Assessment of data fusion oriented on data mining approaches to enhance precision agriculture practices aimed at increase of Durum Wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var. durum) yield

In 2050, world population will reach a total of 9 billion inhabitants and their food demand have to be satisfied. Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var. durum) is one of the most important food crop and its consumption is increasing worldwide. Productivity growth in agriculture and profitable returns are strongly influenced by investment in research and development, where Precision Agriculture (PA) represents an innovative way to manage farms by introducing the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into the production process. It is known that farms activities produce large amounts of data. Today ICT allows, with electronic and software systems, to collect and transfer automatically these data, thus increasing yields and profits. In this direction significant data are processed from agricultural production, and retrieved to extract useful information important to increase the knowledge base. Data from multiple data sources can be processed by a Data Fusion (DF) approach able to combine multiple data sources into an unique database system. Raw data are transformed into useful information, thus DF improves pattern recognition, analysis of growth factors, and relationship between crops and environments. Data Fusion is synonym of Data Integration, Sensor Fusion, and Image Fusion. By means of Data Mining (DM) it is possible to extract useful information from data of the production processes thus providing new outputs concerning product quality and product “health status”. The following literature take into account the DF and DM techniques applied to Precision Agriculture (PA) and to cultivation inputs (water, nitrogen, etc.) management.  We report also last advances of DF and DM in modern agriculture and in precision durum wheat production

Continuities and discontinuities in demographic change in the Mediterranean Basin

The Mediterranean region has always been a cultural crossroad - “mille choses à la fois” (Braudel, 1986) - and is at present experiencing a period of extensive change. In addition to localized instability (the Balkans, the Middle East, Algeria), less visible but equally momentous upheavals with far-reaching implications are under way. From an economic perspective, the trend to globalisation is responsible for ever greater interpenetration, on one side, of highly disparate domestic economies and, on the other side, of social and demographic structures. Using data coming from the United Nations population projections, our main intent is to unveil the existing discontinuities hidden by the apparent convergence of main demographic variables concerning the Mediterranean countries