Virtual Landscape Research Articles

Liminalność krajobrazu kulturowego

Liminality of the Cultural Landscape According to Tim Ingold, cultural landscape is not „land” nor „space”, but is a dweller’s narration on the reality that surrounds him or her. This narration is in permanent process, it grows with the society that lives in a certain place, parts of it die with the people that pass away. Although it is subject to individual reception, some narrations are shared by many. Therefore it is both personal and social phenomenon. This narrative landscape is full of borders and spheres that are built on symbolic values of places and objects. In traditional societies it has been well visible – one could easily distinct the narration of the forest from the narration of the village. In the modern world the landscape has gone through a major transformation, nonetheless it kept crucial mechanisms of its construction. Contemporary multi‑sited landscapes or virtual landscapes also contain borders and spheres, are individual and shared by many. This article presents recent changes in the approach to the liminality of the cultural landscape, differences that were experienced when passing from traditional to modern society. This change is particularly visible when comparing generations: new global generation (generation Y, generation Z) has a different experience of the landscape than generation of their parents and grandparents – who had grown in a still local and territorially defined places. But new landscapes do have borders and spheres, however their shape may be slightly different.

Using Interactive Story Maps Enriched by Direct Knowledge Queries for the Development of E-Learning Modules on Climate Change

Predicted precipitation and temperature development for the lee area of the Harz Mountains increase the requirements for climate adaptation. Particularly sensitive to the effects of climate change is the agricultural sector in Central Germany, as reported in the Vulnerability Study for the Federal Republic of Germany. The e-learning platforms introduced in this paper, therefore, focus on sensitizing different educational and agricultural stakeholder to the regional and local impacts of climate change and necessary adaptation strategies. The aim is to combine the possibilities of conventional classroom learning with web-based learning units. Regional case studies serve as training objects, presented in web-based learning modules as well as in lecture series or science camps. Additionally, virtual landscape models and interactive maps are generated for selected processes in the context of climate change, supplemented by simplified simulations. The educational concept focuses not only on the visualization of directly perceptible structures such as snow cover, but also on the representation of non-observable processes (e.g., soil water). The results of the project are implemented as a Rich Internet application in a modular e-learning platform, that combines semantic web technologies and cross media ESRI Story Maps with R-based models, scenarios, and database-supported long climate measurement series. In addition, numerous immediate self-examination applications are integrated. The web-based teaching and learning methods are developed for a usage within blended learning models and to support individual learning under the consideration of previous knowledge.

Application Research of Virtual Reality Technology in Landscape Design

With the development of virtual reality technology, its application in various fields of society has become more and more extensive. The application of virtual reality technology in landscape design is a very typical example. Virtual reality technology uses information science and technology to simulate a virtual three-dimensional space, giving people a new sensory experience in terms of sight, hearing and touch. The application of virtual reality technology in landscape design allows people to observe the landscape of three-dimensional space in an all-round and unrestricted manner, which greatly enhances the quality of landscape design, and also enables people to further understand and understand virtual reality technology. However, it should be noted that in the process of applying virtual reality technology for landscape design, virtual reality technology and information technology should be combined to achieve the purpose of three-dimensional image, three-dimensional and system integration technology integration, and then complete the landscape design task. This paper mainly analyzes and studies the application process and characteristics of virtual reality technology in landscape design and the corresponding precautions, in order to better apply virtual reality technology and landscape design.

Critical success factors in library reengineering: a case of academic libraries in Kenya

PurposeAcademic libraries are reengineering their services to address the gap brought about by the convergence of physical and virtual information landscape. Despite the reengineering efforts, as many as 70 per cent of the libraries do not achieve the expected results. Certain critical success factors need to be in place for successful implementation. This paper aims to investigate the key success factors to service reengineering in an effort to establish their extent of application in university libraries in Kenya.Design/methodology/approachA multiple case study approach of six purposively selected private and public university libraries in Kenya based on Webometric ranking as an indicator of reengineering was used. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with 30 librarians. The qualitative data collected were analyzed through content analysis.FindingsThe following key success factors were found to have been considered during reengineering: top management commitment, planning, provision of required resources, appropriate IT infrastructure, presence of skilled and competent staff, value of the library to the university and teamwork. Despite the central role of training, change management program and having a clear vision and objectives, university libraries in Kenya did not pay any attention to them as deserved. The authors conclude that university libraries in Kenya have not optimally achieved the desired reengineering results as a result of overlooking training and change management as critical success factors. The paper recommends that the identified critical success factors should be considered wholly not in isolation.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was carried out among the top-ranked universities according to the January 2017 Webometric ranking; and therefore the findings may give a general indication of the critical success factors considered by university libraries in Kenya. However, this pre-condition may have locked out other libraries that may have made some recommendable strides in re-engineering their services.Originality/valueThis study has practical implications in identifying the critical success factors for library service reengineering to provide insights on the factors to consider as librarians reengineer library services.

