NEARBY Platform for Detecting Asteroids in Astronomical Images Using Cloud-based Containerized Applications

The continuing monitoring and surveying of the nearby space to detect Near Earth Objects (NEOs) and Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) are essential because of the threats that this kind of objects impose on the future of our planet. We need more computational resources and advanced algorithms to deal with the exponential growth of the digital cameras' performances and to be able to process (in near real-time) data coming from large surveys. This paper presents a software platform called NEARBY that supports automated detection of moving sources (asteroids) among stars from astronomical images. The detection procedure is based on the classic "blink" detection and, after that, the system supports visual analysis techniques to validate the moving sources, assisted by static and dynamical presentations.Comment: IEEE 14th International Conference on Intelligent Computer Communication and Processing (ICCP), Cluj-Napoca, Romani

Albanian grapevine cultivars: preliminary results of molecular, phenolic and ampelometric profiles and relatedness

'Shesh i Zi', 'Shesh i Bardhë', 'Kallmet' and 'Vlosh' are commercialised grapevine wine varieties which best represent the high variability of the Albanian autochthonous germplasm because of their different origin within the country and their great wine potential. We characterised these cultivars at molecular, phenolic and ampelometric level as well as assessing their relatedness. The leaves were scanned and images were analyzed using SuperAmpelo, which allows to measure leaves, clusters, berries, and seeds, and to record the main descriptive ampelographic characters, including carpometric indices. The content of total anthocyanins, total flavonoids, non-anthocyanic flavonoids, proanthocyanidins and total polyphenols were determined in the extracts of the grape skins and seeds of 10 berries from each of 10 representative clusters as well as in samples of one year old wines. For the molecular characterization, 10 SSR loci were used. The similarity of cultivars was studied by applying the Ward's method for hierarchical clustering along with other Albanian genotypes. This work has completed and made more accurate the existing ampelographic descriptions found in literature with the aim to valorize these autochthonous cultivars, which could represent a valuable instrument for improving the local economies

Characterization of main grapevine varieties of Albania and Kosovo based on molecular data

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Characterization of olive varieties from Albania: Fatty acid profile and total phenolic content

The research study presented in this paper, the first of its kind in Albania, characterizes the fatty acid profile and total phenolic content of some olive varieties, namely, Boçi, Ulli i Kuq, Ulli i bardhe Lezha, Sterbjak and Micka all harvested during crop year 2010-2011. Annual production capacity of the country is 56 000 tons of olive fruits and 7000 tons of olive oil. Fatty acid (FA) profiles to the studied olive cultivars exhibit a great variation in oleic acid, from 66.32 ± 0.14 % (Ulli i Kuq) to 75.13 ± 0.31 % (Sterbjak), values which are within the normal range for such FA. The content of linoleic acid varies from 7.23 ± 0.04 % (Sterbjak) to whereas the content of linolenic acid varies from 0.45 ± 0.01 % (Ulli i Kuq) to 0.96 ± 0.01 % (Sterbjak). All studied olive varieties revealed moderate levels of palmitic acid, which varied between 10.76 ± 0.05 % (Sterbjak) and 13.05 ± 0.02 % (Boçi). From a nutritional point of view, it is worth noticing that the Sterbjak variety has an n-6/n-3 ratio of 7.68, while the Ulli i bardhe Lezha goes to 10.20. The Total Phenolic Content for the studied olive cultivars varied from 63.02 ± 5.63 GA mg/kg olive oil (Ulli i kuq) to 322.05 ± 3.97 GA mg/kg olive oil Ulli i bardhe Lezha such variation reflect differentness among studied olive varieties

Genetic characterization of Albanian grapevine cultivars by microsatellite markers

A recently restored ampelographic collection of Albanian grapevine accessions has been submitted to genetic profiling with eleven nuclear microsatellite markers, widely used in other studies. Microsatellite profiling resulted in 28 single profiles for 29 accessions. Two cultivars, Shesh I bardhë and Pucalla, were found to be synonyms. Genetic profiles of Albanian cultivars were compared at 8 microsatellite loci to 29 most commonly cultivated Greek cultivars. Albanian cultivars were found to be more closely related to Greek cultivars from Peloponnese. One Greek cultivar named Dempina was found to be genetically close to two Albanian cultivars Debina teki and Debina kala, which are homonyms Another cultivar, known as Toska or Sinambel displayed a tri-allelic profile at 5 loci over 10 analysed loci. Such a high number of tri-allelic loci found in one individual favours the hypothesis of triploidy but the chimerism hypothesis cannot be excluded without further work

