Geographical Landscape Research Articles

Scientometric Analysis for Spatial Autocorrelation-Related Research from 1991 to 2021

Spatial autocorrelation describes the interdependent relationship between the realizations or observations of a variable that is distributed across a geographical landscape, which may be divided into different units/areas according to natural or political boundaries. Researchers of Geographical Information Science (GIS) always consider spatial autocorrelation. However, spatial autocorrelation research covers a wide range of disciplines, not only GIS, but spatial econometrics, ecology, biology, etc. Since spatial autocorrelation relates to multiple disciplines, it is difficult gain a wide breadth of knowledge on all its applications, which is very important for beginners to start their research as well as for experienced scholars to consider new perspectives in their works. Scientometric analyses are conducted in this paper to achieve this end. Specifically, we employ scientometrc indicators and scientometric network mapping techniques to discover influential journals, countries, institutions, and research communities; key topics and papers; and research development and trends. The conclusions are: (1) journals categorized into ecological and biological domains constitute the majority of TOP journals;(2) northern American countries, European countries, Australia, Brazil, and China contribute the most to spatial autocorrelation-related research; (3) eleven research communities consisting of three geographical communities and eight communities of other domains were detected; (4) hot topics include spatial autocorrelation analysis for molecular data, biodiversity, spatial heterogeneity, and variability, and problems that have emerged in the rapid development of China; and (5) spatial statistics-based approaches and more intensive problem-oriented applications are, and still will be, the trend of spatial autocorrelation-related research. We also refine the results from a geographer’s perspective at the end of this paper.

Climatic and Topographical Effects on the Spatiotemporal Variations of Vegetation in Hexi Corridor, Northwestern China

Oases, as complex geographical landscapes, are strongly influenced by both natural variation and human activities. However, they have degenerated because of unplanned land use and water resource development. The research of oasis changes has mostly discussed single components, but multiple components, especially spatial changes to oasis vegetation, need further strengthening. Land use and NDVI were extracted based on Landsat 5/8 and Mod13A3, respectively, and a transfer matrix was constructed to analyze changes of land use in the Hexi Corridor during 2000–2020. The significant changes in the area of each land use were also quantified. Combined with regional temperature and precipitation, interpolated from meteorological data, the correlations between regional temperature, precipitation, and vegetation coverage were calculated, especially in the quantized areas with significant associations. The results showed that the area of bare land or desert decreased, while the areas of agricultural and residential land increased. The normalized difference NDVI of the studied oases increased at the rate of 0.021 per decade, which was positively related to precipitation (p < 0.05), rather than temperature; of which, farmland and planted grass land were 55.65% and 33.79% in the significantly increased area. In the area of significant positive relation between NDVI and precipitation, the ratio of grassland, farmland, and forest was 79.21%, 12.82%, and 4.06%, respectively. Additionally, changes in oasis vegetation were determined primarily by agricultural activities, which reflected a combination of natural and anthropic influences.

The Unhomed Vietnam Veteran: “Queer Houses” in Tim O’Brien’s Vietnam Works

One of the most recurrent tropes in the US fiction emerging out of the experience of the war in Vietnam is the description of the feeling of estrangement of the soldiers. Up against a hostile and unreadable background, deprived of the tools to read the geographical and human landscapes, most returning veterans describe their feelings of alienation and constant fear. Once back in the US, most found that their feeling of unease and estrangement did not subside. Because of this, most of the fiction written by veteran soldiers directly or indirectly tackles the issues of home, homesickness, homelessness, and being unhomed. I argue that the centrality of these issues can be read as a commentary on the strategies of inclusion and exclusion which characterize the definition of the nation as home. One of the ways Vietnam War fiction has represented the issue of homelessness and estrangement from the homeland has been to resort to one of the most pervasive metaphors in US literature: that of the imperfect, crumbling haunted house. A great number of the houses featured in Vietnam War literature are imperfect and uncanny. The main aim of this article is the contextualization and analysis of the “queer” houses in Tim O’Brien’s fiction as a trope that allows the author to build a “poetics of uprootedness.”

