Nonprofit pricing of services under cost uncertainty

For a nonprofit organization that provides individualized services to different customers a natural rule is at-cost pricing — to cover for labor, administrative and other expenses incurred in providing the service to each customer. This not only accomplishes zero profits (losses) but also zero cross-subsidization across customers. But if costs cannot be predicted before the completion of a service, and estimates are used in obtaining such service contracts, then what should be the pricing strategy? We study such a situation facing the Intermuseum Laboratory (Oberlin, OH), a nonprofit organization that restores works of art. Two alternative pricing strategies are proposed, with dual objectives of zero cost overuns and minimum cross-subsidization across customers, and present results from a simulation of this strategy using data from the Laboratory.     

MARKET MORALITIES IN THE FIELD OF COMMERCIAL SEX

The website ‘Punternet’ contains customer service reviews (‘field reports’) of commercial sex encounters in the UK's indoor sex market. Treating Punternet as a calculative device shows how ordinary understandings of morality underpin consumer markets, as field reports qualify commercial sex to produce understandings of ‘good value’. The varied, messy and sometimes contradictory understandings of value, values, worth and goodness that are present in the calculative device of Punternet reveal the complex ways in which market actions are made moral by consumers. ‘Value’ in the market for sex is a moral judgement made by male authors whose understandings of themselves as deserving customers derives from the stories they tell of good and bad service providers. Although the moral status of prostitution is contested by many, Punternet reports lay claim to it being a legitimate consumer activity, with customers themselves vulnerable to being denied ‘value for money’. The good worker is seen as providing value for money by being professional, committed to pleasing the customer and appearing to enjoy her job.     

Cultural goods, cultivation of taste, satisfaction and increasing marginal utility during vacations

This paper analyzes the link between cultivation of taste and tourist satisfaction during vacations. A simple model shows that, when cultural capital accumulation matters, customers are ready to sacrifice some of their current utility in order to get higher returns in future, and therefore, the relation between satisfaction and the demand for cultural goods may be convex. On the contrary, when cultivation of taste comes from learning by consuming behavior, the relation is concave. An analysis based on 1,749 interviews in Aosta Valley in Summer 2008 provides some evidence in favor of the cultural capital accumulation hypothesis.     

Revenue and attendance simultaneous optimization in performing arts organizations

Performing arts organizations are characterized by different objectives other than revenue. Even if, on the one hand, theaters aim to increase revenue from box office as a consequence of the systematic reduction in public funds; on the other hand, they pursue the objective to increase its attendance. A common practice by theaters is to provide incentives to customers to discriminate among themselves according to their reservation price, offering a schedule of different prices corresponding to different seats in the venue. In this context, price and allocation of the theater seating area is decision variables that allow theater managers to manage their two conflicting goals to be pursued. In this paper, we introduce a multi-objective optimization model that jointly considers pricing and seat allocation. The framework proposed integrates a choice model estimated by multinomial logit model and the demand forecast, taking into account the impact of heterogeneity among customer categories in both choice and demand. The proposed model is validated with booking data referring to the Royal Danish theater during the period 2010–2015.     

文化铸魂:“沈宝山”老树更著花

"老字号"作为城市文化积淀的一种载体,是劳动大众勤劳智慧的结晶、荜路蓝缕创业成就的杰作。老字号文化不等同于一般的商业文化,它应该是商业文化中最深沉、最典雅的一部分。如今,"老字号"面临着新挑战、新机遇,如何用文化铸魂,擦亮"老字号"的金字招牌,发掘更多的文化蕴涵,提高产品或服务的文化品位,使之"老树春深更著花",再创新的辉煌?百年中华老字号"沈宝山"作出了可贵的探索,提供了有益的启示。     

Chemical and isotope characterization of lead finds at the Santa Barbara nuraghe (Bauladu, Sardinia)

