Ecological Aspects of Visual Urban Environment Design

The city is an aggregate of anthropogenic, natural-anthropogenic and natural objects that are interrelated and interdependent. Environmental problems in cities are associated with consumerism and an irresponsible attitude to nature in society. We need to find additional approaches to solving environmental problem using, in particular, the means of art and design. The article analyzes the potentialities of a material urban environment for the formation of ecological culture in society. Ecological culture is a system of social relations, moral standards, views and values relating to the relationship between man and nature. The author highlights the qualities and functions of design objects that make them ecofriendly. The ecological approach to design has become the successor and development of systemic and environmental approaches. It is characterized by an awareness of the moral and ethical responsibility of the designer and the search for professional tools to solve environmental problems. The role of art-design and its educational potential is emphasized, and the ways in which art objects produce a psychological impact on the viewer are identified. Keywords: ecological culture, communicative practices, design, art-design, ecodesign, sustainable development, urban environmen

Multimodality and Polyculturalism of Modern Design

Drawing on the means and methods of classical art, design creates its own plastic language, forms of communicative practice, and methodology. Design goes beyond traditions, opening new life-changing opportunities, and catering for a variety of human needs. This article analyzes the limitations and problems of linguistic corpora utilization and attempts to solve them. The analysis revealed that among the main advantages of a significant part of the corpora, the possibility of analyzing large text fragments   to determine their frequency of use in different contexts, as well as the high quality and speed of information processing can be noted, which contributes to time savings while working with corpora. In addition, a high degree of objectivity of studies using the corpus methodology is achieved with the help of wide possibilities for verifying quantitative data. Among the main limitations of most of the corpora we indicated the impossibility of discursive marking of the corpus, paid access to the corpus data or the limitations of the data available for work and the lack of meaningful context. The computer program Linguistica providing the basis for a web application of the same name, is designed to create different types of linguistic corpora: research and training, monolingual and multilingual and others. Linguistica web application can also contribute to fulfilling the research projects of teachers and students specializing in linguistics as well as to increasing the attractiveness of the electronic environment of the university. Keywords: communicative practices, design, form, function, style, multimodality, polyculturalism, virtual realit

Axiology and Praxeology of Design Thinking

This article discusses the methodological and axiological foundations of design, the determinants of design, objective and subjective aspects of design, and designer’s value guidelines. Since the earliest stages of its history, design as a type of creative practice existed and developed an integral connection with mass production. Unlike architecture or visual, decorative and applied arts, design forms a part of economic production and communicative processes, and also influences economic, marketing, political and ecological situations. This article demonstrates the evolution of systemic and environmental approaches to design, the transition from methodological, functional and morphological techniques for solving of problems within individual concepts of design to axiological, philosophical and ecological approaches. Design is characterized by the following features: an interdisciplinary approach; team work; empathy; the need for prototyping and testing of the object; and inclusion in sociocultural processes. The design object is analysed in terms of its value to the consumer. Keywords: culture, value, design, methodology of design, design thinking, empathy, consume

Ethymology of fish designations in Czech and in east Slavonic languages

Tato diplomová práce se zabývá etymologií názvů ryb v českém jazyce a jazycích východoslovanských. Původ pojmenování v každém z daných jazyků je vysvětlen na základě výkladu etymologických slovníků českého a ruského jazyka. Tento výklad je doplněn o řadu dalších zdrojů, které se danou problematikou zabývají. Jednotlivé názvy jsou mezi sebou porovnávány a pokud to nalezené informace dovolují, je z tohoto porovnání vyvozen závěr. Práce je členěná do tří kapitol. První kapitola pojednává o postavení slovanských jazyků v rámci indoevropské jazykové rodiny a dále o historickém vývoji vybraných slovanských jazyků. Druhá kapitola se zabývá pojmenováním konkrétních rodů a druhů sladkovodních ryb v uvedených jazycích. Je rozdělená do dvou částí. První část pojednává o jménech ryb s homogenním původem jmen, druhá část o jménech s heterogenním původem. Třetí kapitola je sestavena z tabelárních přehledů, které tvoří tak zvaný komparativní slovník. Každý tabelární přehled je opatřen komentáři, které se soustřeďují především na popis geografického výskytu ryb v minulosti v porovnání se současností.This diploma work deals with ethymology of fish designations in Czech and in east Slavonic languages. The designations'origin in each of these languages is explained according to its definition in Czech and Russian ethymological dictionaries. The definition is completed by a large amount of other sources focused on this issue. Every item is compared in both languages and if the found information allows, a conclusion from the comparison is drawn. The work is devided into three chapters. The first chapter deals with the role of the Slavonic languages within the Indoeuropean language family and the historical evolution of the picked Slavonic languages. The second chapter deals with the designation of particular freshwater-fish tribes and geni in the abovementioned languages. It is devided in two parts. The first one focuses on the designation of fish with homogenous origin, the second one focuses on the designations with hererogenous origin. The third chapter consists of columnal lists which create the so-called comparative dictionary. Each columnal list includes comments focused on the description of geographical fish habitation in the past compared to the present time.Katedra biologie a environmentálních studiíFaculty of EducationPedagogická fakult

