A small satellite mission devoted to mid-low latitude earth observation

This paper aims at assessing the feasibility of a small mission devoted to observe the mid-low latitude regions. The satellite will be equipped with three optical sensors: a medium-high spatial resolution VIS-NIR multi-spectral sensor, allowing the surface monitoring and land-use and land-cover studies; a medium spatial-resolution 3-bands thermal (MIR-TIR) sensor allowing the surface temperature (LST, SST) estimate and hot-spots (fires, volcanic eruption, etc.) detection; a panchromatic VIS-NIR camera for night-time observation able to reveal artificial and natural lights. The selected orbit, called multi-sun-synchronous (MSS), represents an innovation with respect to the classical sun-synchronous orbit much suitable for observing tropical regions, allowing an enhanced revisit frequency. Further, such an orbit allows the observation of the same region of the Earth at different local-time. In this way, the diurnal cycle of surface temperatures can be reconstructed with a 2-hours local-time step. An analysis of the capability of the selected ground stations to acquire the data gathered by the remote sensing sensors has been carried out. Orbital perturbations have been taken into account and an estimate of the propellant required for ground track control has been performed in order to verify its compatibility with a small mission requirements

Local pre-industrial communities in Tuscany and the exploitation of water

Since the middle ages, local communities which were able to channel water, organized water powered manufactories and mills, creating over time what were actual “pre-industrial districts”, indivisibly bound to the network of channels that drove the vertical or horizontal blades of the millwheel. Canals, watercourses and waterfalls were as much as factor of production as the land and iron, coal and silver mines, and with time, communities learned to exploit water power with increasing efficiency. Water is by its very nature highly dynamic, and as a consequence, since ancient times, human activity has been directed at taking advantage of it power. Local communities learned to exploit water power increasingly efficiently, transforming the potentional energy of falling water into work. From the middle ages on, controlling, owning and/or managing a water-driven plant meant being in possession of one of the most important aspects of the economy. A water-powered manufactory or mill was, therefore, an economic asset, costly both in terms of initial capital investment and of maintenance, made by man and used repeatedly over the course of different production cycles. The Tuscan case studies in point – Calci (Pisa), Rio dell’Elba (Livorno) and Colle di Val d’Elsa (Siena) – still legible on the land, even if confusedly, vouch for the value of the work culture and that of the land and environment, which belong by right to the resident community

PAPER SCHOOL OR FLESH AND BLOOD SCHOOL? PEDAGOGIC ANALYSIS OF SOME SYMPTOMS OF SUFFERING IN CONTEMPORARY SCHOOLS

This article reflects upon some paradoxes concerning the reality of Italian contemporary school, after more than ten years from the decree enforcing the scholastic autonomy. Starting from the contribution by a teacher selected for his ability to give evidence of the sense of deep unease experienced by the teachers working in the school system, my text highlights the gaps emerging from the law regulations directed to the emphasis of the organizational transformation of the school and the real school, which is asking to review its global educational mandate and revamp the symbolic value of its local culture

Evaluation as an Individual and Organizational Learning Process the Research Experience of the European Project- Edueval

Adult education services – in Italy and Europe – are strongly in need of an advanced evaluation culture. How may we create the necessary conditions for the educational value of high-quality evaluation to be recognized? What does “evaluate” mean for managersof adult education staff? What organizational and relational dimensions are called into play by evaluation practices? How should evaluation be carried out in training groups, occupational skills programmesand in services providing care for fragile adult subjects? What knowledge disciplines should be included in the education and training profile of evaluators who wish to bring mindfulness and rigour to the implementation of their role? This paper examines the aims and instruments adopted by the European project EDUEVAL, presenting the results of a qualitative study conducted with a purposive sample of official and unofficial evaluators in Italian adult education contexts, and exploring the educational and learning dispositives required to make evaluation a practice motivating and fostering high-quality educational work within an organization.