Twenty lead finds, unearthed in Late Bronze–Early Iron Age levels at the Santa Barbara nuraghe situated at Bauladu in Sardinia (Italy), have been examined. Their chemical composition has been determined using the ICP-MS plasma-mass technique (Cu, Fe, As, Ag, Sn, Sb, Bi, Zn, Cs, Tl, Mo, Cd, In, Te, W, Th, U, Li, Se). Lead isotope ratios (208/206, 207/206, 206/204) have also been determined. The results are discussed in relation to the mineral source and some aspects of the metal extraction processes. The finds are composed of high purity lead obtained using a smelting at low temperature. Based on the isotope ratios it has been possible to establish that the metal originated from Sardinian ore deposits type.     

顾渚村：茶香氤氲农家乐

虽然朔风呼啸,寒气袭人,但是浙江省长兴县水口乡顾渚村农家乐依然红红火火,落住游客3000多人,村里的农贸市场热闹非凡,周边景区游客络绎不绝,人们赏景品茗,快乐无比。茶文化——永恒的吸引力这里的农家乐主要是依托紫笋茶区及其他果木产业建,     

Deterioration mechanisms of building materials of Jiaohe ruins in China

Almost all defects of earthen buildings such as roughening, erosion, volume reduction, cracking as well as crazing, etc., have been witnessed in the ancient city of Jiaohe, an earthen architectural heritage in northwest China. In this paper, their long-term durability and deterioration due to prolonged exposure to environmental factors were studied, based on the basis of field investigation and laboratory analysis. The results indicated that the deterioration of building materials should be attributed to their basic properties, including density, particle size distribution, soluble salts, mineral, mechanical strength, etc., and interaction with environmental factors. And then, four main deterioration modes can be identified, namely: wind-related deterioration, water-related deterioration, temperature-related deterioration and chemical related deterioration. It can be concluded that the greatest deterioration was wind-related deterioration on west-north facing façades, and chemical related deterioration on the surface of building materials.     

The preliminary study on kiln identification of Chinese ancient Qingbai wares by ICP-AES

The kilns identification of the Qingbai wares has caught the attention of many archaeological experts. Using ICP-AES method, the major and minor/trace composition of 28 Qingbai wares excavated from different districts were determined. The experimental results show that wares produced in the same location have a great similarity in the content of trance elements; meanwhile the major element K₂O, and 12 of all trance elements including Li, Rb, Cs, B, Ti, Hf, V, Sr, Zr, Pb, Nb, Ta, etc., have a remarkable provenance characteristics, which demonstrates a great potential in chemical discrimination of the Qingbai wares from different kilns.     

Application of Laser Ablation ICP-MS for characterization of obsidian fragments from peri-Tyrrhenian area

This paper presents the results of a geochemical study on obsidian fragments by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry associated with Laser Ablation (LA-ICP-MS). This analytical method, almost non-destructive, has proven to be a powerful tool for “in situ” determination of trace elements, and is very useful in characterizing and determining the provenance of obsidian fragments of archeological interest. Its major advantage is that 29 trace and rare earth elements can be analysed in a very short time, without any sample manipulation.Analyses were carried out on 27 representative obsidian samples, collected from the main geological outcrops of Sardinia and the minor islands of Lipari, Pantelleria and Palmarola, in the peri-Tyrrhenian area, and on eight obsidian fragments recovered from three different Italian archeological sites of Neolithic age. The geological samples show variable trace element and REE compositions, and differences in Cs, Y, Zr, Nb, Ba, La, Nd, Ho, Er and Yb were great enough to allow the various source areas to be distinguished. The fragments fall into seven compositional groups. Three, which are homogeneous but clearly distinct from each another, include the Lipari, Palmarola and Pantelleria samples. The other four groups refer to the obsidian of Monte Arci in Sardinia, already known in the literature as SA, SB1, SB2 and SC. LA-ICP-MS established the definite origin and source areas of the artefacts.Analytical results indicate that, for obsidian samples from the peri-Tyrrhenian area, significant geochemical differences exist in their trace and REE compositions, which identify their source areas and establish their provenance for archeometric purposes.     