Multipurpose Virtual Reality Environment for Biomedical and Health Applications.

Virtual reality is a trending, widely accessible, and contemporary technology of increasing utility to biomedical and health applications. However, most implementations of virtual reality environments are tailored to specific applications. We describe the complete development of a novel, open-source virtual reality environment that is suitable for multipurpose biomedical and healthcare applications. This environment can be interfaced with different hardware and data sources, ranging from gyroscopes to fMRI scanners. The developed environment simulates an immersive (first-person perspective) run in the countryside, in a virtual landscape with various salient features. The utility of the developed VR environment has been validated via two test applications: an application in the context of motor rehabilitation following injury of the lower limbs and an application in the context of real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging neurofeedback, to regulate brain function in specific brain regions of interest. Both applications were tested by pilot subjects that unanimously provided very positive feedback, suggesting that appropriately designed VR environments can indeed be robustly and efficiently used for multiple biomedical purposes. We attribute the versatility of our approach on three principles implicit in the design: selectivity, immersiveness, and adaptability. The software, including both applications, is publicly available free of charge, via a GitHub repository, in support of the Open Science Initiative. Although using this software requires specialized hardware and engineering know-how, we anticipate our contribution to catalyze further progress, interdisciplinary collaborations and replicability, with regards to the usage of virtual reality in biomedical and health applications.

Relative importance of landscape and species characteristics on extinction debt, immigration credit and relaxation time after habitat turnover

AbstractHabitat turnover concomitantly causes destruction and creation of habitat patches. Following such a perturbation, metapopulations harbor either an extinction debt or an immigration credit, that is the future decrease or increase in population numbers due to this disturbance. Extinction debt and immigration credit are rarely considered simultaneously and disentangled from the relaxation time (time to new equilibrium). In this contribution, we test the relative importance of two potential drivers of time‐delayed metapopulation dynamics: the spatial configuration of the habitat turnover and species dispersal ability. We provide a simulation‐based investigation projecting metapopulation dynamics following habitat turnover in virtual landscapes. We consider two virtual species (a short‐distance and a long‐distance disperser) and five scenarios of habitat turnover depending on net habitat loss or gain and habitat aggregation. Our analyses reveal that (a) the main determinant of the magnitude of the extinction debt or immigration credit is the net change in total habitat area, followed by species dispersal distance and finally by the post‐turnover habitat aggregation; (b) relaxation time weakly depends on the magnitude of the immigration credit or of the extinction debt; (c) the main determinant of relaxation time is dispersal distance followed by the net change in total habitat area and finally by the post‐turnover habitat aggregation. These results shed light on the relative importance of dispersal ability and habitat turnover spatial structure on the components of time‐delayed metapopulation dynamics.

Turkish-English bilingual content in the virtual linguistic landscape of a university in Turkey: exclusive de facto language policies

ABSTRACTWith English as the lingua franca, numerous universities in non-English speaking countries offer programs with English medium of instruction (EMI) to receive international recognition in academia. These universities utilize their websites as primary sources for attracting prospective students and faculty from abroad. Drawing upon the distinction between de jure and de facto language policies and the notion of virtual linguistic landscapes, this study conducts a comparative content analysis of the Turkish and English homepages as subsections of the official website of Yildiz Technical University (YTU) in Turkey. It scrutinized the university’s language policies in its provision of content in both languages on its website which is conceived as virtual linguistic landscape (VLL) construction. Our comparative analysis revealed that YTU’s website content in English and Turkish is not aligned with its de jure policies, and found three main issues in YTU’s VLL: (a) unavailable and inaccessible content, (b) inconsistent content, and (c) incomprehensible and unclear English content on the EN-v homepages. Our findings lead us to contend that the de facto language practices observed on YTU’s official website appear to be inequitable because YTU’s international students and faculty in the 100% EMI programs cannot utilize substantial amount of online resources.

Constraints in multi-objective optimization of land use allocation – Repair or penalize?