Review: Apocalyptic Geographies: Religion, Media, and the American Landscape, by Jerome Tharaud

Review: <i>Apocalyptic Geographies: Religion, Media, and the American Landscape</i>, by Jerome Tharaud

Disentangling the relative roles of geographical and ecological factors in driving genomic variations of a widely distributed bird across a longitudinal gradient

Unraveling geographical modes of speciation processes has been a longstanding topic in biogeography. Divergence can be driven by factors operating on multiple spatial scales, such as geographical distance (isolation by distance, IBD), landscape resistance (isolation by resistance, IBR) and environmental heterogeneity (isolation by environment, IBE). However, it is challenging to assess the relative contributions of such factors, which are usually autocorrelated with each other. On the basis of ~294 K nuclear single‐nucleotide polymorphisms from 53 samples, we integrated population genomics, geographical information and environmental variables to delineate genetic differentiation in the common pheasant Phasianus colchicus across a longitudinal gradient in northern China. Generalized dissimilarity modeling (GDM) was used to analyze the relative importance of IBD, IBR and IBE. We found that the common pheasant in northern China was grouped into six genetic clusters, which was consistent with the taxonomic affinities. Genetic diversity changed along the longitudinal gradient, reaching its lowest level at the eastern edge of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP). The spatial pattern of gene flow suggested that the mountains surrounding the QTP and the mountains in central China have acted as geographical barriers impeding common pheasant dispersal. GDM analysis indicated that environmental heterogeneity is the most important driver explaining the lineage divergence, which supports the IBE model. These results suggest that multiple isolation mechanisms shaped genetic diversity and genomic divergence in this wide‐ranging bird species. Together, our results underscore the importance of leveraging genome‐wide variations and ecological modeling to facilitate a deeper understanding of population divergence processes.

Optimum Feature and Classifier Selection for Accurate Urban Land Use/Cover Mapping from Very High Resolution Satellite Imagery

Feature selection to reduce redundancies for efficient classification is necessary but usually time consuming and challenging. This paper proposed a comprehensive analysis for optimum feature selection and the most efficient classifier for accurate urban area mapping. To this end, 136 multiscale textural features alongside a panchromatic band were initially extracted from WorldView-2, GeoEye-3, and QuickBird satellite images. The wrapper-based and filter-based feature selection were implemented to optimally select the best ten percent of the primary features from the initial feature set. Then, machine leaning algorithms such as artificial neural network (ANN), support vector machine (SVM), and random forest (RF) classifiers were utilized to evaluate the efficiency of these selected features and select the most efficient classifier. The achieved optimum feature set was validated using two other images of WorldView-3 and Pleiades. The experiments revealed that RF, particle swarm optimization (PSO), and neighborhood component analysis (NCA) resulted in the most efficient classifier and wrapper-based and filter-based methods, respectively. While ANN and SVM’s process time depended on the number of input features, RF was significantly resistant to the criterion. Dissimilarity, contrast, and correlation features played the greatest contributing role in the classification performance among the textural features used in this study. These trials showed that the feature number could be reduced optimally to 14 from 137; these optimally selected features, alongside the RF classifier, can produce an F1-measure of about 0.90 for different images from five very high resolution satellite sensors for various urban geographical landscapes. These results successfully achieve our goal of assisting users by eliminating the task of optimal feature selection and classifier, thereby increasing the efficiency of urban land use/cover classification from very high resolution images. This optimal feature selection can also significantly reduce the high computational load of the feature-engineering phase in the machine and deep learning approaches.

Image analysis of Moroccan carob seeds (Ceratonia siliqua L.) revealed substantial intraspecific variations depending on climate and geographic origin