浙江民营剧团春花烂漫

浙江省前省长、本刊名誉社长沈祖伦对本刊记者说：浙江戏剧舞台上,民营剧团的演出十占其八,他们是活跃农村文化生活,建设文化大省的一支生力军,应当好好宣传。     

Exploring representations of Black masculinity and emasculation on NBC’s Parenthood

Here, representations of Black masculinity and emasculation are explored on NBC’s Parenthood. We question whether depictions of Black masculinity represented through Parenthood’s character, Alex, are empowering or stereotypical; how do they reflect, destabilize, and/or reinforce heteronormative depictions of Black community members? Two seasons were analyzed using Owen’s thematic analysis. Ultimately, Black males are portrayed as being societal failures, criminals, violent, and hypersexualized through his character. This embodiment ultimately preserves long-held images of Black men as “Toms, coons?…?bucks?…?as oversexed, aggressive, violent, animalistic, or emasculated” (Jackson, R. L. II. 2006. Scripting the black masculine body: Identity, discourse, and racial politics in popular media. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press). Practical recommendations and suggestions for researchers and media practitioners are provided.     

Cultivation of taste and bounded rationality: Some computer simulations

One can approach the economics of the arts, as any field of applied economics, in either of two ways. First, one can treat economic theory and econometric technique as subjects settled by specialists in those fields, to be used in the ec onomics of the arts as they are given, very much as if one were studying the demand for maize. Alternatively, one can treat the economics of the arts as a field which may need and suggest its own developments in theory and technique, suitable to its spec ial problems and processes, from which general economic theory and econometric theory might in principle learn something. Perhaps this latter view is implausible, given the high state of development of economic theory and econometrics in the modern liter ature. Yet many of the advances embodied in these fields have come from particular areas of application-and the economics of maize has been a particularly fertile field.I am indebted to participants in the Seventh International Conference on Cultural Economics, Fort Worth, Texas, October 1992; to p articipants in the Seminar on the Economics of the Arts, Venice, Italy, December 1992; to participants in the conference of the Pennsylvania Economists' Association, Wiles-Barre, PA, June, 1993; to participants in the second conference on Simulating Soci eties, Siena, Italy, July 1993; to participants in the conference of the Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics, Rensselaerville, NY, August 1993; and to participants in the Third Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Economics and Manage ment, Portland, OR, August 1993, for useful comments on topics related to the research reported in this paper. Errors and omissions are, of course, attributable to the author.     

在文化沃土里探寻城市治理现代化之道——评《长江流域城市文化与治理研究》

当前,国家高度重视长江经济带和长江流域城市群规划建设,长江流域城市是国内城市现代化建设和城市治理现代化的典型样本。近几年来,城市治理现代化问题的研究主要从经济、法律、公共管理、技术、生态等方面探索实现智能化、人性化、可持续发展的城市现代化治理路径,鲜有将“文化”作为城市现代化治理的主要手段进行深入研究。《长江流域城市文化与治理研究》一书,从城市文化形象、文化精神、文化资源、文化遗产、文化空间、文化产业、文化品牌等7方面入手,以长江流域典型城市为研究对象,深入探讨城市文化现代化及其治理的相关问题。今后可以扩展研究对象,在长江流域城市文化及其治理关联性、城市群文化及其综合治理研究等方面进一步探索。     

