Learner-centred Accessibility for Interoperable Web-based Educational Systems

This paper describes the need for an information model and specifications that support a new strategy for delivering accessible computer-based resources to learners based on their specific needs and preferences in the circumstances in which they are operating. The strategy augments the universal accessibility of resources model to enable systems to focus on individual learners and their particular accessibility needs and preferences. A set of specifications known as the AccessForAll specifications is proposed

Bath

For centuries, the remains of the great Roman-British bathing and temple complex in the center of Bath have attracted the interest and imagination of countless visitors to the city. But there is more to the archaeology of Bath than its Roman monuments. Human settlement here has spanned ten millennia, dating back to the final retreat of the ice sheets from Britain at the close of the last Ice Age. Antiquarians, archaeologists and scholars have long been drawn not only to the Roman structures, but to the worked flint scattered on the hills and in the river silts around the town, the earthworks surviving on the surrounding uplands, and the great medieval Abbey that dominated the town from the 11th century. As a result, hundreds of recorded observations have been accumulated, stretching back to the 17th century, but augmented over the last century by increasing numbers of excavations, in many cases combined with meticulous research. This volume provides a collection and rigorous assessment of this accumulated information, much of which has to date been either unpublished or available only in obscure sources, and offers a synthesis of what this information tells us of Bath’s past.Part 1 comprises an overview of the area’s natural topography, a summary of antiquarian and early archaeological investigation, and a survey of the archaeological evidence available to us today. Part 2 collates the detailed archaeological evidence, summarizing earlier work, assessing the nature of the evidence, and setting out our informed understanding of Bath’s past. Lastly, Part 3 offers an overview of the current understanding of the archaeology of Bath, an assessment of the potential of the surviving deposits for providing new data, and suggestions for future research directions

Bath

For centuries, the remains of the great Roman-British bathing and temple complex in the center of Bath have attracted the interest and imagination of countless visitors to the city. But there is more to the archaeology of Bath than its Roman monuments. Human settlement here has spanned ten millennia, dating back to the final retreat of the ice sheets from Britain at the close of the last Ice Age. Antiquarians, archaeologists and scholars have long been drawn not only to the Roman structures, but to the worked flint scattered on the hills and in the river silts around the town, the earthworks surviving on the surrounding uplands, and the great medieval Abbey that dominated the town from the 11th century. As a result, hundreds of recorded observations have been accumulated, stretching back to the 17th century, but augmented over the last century by increasing numbers of excavations, in many cases combined with meticulous research. This volume provides a collection and rigorous assessment of this accumulated information, much of which has to date been either unpublished or available only in obscure sources, and offers a synthesis of what this information tells us of Bath’s past.Part 1 comprises an overview of the area’s natural topography, a summary of antiquarian and early archaeological investigation, and a survey of the archaeological evidence available to us today. Part 2 collates the detailed archaeological evidence, summarizing earlier work, assessing the nature of the evidence, and setting out our informed understanding of Bath’s past. Lastly, Part 3 offers an overview of the current understanding of the archaeology of Bath, an assessment of the potential of the surviving deposits for providing new data, and suggestions for future research directions

Snowdonia's early fieldscapes

Traces of stone and earthwork field boundaries, roundhouses and enclosures survive across extensive upland areas of northwest Wales. Collectively described as fieldscapes, they are among the best preserved and most complex examples of early land division in Europe. This thesis explores the human and environmental processes that led to their creation and survival between the first millennium BC and first millennium AD. It builds on relational approaches to land tenure, and considers the emergence of early land division as a long‐term phenomenon. The research is based on mapping from detailed topographic models created using existing airborne laser scanning (lidar) datasets. Archaeological remains that are difficult or impossible to observe on the ground were identified through analysis of these digital models, significantly increasing the number and geographic distribution of recorded features. The large sample size, rich metadata and consistency of the dataset provided a unique opportunity to develop new approaches to help analyse and understand these early fieldscapes. Innovative geospatial and geostatistical methods were developed to assess their cohesion, preservation and character. The results revealed new and distinctive patterns of enclosure bound up with detailed knowledge of and responses to the region’s varied landscape and local microtopography. People selected sunnier slopes to settle and farm, and they built low earthwork and stone banks to reduce the impact of prevailing winds. Across the mountainous terrain of Snowdonia, this created a network of curvilinear and irregular boundaries. On lower-lying slopes and flatter land, sinuosity was less pronounced, but boundary alignment appears to have responded to environmental conditions in a similar way. The importance of aspect and exposure suggests that further research should focus on exploring these characteristics and their relationship to the development of mixed farming practices

