Offshore Metallic Platforms Observation Using Dual-Polarimetric TS-X/TD-X Satellite Imagery: A Case Study in the Gulf of Mexico

Satellite-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has been proven to be an effective tool for ship monitoring. Offshore platforms monitoring is a key topic for both safety and security of the maritime domain. However, the scientific literature oriented to the observation of offshore platforms using SAR imagery is very limited. This study is mostly focused on the analysis and understanding of the multipolarization behavior of platforms’ backscattering using dual-polarization X-band SAR imagery. This study is motivated by the fact that under low incidence angle and moderate wind conditions, copolarized channels may fail in detecting offshore platforms even when fine-resolution imagery is considered. This behavior has been observed on both medium- and high-resolution TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X SAR imagery, despite the fact that platforms consist of large metallic structures. Hence, a simple multipolarization model is proposed to analyze the platform backscattering. Model predictions are verified on TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X SAR imagery, showing that for acquisitions under low incidence angle, the platforms result in a reduced copolarized backscattered intensity even when fine resolution imagery is considered. Finally, several solutions to tackle this issue are proposed with concluding remark that the performance of offshore observation

Transport infrastructures and regional development: The discovery of centrality of the container terminal of Gioia Tauro in the Mediterranian

European container terminals of Mediterranean are enjoying of a discovery on the more dynamics routes of the whole world that link Europe to Far East-Pacific. This centrality consists in the acquisition of a relative advantage in terms of 6 -7 days less of navigation respect to big ports of call of North Europe. In this framework, the new installation of Gioia Tauro?s container terminal is demonstrating to be one of the most important junctions of transhipment of South Europe. This could manifest completely his potentialities in the same measures in which will be guided at the same time adequate territorial policies and lay the bases for logistic systems of high level. This means to direct in the national and continental hinterland the construction of a system of infrastructures of road and railway junctions necessarily adequate and advanced in terms of technician level and capacity of response. Only in this sense it will be possible to initiate a competition forms among economic systems in a territorial base rather than among single productive units. In fact, after a ten-year period of interventions for sectors, transeuropean network of transportation could start to considered as a first systematic tentative of integrated actions among transportation politics and regional politics of European Union. By starting, therefore, by a systemic approach, the paper turns to a simulation model and to specific inquiry on the field to gather the impacts of the container terminal to territorial level. The aim is to verify if and in which way the politics of national and community transport linked to the birth of container port of Gioia Tauro, will assume the features of a complex regional development politics able to mitigate and/or prevent the imbalances become worse in the ambit of European Union.

Innovations and development of artificial intelligence in Europe: some empirical evidences

The objective of this paper is to analyze the relationship between innovation and the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies in Europe. The use of digital technologies among European companies is studied through a composite index, while the relationship between innovation and AI is studied through a log-linear regression model. The results of the model have made possible to develop interesting indications for economic and industrial polic

Servitización y mecanismos de autorrefuerzo territorial: un nuevo enfoque a la competitividad regional

The present paper discusses a theoretical model to explain the link between servitization and territorial competitiveness based on the situation in Italy. A key assumption of the model is that once the link between manufacturing and KIBS is established within a TES, there is a positive feedback between the increasing productivity (competitiveness) and the link between firms and KIBS, which becomes stronger and stronger triggering a self-reinforcing dynamic. This means that every evolutionary step of the system influences the next and thus the evolution of the entire system, so generating path dependence. Such a system has a high number of asymptotic states, and the initial state (time zero), unforeseen shocks, or other kinds of fluctuations, can lead the system into any of the different domains of the asymptotic states (1). In other words, both the theoretical assumptions and the empirical model outlined in this paper demonstrate that when a functional relationship between manufacturing and services is established (servitization), economic performance is positive or very positive.El presente artículo analiza un modelo teórico para explicar el vínculo entre servitización y competitividad territorial basado en estudio empírico de tal relación en Italia. Un supuesto clave es que, una vez que se establece el vínculo entre la manufactura y KIBS dentro de un TES, hay una retroalimentación positiva entre el aumento de la productividad (competitividad) y el vínculo entre las empresas productoras y los KIBS se genera una dinámica de retroalimentación positiva que conduce a un aumento de la productividad (competitividad). Esto implica que cada paso evolutivo del sistema influye en el siguiente y, por lo tanto, en la evolución de todo el sistema, se generan interdependencias (generando así dependencia del camino). Tal sistema tiene un alto número de estados asintóticos, y durante el estado inicial (tiempo cero), choques imprevistos u otros tipos de fluctuaciones, pueden llevar al sistema a cualquiera de los diferentes dominios de los estados asintóticos (1). En otras palabras, tanto los supuestos teóricos como el modelo empírico esbozado en este trabajo demuestran que cuando se establece una relación funcional entre manufactura y servicios (servitización), el desempeño económico es positivo o muy positivo

Hydrogeochemical changes before and during the 2016 Amatrice-Norcia seismic sequence (central Italy)

