La fratellanza : societa di mutuo soccorso fra impiegati pubblici e privati : cenni storico-statistici / G. Orti

La fratellanza : societa di mutuo soccorso fra impiegati pubblici e privati : cenni storico-statistici / G. Orti Milano : Tip. editrice lombarda, 1877 13 p. ; 23 cm Estr. da: Rivista della Beneficenza pubblica e degli Istituti di Previdenza, fasc. aprile 1877

Use of TanDEM-X and Sentinel Products to Derive Gully Activity Maps in Kunene Region (Namibia) Based on Automatic Iterative Random Forest Approach

Gullies are landforms with specific patterns of shape, topography, hydrology, vegetation, and soil characteristics. Remote sensing products (TanDEM-X, Sentinel-1, and Sentinel-2) serve as inputs into an iterative algorithm, initialized using a micromapping simulation as training data, to map gullies in the northwestern of Namibia. A Random Forest Classifier examines pixels with similar characteristics in a pool of unlabeled data, and gully objects are detected where high densities of gully pixels are enclosed by an alpha shape. Gully objects are used in subsequent iterations following a mechanism where the algorithm uses the most reliable pixels as gully training samples. The gully class continuously grows until an optimal scenario in terms of accuracy is achieved. Results are benchmarked with manually tagged gullies (initial gully labeled area <0.3% of the total study area) in two different watersheds (408 and 302 km2, respectively) yielding total accuracies of >98%, with 60% in the gully class, Cohen Kappa >0.5, Matthews Correlation Coefficient >0.5, and receiver operating characteristic Area Under the Curve >0.89. Hence, our method outlines gullies keeping low false-positive rates while the classification quality has a good balance for the two classes (gully/no gully). Results show the most significant gully descriptors as the high temporal radar signal coherence (22.4%) and the low temporal variability in Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (21.8%). This research builds on previous studies to face the challenge of identifying and outlining gully-affected areas with a shortage of training data using global datasets, which are then transferable to other large (semi-) arid regions.This research is part of the DEM_HYDR2024 project sup ported by TanDEM-X Science Team, therefore the authors would like to express thanks to the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt (DLR) as the donor for the used TanDEM-X datasets. They acknowledge the financial support provided by the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) within the IRPC research funding programme and to ILMI for the sponsorship of field trips to identify suitable study areas. Finally, they would like to express gratitude toward Heidelberg University and the Kurt-Hiehle-Foundation for facilitating the suitable work conditions during this research

Programming matrix algorithms-by-blocks for thread-level parallelism

With the emergence of thread-level parallelism as the primary means for continued improvement of performance, the programmability issue has reemerged as an obstacle to the use of architectural advances. We argue that evolving legacy libraries for dense and banded linear algebra is not a viable solution due to constraints imposed by early design decisions. We propose a philosophy of abstraction and separation of concerns that provides a promising solution in this problem domain. The first abstraction, FLASH, allows algorithms to express computation with matrices consisting of blocks, facilitating algorithms-by-blocks. Transparent to the library implementor, operand descriptions are registered for a particular operation a priori. A runtime system, SuperMatrix, uses this information to identify data dependencies between suboperations, allowing them to be scheduled to threads out-of-order and executed in parallel. But not all classical algorithms in linear algebra lend themselves to conversion to algorithms-by-blocks. We show how our recently proposed LU factorization with incremental pivoting and closely related algorithm-by-blocks for the QR factorization, both originally designed for out-of-core computation, overcome this difficulty. Anecdotal evidence regarding the development of routines with a core functionality demonstrates how the methodology supports high productivity while experimental results suggest that high performance is abundantly achievabl

Parallelization of the QR Decomposition with Column Pivoting Using Column Cyclic Distribution on Multicore and GPU Processors

