Archeological excavation monitoring using dense stereo matching techniques

Several new tools to obtain three-dimensional information from unorganized image sets are now available for the public use. The main advantage of this software, which is based on dense stereo matching, is the possibility to generate 3D content without the need of high-cost hardware (e.g. 3D scanning devices). Nevertheless, their use in real-world application domains (like cultural heritage) is still not very diffused, due to the non-straightforward usability of the raw data produced. In this paper, we investigate the use of automatic dense stereo reconstruction tools for the monitoring of an excavation site. A methodology for the effective acquisition and processing of data is presented. In addition, the results of the data assessment demonstrate the repeatability of the data acquisition process, which is a key factor when qualitative analysis is performed. The use of three-dimensional data is integrated in an open source mesh processing tool, thus showing that a spatio-temporal analysis can be performed in a very intuitive way using off-the-shelf or free/open digital tools. Moreover, the use of peculiar rendering and the creation of snapshots from arbitrary points of view increase the amount of documentation data, and suggest a perfect integration of data produced with dense stereo matching in the future standard documentation for excavation monitoring.     

Poorism and taking the waters: a praxeological analysis of educational work in the context of tourism in the spa town of Tsqaltubo,Georgia

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the spa town of Tsqaltubo in western Georgia. Since 2010, Tsqaltubo has been seeing a gradual rise in tourism. The town’s history as a spa resort in the Soviet period has given it a repository of tourist experience to fall back on. An ongoing complication in this development arises from the occupation of the now-decaying Soviet-era former sanatoria by internally displaced Georgians. From its past as a site of state-driven collective educational practices aiming at the production of the ‘new Soviet man’, Tsqaltubo has evolved into the present-day location of conflict around the interpretation of that past between IDPs, tourists and tourism industry stakeholders. This article’s principal focus in exploring these instances of conflict is educational processes in the context of life experience, within which subjects engage and interact with Tsqaltubo’s materiality.     

Differenzielles Lehren und Lernen: eine Kritik

In this article, the differential learning approach introduced in 1999 by Wolfgang Sch?llhorn is critically examined. After positioning this concept in relation to the historical motor-action controversy between information processing and dynamical system theory, we put forward the arguments that consequences claimed for sport practice are not theoretically substantiated, that the tentative demarcation from cognitivism fundamentally fails, that the data presented stands on shaky ground and that, from a practice-related perspective, the approach manifests a severe lack of practicability. In consideration of disastrous consequences for sport practice as well as sport science, we suggest for future publications on differential learning to refrain from deficient and theoretically as well as empirically unsubstantiated recommendations for sport practice.     

Pupils in upper secondary school sports: choices based on what?

In the fields of both education and sport, the possession of capital and habitus influences an individual’s lifestyles and choices, which in turn affects the social selection within these fields. In this article, we will study the Swedish system of school sports as an overlap between the fields of education and sport, and thus viewed as a double dominated field. From a cultural sociological perspective, the purpose of this article is to analyse and explain how the organisational conditions and pupils’ social characteristics interact with upper secondary pupils’ choices of different school sports programmes in Sweden. Based on registry data on secondary school sports pupils, the results show that the supply of school sports requires specific forms of social dispositions that have an impact on which categories of pupils choose to participate. Among the students participating in school sports, there is a higher proportion of pupils who: are of Swedish origin (p?p?p?p?相似文献   

Meaning in constant flow – university teachers’ understanding of examination tasks

Effective feedback presupposes that students understand the task on which feedback is given. But what about the teachers formulating and assessing the task? Do they always understand it as intended? And if so, feedback on what? The purpose of this study is to examine how university teachers individually understand tasks distributed to students. Does interpretation differ if the teachers themselves try to solve the task, discuss the solution with other teachers, as well as try to formulate better versions of the task? The theoretical framework rests upon a hermeneutic understanding of reality. There is thereby reason to doubt the possibility of information transfer and the understanding of feedback as a strict rational process. The empirical material was collected in connection with development work, and sections where the participants expressed uncertainty considering the interpretation of the task were transcribed. The empirical material shows that teachers interpret a task somewhat differently when examining it more carefully, on their own and together with other teachers. It also shows that the same teacher vacillates in their interpretation of a task when examined more thoroughly. Consequently feedback given to students also differs. The drift of meaning is probably quite minor, but still noteworthy.     