Combining simulation models and multi-objective optimization can help solving complex land use allocation problems by considering multiple, often competing demands on landscapes, such as agriculture, (drinking) water provision, or biodiversity conservation. The search for optimal land use allocations has to result in feasible solutions satisfying “real-world” constraints. We here introduce a generic and readily applicable tool to integrate user-specific spatial models (e.g. assessing different ecosystem services) for a Constrained Multi-objective Optimization of Land use Allocation (CoMOLA). The tool can handle basic land use conversion constraints by either a newly and specifically developed method to repair infeasible solutions or by penalizing constraint violation. CoMOLA was systematically tested for different levels of complexity using a virtual landscape and simple ecosystem service and biodiversity models. Our study shows that using repair mechanisms seems to be more effective in exploring the feasible solution space while penalizing constraint violation likely results in infeasible solutions.

Visually Guided Behavior and Optogenetically Induced Learning in Head-Fixed Flies Exploring a Virtual Landscape

Studying the intertwined roles of sensation, experience, and directed action in navigation has been facilitated by the development of virtual reality (VR) environments for head-fixed animals, allowing for quantitative measurements of behavior in well-controlled conditions. VR has long featured in studies of Drosophila melanogaster, but these experiments have typically allowed the fly to change only its heading in a visual scene and not its position. Here we explore how flies move in two dimensions (2D) using a visual VR environment that more closely captures an animal's experience during free behavior. We show that flies' 2D interaction with landmarks cannot be automatically derived from their orienting behavior under simpler one-dimensional (1D) conditions. Using novel paradigms, we then demonstrate that flies in 2D VR adapt their behavior in response to optogenetically delivered appetitive and aversive stimuli. Much like free-walking flies after encounters with food, head-fixed flies exploring a 2D VR respond to optogenetic activation of sugar-sensing neurons by initiating a local search, which appears not to rely on visual landmarks. Visual landmarks can, however, help flies to avoid areas in VR where they experience an aversive, optogenetically generated heat stimulus. By coupling aversive virtual heat to the flies' presence near visual landmarks of specific shapes, we elicit selective learned avoidance of those landmarks. Thus, we demonstrate that head-fixed flies adaptively navigate in 2D virtual environments, but their reliance on visual landmarks is context dependent. These behavioral paradigms set the stage for interrogation of the fly brain circuitry underlying flexible navigation in complex multisensory environments.

Linguistic Choices in the Saudi Entrepreneurial Cyberspace

Unlike physical linguistic landscapes, virtual linguistic landscapes (VLL) target speakers who are not confined to a geographical area. Hence, a linguistic landscape created in cyberspace is expected to be multilingual, not English monolingual, regardless of the geographical backgrounds of its creators. Yet, different entrepeneurs may have diverging linguistic preferences when creating a VLL. Hence, the current paper provides, to the best of the writer’s knowledge, a first report on the linguistic choices of Arabic-speaking enterpreneurs in a VLL. The study explores the linguistic choices of 400 randomly selected businesses of Saudi entrepreneurs, listed on a local business website (Maroof). Data from three fields, the business name, logo, and description, were classified as either Arabic monolingual, English monolingual, or multilingual. The multilingual signs were further classified following Reh (2004): duplicating, complementary, fragmentary, and overlapping. The results show that the polled sample had varying preferences depending on the genre of the text. Business names were mostly duplicating, while business logos were mostly English monolingual and business descriptions were predominantly written in Arabic only. Since the data showed a great deal of inconsistency across different text genres, the results call for more systematic analyses of VLLs that pay more attention to the genre of the text rather than to the linguistic backgrounds of those who created these landscapes.

Research Data Management (RDM) Strategy for Academic Libraries in Ghana: Setting a National Development Agenda

Academic libraries have in tandem, gradually assumed a superior role in a nation’s development. Academic library policies and practices over the world have therefore advocated holistic research data management in a physical and virtual landscape. These dynamics have posed challenges and consequences for socio-economic development for academic libraries in Ghana. This study analyses and assesses research data management policies and practices in academic libraries in order to develop a strategic and comprehensive framework that depicts real time coordination among stakeholders for socio-economic development, thus asetting a strong agenda for national development in Ghana. Using ethically professional research methods, this study adopted the purposive sampling techniques to select its sample size, scooped both quantitative and qualitative data from survey-based secondary data sources and modifies existing research data management theories and models to unravel and explain its findings. The Ghana Library Board (GLB), the Consortium of Academic and Research Li-braries in Ghana (CARLIGH), and the Ghana Library Association (GLA) are key policy formulation agencies in Ghana’s academic library industry with a goal of negotiating licensing agreements and play leadership roles to re-inforce research data management. Poor level of collaboration between researchers and librarians, lack of research data management skill, lack of technological innovation and financial constraints are key challenges of academic libraries in Ghana. Surely, academic libraries in Ghana have ex-hibited potentials for revitalizing research data management in the areas of health, education, employment, land and housing, governance, water and sanitation, agriculture, energy, urbanization, youth and gender studies, and the environment. The recommended national research data management policy framework with an embedded enterprise wide research management information system will assure the world’s academic library industry of an effective RDM strategy that drives global development, hone the expertise of academic libraries in Ghana and direct their research data management strategies.

