Central European Tourist Flows: Intraregional Patterns and Their Implications

Understanding tourist spatial behaviours is essential for strategic planning and sustainable development. Especially at the city-level, data provide implications for spatial planning and transport governance. Intraregional tourist flows to cities contributed significantly to the total volume of tourists within the Central European region before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Given the challenges that urban tourism is currently facing, intraregional tourist flows could be a strategic opportunity for future growth. As a comprehensive assessment of the tourist flows at this spatial level is lacking, the paper aims to evaluate the structure of these flows and discuss the factors that influence their spatial distribution. Statistical data analysis of tourist flows to selected cities in Central Europe is evaluated by multiple linear regression. The results show that the main factors affecting the distribution of tourist flows are air connection, the attractiveness of the destination, and the size of the source market. Tourist flows within Central Europe are fundamentally affected by Germany. This market can be considered the most important source of demand for inbound tourism. Germany's national ties with Austria and Switzerland generated 47% of all trips examined. In this case, the influences of historical ties and the broader socio-economic context are evident.

Vulnerability Assessment of Maize Yield Affected by Precipitation Fluctuations: A Northeastern United States Case Study

Crop yields are threatened by global climate change. Maize has high water requirements, and precipitation fluctuations can impact its yield. In this study, we used the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model to simulate maize yields in eight northeastern U.S. states. We used precipitation fluctuations and the coefficient of variation (CV) of yield as indicators to construct a vulnerability curve for the CV of yield and precipitation fluctuations. We then evaluated the vulnerability of maize yields under precipitation fluctuations in the region. We obtained the following results: (1) the fitted vulnerability curves were classified into three categories (positive slope, negative slope, and insignificant fit), of which the first category accounted for about 92.7%, indicating that the CV of maize yield was positively correlated with precipitation fluctuations in most parts of the study area; and (2) the CV of maize yield under 11 precipitation fluctuation scenarios was mapped to express the CV at the spatial level, and the maize yield in Connecticut and Maryland proved to be the most sensitive to precipitation fluctuations. This study provided a theoretical and experimental basis for the prevention of maize yield risk under fluctuating precipitation conditions.

Utu

<p>Contemporary Māori architecture in Aotearoa is rapidly becoming ‘mainstreamed’ within a New Zealand architectural idiom. However, Māori architecture has been narrowed down to surface ornamentation, a handful of motifs and exhausted narratives. This dissonance is owing to the fact that Mātauranga Māori is not at the iho (core) of Māori architecture at a formal and spatial level. Consequently, this thesis aims to expand Māori architectural theory and practice by proposing that elements of tikanga Māori can be understood both formally and spatially in ways that generate new architectural possibilities. The research was conducted as an iterative design process. Three parts of the pōwhiri process are mapped for their underlying spatiality, both in the physical and meta-physical worlds. The ephemera are translated through a design methodology which reveals what these patterns could mean for contemporary Māori architecture. The three rituals: karanga, wero and hongi are explored as a series of design experiments which follow the same workflow. Each design experiment developed a range of different architectural techniques for expressing tikanga Māori. The use of speculative drawing/ mapping techniques is the principal way in which the spatiality of the ephemera is excavated and interrogated. The following research is not tied to an architectural site. The architecture is not based within a specific context, rather it is born of context, conceiving an architecture of the ephemeral and atmospheric qualities of ritual. This research acknowledges the Māori concept of tuakana-teina (elder sibling-younger sibling) knowledge exchange and draws a parallel with architectural design methodology. This thesis suggests a method of speculation for future generations of architectural designers in Aotearoa to build upon with their own whakaaro (thoughts).</p>

