Assessing the Prediction Accuracy of Geomorphon-Based Automated Landform Classification: An Example from the Ionian Coastal Belt of Southern Italy

Automatic procedures for landform extraction is a growing research field but extensive quantitative studies of the prediction accuracy of Automatic Landform Classification (ACL) based on a direct comparison with geomorphological maps are rather limited. In this work, we test the accuracy of an algorithm of automatic landform classification on a large sector of the Ionian coast of the southern Italian belt through a quantitative comparison with a detailed geomorphological map. Automatic landform classification was performed by using an algorithm based on the individuation of basic landform classes named geomorphons. Spatial overlay between the main mapped landforms deriving from traditional geomorphological analysis and the automatic landform classification results highlighted a satisfactory percentage of accuracy (higher than 70%) of the geomorphon-based method for the coastal plain area and drainage network. The percentage of accuracy decreased by about 20–30% for marine and fluvial terraces, while the overall accuracy of the ACL map is 69%. Our results suggest that geomorphon-based classification could represent a basic and robust tool to recognize the main geomorphological elements of landscape at a large scale, which can be useful for the advanced steps of geomorphological mapping such as genetic interpretation of landforms and detailed delineation of complex and composite geomorphic elements.

Gender violence in the rural area of Alhama de Granada (2015-2020)

Various studies on gender violence emphasize the greater rootedness of patriarchal culture in rural society compared to other types of societies. This rural society is characterized by its greater masculinization and tradition, which makes it difficult to perceive and recognize macho behaviour. The violence which is the subject of this study represents a scourge which is suffered by a large sector of the female population, leaving serious economic, social, psychological and family consequences which are profound and painful, and which it is very difficult to overcome on many occasions. During the time that the author who signs this document stayed in the district of Alhama de Granada as a social worker, it became clear that there were few resources available to combat gender violence and to educate the population in this rural area. The daily life of women, and especially those who suffer from male violence in particular, is conditioned and limited by the situation of isolation, the deficit of social services, social control and pressure, stigmatisation and the family structure (close and/or extended).

Visual response of ventrolateral prefrontal neurons and their behavior-related modulation

The ventral part of lateral prefrontal cortex (VLPF) of the monkey receives strong visual input, mainly from inferotemporal cortex. It has been shown that VLPF neurons can show visual responses during paradigms requiring to associate arbitrary visual cues to behavioral reactions. Further studies showed that there are also VLPF neurons responding to the presentation of specific visual stimuli, such as objects and faces. However, it is largely unknown whether VLPF neurons respond and differentiate between stimuli belonging to different categories, also in absence of a specific requirement to actively categorize or to exploit these stimuli for choosing a given behavior. The first aim of the present study is to evaluate and map the responses of neurons of a large sector of VLPF to a wide set of visual stimuli when monkeys simply observe them. Recent studies showed that visual responses to objects are also present in VLPF neurons coding action execution, when they are the target of the action. Thus, the second aim of the present study is to compare the visual responses of VLPF neurons when the same objects are simply observed or when they become the target of a grasping action. Our results indicate that: (1) part of VLPF visually responsive neurons respond specifically to one stimulus or to a small set of stimuli, but there is no indication of a “passive” categorical coding; (2) VLPF neuronal visual responses to objects are often modulated by the task conditions in which the object is observed, with the strongest response when the object is target of an action. These data indicate that VLPF performs an early passive description of several types of visual stimuli, that can then be used for organizing and planning behavior. This could explain the modulation of visual response both in associative learning and in natural behavior.

Megasthenes on the Military Livestock of Chandragupta and the Making of the First Indian Empire

Megasthenes was an eyewitness to the reign of Chandragupta Maurya, maker of the first India-wide empire (from ca. 321 BCE). The army with which he made that empire depended largely upon the supply of men, horses, elephants, and oxen, a sector which may be called military livestock. Megasthenes’ account of this large sector of government expense and the policies under which it operated gives important testimony about the causes of Chandragupta's success, namely the maintenance of a royal monopoly of horses, elephants, and arms, payment of the soldiers in peacetime and war, the demilitarization of the farmers, and the separation of the soldiers from the land. Over the long run of Indian history, from the Mauryan Empire to the present, the environmental roots of the political order lay in the complementary distribution of horse and elephant country, to the dry west and humid east of a line running down the middle of the Subcontinent; that is, respectively, the valleys of the Indus and the Ganga. The dominating power of India has always had its capital in elephant country, the valley of the Ganga, in cities from Pataliputra (Patna) to Kanauj to Delhi, in a position from which to control the eastward flow of horses and the westward flow of elephants to other states.

Origin and Stages of Formation of Medium and Small Businesses in the Northern Region

The analysis of statistical indicators of the development of the business sector in the Tyumen region allowed us to assume the activity of a dynamically developing segment of the regional economy. Entrepreneurship in the region is characterized by stabilization and strengthening of positions in the regional market as a result of effective adaptation of the sector in the conditions of macroeconomic instability. Operating in a large sector of the regional economy, small businesses provide the domestic consumer market with the necessary goods and services, maintain a high level of competition, create jobs, are an active participant in investment and innovation processes in the region and contribute to increasing the share of the middle class in society. However, the history of the origin and formation of the entrepreneurial sector of the Tyumen region is not uninteresting, which is what this article is devoted to.

