Custom Dual Transportation Mode Detection by Smartphone Devices Exploiting Sensor Diversity

Making applications aware of the mobility experienced by the user can open the door to a wide range of novel services in different use-cases, from smart parking to vehicular traffic monitoring. In the literature, there are many different studies demonstrating the theoretical possibility of performing Transportation Mode Detection (TMD) by mining smart-phones embedded sensors data. However, very few of them provide details on the benchmarking process and on how to implement the detection process in practice. In this study, we provide guidelines and fundamental results that can be useful for both researcher and practitioners aiming at implementing a working TMD system. These guidelines consist of three main contributions. First, we detail the construction of a training dataset, gathered by heterogeneous users and including five different transportation modes; the dataset is made available to the research community as reference benchmark. Second, we provide an in-depth analysis of the sensor-relevance for the case of Dual TDM, which is required by most of mobility-aware applications. Third, we investigate the possibility to perform TMD of unknown users/instances not present in the training set and we compare with state-of-the-art Android APIs for activity recognition.Comment: Pre-print of the accepted version for the 14th Workshop on Context and Activity Modeling and Recognition (IEEE COMOREA 2018), Athens, Greece, March 19-23, 201

A P. menziesii var. menziesii (=viridis) (Schwerin) Franco stand description dataset: a case study of Pavari's experimental Plot 412 ninety years after plantation

This paper describes a dataset containing the historical series of dendrometric data from a P. menziesii var. menziesii (=viridis) (Schwerin) Franco plantation. Implemented in 1932, the plantation is located in “Rio di Mercurella” place, in the Tyrrhenian coastal mountain range of Calabria region (Southern Italy). The experimental plot has been identified as Plot 412 and is characterized by trees with a relevant role for forest community biodiversity. The monitoring started in 1940.  The dataset reported five of all the inventories Until 2013, inventories have been carried out by Istituto Sperimentale di Selvicoltura and Unità di Ricerca per la Selvicoltura in Ambiente Mediterraneo, now CREA Forestry and Wood research centre which has taken over the last two. The following data have been collected: position, number, diameter at breast heigh (DBH) of all the trees and total height (Ht) of a trees sample. Collected data are an important historical source and testimony the first experimental test of P. menziesii introduction which will have to be monitored in the future and will constitute a fundamental contribution to enrich the knowledge on appropriate management in Calabria and evaluate the health state and stability of the forest stand in the future

Why reintroducing military conscription in Europe would be counterproductive

The reintroduction of military conscription has frequently been proposed as a way to instil national values in younger citizens. These arguments have gained added significance in Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Drawing on new research, Vincenzo Bove, Riccardo Di Leo and Marco Giani argue that many of the proposed benefits of conscription are difficult to identify empirically. Indeed, far from fostering cohesion among citizens, conscription appears to be linked to a decline in institutional trust

Drift-Free Integration in Inductive Magnetic Field Measurements Achieved by Kalman Filtering

Sensing coils are inductive sensors commonly used to measure magnetic fields, such as those generated by electromagnets used in many kinds of industrial and scientific applications. Inductive sensors rely on integrating the output voltage at the coil’s terminals in order to obtain flux linkage, which may suffer from the magnification of low-frequency noise resulting in a drifting integrated signal. This article presents a method for the cancellation of integrator drift. The method is based on a first-order linear Kalman filter combining the data from the coil and a second sensor. Two case studies are presented. In the first one, the second sensor is a Hall probe, which senses the magnetic field directly. In a second case study, the magnet’s excitation current was used instead to provide a first-order approximation of the field. Experimental tests show that both approaches can reduce the measured field drift by three orders of magnitude. The Hall probe option guarantees, in addition, one order of magnitude better absolute accuracy than by using the excitation current

Does industry resilience matter for postshock industrial policy? A focus on tourism-related industries

Selective industrial policies have been increasingly used by governments to achieve desired normative goals. However, they have been revealed to be complex and vulnerable interventions, demanding robust tools able to justify choices and mitigate potential ‘government failures’. In light of the emerging challenges and potential disruptions that might threaten our economies and societies, we contend that postshock industry resilience can be a valuable analytical framework to understand how different sectors react to unforeseen shocks. Accordingly, we present a methodology that measures postshock industry resilience and apply it to the Italian case in the aftermath of the 2008 shock. Particular attention is devoted to tourism-related industries. Main findings show that the industries reacted heterogeneously to the 2008 shock. For tourism-related industries, the results suggest following an ad hoc approach to the analysis of each tourism-focused industry to avoid generalizations that might lead to incorrect policy interpretations