BackgroundThe carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua L.) is one of the most iconic tree species of the Mediterranean region, with valuable economic, ecological and cultural value. Carob has been exploited around the Mediterranean region since antiquity and has been regarded as an important component of natural habitats and traditional agroecosystems. Several studies have focused on its morphological, biochemical, and genetic diversity. However, less is known about the intraspecific variation of seed traits. In this regard, and as an overall objective, we intend to evaluate the amplitude and the expression of intraspecific variations of carob seed traits at different ecological scales ranging from individual trees to different geographical landscapes. In addition, we investigated how the climate along the study area affects the extent of carob seed variability. Using image analysis techniques, we measured seven traits related to the size and the shape of 1740 seeds collected from 18 populations of spontaneous C. siliqua distributed along a latitudinal transect in Morocco under different bioclimatic conditions.ResultsThe morphometric analysis of carob seed showed the effectiveness of adopted approach to highlight the amount and the amplitude of intraspecific variation according to geographic and climatic factors. Seed trait analysis revealed high intraspecific variability, explained by differences between and among carob populations and geographic zones. Seed area, perimeter, length, and width showed the largest variability between geographic zones. However, circularity, aspect ratio, and seed roundness showed higher variability at the tree level. Finally, our results show that seed traits vary depending on altitude and climate condition.ConclusionsRevealing the amount and the structure of intraspecific traits variability of carob seed provides interesting insights to understand the mechanisms underlying trees adaptation to various environmental and ecological conditions. Therefore, intraspecific variation of seed traits should be integrated into trait-based functional ecology to assess plant species responses to environmental changes.

SİİRT YÖRESEL YEME İÇME KÜLTÜRÜNÜN ALTERNATİF TURİZM POTANSİYELİ AÇISINDAN DEĞERLENDİRİLMESİ

The changing socio-economic conditions in the world have also changed the demands and expectations from the tourism sector. For this reason, alternative tourism activities, which have been developing rapidly since 1980, have emerged. These activities were primarily used in areas where tourism is well developed, to spread tourism throughout the year by using the existing tourism infrastructure. Alternative tourism activities have turned into great opportunities to bring tourism to areas that have not met tourism before. Turkey has numerous geographical locations, cultural and social landscapes that can be evaluated in terms of alternative tourism resources. The unique eating and drinking culture of almost every city in Turkey has also revealed great potential for "gastronomy tourism", which is one of the alternative tourism activities. However, it cannot be said that this potential has been sufficiently evaluated yet. The research area is located in the Dicle Section of the Southeastern Anatolia Region. In Siirt, which has hosted many cultures throughout history, the culture of foodways is quite diverse. The natural geographical features and human texture of the settlement are effective in the emergence of this culture. Turkish, Arab, Kurdish and Armenian cultures are the stakeholders that shape the traditional foodways culture of Siirt. The existence of materials and traditional dishes such as “Büryan”, “Severkitel”, “Kitel” proves the cultural mosaic. There are some ritualized behaviors in the preparation of traditional dishes in Siirt. Especially in the production of labor-intensive local dishes, there are "imece" behaviors that are on the verge of extinction in most of Anatolia. The foodways culture of the region has been effective in the emergence of the local architecture. Especially in “Cas houses”, there are functional spaces designed for foodways culture. In the research area, the development of the foodways culture is also observed in the commercial life of the city. Especially the excess of places that are expressed as "buryanist" can be shown as proof of this. There has been an increase in the number of establishments that make other local dishes in recent years. This situation will become more widespread if Siirt is included in the itineraries of gastronomic tours to the Southeastern Anatolia Region.

Recreational potential of reserved territories (on the example of the national natural park «Karmeliukovе Podillia»)

Given the physical and geographical location, unique biotic and landscape diversity, favorable hydroclimatic conditions and availability of recreational resources, we note the active development of the tourism industry in the single national nature park (NNP) «Karmeliukove Podillia» within the Eastern Podillia region. Tourism here is represented by different areas: excursions, recreation, ethnic, sports, religious, environmental, rural (green) and others. The territory of NNP «Karmeliukove Podillia» has a significant recreational potential, which is expressed in the combination of resources and conditions for its development in various sectors of economic activity. The potential of the park is realized through social needs, which manifest themselves in the form of different types of nature management, depending on resource availability and development conditions, structure and nature of social needs, different types of existing habitats, functional zones and sizes. Therefore, the recreational potential of the functional areas of the park is one of the priorities of its sustainable development. In view of the above, we calculated the recreational potential of NNP «Karmeliukove Podillia». In the analysis of which a tribal rating scale was used, where various factors were assessed as favorable for the development of a particular type of recreation (3 points), relatively favorable (2 points) and unfavorable (1 point). The method of determining the recreational potential of the park was aimed at defining the potential of outdoor recreation using the proposed mathematical formula, which included biotic and landscape diversity, favorable climatic and hydrological conditions, infrastructure development, recreation facilities and the impact of negative natural and man-made factors

