Laughter, carnival, and religion in ancient Egypt

The article highlights the problem of interaction of the ancient Egyptian laughter culture with the category of sacred. A person is confronted with the fact that the examples in question can often be phenomena of a different order, and the use of terms such as “carnival” or even “religion,” “temple” or “priest” in relation to ancient Egypt requires an additional explanation. We find “funny” images on the walls of tombs and in the temples, where the Egyptians practiced their cult. In the Ramesside period (1292-1069 BC), a huge layer of the culture of laughter penetrated the written tradition in a way that Mikhail Bakhtin called the carnivalization of literature. Incredible events are described in stories and fairy tales in a burlesque, grotesque form, and great gods are exposed as fools. Applying the Bakhtinian paradigm to the material of the Middle and New Kingdom allows to reveal the ambivalent character of the Ancient Egyptian laughter: the Egyptians could joke on the divine and remain deeply religious

Switching Activity Minimization for XOR Gate Decomposition

In this paper we focus on reduction of switching activity in combinational logic circuits. We are analyzing energy consumption of multi-input XOR gate where changes of inputs occur principally at different times at logic level. We obtain upper and lower bounds for switching activity in various combinations with decomposition of muli-phase input gate. This work presents the algorithm of synthesis for multi-input XOR gate with minimum switching activity. The results presented in this paper are useful for power estimation and low power design. More than 10 to 70 % reduction of in switching activity has been observed using this method.Статья рассматривает вопросы минимизации переключательной активности комбинационных схем. Представлен анализ энергопотребления многовходовых элементов «Исключающее ИЛИ» для случая, когда сигналы на входах меняют свое состояние прин­ципиально в различные моменты времени. Получены формулы, определяющие верх­нюю и нижнюю границы переключательной активности для различных вариантов де­композиции многовходовых элементов. В работе представлен алгоритм синтеза многовходового элемента «Исключающее ИЛИ» с минимальной переключательной активностью. Полученные результаты могут быть использованы для оценки энергопотребления и проектирования с пониженным энергопотреблением. Показано, что применение предложенного подхода позволяет на 10–70 % снизить переключательную активность

Inflation Illusion and Equity Return: a Fed Model Approach

We identified that investors in Sweden are affected by inflation illusion. Investors also incorrectly accounting for debt capital gain error for the levered companies. We can also conclude that the Fed model proved to be a weak tool for forecasting future real returns and its modification only partially increase its quality. Finally we identified that earnings yield standalone is a much better measure for understanding the return dynamic

Market research of russian market of medicinal preparations used in therapeutics of acute respiratory viral infection in pregnant women

This paper deals with the conducted market research of Russian medicinal preparations used for treatment of acute respiratory viral infection in pregnant wome

Controlling in management systems insurance organization

Викладено основні підходи щодо запровадження контролінгу в системі управління страховою організації. Визначено основні процеси створення системи контролінгу в страховій організації.The article presents the basic approaches to controlling the introduction of the system of insurance organizations. The basic processes of creation controlling system in an insurance organization

Using machine learning to select and optimise multiple objectives in media compression

The growing complexity of emerging image and video compression standards means additional demands on computational time and energy resources in a variety of environments. Additionally, the steady increase in sensor resolution, display resolution, and the demand for increasingly high-quality media in consumer and professional applications also mean that there is an increasing quantity of media being compressed. This work focuses on a methodology for improving and understanding the quality of media compression algorithms using an empirical approach. Consequently, the outcomes of this research can be deployed on existing standard compression algorithms, but are also likely to be applicable to future standards without substantial redevelopment, increasing productivity and decreasing time-to-market. Using machine learning techniques, this thesis proposes a means of using past information about how images and videos are compressed in terms of content, and leveraging this information to guide and improve industry standard media compressors in order to achieve the desired outcome in a time and energy e cient way. The methodology is implemented and evaluated on JPEG, WebP and x265 codecs, allowing the system to automatically target multiple performance characteristics like le size, image quality, compression time and e ciency, based on user preferences. Compared to previous work, this system is able to achieve a prediction error three times smaller for quality and size for JPEG, and a speed up of compression of four times for WebP, targeting the same objectives. For x265 video compression, the system allows multiple objectives to be considered simultaneously, allowing speedier encoding for similar levels of quality

Nemti and gold: Religious violence and the semantics of punishment in an ancient egyptian tale

The article discusses the motif of bodily mutilation in connection with the punishment in an ancient Egyptian tale, in the story of the ferryman Nemti. This narrative is compared with similar Egyptian plots about the loss of body parts and their replacement/transformation into gold. Based on the works of Vladimir Propp, the author builds a model of the event which triggers the development of action in the fairy tale and in the myth. In addition, the paper refers to the philosophical aspect of the mutilation motif as addressed in the works of Mikhail Bakhtin, Georges Bataille and Réné Girard. While stating the universality of the rite de passage narrative model, the author reveals, drawing upon archaeological findings in the tombs of the New Kingdom, some additional semantic load in the Egyptian version of the narrative

“White Nut” or “Headless Beast”? On the Rock Art of Wadi Sura

The article examines images of “headless beasts” from the Cave of Beasts (Wadi Sura II) in the rocks of Gilf Kebir, Sahara. Based on a comparison of more than 30 almost identical paintings of “beasts”, it is concluded that the central white figure cannot be considered an anthropomorphic prototype of the ancient Egyptian goddess Nut, as the Czech Egyptologist Miroslav Bárta unambiguously asserts. Nevertheless, the mythritual complex he had spied on actually reveals an inner connection and a number of similarities with the religion of ancient Egypt. According to Vladimir Propp's observations about initiation rites and egyptological data, parallels are drawn with the later Egyptian tradition. These parallels, however, are found not so much in imagery as in the field of similar cultural and religious principles