Layered horizons: A geospatial humanities research platform

© 2019 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). In this demo we showcase Layered Horizons, a Virtual Reality (VR) experience we have developed for use in an ARC-funded research project, Waves of Words: Mapping and Modelling Australia's Pacific Past. This platform allows users to connect different geospatial datasets (for our purposes, from the humanities and social sciences) into layers that can then be explored by the use of natural gesture and body movement. This kind of interaction design in VR takes full advantage of the media's affordances, without relying on metaphors from other interactive media, yet being familiar enough as to engender intuitive and meaningful use. We demonstrate how the platform is currently being used to connect linguistic data (word lists) with archaeological data (e.g. on the spread of bananas through the Asia-Pacific region, or canoe styles found in different locations) and anthropological data (e.g. shared cultural features like chieftainship systems or kinship systems). Taking into account what we also know about Pacific navigation and simulated canoe travel, we can therefore build a complex layered map of the region over time that allows us to better discover probable human migration and contact patterns

The influence of hemispheric asymmetries on field‐aligned ion drifts at the geomagnetic equator

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95509/1/grl29626.pd

RNA METABOLISM IN THE GOLDFISH RETINA DURING OPTIC NERVE REGENERATION 1, 2

In goldfish, regeneration of the optic nerve following axotomy is accompanied by changes in retinal RNA metabolism. Approximately 4 days after unilateral optic nerve crush, there is an increased uptake of 3 H-labeled precursors of RNA into cells of the retina as well as an increase in labeling of total retinal RNA following incubation for 3–4 h in vitro. Subfractionation indicates that the resultant labeled free ribosomai RNA has a much higher specific activity than that from membrane-bound ribosomes in post-crush, as compared to normal retinas. Total retinal RNA content also increases, reaching a peak value about 8 days after axotomy, coincident with the time of observed maximum labeling of ribosomal RNA. No change in the total protein or DNA content of the retina is detected during this period as a result of the optic nerve crush. Saturating amounts of uridine or adenosine in the medium eliminate the general effects of enhanced uptake of the precursors on RNA labeling. Elevated labeling of poly(A)-containing RNA in retinal cytoplasm is nevertheless detected 10–14 days after optic nerve crush with no change in the labeling of the polyadenylate segment. A decrease in the labeling of poly(A)-containing nuclear RNA, from a significantly greater amount than that of normal retinas to a significantly lower one, occurs during the period of observed increased labeling of cytoplasmic poly(A)-containing RNA. The results indicate that in addition to changes in RNA precursor metabolism, optic nerve regeneration is characterized by alterations in the labeling of free and membrane-bound retinal ribosomes as well as in the post-transcriptional processing of messenger RNA.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66175/1/j.1471-4159.1978.tb12462.x.pd

Phenomenology of B -> pi pi, pi K Decays at O(alpha^2 beta_0) in QCD Factorization

We study O(alpha^2 beta_0) perturbative corrections to matrix elements entering two-body exclusive decays of the form B -> pi pi, pi K in the QCD factorization formalism, including chirally enhanced power corrections, and discuss the effect of these corrections on direct CP asymmetries, which receive their first contribution at O(alpha). We find that the O(alpha^2 beta_0) corrections are often as large as the O(alpha) corrections. We find large uncertainties due to renormalization scale dependence as well as poor knowledge of the non-perturbative parameters. We assess the effect of the perturbative corrections on the direct CP violation parameters of B -> pi^+ pi^-.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures. Updated input parameters and added citations; expanded discussio

Post-fire Recruitment Failure as a Driver of Forest to Non-forest Ecosystem Shifts in Boreal Regions

Climate change and land-use are driving large changes in forest ecosystems around the globe. In the boreal biome it is likely that increases in temperature and the associated lengthening of the growing season will cause the forest to expand into the northern tundra and upwards in elevation, whilst potentially contracting at its southern limits. This increase in temperature is also driving an increase in the frequency and severity of boreal forest fires. A growing number of studies have observed the failure of forest species to re-establish after a standreplacing fire event, which results in the shift to a non-forested ecosystem. In this chapter, this process is referred to as post-fire recruitment failure. We provide multiple lines of evidence for boreal forests, and more specifically for southern Siberia forests, that a possible regional tipping point is unfolding, which could lead to the rapid replacement of large areas of forest ecosystems with low-stature non-forest ecosystems. This change would come with significant consequences for the carbon balance, surface albedo and the resulting altered energy balanc

The ‘No-Interface’ Interface for Research VR

In this paper we outline a paradigm that has existed in interface and interaction design for Virtual Reality (VR) since the first wave of VR in the 1980s and 90s. Focussing in particular on VR as a research tool, we argue that the field has moved away from immediate, embodied interaction towards interface paradigms adopted from desktop software and computer gaming. We introduce a VR experience we have developed for use in a research project, Layered Horizons, and discuss how it fits within the alternative tradition of the ‘no interface’ interface, where interaction is triggered by body movement and natural gestures. We discuss what this means for our project. We argue that this kind of interaction design in VR takes full advantage of the media’s affordances, without relying on metaphors from other interactive media, yet being familiar enough as to engender intuitive and meaningful use

Reputation in European Trade Mark Law: A Re-examination

Under the harmonised European trade mark regime marks with a reputation enjoy expanded protection. This article casts doubt on whether this ‘reputational trigger’ can be justified. It then explores some difficult operational questions about the way the reputation threshold works in cases where the mark enjoys fame only in niche markets or in a limited geographical area, the aim being to illustrate further why reputation is an unsatisfactory trigger for a different type of trade mark protection. Finally, it looks at some of the evidential difficulties involved in adjudicating disputes in which expanded protection is being claimed. It concludes by suggesting that if the evidential problems we identify were tackled the reputation threshold could be abandoned