Ready for EURONEAR NEA surveys using the NEARBY moving source detection platform

In 2015 we started a PhD thesis aiming to write a moving objects processing system (MOPS) aimed to detect near Earth asteroids (NEAs) in astronomical surveys planned within the EURONEAR project. Based on this MOPS experience, in 2017 we proposed the NEARBY project to the Romanian Space Agency, which awarded funding to the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (UTCN) and the University of Craiovafor building a cloud-based online platform to reduce survey images, detect, validate and report in near real time asteroid detections and NEA candidates. The NEARBY platform was built and is available at UTCN since Feb 2018, being tested during 5 pilot surveys observed in 2017-2018 with the Isaac Newton Telescope in La Palma. Two NEAs were discovered in Nov 2018 (2018 VQ1 and 2018 VN3), being recovered and reported to MPC within 2 hours. Other 4 discovered NEAs were found from a few dozen possible NEA candidates promptly being followed, allowing us to discover 22 Hungarias and 7 Mars crossing asteroids using the NEARBY platform. Compared with other few available software, NEARBY could detect more asteroids (by 8-41%), but scores less than human detection (by about 10%). Using resulted data, the astrometric accurancy, photometric limits and an INT NEA survey case study are presented as guidelines for planning future surveys.</p

Requirements and specifications for the development of BSC-OS Portal

This document describes the requirements and specifications of the enviroGRIDS BSC-OS Portal. It concerns mainly with user, functional, technological, and usability requirements of user applications. The functionality and data repositories required in Web and Grid infrastructures are analyzed together with the main issues of the interoperability between functional modules as well as between the geospatial and Grid infrastructures. The document explores the possible architectural and technological solutions, and details and recommends solutions for the development of the BSC-OS portal

Ready for EURONEAR NEA surveys using the NEARBY moving source detection platform

In 2015 we started a PhD thesis aiming to write a moving objects processing system (MOPS) aimed to detect near Earth asteroids (NEAs) in astronomical surveys planned within the EURONEAR project. Based on this MOPS experience, in 2017 we proposed the NEARBY project to the Romanian Space Agency, which awarded funding to the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (UTCN) and the University of Craiovafor building a cloud-based online platform to reduce survey images, detect, validate and report in near real time asteroid detections and NEA candidates. The NEARBY platform was built and is available at UTCN since Feb 2018, being tested during 5 pilot surveys observed in 2017-2018 with the Isaac Newton Telescope in La Palma. Two NEAs were discovered in Nov 2018 (2018 VQ1 and 2018 VN3), being recovered and reported to MPC within 2 hours. Other 4 discovered NEAs were found from a few dozen possible NEA candidates promptly being followed, allowing us to discover 22 Hungarias and 7 Mars crossing asteroids using the NEARBY platform. Compared with other few available software, NEARBY could detect more asteroids (by 8-41%), but scores less than human detection (by about 10%). Using resulted data, the astrometric accurancy, photometric limits and an INT NEA survey case study are presented as guidelines for planning future surveys

Therapeutic fascism: re-educating Communists in Nazi-occupied Serbia, 1942-44

This article probes the relationship between psychoanalysis and right-wing authoritarianism, and analyses a unique psychotherapeutic institution established by Serbia’s World War II collaborationist regime. The extraordinary Institute for compulsory re-education of high-school and university students affiliated with the Communist resistance movement emerged in the context of a brutal civil war and violent retaliations against Communist activists, but its openly psychoanalytic orientation was even more astonishing. In order to stem the rapid spread of Communism, the collaborationist state, led by its most extreme fascistic elements, officially embraced psychotherapy, the ‘talking cure’ and Freudianism, and conjured up its own theory of mental pathology and trauma – one that directly contradicted the Nazi concepts of society and the individual. In the course of the experiment, Serbia’s collaborationists moved away from the hitherto prevailing organicist, biomedical model of mental illness, and critiqued traditional psychiatry’s therapeutic pessimism