Nature’s Contributions to People in Vulnerability Studies When Assessing the Impact of Climate Change on Coastal Landscapes

The geographic landscape is a recurrent unit of analysis in vulnerability studies. Single descriptions are often used to show the elements exposed in these landscapes. However, the concept requires specifying the components of the landscape and its functioning as a unit. Thus, the purpose of this research was to use the analysis of Nature’s Contributions to People (NCP) to describe the global contribution of landscape elements to human activities, prioritizing the units in which the effects of climate change may imply greater impacts on the human population. For this, we analyzed six categories of nature’s contributions applied to the landscape units in a fragment of the Mexican Pacific coast. The units with mangrove cover had the highest nature contributions. It is expected that the application of this approach in the exposure component of vulnerability studies will allow a better understanding of the non-return relationship and the search for adaptive nature-based solutions.

The Relationship between Particle Size and Element Distribution in Stream Sediments from the Dongyuan W-Mo Deposit, Eastern China

Particle size exerts significant control on the concentration of elements in stream sediments and is therefore critical in stream sediment-based geochemical exploration, which has proved important in China’s National Geochemical Mapping Project. There are various geographical landscapes in China with different distribution characteristics of stream sediments. Therefore, we studied the relationship between particle size and element distribution in stream sediments, which is always a crucial but challenging issue in geochemical surveys. The distributions of minerals and elements in eight size fractions of stream sediments (2–0.84, 0.84–0.42, 0.42–0.25, 0.25–0.177, 0.177–0.125, 0.125–0.096, 0.096–0.074, and &lt;0.074 mm) from the Dongyuan W-Mo deposit in eastern China were studied. The results show that the 2–0.25 mm particle size fraction of stream sediments is composed mainly of rock debris and various minerals from broken bedrock upstream, while the &lt;0.25 mm fraction is composed mainly of clay, individual minerals, and organic matter. The pilot survey results prove that using 2–0.25 mm as the sampling particle size fraction is better than using &lt;0.25 mm, especially in geochemical prospecting and geological body delineation. Sampling the 2–0.25 mm particle size fraction of stream sediments can help to delineate proven ore bodies, ore-related anomalies, and geological bodies more effectively and more credibly. The suggested sampling particle size fraction for a stream sediment geochemical survey in a humid to semi-humid low mountain landscape in eastern China is therefore 2–0.25 mm, rather than the particle size fraction of &lt;0.25 mm that was used for sampling in this area before. This paper depicts a successful example for determining the optimal sampling particle size fraction for stream sediment-based geochemical exploration.

Genome-wide analysis suggests multiple domestication events of Chinese local pigs.

Chinese local pigs have abundant phenotypes as a result of different cultures and habits of Chinese populations, geographic constraints and the long history of pig domestication. A comprehensive investigation of local Chinese pigs will benefit biodiversity research and future breeding practices. However, their classification and demographic history are not yet clear. We studied 91 Chinese local pigs from 14 breeds and 15 Chinese wild boars to reveal the dispersal of Chinese pigs, genetic groups and the demographic history. Based on spatial feature analyses, we believe that the geographic landscape played an important role in the dispersal of local pigs. According to genetic studies, Chinese pigs are divided into three groups where each group appears to have a distinct background. The nucleotide diversity, observed heterozygosity, runs of homozygosity and inbreeding coefficient varied among the groups and widespread migration also existed between the groups. Furthermore, demographic models have been constructed to explain the evolutionary relationship between the groups using the approximate Bayesian computation approach. These suggested that Chinese local pigs are inherited from an extinct Sus scrofa population from ~22000years ago. Then, the three groups diverged from ancestors ~16000, ~11000 and ~8700years ago respectively. This study advances our understanding of the genetic variation and demographic history of Chinese local pigs.

