Single‐trial regression of spatial exploration behavior indicates posterior EEG alpha modulation to reflect egocentric coding

Learning to navigate uncharted terrain is a key cognitive ability that emerges as a deeply embodied process, with eye movements and locomotion proving most useful to sample the environment. We studied healthy human participants during active spatial learning of room-scale virtual reality (VR) mazes. In the invisible maze task, participants wearing a wireless electroencephalography (EEG) headset were free to explore their surroundings, only given the objective to build and foster a mental spatial representation of their environment. Spatial uncertainty was resolved by touching otherwise invisible walls that were briefly rendered visible inside VR, similar to finding your way in the dark. We showcase the capabilities of mobile brain/body imaging using VR, demonstrating several analysis approaches based on general linear models (GLMs) to reveal behavior-dependent brain dynamics. Confirming spatial learning via drawn sketch maps, we employed motion capture to image spatial exploration behavior describing a shift from initial exploration to subsequent exploitation of the mental representation. Using independent component analysis, the current work specifically targeted oscillations in response to wall touches reflecting isolated spatial learning events arising in deep posterior EEG sources located in the retrosplenial complex. Single-trial regression identified significant modulation of alpha oscillations by the immediate, egocentric, exploration behavior. When encountering novel walls, as well as with increasing walking distance between subsequent touches when encountering novel walls, alpha power decreased. We conclude that these oscillations play a prominent role during egocentric evidencing of allocentric spatial hypotheses

Translating animal art: Salin’s Style I and Anglo-Saxon cast saucer brooches

Saucer brooches are actually the most frequent bearers of Salin’s Style I in England, but have been overlooked because of perceptions of the derivative nature of their ornament. This paper seeks to rectify the inbalance by accepting that translation (in a physical and linguistic sense) is the key to understanding both the form which Style I took on saucer brooches and potentially its meanings. The study is based on 281 cast saucer brooches (almost half the total corpus of the type): half feature zoomorphic decoration on its own and half combine zoomorphic and geometric motifs. The animal art is characterised in terms of motifs, presentation and composition. While ‘coherent’ motifs, recognisable from the classic, early repertoire of Style I, are reasonably well represented, attention is mostly given to the way motifs and designs were transformed, involving both established principles of Style I design (abbreviation, addition, re-assembly and ambiguity) and adaptation to the pre-existing, geometric-based, saucer-brooch tradition. Although calibrating the pace of change (devolution?) is difficult, the process can be shown to have endured throughout the 6th century and to have been most practised in western Anglo-Saxon districts. Explaining the meaning and role of this transformed animal art is obviously hard, but it is argued that it was the result not of ignorance or carelessness, but a deliberate choice. By adopting images from Northern Germanic mythology and blending them with other (Roman and Saxon) symbols, meanings were both perpetuated and subtly altered, enabling important kindred outside Kent and the main Anglian areas to negotiate their own identity and affiliations

How we got Here? A Methodology to Study the Evolution of Economies

This paper proposes a methodology to analyze the evolution of the economic development of countries. Our approach is based upon the definition of temporal trajectories of countries in a common bidimensional space yielded by a High-Order Singular Value Decomposition (HOSVD). These trajectories are defined with respect to a pre-selected set of macroeconomic indicators and are appropriate for comparison purposes. To show the applicability of the proposed methodology we have used data from the World Bank concerning the economic and financial development of EU-27 over a 14-year span, that goes from 1995 to 2008. Based on this data we group the EU-27 state members according to their economic development, which is indicated by the position of their trajectories on the plane. We further perform individual analyses of the trajectories of Luxembourg, Germany and Portugal, aiming to both detect and interpret trends and changes in these economies. The results show that this methodology is of importance for economic studies, since it can help the design, monitoring and evaluation of specific economic policies, as well as provide an overview of the evolution of the studied economic phenomenon.European Union, HOSVD, International Comparisons, Temporal Trajectories

HUMANITY IN A CHILDREN’S CANCER HOSPITAL

Children, who are the future of the country, are the most important asset. If cancer in children is diagnosed at an early stage, effective precautionary measures can be taken in order to save their lives. Children sense their physical space in a very immediate and detailed manner and their response to spaces can be far more direct and energetic than adults. For children, visiting hospitals can be particularly difficult emotionally, as they are stressed by ill-health, painful medical procedures. The objectives of this research are first to understand what constitutes a supportive pediatric setting from children’s and adolescents’ perspectives and try to explore the role of architecture in making hospital stays more pleasant. Second, to define a vision for the sustainable hospital design movement; and third, to illustrate the value of participatory research for healthcare design. The outline is a new design of the children hospital and how architectural design steps can be taken to improve cancer patients’ care

Enriching teaching practice through place, arts and culture: resources for in-service teachers of the Bering Strait School District

Master's Project (M.Ed.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017The SILKAT (Sustaining Indigenous and Local Knowledge, Art and Teaching) project joins together the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Bering Strait School District in an effort to celebrate the rich cultural arts and Indigenous knowledge of northwest Alaska and bring the knowledge and ingenuity of local artists and culture-bearers to the forefront of teaching practices and curriculum. This work presents the content and format of one teacher professional development module based on one of seven arts and place-based core teaching practices-the ability to elicit student thinking and facilitate reflective thinking in students. It also examines the development of two Art and Culture units, grade 3-Natural Landforms, and grade 5-Responsibility to Community, both rooted in the cultural values and knowledge of artists and culture-bearers from the region. The research completed for this project examines the supporting literature that forms the backbone for both the professional development module and the Art and Culture units, including core practices, the implications of place and culture-based arts education, Visible Thinking routines, protocols, Studio Habits of Thinking, and Understanding by Design. Following the research is a synopsis of the methods used to create the PD module and Art and Culture units, as well as the plans for dissemination within the Bering Strait School District to enhance the skills and knowledge of in-service teachers in arts and culture

"Smooth space" for avatars: a proun in the metaverse

During the years of Suprematism, between 1919 and 1923 in Russia, one of the movement's most significant contributors, architect, artist and designer El Lissitzky developed a series of works which he entitled "Prouns," a name the exact meaning of which El Lissitzky never fully revealed, although he later described the purpose of his creations as interchange stations from painting to architecture, i.e., from two dimensional to three dimensional visuality. The author has re-created El Lissitzky's "Proun #5A" from 1919 in the metaverse, as an architecture for avatars. The process in which the translation from analogue drawing to three dimensional digital artifact was undertaken, the challenges encountered during its re-building; framed within a literature review that examines both El Lissitzky's influence on contemporary cyber-architecture, as well as the significance of his spatial investigations and his sources of inspiration during the early decades of the twentieth century will form the contents of this text