Urban animals – domestic, stray and wild: notes from a bear repopulation project in the alps

This piece explores “domesticity” as a social territory defined by its relationship with the conceptual and ecological space of “the wild,” and asks whether these spaces stand in opposition to each other or more subtle relations of co-implication are at play. As we look into the domestic and the wild, a conceptual map of notions emerges, including the public, the common, the civilized, and the barbarian. The paper suggests the domestic and the wild constitute two semiotic-ecological domains constantly stretching into each other without any stable or even clear boundary line, and it elaborates on a series of corollaries for studying non-human animals in urban contexts. As an illustrative case study, we follow the story of Daniza, a wild brown bear introduced in the Brenta Natural Park on the Italian Alps in the 2000s. Declared a “dangerous animal,” Daniza was accidentally, and controversially, killed by the public authorities in 2014.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Through thick and thin: young people's affective geographies in Brussels' public space

Young people's interaction with place is not only a cognitive process of identification but also an affective relation. There has been plenty of research on young people and/in public space but few of those studies have taken such an affective layer of analysis into account. In this paper we aim to shed some light on young people's affective geographies through the concept of ‘thick places’ as it was proposed by Edward Casey (2001), building upon ethnographic research undertaken between 2013 and 2016 in Brussels. We argue that such a concept is only useful if we consider thickness not only as a reference to ‘warm’, ‘authentic’ or ‘intimate’ places but also as a term that takes the ‘normative architecture’ of place into account. We embed this claim in a discussion of affects, atmospheres and Peter Sloterdijk's notion of nomotop.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

SEMANTIC SEGMENTATION of BENTHIC COMMUNITIES from ORTHO-MOSAIC MAPS

Visual sampling techniques represent a valuable resource for a rapid, non-invasive data acquisition for underwater monitoring purposes.Long-term monitoring projects usually requires the collection of large quantities of data, and the visual analysis of a human expertoperator remains, in this context, a very time consuming task. It has been estimated that only the 1-2%of the acquired images are lateranalyzed by scientists (Beijbom et al., 2012). Strategies for the automatic recognition of benthic communities are required to effectivelyexploit all the information contained in visual data. Supervised learning methods, the most promising classification techniques in thisfield, are commonly affected by two recurring issues: the wide diversity of marine organism, and the small amount of labeled data.In this work, we discuss the advantages offered by the use of annotated high resolution ortho-mosaics of seabed to classify and segmentthe investigated specimens, and we suggest several strategies to obtain a considerable per-pixel classification performance although theuse of a reduced training dataset composed by a single ortho-mosaic. The proposed methodology can be applied to a large number ofdifferent species, making the procedure of marine organism identification an highly adaptable tas

Evasion of Gaseous Elemental Mercury from Forest and Urban Soils Contaminated by Historical and Modern Ore Roasting Processes (Idrija, Slovenia)

Considerable amounts of gaseous elemental mercury (Hg-0) can be released into the atmosphere from Hg-enriched substrates, such as those from former mining areas, posing a potential environmental threat. In this work, Hg-0 fluxes at the soil-air interface under natural vegetation covers were measured in various locations within the Idrija Hg mining area (Slovenia) and its surroundings. Sites were selected in order to compare Hg-0 fluxes from both forest soils heavily impacted by historical ore roasting and urban soils characterised by a different degree of Hg enrichment due to the natural occurrence of Hg in rocks or recent mining and roasting processes. Replicate measurements at each site were conducted using a non-steady state flux chamber coupled with a real-time Hg-0 analyser (Lumex RA-915M). Moreover, topsoil samples (0-2 cm) were analysed for Hg total concentration and speciation. Cinnabar was the predominant Hg form in almost all the sites. Despite Hg-0 being undetectable in soils using thermo-desorption, substantial emissions were observed (70.7-701.8 ng m(-2) h(-1)). Urban soils in a naturally enriched area showed on average the highest Hg-0 fluxes, whereas relatively low emissions were found at the historical roasting site, which is currently forested, despite the significantly high total Hg content in soils (up to 219.0 and 10,400 mg kg(-1), respectively). Overall, our findings confirm that shading by trees or litter may effectively limit the amount of Hg-0 released into the atmosphere even from extremely enriched soils, thus acting as a natural mitigation

Treatment and posttreatment effects of a facial mask combined with a bite-block appliance in Class III malocclusion.

Abstract INTRODUCTION: In this cephalometric investigation, we analyzed the treatment and posttreatment effects of an orthopedic protocol for Class III malocclusion consisting of a facial mask combined with a removable bite-block appliance. METHODS: The treated sample consisted of 22 Class III patients treated with the facial mask and bite-block protocol before the pubertal growth spurt (mean age, 8.9 +/- 1.5 years). Treated subjects were evaluated after facial mask and bite-block therapy and at a posttreatment observation in absence of retention. The treated group was compared with a matched control group of 12 untreated Class III subjects. All treated and control subjects were postpubertal at the final observation. Significant differences between the treated and control groups were assessed with the Mann-Whitney U test (P <0.05). RESULTS: Both angular and linear sagittal measurements of the maxilla showed significant improvements during active treatment. Significant improvements of SNA angle, ANB angle, overjet, and molar relationship remained stable during the posttreatment period. No significant effect was found in the mandibular skeletal measures. No significant protraction of the maxillary incisors or retraction of the mandibular incisors was observed. CONCLUSIONS: A bite-block appliance in the mandibular arch with a facial mask enabled effective control of mandibular rotation with progressive closure of the gonial angle. This added to the favorable maxillary outcomes of the treatment protocol. 2010 American Association of Orthodontists. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved

SEMANTIC SEGMENTATION OF BENTHIC COMMUNITIES FROM ORTHO-MOSAIC MAPS

Visual sampling techniques represent a valuable resource for a rapid, non-invasive data acquisition for underwater monitoring purposes. Long-term monitoring projects usually requires the collection of large quantities of data, and the visual analysis of a human expert operator remains, in this context, a very time consuming task. It has been estimated that only the 1-2% of the acquired images are later analyzed by scientists (Beijbom et al., 2012). Strategies for the automatic recognition of benthic communities are required to effectively exploit all the information contained in visual data. Supervised learning methods, the most promising classification techniques in this field, are commonly affected by two recurring issues: the wide diversity of marine organism, and the small amount of labeled data. In this work, we discuss the advantages offered by the use of annotated high resolution ortho-mosaics of seabed to classify and segment the investigated specimens, and we suggest several strategies to obtain a considerable per-pixel classification performance although the use of a reduced training dataset composed by a single ortho-mosaic. The proposed methodology can be applied to a large number of different species, making the procedure of marine organism identification an highly adaptable task.</p