Zéro avant Jésus-Christ by Jean Chavot (review)

Reviewed by: Zéro avant Jésus-Christ by Jean Chavot Toti O’Brien Jean Chavot Zéro avant Jésus-Christ Trocy-en-Multien, France. Éditions Conférence. 2020. 496 pages. ZÉRO AVANT JÉSUS-CHRIST is the second published book by French author Jean Chavot, following a collection of flash prose, Soixante minutes. Witty and delicate, Soixante consists of small, distinct snapshots of daily life sketched with levity and concision, while the fifty-five chapters of Zéro unfurl like a continuous, irresistible wave. Like a wave, the narrative spirals, coming back to recurrent motifs, though the mounting tide inevitably pushes it toward its breaking point, ashore or, instead, far asea. A récit, neither novel nor memoir, Zéro belongs to the liminal zone of autofiction, a lively trend in French literature since the 1970s. It draws the life parabola of Nicholas—Chavot’s barely disguised alter ego— from childhood to an undefined midlife point where some questions seem to have been finally answered, if just to reveal wider horizons, more questions. That is enough time for the author to explore a rich gamut of historical, geographical, and societal landscapes: May 1968, the drug scene of the seventies, the entertainment world and the music business of the eighties, the spread of AIDS in the early nineties, Paris, Rome, and a number of provinces, both Italian and French, with their unique cultures and flavors. But the impetus behind the narrative isn’t descriptive. On the contrary, the kaleidoscope of sceneries and portraits have the slight ambiguity of projections despite their neat and elegant rendering. People and events of Nicholas’s life blend with his dreams and visions—either those chemically engendered or those born from his spleen and angst—and they all self-deny, self-erase as soon as the page is turned, swept away by the all-consuming quest for a Holy Grail that, once found, might quench the ontological thirst haunting the protagonist. What is Nicholas looking for? The book postulates his query as a need for transcendence on behalf of a child raised in a communist, strictly atheist environment. The religious dictate, usually imposed on children, who then spend their adult years trying to lift its burden, here becomes the mermaid, the unicorn, the hidden treasure denied to the acute, sensitive boy-who-needs-more-than-facts. Paradoxically, the secular child, the youth unbound by moralistic taboos, the man free to apply critical thinking, relentlessly seeks for a compass, a map, a sacred scripture. [End Page 64] But all of Nicholas’s attempts to marry religion end in divorce, just as his relationships do. And his quest for god is a sheer, naked veil revealing his poignant grief for the father, an elusive figure, beloved and untimely lost. As the mother painstakingly attempts to efface his legacy, the paternal shadow haunts the protagonist, asking for justice, for burial, for closure. Dealing in-depth with these feelings allows Nicholas to first redeem his filial love, then to parent his son, hence realigning a manner of male lineage, a vertical axis, the stipe of the Christian cross that so fascinates him. Anchored at last into earth, he is ready to explore longed-for otherness, whatever it might be, still blurred like the coast of Africa that looms far, yet visible, at the end of the book. Toti O’Brien Los Angeles Copyright © 2022 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

Land Cover Dynamics along the Urban–Rural Gradient of the Port-au-Prince Agglomeration (Republic of Haiti) from 1986 to 2021

The landscape of the Port-au-Prince agglomeration in the Republic of Haiti has undergone profound changes linked to (peri-)urban expansion supported by rapid demographic growth. We quantify the land cover dynamics along the urban–rural gradient of the Port-au-Prince agglomeration using Landsat images from 1986, 1998, 1999, 2010, and 2021 coupled with geographic information systems and landscape ecology analysis tools. The results show that over 35 years the acreage of the urban zone increased seven-fold while that of the peri-urban area increased five-fold, to the detriment of the rural zone, which was reduced by 14%. The dynamics of the landscape composition along the urban–rural gradient are characterized by a rapid progression of built-up and bare land in urban and peri-urban zones and by fields in the rural zone, in contrast to the more accentuated regression of vegetation in the peri-urban zone. The landscape of the study area has undergone significant changes due to the high demand for housing resulting from rapid population growth, in the context of a lack of territorial development planning by public authorities. This impacts the sustainability of socio-economic and ecological processes in an area where populations are highly dependent on plant resources. Our results underline the necessity to orient territorial development planning in urban, peri-urban and rural zones through an integrated and participatory approach.

