Would Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) be welcomed by undergraduate students to support their learning during fieldwork?

This paper reports student perceptions of the benefits and challenges of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) in a fieldwork context. Student perceptions from six field courses across two institutions have been gathered using questionnaires and focus groups. Whilst a number of studies have focused on BYOD in a classroom context, little research has been undertaken about BYOD in a fieldwork context. The key findings suggest that around one fifth of students were not willing to use their own device during fieldwork citing loss or damage as the main reason. This key challenge is different to that which are found in a classroom which generally focus on network security, connectivity etc. The findings also suggest that some students believe that BYOD can have a negative impact on group work. There is a misalignment here between student and practitioner thinking with previous literature which suggests that practitioners believe BYOD and smart devices can enhance group work. The one key challenge which is found regardless of learning environment is inequality between those who have a device and those who do not.     

The implication of the metallurgical traditions associated with Chinese style wagons from the royal Xiongnu tomb at Golmod 2 in Mongolia

Lavishly decorated wagons excavated from royal Xiongnu burials are generally regarded as tribute items from China offered to Xiongnu elites, symbolizing important political and economic interactions between the Xiongnu state (209 BC–155 AD) and the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD). This theory views such vehicles as having no relation to indigenous Xiongnu craftsmanship. Furthermore, specialized products delivered to the northern nomadic peoples from the Han state are often cited in support of the notion of Xiongnu dependency on foreign states for technological and political development. Expecting to find evidence of China’s traditional iron and bronze technology, we examined a number of key metallic components of these wagons excavated from the royal Xiongnu burial at Golmod 2 in central Mongolia, radiocarbon dated to 109 BC–AD 75. Surprisingly, the iron metallurgy in question was based primarily on the bloomery process while low tin bronze and arsenical copper alloys dominated the pertinent bronze production. These respective technological traditions are typical of Xiongnu manufacture but significantly different from traditional Han metallurgy. We interpret this evidence as suggesting the need for a more balanced evaluation of foreign influence on the rise and development of the Xiongnu state.     

Le Débat Wolffien Sur L’Idéalisme de Leibniz Lors de la Première Diffusion de la Monadologie Latine

This paper proposes a reconstruction of the Wolffian debate on Leibniz’s idealism arising from the initial response to Leibniz’s Monadology. This reconstruction requires us to revisit some problems central to the debate: an inaccurate translation of a term in the latin Monadology («le composé» is translated as «substantia composita»); status of body as composed substance; status of elements as simple substances from which bodies result (which goes against the Cartesian conception of substance); status of Leibnizian notions of perception, force and pre-established harmony; status of experience as a holistic and systematic process (which goes against its conception and the tabula rasa in Locke) in the Wolffian response and system. A thorough examination of the founding texts of the response (Bilfinger and Wolff) allows us to reconsider the relation between Leibniz and Wolff from a new perspective.     

High-carbon steel and ancient sword-making as observed in a double-edged sword from an Iron Age megalithic burial in Tamil Nadu,India

An iron sword from an Iron Age megalithic burial at Thelunganur in Tamil Nadu, India, was examined using metallographic techniques. The sword was made of ultra-high-carbon steel with a fairly uniform microstructure consisting primarily of fine cementite particles in a ferrite background free of notable non-metallic inclusions. The morphological control, however, was not perfect and frequently allowed cementite to precipitate in the form of a network along austenite grain boundaries. It was also observed that carbide particles of varying size and shape often caused microscopic layers to develop, forming a visible pattern to the naked eye on the polished and etched surface of the iron sword. This pattern likely inspired the later development of various surface markings such as the damask. This paper presents a detailed account of the analytical data to show that the iron sword under consideration was an early example of high-carbon steel employed in the manufacture of a functional object where the divorced eutectoid transformation technique, rediscovered recently, was used for the control of cementite morphology. It is also proposed that technologies for making and handling high-carbon steel were in existence at a much earlier date than previously supposed.     

Revisiting interregional wage differentials: New evidence from Spain with matched employer-employee data

This article examines wage differences across Spain's NUTS-2 regions along the entire wage distribution based on matched employer-employee microdata from 2006 to 2014. Unlike previous related studies, we properly control for differences in regional purchasing power parities, which are very large in practice. Although part of the raw regional wage differences observed is explained by differences between regions in productive structures, and, to a much lesser extent, in labor forces, noteworthy, very similar throughout the wage distribution regional differences net of composition effects arise even after controlling for a broad set of individual and firm characteristics.     

Punctuated Equilibrium and Bureaucratic Autonomy in American City Governments

Several recent applications of Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET) have yielded compelling findings linking institutional design and change distributions, yet, much more work needs to be done to understand institutional arrangements that make punctuated processes more or less likely. In responding to the recent call for more research on unraveling particular mechanisms through which bureaucracy moderates the odds of policy punctuations, this research explores the potential of bureaucratic expertise and professionalism in fostering rational decision making, and thus the stability in change dynamics. One important feature of urban government receives close attention: the position by professionalized, trained bureaucrats in municipalities (city manager and chief administrative officer) and the effects of their discretion on altering municipal budgetary change distributions. Analysis of a novel dataset of fiscal policy changes, charter and census information of city governments in the State of Michigan, 2005–11, suggests city governments, on average, produce change patterns that conform to the expectations of PET; more importantly, it reveals that heightened levels of managerial discretion can have a significant implication for helping cities experience less abrupt, punctuated budget changes. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these results for PET, policy change dynamics, and the design of city-governing institutions.     

