced a new linguistic identity. Two years of living abroad made us think about a different teaching ideology founded on developing interest and sensibility for diverse cultures accepting broader linguistic features of the language. The results support the idea that educators shift those traditional strategies to more context-bound and intercultural ones to meet today’s needs and place the language as a means of co-construction of reality.

Lexico-semantic relativity and versatility in translation and intercultural communication

The aim of the article is to discuss translation regularities in correlations of words that denote culture-related phenomena that exist in many cultures or that are specific to certain cultures and languages. The focus is on Russian and English culturonyms. The authors dwell on the principle of functional dualism that claims that language can equally address internal and external cultures. This principle is developed in the new linguistic discipline termed interlinguoculturology (Kabakchi 1998, Kabakchi Beloglazova 2020). Nonetheless, under the impact of the World Englishes paradigm, the article points to blurring the concept of external culture - Russian bilinguals, speaking or writing in Russian English, use this variety for expressing their own culture; the same is true for other world Englishes that have branched from the prototypical British English model. Despite the polemical relations of the two research schools, which are close and yet different in some of their tenets, there is much in common in their semantic and pragmatic research of how varieties of English adapt and domesticate culturonyms, in particular binary words belonging to two languages and often associated with each other in translation. The paper discusses examples of binary polyonyms (universal culturonyms) whose meaning depends on the context of the situation and, therefore, is differently received in diverse cultures; binary analogues whose equivalent selection is based on scrutinizing the dictionary entry and on the knowledge of the cultural background, and binary interonyms that partly help translators and partly interfere with their work, being deceptive cognates differing in their referential or connotational meanings. The article concludes that the interpretation of culture-bound words in foreign-culture-oriented texts depends on various pragmatic and semantic processes and is grounded in a word semantic flexibility and its matter-of-course adaptation in a cultural and language environment.

Resilience in Relation to Multimorbidity in Older Adults: A Scoping Review

Multimorbidity is widespread, costly, and associated with a range of deleterious symptoms, affecting 70-80 % of older adults. Resilience in late life has been the focus of considerable research to understand differences in vulnerabilities and recovery from stressors relevant to multimorbidity. Despite this, previous reviews have not focused on resilience in relation to multimorbidity in older adults; therefore, this study synthesized relevant literature. The study design was a scoping review following JBI methodology. Searched electronic databases included PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. Data were extracted by two independent reviewers and charted using Garrard’s review matrix method. Gough’s weight of evidence criteria were used to appraise quality. Of 468 retrieved studies, 14 met inclusion criteria, primarily from the US, UK, and Canada. Most resilience in multimorbidity frameworks operationalize resilience as dependent on the socio-environmental context of older adults. Resilience was commonly considered a dynamic process, but only one study was longitudinal. Measures were primarily psychological or psycho-social in nature and did not include biological or physical measures of resilience. Quality of life and quality of care were common outcomes; resilience significantly related to these outcomes. Findings indicate both the important relationships of resilience with outcomes of multimorbidity, as well as multiple gaps in our current understanding of resilience in relation to multimorbidity. Results highlight the need for studies with diverse populations across diverse cultures, studies that incorporate multidimensional measures, with attention to physiological or physical properties of resilience, and longitudinal studies that capture the dynamic process of resilience in multimorbidity.

The History and Challenges of Women in Genetics: A Focus on Non-Western Women

“Women in much of the world lack support for fundamental functions of a human life.” This truthful portrait was pointed out by Martha Nussbaum in her book “Introduction: Feminism & International Development.” Throughout history, gender inequality has been persistent in many aspects of life, including health and empowerment. Unfortunately, this inequality has not been excluded from the field of science. Perpetual assumption that women’s absence or restriction to secondary roles in various disciplines is an acceptable law of nature misrepresents women’s contribution to science and maintains hurdles for participation in the future. According to a recent UNESCO’s report, women make up only 30% of researchers worldwide. But despite all the obstacles, women made major contributions with discoveries that shaped the progress in many scientific fields. In the field of genetics, Rosalind Franklin is an example of unwittingly compromised women’s scientific achievements. Franklin was an expert in X-ray crystallography; her data, especially the “photo 51,” was critical to James Watson and Francis Crick along with their own data to publish the discovery of the double helix DNA structure in 1953. Her contribution was acknowledged posthumously in Watson’s memoir in 1968. Barbara McClintock was a 20th century American cytogeneticist who remains up to date the only woman receiving an unshared Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine. McClintock dedicated her work to cytogenetics and discovered the phenomenon of mobile genes. Her research was initially subjected to skepticism in the 1950s. It was not until the late 1960s that the community realized the significance of McClintock’s discovery. The history of science is occupied with a myriad of similar tales of such inspiring women that, after tremendous struggles, thrived and achieved breakthroughs in their respective fields. It is prominent our limited knowledge of women’s experience and struggle in science in non-western world. Addressing the stories of this outstanding minority is critical to expand the understanding of the gender disparity factors embedded in diverse cultures. In this article, we attempt to put the spotlight on some fascinating non-western women and their significant contributions to the field of genetics.

The land shaping the people: A cultural look into a new land management scheme for South Wairarapa

<p>With this thesis bringing attention to the region of Wairarapa, it will show awareness to the significant cultural and biodiversity that this district holds that makes it such a rich place within Aotearoa, New Zealand. With two natural features sitting at their doorsteps, Lake Wairarapa and the Remutaka hillside, this region holds much to preserve and want to save. Maori culture holds countless values of the landscape that can be used to heal the land surrounding the lake, which in turn will heal the people living amongst it. These values are held with great appreciation in the culture, many believe all should live with these values for the land. This thesis will help in bringing the Te Aranga Maori design principles to the surface so more can live with the land naturally and not just on it. This research will explore how these design principles can be used in bringing the landscape back to its prior state, and working with natural interventions to bring wahi tapu into the land and its people. In dealing with the current challenges and goals that present generation live with to make Wairarapa one to grow in and with. These ideas can generate discussion to how people might live more sustainably with the use of natural systems in the landscape, to the production of natural products. It will also allow for more research topics to be produced from the older ways people used to live with the land. To show the diverse cultures present today, in how others could benefit from the ways and means they used to be. With dealing with present challenges and needs from today’s generation as we cannot ‘restore’ what once was, we have to ‘regenerate’ a new way of living, that is beneficial for all.</p>

The land shaping the people: A cultural look into a new land management scheme for South Wairarapa

<p>With this thesis bringing attention to the region of Wairarapa, it will show awareness to the significant cultural and biodiversity that this district holds that makes it such a rich place within Aotearoa, New Zealand. With two natural features sitting at their doorsteps, Lake Wairarapa and the Remutaka hillside, this region holds much to preserve and want to save. Maori culture holds countless values of the landscape that can be used to heal the land surrounding the lake, which in turn will heal the people living amongst it. These values are held with great appreciation in the culture, many believe all should live with these values for the land. This thesis will help in bringing the Te Aranga Maori design principles to the surface so more can live with the land naturally and not just on it. This research will explore how these design principles can be used in bringing the landscape back to its prior state, and working with natural interventions to bring wahi tapu into the land and its people. In dealing with the current challenges and goals that present generation live with to make Wairarapa one to grow in and with. These ideas can generate discussion to how people might live more sustainably with the use of natural systems in the landscape, to the production of natural products. It will also allow for more research topics to be produced from the older ways people used to live with the land. To show the diverse cultures present today, in how others could benefit from the ways and means they used to be. With dealing with present challenges and needs from today’s generation as we cannot ‘restore’ what once was, we have to ‘regenerate’ a new way of living, that is beneficial for all.</p>