Impacts of deforestation on plant-pollinator networks assessed using an agent based model.

Plant-pollinator networks have been widely used to understand the ecology of mutualistic interactions between plants and animals. While a number of general patterns have been identified, the mechanisms underlying the structure of plant-pollinator networks are poorly understood. Here we present an agent based model (ABM) that simulates the movement of bees over heterogeneous landscapes and captures pollination events, enabling the influence of landscape pattern on pollination networks to be explored. Using the model, we conducted a series of experiments using virtual landscapes representing a gradient of forest loss and fragmentation. The ABM was able to produce expected trends in network structure, from simulations of interactions between individual plants and pollinators. For example, results indicated an increase in the index of complementary specialization (H2’) and a decline in network connectance with increasing forest cover. Furthermore, network nestedness was not associated with the degree of forest cover, but was positively related to forest patch size, further supporting results obtained in the field. This illustrates the potential value of ABMs for exploring the structure and dynamics of plant-pollinator networks, and for understanding the mechanisms that underlie them. We attribute the results obtained primarily to a shift from specialist to generalist pollinators with increasing forest loss, a trend that has been observed in some field situations.

Virtual Screening Meets Deep Learning.

Automated compound testing is currently the de facto standard method for drug screening, but it has not brought the great increase in the number of new drugs that was expected. Computer- aided compounds search, known as Virtual Screening, has shown the benefits to this field as a complement or even alternative to the robotic drug discovery. There are different methods and approaches to address this problem and most of them are often included in one of the main screening strategies. Machine learning, however, has established itself as a virtual screening methodology in its own right and it may grow in popularity with the new trends on artificial intelligence. This paper will attempt to provide a comprehensive and structured review that collects the most important proposals made so far in this area of research. Particular attention is given to some recent developments carried out in the machine learning field: the deep learning approach, which is pointed out as a future key player in the virtual screening landscape.

Conditionally autoregressive models improve occupancy analyses of autocorrelated data: An example with environmental DNA.

Site occupancy-detection models (SODMs) are statistical models widely used for biodiversity surveys where imperfect detection of species occurs. For instance, SODMs are increasingly used to analyse environmental DNA (eDNA) data, taking into account the occurrence of both false-positive and false-negative errors. However, species occurrence data are often characterized by spatial and temporal autocorrelation, which might challenge the use of standard SODMs. Here we reviewed the literature of eDNA biodiversity surveys and found that most of studies do not take into account spatial or temporal autocorrelation. We then demonstrated how the analysis of data with spatial or temporal autocorrelation can be improved by using a conditionally autoregressive SODM, and show its application to environmental DNA data. We tested the autoregressive model on both simulated and real data sets, including chronosequences with different degrees of autocorrelation, and a spatial data set on a virtual landscape. Analyses of simulated data showed that autoregressive SODMs perform better than traditional SODMs in the estimation of key parameters such as true-/false-positive rates and show a better discrimination capacity (e.g., higher true skill statistics). The usefulness of autoregressive SODMs was particularly high in data sets with strong autocorrelation. When applied to real eDNA data sets (eDNA from lake sediment cores and freshwater), autoregressive SODM provided more precise estimation of true-/false-positive rates, resulting in more reasonable inference of occupancy states. Our results suggest that analyses of occurrence data, such as many applications of eDNA, can be largely improved by applying conditionally autoregressive specifications to SODMs.

More Than a Facebook Share: Exploring Virtual Linguistic Landscape

Abstract This paper seeks to cross the boundaries of what we consider linguistic landscape (LL) and open new spaces, thus examining the Internet as a complex set of linguistic landscapes. The present study is the result of an exploratory research. Virtual linguistic landscape (VLL) provides opportunities for language display that are rare in the geographical LL. This study investigates multilingualism and language practices present on the periphery of cyberscapes analysed in this research (namely the social media), based on questionnaires carried out among bilingual university students at Sapientia University. The conclusion will offer suggestions for further research on how to extend the boundaries of LL studies to the digital domain.