Conservation prioritization based on past cascading climatic effects on genetic diversity and population size dynamics: Insights from a temperate tree species

AbstractAimThe biogeographic history affects adaptive evolution by altering the pattern of genetic variation and provides the background upon which other evolutionary processes are operating. Assessment of the consequence of such eco‐evolutionary interactions is crucial to population's genetic diversity maintenance. Yet, considering how biogeographic and multiple evolutionary processes interact in complex environments to alter genetic diversity in conservation planning remains unresolved.LocationThe Pacific Northwest.MethodsHerein I document the impact of geographic landscapes and past climatic fluctuations on the evolutionary processes that drive population divergence of Populus trichocarpa by assembling genomic, climatic and species occurrence data.ResultsBased on inferences of demographic history of the species and tests for niche divergence, results show that the British Columbia (BC)‐North and BC‐South populations are ancestral and subject to more recent bottlenecks than the Oregon population. Consistently, ecological niche modelling illustrates that compared to the Last Glacial Maximum (~21 Ka), the present niche suitability of the BC‐North and ‐South populations is overall marginally inferior to that of the Oregon population. However, genomic analysis demonstrates that the Oregon harbours the lowest genetic diversity, possibly due to an extended bottleneck experienced by the population. Model prediction indicates that in the 2050s, the impact of climate change is minor compared to the niche suitability of the species as a whole, but climate change will likely result in considerable genetic shifts over two generations especially in the Oregon and BC‐South populations, which will attenuate along a northward gradient.Main conclusionsThis study underpins the long‐lasting impact of demographic histories and natural selection on genetic diversity, rather than highlighting the consequence of recent demographic events (e.g. bottleneck in the Holocene epoch; ~12 Ka) potentially cascading to eroding genetic diversity and yielding conservation urgency.

Caregiver experiences with accessing sickle cell care and the use of telemedicine

BackgroundSickle cell disease (SCD) is associated with a wide range of complications. However, a multitude of barriers prevent SCD patients from receiving adequate healthcare, including difficulties with transportation and lack of provider knowledge about disease sequelae. Importantly, studies have demonstrated the benefits of telemedicine in addressing barriers to healthcare. While previous studies have identified barriers to care through quantitative methods, few studies have explored barriers which affect the pediatric SCD patient population in the Midwest, wherein the geographical landscape can prohibit healthcare access. Furthermore, few studies have established acceptability of telemedicine among caregivers and patients with SCD.MethodsThis study aims to increase understanding of barriers to care and perceptions of telemedicine by caregivers of pediatric SCD patients in a medically under-resourced area in the Midwest. Researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with caregivers of children with SCD. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Thematic analyses were performed.ResultsResearchers interviewed 16 caregivers of 15 children with SCD. Thematic analyses of the interview transcripts revealed four broad themes regarding caregiver burden/stress, both facilitators and barriers to SCD healthcare, and general thoughts on the acceptability/usefulness of telemedicine.ConclusionThis qualitative study describes common burdens faced by caregivers of SCD, barriers to and facilitators of SCD care in the Midwest, and caregiver perceptions of the usefulness and efficacy of telemedicine for SCD care.

Molecular characterization of a large cohort of mucopolysaccharidosis patients: Iran Mucopolysaccharidosis RE-diagnosis study (IMPRESsion).

Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPSs) are rare, heterogeneous inborn errors of metabolism (IEM) diagnosed through a combination of clinical, biochemical, and genetic investigations. The aim of this study was molecular characterization of the largest cohort of Iranian MPS patients (302 patients from 289 unrelated families), along with tracking their ethnicity and geographical origins. 185/289 patients were studied using an IEM-targeted NGS panel followed by complementary Sanger sequencing, which led to the diagnosis of 154 MPS patients and 5 non-MPS IEMs (diagnostic yield: 85.9%). Furthermore, 106/289 patients who were referred with positive findings went through reanalysis and confirmatory tests which confirmed MPS diagnosis in 104. Among the total of 258 MPS patients, 225 were homozygous, 90 harbored novel variants, and 9 had copy number variations. MPS IV was the most common type (34.8%) followed by MPS I (22.7%) and MPS VI (22.5%). Geographical origin analysis unveiled a pattern of distribution for frequent variants in ARSB (c.430G>A, c.962T>C [p.Leu321Pro], c.281C>A [p.Ser94*]), GALNS (c.319G>A [p.Ala107Thr], c.860C>T [p.Ser287Leu], c.1042A>G [p.Thr348Ala]), and IDUA (c.1A>C [p.Met1Leu], c.1598C>G [p.Pro533Arg], c.1562_1563insC [p.Gly522Argfs*50]). Our extensive patient cohort reveals the genetic and geographic landscape of MPS in Iran, which provides insight into genetic epidemiology of MPS and can facilitate a more cost-effective, time-efficient diagnostic approach based on the region-specific variants.

«THE UNSIMPLE» BY Т. PROKHASKO: A QUASI-HISTORICAL NOVEL

A historical novel is a work that is based on a historical plot, built on the reproduction in the artistic form of a certain historical epoch, a certain period of the people's or the country's past. In view of this, in a historical novel, historical truth must be combined with artistic truth, historical facts with artistic fiction, real historical figures with fictional characters.The postmodern ideology of the multiplicity of meanings, the hesitation in determining the differences between the false and the true, justify today's increase in interest in history and the historical novel as a modern textual reflection of the past. The study considers the artistic interpretation of the genre of quasi-historical postmodern novel on the material of the text “The UnSimple” by T. Prokhasko. The genre features of the text are determined, in particular inscribing a variant of an event to a certain historical epoch, defining national features with the help of a pseudo-historical plot, creating a geographical utopia and avoiding linearity, rooting a person in a new geographical landscape as a strategy ofhistorical discourse reconstruction.

Bounded spaces in question: x-raying the persistence of regions, territories and borders

ABSTRACT This essay introduces the special issue of Geografiska Annaler B, which includes revised and extended articles originally presented at the Vega Symposium in Stockholm in 2021. The symposium entitled Bounded Spaces in Question: X-raying the Persistence of Regions and Territories focused on the continuing importance and challenges of regions, territories and borders, both in geographical thinking and in different social (political, cultural and economic) practices. These keywords and their multiple concepts have become highly important in geographic and interdisciplinary literature since the 1990s. The purpose of this Special Issue is to bring these categories into the same framework and to problematize the changing nature of bounded spaces and related power relations. The articles by Anssi Paasi, Alexander B. Murphy, Martin Jones and Linn Axelsson seek to transcend the ‘self-evident’ meanings of these categories and examine the related theoretical and practical challenges at different spatial scales. The authors examine the changing meanings of these keywords in an increasingly diverse political geographical landscape, characterized by globalization, various forms of mobility, the rise of populism and (right-wing) nationalism, and the simultaneous opening and closing of regional/territorial spaces.

MEMS Gyro and Accelerometer as North-Finding System for Bulk Direction Marking

The ability to seek the accuracy of the true north direction is essential in determining the direction of the ground vehicle, sea, and air and as a reference point in the determination of Qibla direction as well. Theodolite is mainly used for surveying applications in measuring angles, including determining the direction for Muslims to perform ritual prayers, Qibla. However, transferring point-by-point from outdoor to indoor via theodolite requires many experts and is a complicated process. In this paper, we present the development of a highly accurate and compact north-finding prototype for bulk direction marking based on a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) gyroscope and accelerometer sensor. The system consists of two modules; a GPS-based transmitter module to obtain latitude and longitude information and a MEMS gyroscope and accelerometer-based receiver module to detect the geographic north and mark the direction. We accomplish the accuracy by implementing a 4-point static rotation method to compensate for the gyroscope bias and a digital complementary filter system to filter out drift error and fluctuations in the data. We tested the developed prototype on different geographic landscapes, weather conditions, and various building types. The field test results prove that the developed system achieves an accuracy of ±7’ 06”, verified by the Department of Survey and Mapping Malaysia.