Search results for "feature"
showing 10 items of 4091 documents
Meta-Tracking for Video Scene Understanding
2013
International audience; This paper presents a novel method to extract dominant motion patterns (MPs) and the main entry/exit areas from a surveillance video. The method first computes motion histograms for each pixel and then converts it into orientation distribution functions (ODFs). Given these ODFs, a novel particle meta-tracking procedure is launched which produces meta-tracks, i.e. particle trajectories. As opposed to conventional tracking which focuses on individual moving objects, meta-tracking uses particles to follow the dominant flow of the traffic. In a last step, a novel method is used to simultaneously identify the main entry/exit areas and recover the predominant MPs. The meta…
Orbital variations in planktonic foraminifera assemblages from the Ionian Sea during the Middle Pleistocene Transition
2013
Abstract The Middle Pleistocene Transition (1.2–0.7 Ma) is the most recent re-organization of the global climate system which includes variations in the frequency and amplitude of glacial/interglacial cycles, increased ice sheet volume, sea surface temperature cooling and a significant drop in the CO 2 atmospheric levels. Here we present high-resolution planktonic foraminifera data (mean sampling resolution of about 780 years) from core LC10 recovered in the Ionian Sea (eastern Mediterranean), between 1.2 and 0.9 Ma. Selected taxa, among them G. ruber , T. quinqueloba and G. bulloides , show significant periodicities that can be associated to orbital cycles, mainly precession and obliquity.…
Turonian-Maastrichtian biostratigraphy and isotope stratigraphy of the Kopet-Dagh Basin deposits, northeastern Neo-Tethys, Iran
2021
Abstract Planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy and isotope stratigraphy analyses of Turonian-Maastrichtian deposits have been carried out in the western part of the Kopet-Dagh Basin. The identification of the planktonic foraminiferal assemblages has led to the recognition of twelve Upper Cretaceous zones (Helvetoglobotruncana helvetica Zone to the Contusotruncana contusa-Abathomphalus mayaroensis zone) from the Tethyan realm. The obtained stable carbon isotope profile correlates with other reference curves, revealing many Late Cretaceous events including the Hitchwood, Navigation, Light Point, East Cliff, White Fall, Late Campanian Event (LCE), Campanian-Maastrichtian Boundary Event (CMB…
Millenial-scale paleoenviromental changes in the central Mediterranean during the Last Interglacial: comparison with European and North Atlantic reco…
2010
Abstract The environment of the central Mediterranean Sea is investigated on the basis of high-resolution planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossil data (mean sampling resolutions of about 80 and 160 yr, respectively). MIS 5 is characterized by warm, oligotrophic and stratified waters, while coccolithophore communities developed a vertical zonation that, in today's oceans, is typical of the low-latitude gyres. The temperate-subtropical configuration of planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossil assemblages is repeatedly transformed into a temperate-subpolar one during the suborbital cooling episodes C25-C18. A comparison with European pollen sequences and North Atlantic cor…
THE “ENTREPRENEURIAL UNIVERSITY”: A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF THE MAIN MANAGERIAL AND ORGANISATIONAL FEATURES TOWARDS THE DESIGN OF PLANNING & CONTROL …
2013
In the last decade, European academic institutions have been affected by significant reforms aimed to improve their own performance levels. The reason for these reforms has been inspired by various factors, such as budgetary restrictions imposed by National Governments and the “marketisation” of the Higher Education sector. This has led European universities to increase their autonomy and accountability to successfully perform and compete in a worldwide competitive system. Both autonomy and accountability have involved a greater emphasis on performance management and Planning & Control (P&C) systems. In the light of the new institutional and competitive context, the aim of this paper is to …
Integrated geomorphological mapping in the north-western sector of Agrigento (Italy)
2012
The geomorphological map is an essential tool to perform a proper urban planning in mountainous or hilly areas. In this paper a multidisciplinary approach to derive a 1:2000 geomorphological map is described. The proposed methodology consists of the integration between aerial photographs, acquired in 2003, and four datasets of Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) measures to update a pre-existing landslide inventory. The integrated data were used to achieve a validated geomorphological map by means of a geomorphological survey. The study area is located in southern Italy (Agrigento, Sicily). The city of Agrigento, included in the World Heritage List of UNESCO in 1997, is located on the…
Long-term soil feedback on plant N allocation in defoliated grassland miniecosystems
2005
Abstract Defoliation of plants is known to have effects on soil organisms and nutrient availability in grassland communities, but few studies have examined whether changes in soil attributes can further feed back to plant growth and plant nutrient content. To examine defoliation-induced soil feedbacks, we established replicated miniecosystems with a grass Phleum pratense , defoliated half of the systems, collected soil from both defoliated and non-defoliated systems and planted new seedlings into each soil. The two soils did not differ in promoting shoot and root growth. However, seedlings that grew in the soil collected from defoliated systems had higher shoot N content, allocated relative…
Return flight to the Canary Islands – The key role of peripheral populations of Afrocanarian blue tits (Aves: Cyanistes teneriffae) in multi-gene rec…
2012
Abstract Afrocanarian blue tits (Cyanistes teneriffae) have a scattered distribution on the Canary Islands and on the North African continent. To date, the Canary Islands have been considered the species’ main Pleistocene evolutionary center, but their colonization pathways remain uncertain. We set out to reconstruct a dated multi-gene phylogeny and ancestral ranges for Cyanistes tit species including the currently unstudied, peripheral Libyan population of C. t. cyrenaicae. In all reconstructions the most easterly and westerly peripheral populations (in Libya and on La Palma) represented basal offshoots of C. teneriffae. These two peripheral populations shared all four major indels and dif…
Pleistocene Calabrian and Sicilian bioprovinces
2002
During the Pleistocene, southern Calabria was the area through which several mammalian taxa dispersed into the Sicilian island via the Straits of Messina. The rich fossil record of Sicily allowed for the construction of a fairly detailed bio-chronological frame that is dated by correlation of vertebrate bearing deposits with marine deposits. At present five Faunal Complexes (F.C.), characterised by the occurrence of different taxa, have been recognised. The two older Faunal Complexes (Monte Pellegrino F.C.'xes Elephas falconeri F.C.) include taxa with differently marked endemic features denoting the occurrence of an insular system made up of geographically isolated small islands, with very …
Late Pliocene and Pleistocene small mammal chronology in the Italian peninsula
2007
The abundant documentation of small mammals in the Italian peninsula, collected over recent years, furnishes a detailed biochronological sequence mainly from the Late Pliocene onwards. An updated stratigraphic framework is here presented, based on the European small mammal biozonation. The Early Villanyian is characterized by Mimomys hassiacus, M. stehlini, and, later, poorly documented M. polonicus. The Late Villanyian localities are well characterized with M. pliocaenicus, M. pitymyoides and M. tigliensis. The older part of the Early Biharian is documented by assemblages containing Microtus (Allophaiomys) ex gr. pliocaenicus, M. pusillus, M. cf. ostramosensis and M. tornensis, while the l…