Assessing the ecological value of dynamic mountain geomorphosites

Geoheritage is a component of geodiversity constituted by all the elements of geodiversity recognized by society for their particular values. The definition of these values, including the importance of geoheritage for biodiversity, plays a key role in the process of heritage recognition and geoconservation policymaking. In mountain environments, dynamic geomorphosites have a strong influence on plant diversity because the active geomorphological processes responsible for their formation act as renovators for habitats of pioneer species. In this paper, we propose criteria to assess the ecological value of dynamic mountain geomorphosites. We show that the interest of plant communities (species richness and presence of rare or protected species) and the influence of geomorphological processes on plant communities (disturbances, surface movement and soil) are fundamental criteria for assessing the ecological value in an exhaustive and objective way and that the question of the scale (local and national scales) is also a crucial parameter. We then illustrate this methodological proposal by evaluating the ecological value of three dynamic geomorphosites and a talus slope in the western Swiss Alps

Using data-driven algorithms for semi-automated geomorphological mapping

In this paper, we compare the performance of two data-driven algorithms to deal with an automatic classification problem in geomorphology: Direct Sampling (DS) and Random Forest (RF). The main goal is to provide a semi-automated procedure for the geomorphological mapping of alpine environments, using a manually mapped zone as training dataset and predictor variables to infer the classification of a target zone. The applicability of DS to geomorphological classification was never investigated before. Instead, RF based classification has already been applied in few studies, but only with a limited number of geomorphological classes. The outcomes of both approaches are validated by comparing the eight detected classes with a geomorphological map elaborated on the field and considered as ground truth. Both DS and RF give satisfactory results and provide similar performances in term of accuracy and Cohen’s Kappa values. The map obtained with RF presents a noisier spatial distribution of classes than when using DS, because DS takes into account the spatial dependence of the different classes. Results suggest that DS and RF are both suitable techniques for the semi-automated geomorphological mapping in alpine environments at regional scale, opening the way for further improvements

The Italian Dubbing and Subtitling of Monster, Inc- An Analysis

The study attempted the analysis of the Italian dubbing and subtitles of the animated film Monsters, Inc., released in 2001 by Disney Pixar and directed by Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich and David Silverman. The paper is divided into three sections- each one regarding a (extra) linguistic issue. The first one focuses on cultural-specific references (CSRs), which are considered one of the hardest aspects in all types of translation. Dialects and registers are analysed in the second section, while the third one deals with typical phenomena of the spoken language-such as question tags, vocatives and modes of address. For each section, a brief theoretical frame is provided to build the basis to discuss the examples taken from the film (original and dubbed/subtitled version). In addition, the degree of influence (or difference) between the two versions is considered, and some translation strategies are outlined according to the examples shown