Nature and evolution of the northern Victoria Land lithospheric mantle (Antarctica) as revealed by ultramafic xenoliths

A review of northern Victoria Land ultramafic xenoliths, collected and studied over more than 30 years, was carried out. More than 200 samples were gathered and characterized in a coherent and comparative manner, both for mantle-derived and cumulate xenoliths. Almost 2000 analyses of major elements and more than 300 analyses of trace elements of in situ and separated olivine, pyroxenes, amphibole, spinel and glass were taken into consideration. Particular attention was devoted to mantle lithologies in order to emphasize the composition and the evolution of this portion of the subcontinental lithosphere. The three main localities in northern Victoria Land where mantle xenoliths were found (i.e. Mount Melbourne (Baker Rocks), Greene Point and Handler Ridge), over a >200 km distance, were described and compared with ultramafic xenoliths in three other localities (Harrow Peaks, Browning Pass and Mount Overlord) that are mainly cumulate in nature. Altogether, these data enabled us to reconstruct a long evolutionary history, from old depletion to most recent refertilization and metasomatic events, for this large sector of the northern Victoria Land subcontinental lithospheric mantle.

Paesaggi sommersi in Alto Adriatico Dalla pianura glaciale al futuro innalzamento marino

The Northern Adriatic Sea is characterized by a gentle marine shelf that led this area and the surroundings coastal plains to be very sensitive even to limited variations of sea level during the Late Quaternary. These changes affected directly and indirectly the ancient human communities. In particular, around 19 ka cal BP, the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) triggered a rapid marine transgression which drowned a large sector of the alluvial plain formerly existing on the present seabed. This dramatic transformation was accompanied by significant changes in the hydrographic network and in the channel morphology of the major rivers. Around 5500 BC the Adriatic coast was already rather comparable to the present one and the rate of sea-level rise considerably lowered. Since that time the paleogeographic changes occurred along the coast were mainly constrained by the complex interplay between eustatic variations, fluvial inputs and subsidence. In the last centuries the anthropogenic activity has strongly increased its influence on the coastal dynamics and the effects of the ongoing global warming are exposing to significant risk of submersion the low-lying coasts of north-western Adriatic.

Study of Machine Learning for Cloud Assisted IoT Security as a Service

Machine learning (ML) has been emerging as a viable solution for intrusion detection systems (IDS) to secure IoT devices against different types of attacks. ML based IDS (ML-IDS) normally detect network traffic anomalies caused by known attacks as well as newly introduced attacks. Recent research focuses on the functionality metrics of ML techniques, depicting their prediction effectiveness, but overlooked their operational requirements. ML techniques are resource-demanding that require careful adaptation to fit the limited computing resources of a large sector of their operational platform, namely, embedded systems. In this paper, we propose cloud-based service architecture for managing ML models that best fit different IoT device operational configurations for security. An IoT device may benefit from such a service by offloading to the cloud heavy-weight activities such as feature selection, model building, training, and validation, thus reducing its IDS maintenance workload at the IoT device and get the security model back from the cloud as a service.

Formation of Technological Platforms in Mining Regions as a Tool for the Implementation of the National Technology Initiative (on the Example of the Kemerovo Region, Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Republic of Tatarstan)

At present, it is important for national economies to adapt to the emerging conditions of volatility. One of the main trends in the modern world is the transition to a new technological order. Therefore, it is important to build the economic system of any state on the basis of current trends. Taking into account the potential of the fuel and energy complex of the Russian Federation as a whole, and of its individual regions in particular, it is advisable to renew such sub-industries as the extractive industry. Modernization based on the use of new technologies in such a large sector of the economy has significant prospects in the context of the implementation of the National Technology Initiative. One of the tools contributing to innovative development is the formation of technology platforms. Regions can show different rates of involvement in the process of technological renewal due to the different level of the formed scientific and technical base and resource potential. Nevertheless, the centralized concentration of innovations, scientific resources and modern infrastructure are designed to have a positive impact on the subjects, regardless of the degree of influence of internal factors.

Oligarchia w Polsce ‒ dlaczego jej nie ma?

The aim of this study is to explain the special feature of the contemporary Polish economy which is the lack of oligarchy after 30 years of the post-communist transformation.The article consists of three parts. The first covers the theoretical and methodological framework for further analysis. We present the definitions and classifications of oligarchy and oligarchic systems in the modern world and provide a brief overview of the literature on the subject and the state of knowledge.In the second part, we explain the lack of an oligarchic system in Poland, linking this fact with specific elements of the socialist heritage and with the model of economic transformation and privatisation adopted in this country during the first years of the systemic reforms.In the third part, we present two paradoxes that are related to the oligarchisation of post-communist economies and, indirectly, to the assessment of the Polish path of economic and political transformation. We show that oligarchy and the relatively large sector of state-owned enterprises determine two different models of rent-seeking. The aim of this study is to explain the special feature of the contemporary Polish economy which is the lack of oligarchy after 30 years of the post-communist transformation.