MISREPRESENTING MARX: A LESSON IN HISTORICAL METHOD

In this book Jonathan Sperber deploys his extensive knowledge of nineteenth‐century European social and political history, and his diligent research into sources that have become readily available only recently, to produce a substantial biography of Karl Marx. We find, however, that Sperber is mistaken in his treatment of Marx's ideas and of the intellectual contexts within which Marx worked. In fact, we suggest that he is systematically mistaken in this regard. We locate a root source of the error in his reductive approach to theoretical ideas. In section I we focus on the claim, taken for granted in the book, that Marx's ideas are instantiations of “materialism.” By detailed reference to the record of Marx's writings, we show that there is no justification for describing Marx as a “materialist” in the usually accepted senses of that term. In section II we review how Soviet and other interpreters of Marx, taking their lead from the later Engels, insisted that “materialism” was fundamental to Marxism. We suggest that Sperber's presentation of Marx's thinking as “materialist and atheist” aligns far better with such interpretations than it does with what Marx actually wrote. In sections III and IV we criticize Sperber's “contextualist” approach to dealing with ideas in history. His approach may seem reminiscent of Quentin Skinner’ s, but where Skinner deploys the discursive conventions prevailing in a past time to illuminate theoretical ideas, Sperber reduces theoretical ideas to context. We name Sperber's approach “theoretical nominalism,” a term that we use to denote the view that theoretical ideas are nothing but interventions into particular situations. We end by suggesting that greater attentiveness to philosophy and theory would have enriched Sperber's efforts in this book.     

Revised stratigraphy of the Xiazhen Formation (Upper Ordovician) at Zhuzhai,South China,based on palaeontological and lithological data

Lee, D.-C., Park, J., Woo, J., Kwon, Y.K., Lee, J.-G., Guan, L., Sun, N., Lee, S.-B., Liang, K., Liu, L., Rhee, C.-W., Choh, S.-J., Kim, B.-S. & Lee, D.-J., September 2012. Revised stratigraphy of the Xiazhen Formation (Upper Ordovician) at Zhuzhai, South China, based on palaeontological and lithological data. Alcheringa 36, 393–412. ISSN 0311-5518.

Three exposures of the Upper Ordovician Xiazhen Formation at Zhuzhai, Yushan, Jiangxi Province, China are re-measured and described in detail. Comparison of palaeontological and lithological data from the exposures (designated sub-sections ZU1, ZU2 and ZU3) reveals that the sub-sections overlap stratigraphically. Nearly identical assemblages of trilobites and brachiopods occur in mudstones of ZU1 and ZU3, whereas a different assemblage occurs in those of ZU2. Identical coral species occur in the overlapped intervals of ZU1 and ZU2, and ZU1 and ZU3, respectively. In addition, a distinctive identical lithological succession consisting of brachiopod-bearing nodular limestone at the base to coral floatstone at the top is evident in the overlapped interval of ZU1 and ZU2; prism-cracked algal laminites are found in the same interval; and bioclastic limestone beds, which represent bioherms consisting mainly of corals and stromatoporoids, occur in both ZU1 and ZU3. A thrust fault system appears to be responsible for the repetition in the subsections, and the faulting was probably due to the major post-Ordovician structural movements exerted on the Zhe-Gan Platform of the Jiangnan Region of the South China Block.

Dong-Chan Lee [dclee@hit.ac.kr], Department of Heritage Studies, Daejeon Health Sciences College, 300-711, Daejeon, Republic of Korea; Jino Park [jinopark@korea.ac.kr], Suk-Joo Choh [sjchoh@korea.ac.kr], Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Korea University, 136-701, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Jusun Woo [jusunwoo@kopri.re.kr], Division of Polar Earth-System Sciences, Korea Polar Research Institute, 406-840, Incheon, Republic of Korea; Yi Kyun Kwon [kyk70@kigam.re.kr], Marine and Petroleum Division, Korea Institutue of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, 305-350, Daejeon, Republic of Korea; Jeong-Gu Lee [leejg@mest.go.kr], Seung-Bae Lee [sblee@mest.go.kr], Exhibition Planning and Coordination Division, Gwacheon National Science Museum, 427-060, Gwacheon, Republic of Korea; Liming Guan [glm.1103218@yahoo.com], Ning Sun [sun@andong.ac.kr], Kun Liang [ibcaskun@126.com], Lu Liu [liulu323@hotmail.com], Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Andong National University, 760-749, Andong, Republic of Korea; Dong-Jin Lee [djlee@andong.ac.kr], Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Andong National University, 760-749, Andong, Republic of Korea and College of Earth Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130061, PR China; Chul-Woo Rhee [gloryees@chungbuk.ac.kr], Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Chungbuk National University, 361-763, Cheongju, Republic of Korea; Byong-Song Kim [kbs1972@163.com], Department of Resources Exploration Engineering, Kim Chaek University of Technology, Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea and College of Earth Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130061, PR China. Received 16.10.2011, revised 4.1.2012, accepted 16.1.2012.