Red earth song: Marai Kirtan of Rarh: Devotional singing and the performance of ecstasy in the Purulia District of Bengal, India.

Kirtan is devotional hymn singing, music and dance in praise of a deity usually performed by a group of devotees, as well as a literary tradition. Marai kirtan is a style of kirtan found in the rural area of West Bengal known as Rarh, particularly in the Purulia District (Manbhum) where the tradition exists in its most potent form of expression. It is performed inside the local temples by a variety of village based kirtan groups that are both egalitarian and competitive in nature. In Purulia, the term marai meaning "circular", but the inner meaning is "to grind", for "if you grind Hari nam, the name of god, like sugar cane in your heart, then it will also melt for god" (JM, 2006: Pers.comm.). Marai kirtan is considered the best way of worshipping god, of creating musical intensity and arousing devotion for god. It also has various utilitarian purposes such as the bringing of rain and auspiciousness to the village as well as a means of social protest. My research reveals that marai kirtan has a very distinctive performance structure consisting of various musical sections that generate musical/devotional intensity to reach a climax (katan matan). Elaborate melodic lines and complex rhythmic compositions are interwoven with improvisations and dance choreographies that produce ecstatic heights for prolonged periods with the use of only two words, Hari Bolo, highlighting the inherent creative musical dynamism within the marai kirtan performance. My methodology consists of ethnographic investigation built upon observation and interviews in the field, incorporating Rarhi terms and meanings, combined with an analysis of performances through a study of audio/visual recordings made on location. Due to the paucity of documentation on marai kirtan and lack of relevant literary material, my investigation concentrates on the collection of data at its source and a phenomenological perspective of the tradition. I have examined six different kirtan groups: the Brahmans, Mahatos, Rajwar, Karandhi villagers and the Vaisnavas with particular focus on the Mahato group from Kostuka village, whose lives have been transformed by marai kirtan

TRANSLATING THE NEW WORLD(S): A SEMIOTIC APPROACH TO PARROT AND OLIVIER IN AMERICA BY PETER CAREY

Em seu mais recente romance Parrot e Olivier na América (2009), o romancista nascidoaustraliano Peter Carey explora a forma como três civilizações aparentemente incompatíveis traduzem o Novo Mundo. Por um lado Olivier, o aristocrata francês esnobe, se esforça para compreender o conceito de democracia na América, que ele quer traduzir “literalmente” em seu próprio sistema (de comportamento, conveniência social, pragmática etc.) Por outro lado, Parrot, o pícaro anglo-australiano e "palhaço e secrétaire " de Olivier, gosta de reescrever a caligrafia horrível de seu mestre, alterando alguns dos pontos de vista do francês na América de acordo com seus caprichos e, deliberadamente, agindo como um tradutor ruim. Em terceiro lugar, o cidadão americano livre, o "Homem do Futuro" (p. 187): ele/ela usa uma linguagem criativa, cunhando um idioleto pessoal como prova de pertencimento a uma nação em sua estréia, em que "a ganância pode rasgar a terra distante mas ainda o baixo pode subir tão alto "(p. 251). Este artigo visa ilustrar como essas três entidades traduzem outros sistemas de valores, ou a sua perda de valores, em sistemas com que se podem identificar. O referencial teórico do meu estudo procede das contribuições de Yuri Lotman, o principal representante da escola semiótica de Tartu-Moscou.PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Peter Carey. Parrot e Olivier na América. Escola Semiótica de TartuMoscou. Abstract In his latest novel Parrot and Olivier in America (2009) the Australian-born novelist Peter Carey explores the way three seemingly incompatible civilisations translate the New World. On the one hand Olivier, the snobbish French aristocrat, struggles to understand the concept of democracy in America because he wants to translate it ‘literally’ into his own system (of behaviour, social convenience, pragmatics, etc.). On the other hand, Parrot, the British-Australian pícaro and Olivier’s “clown and secretaire”, enjoys rewriting his master’s awful calligraphy, changing some of the Frenchman’s views on America according to his whim, and deliberately acting as a bad translator. Thirdly, the American free citizen, the “Man of the Future” (p. 187): s/he uses language creatively, coining a personal idiolect as evidence of belonging to a nation at its début, where “greed might tear the land apart but still the low could climb so high” (p. 251). This paper aims at illustrating how these three entities translate other systems of values, or their loss of values, into systems with which they can identify. The theoretical framework of my study proceeds from the contributions of Yuri Lotman, the main representative of the Tartu-Moscow school of semiotics.KEYWORDS: Peter Carey. Parrot and Olivier in America. Tartu-Moscow school of semiotics. DOI: https://doi.org/10.47295/mren.v1i2.385

