Anthropomorphised warlike beings with horned helmets: Bronze Age Scandinavia, Sardinia, and Iberia compared

Horned-helmet imagery continues to raise questions about what is local and what is global in Bronze Age Europe. How similar is the imagery found on Sardinia, in southwestern Iberia and southern Scandinavia in material appearance, medium of representation, and sociocultural setting? Does it occur at the same point in time? Does it spring from or transmit a shared idea? Analysis reveals intriguing patterns of similarity and difference between the three zones of horned-helmet imagery 1000–750 BC. The results point to actors and processes at the local level while also pinpointing interconnections. Across all three contexts, horns signify the potency of the helmet wearer, the quintessential warrior. Horns visualise a defined group of bellicose beings whose significance stems from commemorative and mortuary rites, sites, and beliefs – in conjunction with political processes. We suggest that the eye-catching imagery of very particular males wearing horned insignia relates on the one hand to local control of metals and on the other to the transfer of novel beliefs and cults involving embodied gigantisation. It is characteristic that the horned figure is adapted into some settings, but only sparingly or not at all in others. This imagery has a complex history, with Levantine roots in the LBA Mediterranean. The Scandinavian addendum to the network coincides with the metal-led Phoenician expansion and consolidation in the west from c. 1000 BC. A Mediterranean–Atlantic sea route is suggested, independent of the otherwise flourishing transalpine trading route.

Supplemental Material: Appearance and disappearance rates of Phanerozoic marine animal paleocommunities

Additional information on methods and results including supplemental figures and tables.

Supplemental Material: Appearance and disappearance rates of Phanerozoic marine animal paleocommunities

Additional information on methods and results including supplemental figures and tables.

Visualizing the cultural landscape gene of traditional settlements in China: a semiotic perspective

China has a deep traditional culture and a long history, and is rich in traditional settlements (designated as “Famous Historic-Cultural Villages/Towns”, “Chinese Traditional Villages” by Chinese Government). To help people develop these traditional settlements to achieve the great goal of Chinese National Rejuvenation, Chinese scholar put forward the Cultural Landscape Genes of Traditional Settlements (CLGTS) in 2003. Since then, CLGTS theory has been employed to solve the issues of Chinese traditional settlements, such as the identification and regionalization of cultural landscape genes in traditional settlements, and the understanding of architectural features. Although CLGTS theory has made great strides in many application fields, there is still a lack of scientific findings in exploring the symbol mechanism from a perspective of semiotics. To explore this, we firstly examined the core features of CLGTS through a dialectical perspective. We analyzed two features of CLGTS in depth. First, CLGTS is the dialectical combination of macro settlement image and micro cultural factors of traditional settlements, material appearance and inherent traditional cultural implications, overall features and local self-renewal mechanisms, qualitative and quantitative methods, superiority of cultural factors and rich cultural connotation. Second, CLGTS is famous for its nonlinearity, self-organization, and self-iteration due to various spatial shapes and complex structures. Based on the above, we first proposed the concept of Symbolization Method of CLGTS (SM-CLGTS). Then, we further explored the key features, classification methods, and corresponding representation methods of CLGTS symbols. Finally, by using Visual C#.net program language, we developed a prototype system of the Traditional Landscape Genetic Symbol Database (TLGSD) to create and centrally manage CLGTS symbols. Test results show that TLGSD can meet the needs of constructing a CLGTS symbol database for a given region. This study is of great significance to explore and contribute to visualizing the CLGTS symbols.

Microsoft teams 365 and online learning: The student’s perception

This study aims to determine the effectiveness of online learning using Microsoft Teams 365. The entire population in this study was used as a research sample, namely all students of the Chemistry Education study program, Indonesian Christian University, Jakarta. Perception data was collected using a questionnaire with dimensions of understanding the material, appearance and accessibility of Microsoft Teams 365. From the results of data processing, it was found that more than 50% of students' perceptions of Microsoft Teams 365 were good in all indicators of understanding the material and appearance. On the use dimension with connectivity and accessibility indicators more than 50% of students' perceptions of the Microsoft 365 team are good, but on the quota-saving indicator 42% of students do not agree. Keywords: Microsoft teams, E-learning, Cemistry

The effect of geometry and illumination on appearance perception of different material categories

The understanding of material appearance perception is a complex problem due to interactions between material reflectance, surface geometry, and illumination. Recently, Serrano et al. collected the largest dataset to date with subjective ratings of material appearance attributes, including glossiness, metallicness, sharpness and contrast of reflections. In this work, we make use of their dataset to investigate for the first time the impact of the interactions between illumination, geometry, and eight different material categories in perceived appearance attributes. After an initial analysis, we select for further analysis the four material categories that cover the largest range for all perceptual attributes: fabric, plastic, ceramic, and metal. Using a cumulative link mixed model (CLMM) for robust regression, we discover interactions between these material categories and four representative illuminations and object geometries. We believe that our findings contribute to expanding the knowledge on material appearance perception and can be useful for many applications, such as scene design, where any particular material in a given shape can be aligned with dominant classes of illumination, so that a desired strength of appearance attributes can be achieved.