Overlay Design Methodology for virtual environment design within digital games

Virtual landscapes in digital games have become more expressive and impressive. However, design methodologies that can efficiently implement them have rarely been developed. In real-world landscape architecture, a design methodology called Overlay Design Methodology has been commonly utilized that allows efficient spatial design by computing the hierarchy and the placement of the environmental resources. In this paper, we investigate how to apply Overlay Design Methodology for the creation of virtual environments within digital gaming contexts. Along with the establishment of the design methodology, we measure the effectiveness of the methodology with protocol analysis and survey to 30 game developers. As we observed, the Overlay Design Methodology doubled the collaboration among team members and reduced unnecessary time in the design process by over 98%.

GeoMaTree : Geometric and Mathematical Model Based Digital Tree Authoring System

This study proposes a method to develop an authoring system(GeoMaTree) for diverse trees that constitute a virtual landscape. The GeoMaTree system enables the simple, intuitive production of an efficient structure, and supports real-time processing. The core of the proposed system is a procedural modeling based on a mathematical model and an application that supports digital content creation on diverse platforms. The procedural modeling allows users to control the complex pattern of branch propagation through an intuitive process. The application is a multi-resolution 3D model that supports appropriate optimization for a tree structure. The application and a compatible function, with commercial tools for supporting the creation of realistic synthetic images and virtual landscapes, are implemented, and the proposed system is applied to a variety of 3D image content.

Virtual Sense of Community in a World of Warcraft® Storytelling Open Forum Thread

World of Warcraft® (WoW), a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) extends to its members a virtual landscape of live gaming opportunities through such platforms as “dice” rolled character stats, open-ended story development, and interactive AI. These affordances are underpinned by a kind of virtual sense of community bringing players together in order to develop relationships and the self, adventure together, build up wealth, and overcome obstacles in order to complete quests. In addition to live game-play (or “in-world”) communities, WoW residents create alternative communities through rich online forums—here, new members are recruited into guilds, disputes are spawned and slayed, and seasoned warriors reminisce over worlds and lives that once- were. However, a third type of community is also evident through particular threads crafted within forums specifically for collaborative storytelling (or roleplaying). This paper examines sense of community—a sense of “belonging to, importance of, and identification with a community”—through one particular thread, “The Darkening Grove Tavern” under the forum World’s End Tavern using an adaptation of McMillan and Chavis’ theory and Boellstorff, Nardi, Pearce & Taylor’s ethnographic data collection methodology for qualitative analysis of virtual worlds . Findings from players’ story text (or “turns”) suggest that online storytelling forum threads exhibit a linguistically and semiotically branded sense of virtual community.

E-portfolios and relational space in the early education environment

Abstract This paper considers the role of eportfolios as an online tool intended to foster greater engagement between parent, teacher and child in early education settings. Drawing on New Zealand based research, I will critically examine the introduction of this technology as more than an addition into already existing ECEC services. Rather, I will highlight the generative impact it has in facilitating new kinds of relations between parents, teachers and managers, within what I term an emergent ‘virtual landscape of ECEC’. Ultimately I argue that this landscape is shaped by asymmetries of power, which allow for processes of subjectification and governing in ECEC to occur in new ways.

Analysing virtual landscapes using postmemory

Virtual environments are becoming ubiquitous, designed to do work in the material world. They are used within urban design, medicine, the military, entertainment and a wide range of other sectors, having increasing significance within our everyday lives. Virtual landscapes are brought into being through the interaction of users and these virtual environments. In this paper, we propose the use of postmemory as a framework for analysing virtual landscapes. Postmemories, formed of second-hand accounts combined with the imagination of individuals, can shape our responses to the world around us, having similar affective force to memories of situations directly witnessed. Twenty-five participants were asked to undertake an exploration exercise within a virtual recreation of 19th century London and subsequently interviewed about their landscape experiences. Individual position and imagination had a significant effect on participants’ understanding of those landscapes, creating postmemories of the material environment being represented, going beyond the intent of the designers. Given the forceful affective qualities of postmemory, however, the balance of power between designer intent and user imagination is demonstrated to be problematic, as individuals are manipulated through their exposure to, and co-creation of, these virtual landscapes.