Utu

<p>Contemporary Māori architecture in Aotearoa is rapidly becoming ‘mainstreamed’ within a New Zealand architectural idiom. However, Māori architecture has been narrowed down to surface ornamentation, a handful of motifs and exhausted narratives. This dissonance is owing to the fact that Mātauranga Māori is not at the iho (core) of Māori architecture at a formal and spatial level. Consequently, this thesis aims to expand Māori architectural theory and practice by proposing that elements of tikanga Māori can be understood both formally and spatially in ways that generate new architectural possibilities. The research was conducted as an iterative design process. Three parts of the pōwhiri process are mapped for their underlying spatiality, both in the physical and meta-physical worlds. The ephemera are translated through a design methodology which reveals what these patterns could mean for contemporary Māori architecture. The three rituals: karanga, wero and hongi are explored as a series of design experiments which follow the same workflow. Each design experiment developed a range of different architectural techniques for expressing tikanga Māori. The use of speculative drawing/ mapping techniques is the principal way in which the spatiality of the ephemera is excavated and interrogated. The following research is not tied to an architectural site. The architecture is not based within a specific context, rather it is born of context, conceiving an architecture of the ephemeral and atmospheric qualities of ritual. This research acknowledges the Māori concept of tuakana-teina (elder sibling-younger sibling) knowledge exchange and draws a parallel with architectural design methodology. This thesis suggests a method of speculation for future generations of architectural designers in Aotearoa to build upon with their own whakaaro (thoughts).</p>

Landscape Ecology in Mexico: Evolution, Research, Education and Future (Selected Theoretical and Meta-Scientific Aspects)

Context:The impulse to write this contribution was the effort of co-authors to bring the European landscape ecologist closer to the development, research & didactic approaches and possible future development of landscape ecology in Mexico from the theoretical, metascientific and applied point of view. Purpose: The purpose of the metascientific approach, in this case meta-landscape ecological approach, is to increase the degree of generalization of existing empirical-methodological, theoretical-application and didactic knowledge and results of landscape-ecological research, so that generally valid landscapeecological regularities and principles can be determined The aim was to acquire new generalizing and holistic qualities and perspectives in the field of landscape ecology in Mexico at this level. Methods: The two-step methodical procedure was elaborated, using metascientifically oriented landscape ecological and ecological Mexican literature, complemented by our studies and personal experience. Results: In this way, new knowledge, representing the added value and meaning of landscape ecologicalevolution, research, education and future development in Mexico was gained. It will serve also to Mexican landscap ecologists. Conclusiones: Mexican landscape ecology, lying at the intersection of European and American landscape ecology, can be described as integrative, idiographic-nomothetic at the spatial level of the landscape in the contact zone of European and American research approaches and principles.

Earthworm distributions are not driven by measurable soil properties. Do they really indicate soil quality?

Abundance and distribution of earthworms in agricultural fields is frequently proposed as a measure of soil quality assuming that observed patterns of abundance are in response to improved or degraded environmental conditions. However, it is not clear that earthworm abundances can be directly related to their edaphic environment, as noted in Darwin’s final publication, perhaps limiting or restricting their value as indicators of ecological quality in any given field. We present results from a spatially explicit intensive survey of pastures within United Kingdom farms, looking for the main drivers of earthworm density at a range of scales. When describing spatial variability of both total and ecotype-specific earthworm abundance within any given field, the best predictor was earthworm abundance itself within 20–30 m of the sampling point; there were no consistent environmental correlates with earthworm numbers, suggesting that biological factors (e.g. colonisation rate, competition, predation, parasitism) drive or at least significantly modify earthworm distributions at this spatial level. However, at the national scale, earthworm abundance is well predicted by soil nitrate levels, density, temperature and moisture content, albeit not in a simple linear fashion. This suggests that although land can be managed at the farm scale to promote earthworm abundance and the resulting soil processes that deliver ecosystem services, within a field, earthworm distributions will remain patchy. The use of earthworms as soil quality indicators must therefore be carried out with care, ensuring that sufficient samples are taken within field to take account of variability in earthworm populations that is unrelated to soil chemical and physical properties.