2 kirja Karl Morgensternile, Dorpat

http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b1781802~S1*es

Picture This! Community-Led Production of Alternative Views of the Heritage of Gwynedd

The digital camera has become ubiquitous. Every mobile phone has one built in, almost everyone has a mobile phone, and people use them constantly for all kinds of things, including taking pictures. In a new collaborative project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Bangor, Aberystwyth and Manchester Metropolitan Universities have teamed up with Gwynedd Archaeological Trust to develop tools to allow communities to picture their heritage and upload the images to an automated photogrammetry server to create metrical 3D models of the sites and objects they are recording. The data created will then feed into the local Historic Environment Record, providing a valuable tool for monitoring changes to heritage sites, while providing communities with added information and alternative views of their heritage. This paper is not intended to provide a formal research design or a fully developed prototype. Rather, it is intended to outline an experimental and collaborative approach that is situated as both practice and research, with neither enterprise being privileged over the other. The activities outlined here will be developed and evaluated over the next year and a half, after which we will report on whether or how the contingent aims and outcomes expressed were realized

Influence of nitrogen form on the phytoextraction of cadmium by a newly discovered hyperaccumulator Carpobrotus rossii

Using hyperaccumulator plants is an important method to remove heavy metals from contaminated land. Carpobrotus rossii, a newly found Cd hyperaccumulator, has shown potential to remediate Cd-contaminated soils. This study examined the effect of nitrogen forms on Cd phytoextraction by C. rossii. The plants were grown for 78 days in an acid soil spiked with 20 mg Cd kg(-1) and supplied with (NH4)(2)SO4, Ca(NO3)(2), urea, and chicken manure as nitrogen (N) fertilizers. Nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide (DCD) was applied to maintain the ammonium (NH4+) form. Nitrogen fertilization increased shoot biomass but decreased root biomass with the highest shoot biomass occurring in the manure treatment. Compared to the no-N control, urea application did not affect shoot Cd concentration, but increased Cd content by 17 % due to shoot biomass increase. Chicken manure significantly decreased CaCl2-extractable Cd in soil, and the Cd concentration and total Cd uptake in the plant. Rhizosphere pH was the highest in the manure treatment and the lowest in the NH4+ treatments. The manure and nitrate (NO3-) treatments tended to have higher rhizosphere pH than their respective bulk soil pH, whereas the opposite was observed for urea and NH4+ treatments. Furthermore, the concentrations of extractable Cd in soil and Cd in the plant correlated negatively with rhizosphere pH. The study concludes that urea significantly enhanced the Cd phytoaccumulation by C. rossii while chicken manure decreased Cd availability in soil and thus the phytoextraction efficiency