Polarization, diversity, and democratic robustness

In the Madisonian Constitution, fragmented and overlapping institutions of authority are supposed to manage democracy’s innate rivalry, channeling competition to serve the public interest. This system of safeguards makes democracy more robust: capable of withstanding and, if need be, adapting to challenges posed by a changing problem environment. In this essay, I suggest why affective polarization poses a special threat to democratic robustness. While most scholars hypothesize that polarization’s dangers are that it leads to bimodality and extremism, I highlight a third hypothesized effect: Polarization reduces interest and information diversity in the political system. To be effective, democracy’s safeguards rely upon interest diversity, but Madison took that diversity for granted. Unique among democracy’s safeguards, federalism builds in a repository for diversity; its structure enables differences between national- and state-expressed interests, even within the same party. This diversity can be democracy hindering, as the United States’ history with racially discriminatory politics painfully makes clear, but it can also serve as a reservoir of interest and information dispersion that could protect democracy by restoring the possibility that cross-cutting cleavages emerge.

Real-Time Quantification of Crude Protein and Neutral Detergent Fibre in Pastures under Montado Ecosystem Using the Portable NIR Spectrometer

The Montado is a Mediterranean agro–forestry–pastoral ecosystem. Knowledge of pastures' nutritional value is critical for farm managers’ decision-making. Laboratory determinations are very expensive, destructive and costly, in terms of time and labour. The objective of this experimental work was to calibrate and validate a portable near-infrared spectrometer (micro-NIR) to predict the nutritive value (neutral detergent fibre, NDF and crude protein, CP) of pastures in the peak of spring 2021. Thus, a total of 87 pasture samples were collected at eight experimental fields located in the Alentejo, Southern region of Portugal. The results show good correlations between in-situ micro-NIR measurements and pasture NDF reference values (R2 of 0.73 and 0.69 for calibration and validation models, respectively), and a moderate correlation between micro-NIR measurements and pasture CP reference values (R2 of 0.51 and 0.36 for calibration and validation models, respectively). These results show the potential of this tool for the quick evaluation of pasture quality and constitute a starting point for future work, which should include the monitoring of temporal variability (throughout the entire vegetative cycle of the pasture) and spatial (with geo-referenced information) diversity of pastures characteristic of the Montado ecosystem in the Mediterranean region.

Inculturation in the age of virtual reality

The article analyzes the process of inculturation in the context of reality virtualization. It is noted that inculturation occurs along with the process of socialization, but in post-industrial society it acquires special features, its mechanisms change, its agents become different, which is associated with the technogenic and information diversity of modern culture. The study of the values of student youth is covered, as the system of values is a leading element of culture.

Fusing Measurements from Wi-Fi Emission-Based and Passive Radar Sensors for Short-Range Surveillance

In this work, we consider the joint use of different passive sensors for the localization and tracking of human targets and small drones at short ranges, based on the parasitic exploitation of Wi-Fi signals. Two different sensors are considered in this paper: (i) Passive Bistatic Radar (PBR) that exploits the Wi-Fi Access Point (AP) as an illuminator of opportunity to perform uncooperative target detection and localization and (ii) Passive Source Location (PSL) that uses radio frequency (RF) transmissions from the target to passively localize it, assuming that it is equipped with Wi-Fi devices. First, we show that these techniques have complementary characteristics with respect to the considered surveillance applications that typically include targets with highly variable motion parameters. Therefore, an appropriate sensor fusion strategy is proposed, based on a modified version of the Interacting Multiple Model (IMM) tracking algorithm, in order to benefit from the information diversity provided by the two sensors. The performance of the proposed strategy is evaluated against both simulated and experimental data and compared to the performance of the single sensors. The results confirm that the joint exploitation of the considered sensors based on the proposed strategy largely improves the positioning accuracy, target motion recognition capability and continuity in target tracking.

Improved Weighting in Particle Filters Applied to Precise State Estimation

This letter presents a methodology to reduce the computational burden of Particle Filters (PF) used to achieve a target state estimation accuracy in Bayesian tracking problems. A strategy, named Multiple Weighting (MW), that exploits information diversity of the input measurements for an efficient weighting of the particles is introduced. This study shows that, by relying on the prior knowledge of the state-observations relationships, it is possible to achieve a significant reduction in the number of samples required to obtain any target accuracy. An experimental assessment is provided with an application to precise positioning estimation in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers.

Improved Weighting in Particle Filters Applied to Precise State Estimation

This letter presents a methodology to reduce the computational burden of Particle Filters (PF) used to achieve a target state estimation accuracy in Bayesian tracking problems. A strategy, named Multiple Weighting (MW), that exploits information diversity of the input measurements for an efficient weighting of the particles is introduced. This study shows that, by relying on the prior knowledge of the state-observations relationships, it is possible to achieve a significant reduction in the number of samples required to obtain any target accuracy. An experimental assessment is provided with an application to precise positioning estimation in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers.

The Immortal Regiment March on Instagram as a Means of Civic and Patriotic Education of Young People

В статье исследуется роль социальных сетей, в частности Instagram, в развитии гражданской и цифровой активности молодежи. В условиях пандемии коронавируса вовлеченность молодежи в гражданские онлайн-мероприятия приобретает особое значение. Instagram не предоставляет данных о возрасте пользователей, однако, ориентируясь на среднестатистического пользователя, можно рассматривать эту сеть как важный информационный ресурс для молодежи. Вовлечение в гражданские акции происходит в Instagram как через популярные сообщества, так и посредством воздействия постов влиятельных медиаперсон. Основной целью исследования является выявление авторитетных информационных источников и медиаперсон в сети Instagram, влияющих на социальную активность молодежи в гражданском обществе. Эмпирическим материалом исследования являются сообщества, хештеги и тексты постов в Instagram, отражающие установки россиян в отношении ежегодной гражданской акции «Бессмертный полк». Анализ цифровых следов в Instagram на примере потока «Бессмертный полк» позволяет выявить, каким образом пользователи воспринимают данную гражданскую инициативу, кто из блогеров является лидером общественного мнения в данном тематическом кластере. Результаты исследования могут быть использованы для разработки концептуальных основ гражданского образования студентов и школьников в условиях информационного многообразия. The article investigates the role of social networks, Instagram in particular, on the development of young people’s civic engagement in the digital age. The coronavirus pandemic has increased young peoples civic engagement in an online environment. Instagram doesn’t provide insight into its users’ ages, but average Instagram users are young people, therefore the social media is an important information resource for young people. Young people are engaged in virtual events via popular communities and via posts published by prominent media people. The goal of the research is to investigate authoritative information resources and media people in Instagram that can influence young people’s social activities in civil society. The research investigates Instagram communities, hashtags and texts posted on Instagram and reflecting Russian people’s attitudes to the annual Immortal Regiment March. The analysis of digital footprint left by the Immortal Regiment discussions enables the authors of the article to investigate young people’s perception of this civic event and to find out which bloggers are considered authoritative. The results of the research can be used to develop the conceptual framework for students’ and school children’s civic education in the conditions of information diversity.