English as a Lingua Franca in Business Corporations

Semestrální projekt prozkoumá termín lingua franca, určí její zdroje, klíčové oblasti a praktické důsledky. Rovněž zahrne definice obchodního jazyka a různé druhy diskurzu, žánrů a jejich rozdíly mezi nimi. Poslední část zahrne porovnání psaných textů různých žánrů pro obchodní účely.This thesis will explore the term lingua franca, define its sources, key areas and practical implications. It will also contain definitions of the language of business and different types of discourse, genres and the differences between them. In its last part the thesis will contain the comparison of texts written for business purposes in different genres.

Role of design in the consumer culture development: Ecological context

The relevance of the researched problem stems from ecological issues that are a reflection of the contemporary culture crisis covering the whole range of people’s interactions with each other, with society and with nature. In many respects, an ecological crisis is an ideological crisis and global environmental problems are impossible to solve without development of ecological culture, without the joint efforts of experts in various fields of science, industry, art and education. This article aims to substantiate the special role of design in solving the challenges of sustainable development, in particular, in the development of consumer culture, as it is an integrated and interdisciplinary activity involved in the social, political, economic and technical processes. The leading methods of investigating this problem are the ones of cultural and historical analysis that allow to comprehensively trace trends in design taking into account adequate cultural context, ideology and system of social values. The article deals with the socio-cultural role and involvement of design in the process of consumption and control of consumers’ minds in the context of environmental issues; substantiates the necessity to change the design determinants, values and worldview orientation of design that will affect the consumer culture in accordance with the objectives of sustainable development and will promote the development of society’s ecological culture. © Pankina et al

Investment activity in Russia’s regions

Any economic system, no matter what its internal configuration is or what kind of external impact it is exposed to, needs investment for rational development. The volume and structure of investment, as well as the efficiency of the way it is used, may influence the development of both the country as a whole and its specific regions in particular. The management of economic systems will not be thoroughgoing without the management of investment. Economic reproduction is characterized based on the rate of investment activity. Some discouraging figures posted in this context in the Russian Federation (RF), namely 8.4%, which is the share of organizations engaged in technological, organizational, and marketing innovation (Rosstat, 2017), are a clear testimony to the topicalness of the issue in question. This paper presents an assessment of investment activity in Russia, as well as across its regions. The authors have developed a methodology for forecasting the investment-based development of regions based on the calculation of the share of investment in the gross regional product (GRP) and the use of an integral indicator which factors in the effect of various factors on investment activity in a region. A separate stage in these assessments is the calculation of an integral coefficient which reflects the impact of factors impeding investment activity. The study’s primary purpose is to assess investment activity in Russia’s regions and forecast the share of investment in the GRP of the RF constituent entities based on a multi-factor model.peer-reviewe

Modern trends in the architecture of mosques in Jordan

This study analyzes the features of historical and modern mosques in Jordan compared to that of Amman. The architecture of the Jordanian mosques reflects the images of great ancient empires and kingdoms of Europe and the Middle East. This has happened due to the geographical position of the country. From the studies of historians and archaeologists, comparative analysis of planning solutions, the use of plastics and decor of the facades of mosques, and the literature on the construction methods of the mosques allow us to conclude that age-old traditions have been preserved through the establishment of mosques in both the countries. Besides, the emergence of new features in constructing mosques has been observed. We find the influence of western architecture in the modern-day architectural designs of Jordanian religious establishments. Meanwhile, in the architecture of Amman mosques, a type of small temple is noticed, the volumetric-plastic composition of which is solved in an innovative way, not to resembling historical temples. In constructing mosques, Amman focuses on preserving the identity and spirituality of the mosques but adds new metaphors by ensuring multidimensionality of space and adopting the architectural designs of modern cities. Changes in the architecture of mosques happened due not only to new technologies and materials but, also to integrate with the processes of globalization and international cooperation of architects. We observe the construction of ancient mosques in both the countries combined both European and American architecture which reveals new images and possibilities of the architecture of the East

Boundaries of Multimodality in Virtual Information Environment Design

Generating meanings through the use of various modes, simultaneous holistic multi-modal texts form the cognitive canvas of a virtual information environment. With reference to the current scientific discourse, we explore insights into the identification and interpretation of meanings in their multiplicity as a characteristic feature of objects of virtual information environment design and raise the question of human limits and potentialities in the perception of communicative images and the issue of communication in the virtual environment as a goal of design.The work was supported by Act 211 Government of the Russian Federation, contract № 02.A03.21.0006