Visual-Spatial and Verbal Remote Association: An fMRI Study

Although idea connections at verbal and conceptual levels have been explored by remote associates tests, the visual-spatial level is much less researched. This study investigated the visual-spatial ability via Chinese Radical Remote Associates Test (CRRAT), wherein respondents consider the positions of the stimulus and target Chinese radicals. Chinese Compound Remote Associates Test (CCRAT) questions also feature stimuli of a single Chinese character; therefore, it was adopted for comparison to distinguish the roles played by verbal and visual-spatial associations in a remote associative process. Thirty-six adults responded to CRRAT and CCRAT; their brain activities were analyzed. Upon excluding the influence of age, verbal comprehension, and working memory, it was found that the caudate, posterior cingulate cortex, postcentral gyrus, and medial frontal gyrus were activated when the respondents answered CCRAT, but only the caudate showed significant activation when they answered CRRAT. The Chinese radical remote association minus the Chinese compound remote association showed that the middle frontal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, and precuneus demonstrated significant activation. Therefore, this study demonstrated differences in brain mechanisms between visual-spatial and verbal remote associations.

Fine-tuning Is Not Enough: A Simple yet Effective Watermark Removal Attack for DNN Models

Watermarking has become the tendency in protecting the intellectual property of DNN models. Recent works, from the adversary's perspective, attempted to subvert watermarking mechanisms by designing watermark removal attacks. However, these attacks mainly adopted sophisticated fine-tuning techniques, which have certain fatal drawbacks or unrealistic assumptions. In this paper, we propose a novel watermark removal attack from a different perspective. Instead of just fine-tuning the watermarked models, we design a simple yet powerful transformation algorithm by combining imperceptible pattern embedding and spatial-level transformations, which can effectively and blindly destroy the memorization of watermarked models to the watermark samples. We also introduce a lightweight fine-tuning strategy to preserve the model performance. Our solution requires much less resource or knowledge about the watermarking scheme than prior works. Extensive experimental results indicate that our attack can bypass state-of-the-art watermarking solutions with very high success rates. Based on our attack, we propose watermark augmentation techniques to enhance the robustness of existing watermarks.

Urban Structure in Troubled Times: The Evolution of Principal and Secondary Core/Periphery Gaps through the Prism of Residential Land Values

The structure of modern cities is characterized by the uneven spatial distribution of people and activities. Contrary to economic theory, it is neither evenly distributed nor entirely monocentric. The observed reality is the result of various feedbacks in the context of the interactions of attraction and repulsion. Heretofore, there is no agreement concerning the means to measuring the dimensions of these interactions, nor the framework for explaining them. We propose a simple model and an associated method for testing the interactions using residential land values. We claim that land values reflect the attractiveness of each location, including its observable and unobservable characteristics. We extract land values from prices of residences by applying a dedicated hedonic model to extensive residential real estate transaction data at a detailed spatial level. The resulting land values reflect the attractiveness of each urban location and are an ideal candidate to measure the degree of centrality or peripherality of each location. Moreover, assessment of land values over time indicates ongoing centralization and peripheralization processes. Using the urban structure of a small and highly urbanized country as a test case, this paper illustrates how the dynamics of the gap between central and peripheral urban areas can be assessed.

Human-Centred Indicators (HCI) to Regenerate Vulnerable Cultural Heritage and Landscape towards a Circular City: From the Bronx (NY) to Ercolano (IT)

Many cities globally are incorporating the circular economy model into their development strategies to start transitioning as “circular cities” towards the implementation of human-centred development. In many of them, one of the major challenges is represented by the large presence of cultural heritage being in a state of degradation, abandonment and underutilization, which determines waste conditions not only at physical/spatial level but also at economic level (the presence of subsistence economies) and at a social and cultural level (marginalization phenomena and high rates of unemployment). The perspective of circular economy allows rethinking these waste conditions as an opportunity to reactivate virtuous circuits capable of promoting sustainable development focused on human needs. In this perspective, the paper aims to demonstrate both the importance of participatory approaches in guiding circular and human-centred regeneration processes and of identifying evaluation tools capable of integrating the human and ecological dimension with the economic one. With this aim, a circular methodology is proposed and experimented with in Ercolano (Italy) and in the Bronx (New York), in which the adoption of a participatory approach was central in all phases of regeneration processes, from the identification and analysis of vulnerabilities and waste conditions to the definition of a strategy capable of transforming these limitations into opportunities. A first result is the elaboration of a framework of “Human-Centred Indicators” to monitor and support the adoption of the circular economy strategy toward implementing the “human-centred city”.