基于城市形态类型学的历史文化街区保护与更新——以赣州南市街为例

中国城市发展已步入存量提升阶段,城市保护与更新工作愈发重要。城市形态类型学是一门分析城市物质要素形态特征、总结城市形态发展内在规律的学科,对指导城市保护与更新具有理论与现实意义。通过对城市形态类型学理论的剖析,构建可用于传统城市形态类型分析的8个研究要素:区域、城镇、三维空间、街道网络和街道、街区、地块、公共空间、建筑。以赣州南市街历史文化街区为例,发现其街道网络呈鱼骨状,街道分为街道、巷道、现代街道3种类型,地块分布为点线状结合与混合拼接,形状大体呈横向和纵向矩形,公共空间由广场、街巷组成,建筑代表性类型为天井式,形态体量共3种,功能涵盖居住、公共服务、商业等,布局形式为沿街式、院落式、行列式以及后两者的混合式,并将其用于指导街区相应的保护与更新。     

Steps towards an ecology of money infrastructures: materiality and cultures of Ripple

ABSTRACT

Money’s materiality produces an ontological conundrum for social theory: should the analysis of money foreground the objects used as money, or the abstract relations that underpin it? Provoked by the emergence of cryptocurrencies, this paper develops a conceptualization of money as a technological and social infrastructure which directly addresses this theoretical impasse. Cryptocurrencies’ sole form of material existence coincides with their underpinning infrastructure of records, accounting and payments. In the past decade, cryptocurrencies have skyrocketed in number, and they have been applied to a host of use cases. This paper focuses on cross-border payments through the example of the fintech company Ripple, the cryptocurrency XRP, and the design of the XRP Ledger. Combining literatures from the social theory of money, science and technology studies and new materialisms, this article develops steps towards an ecological conceptualization of money infrastructures. Infrastructures, understood ecologically, include devices, active forms, and imaginaries in seamless webs of mutual relations of co-evolution. These ecologies are always potentially prone to slippage, dissolution, disassembling, reassembling and reappropriation, dependence, and competition.     

非洲媒体团体验中国茶文化

中国茶道成为＂中非＂文化交流的桥梁纽带。近日,由埃塞俄比亚、加纳、肯尼亚、喀麦隆、津巴布韦、纳米比亚等15个非洲国家的24位资深传媒界官员组成的新闻采访团来浙江采云间茶业公司访茶问道。坦桑尼亚驻华宣传大使Charles、塞拉利昂总统外宣办公室高级秘书Lamina、加纳“每Et写真日报》社长Ayeboafoh、肯尼亚人民媒体集团副总编EricOduor等媒体人员一行,     

Archives in motion: Concrete steps towards the digital disclosure of audiovisual content

Various authors have stressed the need for an adequate archiving and preservation policy of audiovisual material, given its cultural, historical, juridical, social and economic value. In view of the sustainable preservation of audiovisual material, the opening up of the archive is seen as a real challenge. Various aspects, such as requirements concerning formats, metadata standards and legal implications, need to be taken into account. Furthermore, different types of users should be able to consult the archive in a user-friendly way, a factor which should not be neglected. This article studies and discusses the current situation in Flanders regarding the digitisation and disclosure of the Flemish audiovisual cultural heritage, comprising the audiovisual material in the archives of different Flemish institutions, including broadcasters, (post-) production companies, government institutions and cultural organizations. Based on 45 qualitative interviews, a SWOT analysis is created to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats concerning the digitisation and disclosure of the audiovisual archive. Moreover, this environmental analysis includes some recommendations concerning the future preservation of this audiovisual cultural heritage.     

Perceived threat and prejudice towards immigrants in Finland: A study among early,middle, and late Finnish adolescents

Using integrated threat theory, this study examined how perceived threat, or fear of immigrants, manifests among early, middle, and late Finnish adolescents, and the relationship between perceived threat and prejudice among early, middle, and late adolescents. The sample consisted of 795 Finnish adolescents between 11 and 19 years of age. Realistic and symbolic threats were the most perceived threats and were more prevalent among late adolescents. There was a positive relationship between prejudice and realistic threat, and between prejudice and symbolic threat, but a negative relationship between prejudice and negative stereotyping, and this relationship remained relatively stable from early to late adolescence. Implications on the fight against prejudice towards immigrants among early, middle, and late adolescents are also discussed.