The QR decomposition with column pivoting (QRP) of a matrix is widely used for rank revealing. The performance of LAPACK implementation (DGEQP3) of the Householder QRP algorithm is limited by Level 2 BLAS operations required for updating the column norms. In this paper, we propose an implementation of the QRP algorithm using a distribution of the matrix columns in a round-robin fashion for better data locality and parallel memory bus utilization on multicore architectures. Our performance results show a 60% improvement over the routine DGEQP3 of Intel MKL (version 10.3) on a 12 core Intel Xeon X5670 machine. In addition, we show that the same data distribution is also suitable for general purpose GPU processors, where our implementation obtains up to 90 GFlops on a NVIDIA GeForce GTX480. This is about 2 times faster than the QRP implementation of MAGMA (version 1.2.1).Tom ́as and Bai were supported in part by the U.S. DOES ciDAC grant DOE-DE-FC0206ER25793 and NSF grant PHY1005502. This research used resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. DOE under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.Tomás Domínguez, AE.; Bai, Z.; Hernández García, V. (2013). Parallelization of the QR Decomposition with Column Pivoting Using Column Cyclic Distribution on Multicore and GPU Processors. En High Performance Computing for Computational Science - VECPAR 2012. Springer Verlag (Germany): Series. 50-58. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38718-0_8S5058Bischof, C.H.: A parallel QR factorization algorithm with controlled local pivoting. SIAM J. Sci. Stat. Comput. 12, 36–57 (1991)Chandrasekaran, S., Ipsen, I.C.F.: On rank-revealing factorisations. SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl. 15, 592–622 (1994)Castaldo, A.M., Whaley, R.C.: Scaling LAPACK panel operations using parallel cache assignment. In: 15th ACM SIGPLAN Annual Symposium on Principles and Practice of Parallel Programming, pp. 223–231 (2010)Drmač, Z., Bujanović, Z.: On the failure of rank-revealing QR factorization software – a case study. ACM Trans. Math. Softw. 35, 12:1–12:28 (2008)Drmač, Z., Veselić, K.: New fast and accurate Jacobi SVD algorithm I. SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl. 29, 1322–1342 (2008)Drmač, Z., Veselić, K.: New fast and accurate Jacobi SVD algorithm II. SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl. 29, 1343–1362 (2008)Golub, G.H.: Numerical methods for solving linear least squares problems. Numer. Math. 7, 206–216 (1965)Gu, M., Eisenstat, S.: Efficient algorithms for computing a strong rank-revealing QR factorization. SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 17, 848–869 (1996)Quintana-Orti, G., Sun, X., Bischof, C.H.: A BLAS-3 version of the QR factorization with column pivoting. SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 19, 1486–1494 (1998)Schreiber, R., van Loan, C.: A storage-efficient WY representation for products of Householder transformations. SIAM J. Sci. Stat. Comput. 10, 53–57 (1989

Mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services. Urban ecosystems

Action 5 of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 requires member states to Map and Assess the state of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES). This report provides guidance for mapping and assessment of urban ecosystems. The MAES urban pilot is a collaboration between the European Commission, the European Environment Agency, volunteering Member States and cities, and stakeholders. Its ultimate goal is to deliver a knowledge base for policy and management of urban ecosystems by analysing urban green infrastructure, condition of urban ecosystems and ecosystem services. This report presents guidance for mapping urban ecosystems and includes an indicator framework to assess the condition of urban ecosystems and urban ecosystem services. The scientific framework of mapping and assessment is designed to support in particular urban planning policy and policy on green infrastructure at urban, metropolitan and regional scales. The results are based on the following different sources of information: a literature survey of 54 scientific articles, an online-survey (on urban ecosystems, related policies and planning instruments and with participation of 42 cities), ten case studies (Portugal: Cascais, Oeiras, Lisbon; Italy: Padua, Trento, Rome; The Netherlands: Utrecht; Poland: Poznań; Spain: Barcelona; Norway: Oslo), and a two-day expert workshop. The case studies constituted the core of the MAES urban pilot. They provided real examples and applications of how mapping and assessment can be organized to support policy; on top, they provided the necessary expertise to select a set of final indicators for condition and ecosystem services. Urban ecosystems or cities are defined here as socio-ecological systems which are composed of green infrastructure and built infrastructure. Urban green infrastructure (GI) is understood in this report as the multi-functional network of urban green spaces situated within the boundary of the urban ecosystem. Urban green spaces are the structural components of urban GI. This study has shown that there is a large scope for urban ecosystem assessments. Firstly, urban policies increasingly use urban green infrastructure and nature-based solutions in their planning process. Secondly, an increasing amount of data at multiple spatial scales is becoming available to support these policies, to provide a baseline, and to compare or benchmark cities with respect to the extent and management of the urban ecosystem. Concrete examples are given on how to delineate urban ecosystems, how to choose an appropriate spatial scale, and how to map urban ecosystems based on a combination of national or European datasets (including Urban Atlas) and locally collected information (e.g., location of trees). Also examples of typologies for urban green spaces are presented. This report presents an indicator framework which is composed of indicators to assess for urban ecosystem condition and for urban ecosystem services. These are the result of a rigorous selection process and ensure consistent mapping and assessment across Europe. The MAES urban pilot will continue with work on the interface between research and policy. The framework presented in this report needs to be tested and validated across Europe, e.g. on its applicability at city scale, on how far the methodology for measuring ecosystem condition and ecosystem service delivery in urban areas can be used to assess urban green infrastructure and nature-based solutions

