Landscape interpretation with augmented reality and maps to improve spatial orientation skill

Landscape interpretation is needed for navigating and determining an orientation: with traditional cartography, interpreting 3D topographic information from 2D landform representations to get self-location requires spatial orientation skill. Augmented reality technology allows a new way to interact with 3D landscape representation and thereby facilitate the orientation of oneself in respect to the environment to determine goal location. This paper analyses if AR spatial landform improves the learner’s spatial orientation skill measured with the perspective taking/spatial orientation test by paired sampled t-tests. A workshop was conducted with 123 university students (63 treatment group, 60 control group) in which students had to identify locations and routes based on the interpretation of the relief, represented by AR. Results of the workshop showed an improvement in spatial orientation skill of 20.14 degrees average gain in the treatment group. Students who were not subject to the workshop (control group) did not improve their spatial orientation skill. The possibility of using free AR three-dimensional applications and exploit the potential of tablets and smart phones, which are widespread today, makes it possible to design and implement strategies for the development of spatial skills in formal teaching in the scope of Geography in higher education.     

Review of Archaeological Research in Angola

This article examines the historical processes that shaped the development of archaeological practice in Angola during the Portuguese colonial period and the aftermath of political independence. Using published works, unpublished reports, and photographic records, we examine the research themes, actors, scholars, and institutions that influenced archaeological research in the country. We also used documents and museum collections in Angola and Portugal to create a GIS database of Angola’s archaeological findings. This study highlights the events, personalities, and priorities that motivated earlier investigations, and the geographical distribution of prehistoric sites. We hope this study will be a resource for guiding future archaeological research in Angola.

     

Universities,the Second Academic Revolution and Regional Development: A Tale (Solely) Made of “Techvalleys”?

Universities are crucial organizations in the knowledge society. As such, a new social contract between academia and society is being developed, inducing significant dynamics of change in academia. Change is configured by the integration of economic development in the mission realm of universities, together with teaching and research, which set off an academic revolution. This revolutionary move within academia is being scholarly analysed mostly from the perspective of technology transfer and spin-off firms' development. Taking into account the nature and challenges of the contemporary society, this paper acknowledges that these dominant approaches to the changing academic mission provide an incomplete picture of the role universities can play in development processes. Accordingly, it uses a broader perspective on the academic revolution in order to detail the developmental role played by higher education and the relevant development resources that universities can provide and left out of the mainstreamed picture. It suggests that the need for broadening the perspective gains increased relevance when trying to know more about the role universities play in regional development. It asserts that universities, as regional development agents, are essential to help regions to combine and mobilize the knowledge and relational resources that nourish the capacity for collective action, i.e. to build up regional institutional capacity.     

On yellow and red pigmented bones found in Mayan burials of Jaina

In the island of Jaina, Campeche, red and yellow pigmented bones have been found. The study of the yellow and red colors in these burials is important for their possible interpretation, either religious, intentional coloring, or to understand taphonomic processes such as reactions of the original pigments with other compounds. Yellow color on bones is unusual in prehispanic burials.     

Metallurgical ceramics from Mayapán,Yucatán,Mexico

Recent excavations at the Postclassic (AD 1050–1440) Maya site of Mayapán, Mexico, have uncovered a variety of metal objects, metal production debris, and ceramic objects that appear to be linked to metallurgical activities at the site. Our present study investigates a corpus of small ceramic objects to determine if these objects was used in metallurgical processes such as lost-wax casting. A variety of analytical techniques was utilized, including x-ray fluorescence, electron probe, petrography, and reflected light microscopy. Metal residues were detected on the surfaces of several objects, and copper prills were identified within the ceramic fabric, suggesting that the ceramics were exposed to liquid metal during remelting and/or casting events. A comparison of the microstructures of these metallurgical ceramics to typical ceramics from Mayapán demonstrates that the fabrics are very different, and suggests that the metallurgical ceramics were specifically engineered to function in the high temperature environment required for metallurgy. The distribution of metal and metallurgical ceramics across the site of Mayapán suggests that metal production activities may have been more widely distributed and practiced than earlier thought.     

SOCIAL POLICY AS REGIONAL POLICY: MARKET AND NONMARKET FACTORS DETERMINING REGIONAL INEQUALITY

ABSTRACT We decompose the recent changes in regional inequality in Brazil into its components, highlighting the role of spatially blind social programs. We aggregate personal income micro data to the state level, differentiating nine income sources, and assess the role of these components in the observed changes in regional inequality indicators. The main results indicate that the largest part of the recent reduction in regional inequality is related to the dynamics of the market‐related labor income, with manufacturing and services favoring deconcentration. Labor income in agriculture, retirement and pensions, and property rents and other sources favored concentration. The social programs Bolsa Família and Benefícios de Prestação Continuada are responsible for more than 24 percent of the reduction in inequality, although they account for less than 1.7 percent of the disposable household income. Such positive impact on regional concentration is impressive, since the goals of the programs are clearly nonspatial.