Effects of three interventions on the reading skills of children with reading disabilities in grade 2

In a longitudinal intervention study, the effects of three intervention strategies on the reading skills of children with reading disabilities in Grade 2 were analyzed. The interventions consisted of computerized training programs: One bottom-up intervention aimed at improving word decoding skills and phonological abilities, the second intervention focused on top-down processing on the word and sentence levels, and the third was a combination of these two training programs (n = 25 in each group). In addition, there were two comparison groups, 25 children with reading disabilities who received ordinary special instruction and 30 age-matched typical readers. All reading disabled participants completed 25 training sessions with special education teachers. All groups improved their reading skills. The group who received combined training showed higher improvements than the ordinary special instruction group and the typical readers. Different cognitive variables were related to treatment gains for different groups. Thus, a treatment combining bottom-up and top-down aspects of reading was the most effective in general, but individual differences among children need to be considered.     

Teacher specialization and student perceived instructional quality: what are the relationships to student reading achievement?

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - At an international level, teachers’ work is increasingly circumscribed and regulated. Notions of accountability have shifted from...     

Congenitally deaf children's care trajectories in the context of universal neonatal hearing screening: a qualitative study of the parental experiences

The objective of this study is to examine the early care trajectories of congenitally deaf children from a parental perspective, starting with universal neonatal hearing screenings. The analysis using a three-dimensional care trajectory concept is aimed at developing a basic typology of postscreening care trajectories. Children with severe/profound hearing loss, registered in the Flanders' (Belgium) universal neonatal hearing screening program, born between 1999 and 2001. Thematic content analysis of qualitative data collected retrospectively from participant's parents. Two basic types of care trajectories emerged; based on differences in care-use in the phase of further diagnosis and related parental experiences. Subtypes resulted from events related to cochlear implantation. Five trajectory phases were identified: screening, further diagnosis, care and technology, cochlear implantation, and reduction of care and were characterized by specific parental experiences such as confusion, disbelief, disappointment, and uncertainty. Those experiences relate to care professionals' acts and communication and the child's functional evolution. Early care interventions could benefit from coordinated transition between phases, parent support throughout the care trajectory, and a broad approach to deafness in professionals' communication.     

On Defining “Wisdom”: Baltes,Ardelt, Ryan,and Whitehead

Wisdom has been a topic of religion and philosophy since the dawning of human civilization. But only during the last two or three decades wisdom has become a topic of empirical research in developmental psychology, adult and old age education, as well as in management and leadership studies. The aim of this paper is to elaborate a new definition of “wisdom,” in order to provide a more adequate foundation for empirical wisdom research. To reach this goal, two empirical wisdom theories (Baltes and Ardelt) and two philosophical wisdom approaches (Ryan and Whitehead) are presented, discussed, compared, and synthesized. The results show that despite the fact that Baltes’ definition of “wisdom” is somewhat wider than Ardelt’s, their approaches have many aspects in common. Additionally, also Whitehead’s ideas on wisdom are quite similar to Baltes’ core criteria concerning wisdom-related knowledge, but Whitehead mentions two additional aspects which go beyond Baltes’ approach. Further, according to Ryan, wise persons must have very few unjustified beliefs; this necessary condition for a wise person is neither mentioned by Baltes, nor by Ardelt or Whitehead. Based on the ideas of these four approaches, a new definition of “wisdom” is presented, in which wisdom is relativised to time indices and moral systems. This definition consists of a cognitive, an ethical, and a reflective component. Further it is shown that Fischer’s and Dawson’s Lectical Assessment System is a major candidate for measuring wisdom on the basis of our new definition.