Seismic precursors are an as yet unattained frontier in earthquake studies. With the aim of making a step towards this frontier, we present a hydrogeochemical dataset associated with the 2016 Amatrice- Norcia seismic sequence (central Apennines, Italy), developed from August 24th, with an Mw 6.0 event, and culminating on October 30th, with an Mw 6.5 mainshock. The seismic sequence occurred during a seasonal depletion of hydrostructures, and the four strongest earthquakes (Mw ≥ 5.5) generated an abrupt uplift of the water level, recorded up to 100 km away from the mainshock area. Monitoring a set of selected springs in the central Apennines, a few hydrogeochemical anomalies were observed months before the onset of the seismic swarm, including a variation of pH values and an increase of As, V, and Fe concentrations. Cr concentrations increased immediately after the onset of the seismic sequence. On November 2016, these elements recovered to their usual low concentrations. We interpret these geochemical anomalies as reliable seismic precursors for a dilational tectonic setting

Transport infrastructures and regional development: The discovery of centrality of the container terminal of Gioia Tauro in the Mediterranian

European container terminals of Mediterranean are enjoying of a discovery on the more dynamics routes of the whole world that link Europe to Far East-Pacific. This centrality consists in the acquisition of a relative advantage in terms of 6 -7 days less of navigation respect to big ports of call of North Europe. In this framework, the new installation of Gioia Tauro?s container terminal is demonstrating to be one of the most important junctions of transhipment of South Europe. This could manifest completely his potentialities in the same measures in which will be guided at the same time adequate territorial policies and lay the bases for logistic systems of high level. This means to direct in the national and continental hinterland the construction of a system of infrastructures of road and railway junctions necessarily adequate and advanced in terms of technician level and capacity of response. Only in this sense it will be possible to initiate a competition forms among economic systems in a territorial base rather than among single productive units. In fact, after a ten-year period of interventions for sectors, transeuropean network of transportation could start to considered as a first systematic tentative of integrated actions among transportation politics and regional politics of European Union. By starting, therefore, by a systemic approach, the paper turns to a simulation model and to specific inquiry on the field to gather the impacts of the container terminal to territorial level. The aim is to verify if and in which way the politics of national and community transport linked to the birth of container port of Gioia Tauro, will assume the features of a complex regional development politics able to mitigate and/or prevent the imbalances become worse in the ambit of European Union

Espacio-tiempo caótico

En este artículo se demuestra cómo la consideración de una mecánica caótica suministra una redefinición del  espacio-tiempo en la teoría de la relatividad especial. En particular, el tiempo caótico significa que no hay una  posibilidad de definir el ordenamiento temporal lo que implica una ruptura de la causalidad. Las nuevas  transformaciones caóticas entre las coordenadas espaciotemporales ‘indeterminadas’ no son más lineales y  homogéneas. Los principios de inercia y el impulso de la conservación de la energía ya no son bien definidos y  en todo caso no son más invariantes.In this paper we have shown how the consideration of a chaotic mechanics supplies a redefinition of  special‑relativistic space‑time. In particular chaotic time means no possibility of defining temporal ordering and  implies a breakdown of causality. The new chaotic transformations among ‘undetermined’ space‑time  coordinates are no more linear and homogeneous. The principles of inertia and of energy‑impulse conservation are no longer well defined and in any case no more invariant

Editorial for the Special Issue "Remote Sensing of Target Detection in Marine Environment"

First paragraph: Remote sensing is a powerful tool used to obtain an unprecedented amount of information about the ocean from a distance, usually from satellites or aircrafts. Measurements collected by active and passive remote sensing instruments can be used for both marine and maritime applications. They allow monitoring of vast areas of the Earth that are difficult to access and sample using traditional methods. Within this context, the observation of targets at sea, e.g.; man-made targets (ships or oil/gas rigs/platforms and wind turbines) and natural targets (icebergs, surfactants, etc.) is nowadays a very hot-topic in the field of global monitoring of environment and security

Le territoire de Crotone

La Calabre centre-orientale rencontre ses limites géographiques avec les fleuves Trionto au nord et Ancinale au sud, tandis que la mer Ionienne et le plateau de la Sila constituent respectivement les limites orientale et occidentale (fig. 1). A l’intérieur de ce vaste territoire, la chora de Crotone (Kroton dans l’Antiquité), située entre les bassins hydrographiques des fleuves Tacina au sud-ouest et Neto au nord, montre des caractéristiques géologiques et morphologiques unitaires qui la dist..

ORIGEN Y EVOLUCIÓN DE LA GESTIÓN DE LA LEGITIMIDAD EN LA EDUCACIÓN SUPERIOR

What is being researched and which is the sources of knowledge? Those are questions that researchers ask in the construction of new scientific advances. Research on legitimacy and higher education has grown in recent years. This make difficult to get a current view of the situation in which this field of research is. The purpose of this research is to identify and visualize the current state of research in the field of legitimacy and higher education. Through a bibliometric methodology based on co-citations, the current intellectual structure of this research field is analyzed. Furthermore, the main research areas, the main contributors and the means of dissemination of this knowledge are identified. This work contributes to the development of the field of legitimacy and higher education by providing an integral vision of the situation of this domain, a starting point and an adequate theoretical basis for researchers to build new advances