Evolución de la innovación educativa en la Universidad Complutense: proyecto UNICOMEX

La evolución de la educación universitaria en España ha experimentado una enorme evolución en los últimos veinte años. Desde la enseñanza centrada en la clase magistral, con el consiguiente protagonismo del profesor, a lo que sucede actualmente, con el estudiante como eje principal, media todo un cambio en el planteamiento de nuestro sistema educativo universitario. La implantación del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES) ha sido uno de los objetivos perseguidos por la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) en la última década. Con este fin existieron, hasta hace poco, las conocidas como Asignaturas Piloto (AP) e igualmente se convocan periódicamente, desde hace años, los Proyectos de Innovación Educativa (P.I.E.). Ambas herramientas han procurado facilitar dicha adaptación, así como promover un concepto transversal en la transmisión del conocimiento. Nuestro grupo de trabajo puede ser un ejemplo de lo que la UCM ha querido conseguir con ambas cosas. La asignatura ha participado en todas las convocatorias de AP, pasando por una evolución clara desde la clase magistral a los pequeños grupos de trabajo. Ha sido, además, el instrumento útil para ir desarrollando distintos P.I.E., hasta un total de nueve, tras formar un equipo interdisciplinar constituido por profesores universitarios y profesionales de diversos ámbitos. El último de estos PIE, concedido en el curso académico 2011-2012, consiste en la creación de un espacio virtual de referencia para el estudio de los animales exóticos, partiendo de los resultados obtenidos en proyectos anteriores. UNICOMEX (Universidad-Complutense-Exóticos) nace con el objetivo de poner al alcance de cualquiera una serie de recursos virtuales ordenados que faciliten el conocimiento biológico, anatómico y clínico de los animales exóticos, entendiendo como tales aquellos que, siendo de interés veterinario, no se consideran domésticos. La totalidad de su contenido está en español e inglés, con el fin de hacer de ella una herramienta virtual útil y abierta a la comunidad científica y didáctica internacional

Breathing-Dependent Redox Activity in a Tetrathiafulvalene-Based Metal-Organic Framework

“Breathing” metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) that involve changes in their structural and physical properties upon an external stimulus are an interesting class of crystalline materials due to their range of potential applications including chemical sensors. The addition of redox activity opens up a new pathway for multifunctional “breathing” frameworks. Herein, we report the continuous breathing behavior of a tetrathiafulvalene (TTF)-based MOF, namely MUV-2, showing a reversible swelling (up to ca. 40% of the volume cell) upon solvent adsorption. Importantly, the planarity of the TTF linkers is influenced by the breathing behavior of the MOF, directly impacting on its electrochemical properties and thus opening the way for the development of new electrochemical sensors. Quantum chemical calculations and Raman spectroscopy have been used to provide insights into the tunability of the oxidation potential