Automatic Archeological Feature Extraction from Satellite VHR Images

Abstract Archaeological applications need a methodological approach on a variable scale able to satisfy the intra-site (excavation) and the inter-site (survey, environmental research). The increased availability of high resolution and micro-scale data has substantially favoured archaeological applications and the consequent use of GIS platforms for reconstruction of archaeological landscapes based on remotely sensed data. Feature extraction of multispectral remotely sensing image is an important task before any further processing. High resolution remote sensing data, especially panchromatic, is an important input for the analysis of various types of image characteristics; it plays an important role in the visual systems for recognition and interpretation of given data. The methods proposed rely on an object-oriented approach based on a theory for the analysis of spatial structures called mathematical morphology. The term ‘‘morphology’’ stems from the fact that it aims at analysing object shapes and forms. It is mathematical in the sense that the analysis is based on the set theory, integral geometry, and lattice algebra. Mathematical morphology has proven to be a powerful image analysis technique; two-dimensional grey tone images are seen as three-dimensional sets by associating each image pixel with an elevation proportional to its intensity level. An object of known shape and size, called the structuring element, is then used to investigate the morphology of the input set. This is achieved by positioning the origin of the structuring element to every possible position of the space and testing, for each position, whether the structuring element either is included or has a nonempty intersection with the studied set. The shape and size of the structuring element must be selected according to the morphology of the searched image structures. Other two feature extraction techniques were used, eCognition and ENVI module SW, in order to compare the results. These techniques were applied to different archaeological sites in Turkmenistan (Nisa) and in Iraq (Babylon); a further change detection analysis was applied to the Babylon site using two HR images as a pre–post second gulf war. We had different results or outputs, taking into consideration the fact that the operative scale of sensed data determines the final result of the elaboration and the output of the information quality, because each of them was sensitive to specific shapes in each input image, we had mapped linear and nonlinear objects, updating archaeological cartography, automatic change detection analysis for the Babylon site. The discussion of these techniques has the objective to provide the archaeological team with new instruments for the orientation and the planning of a remote sensing application. & 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Solitary Langerhans cell histiocytosis orbital lesion: case report and review of the literature

Solitary eosinophilic granuloma is a rather benign and localized form of Langerhans's cell histiocytosis. Definitive diagnosis is made by histopathology including immunohistochemical detection of S-100, HLA-DR and CD1a antigens. We report the case of a twenty-five year old boy presented with headache and orbit's pain. A CT scan showed a left supero-lateral orbital mass with evidence of bone erosion. The different options of treatment are discussed and the literature is reviewed

Infrasound array criteria for automatic detection and front velocity estimation of snow avalanches: Towards a real-time early-warning system

Avalanche risk management is strongly related to the ability to identify and timely report the occurrence of snow avalanches. Infrasound has been applied to avalanche research and monitoring for the last 20 years but it never turned into an operational tool to identify clear signals related to avalanches. We present here a method based on the analysis of infrasound signals recorded by a small aperture array in Ischgl (Austria), which provides a significant improvement to overcome this limit. The method is based on array-derived wave parameters, such as back azimuth and apparent velocity. The method defines threshold criteria for automatic avalanche identification by considering avalanches as a moving source of infrasound. We validate the efficiency of the automatic infrasound detection with continuous observations with Doppler radar and we show how the velocity of a snow avalanche in any given path around the array can be efficiently derived. Our results indicate that a proper infrasound array analysis allows a robust, real-time, remote detection of snow avalanches that is able to provide the number and the time of occurrence of snow avalanches occurring all around the array, which represent key information for a proper validation of avalanche forecast models and risk management in a given area

Genere, etnia e formazione

To be an immigrant woman is a double form of gender and ethnicity stigmatization.To the forms of inferiority that Western women still live, as victims of strong familial and social imbalance, as well as heavy forms of violence and possession, for the immigrant women the present cultural restrictions and the fate of being perceived as “different” will add to, in terms of skin color, language, and the identity that defines them. They are women whose diversity passes by us, often in invisible and silent forms, which we must recognize and welcome as female educators. Through this work of meeting and of knowledge, the skills of gender pedagogy intertwined with those developed by intercultural pedagogy help us.Essere donne immigrate, rappresenta una duplice forma di stigmatizzazione, di genere e di etnia. Alle forme di inferiorizzazione che vivono ancora oggi le donne occidentali, vittime di forti asimmetrie familiari e sociali, di forme pesanti di violenza e di possesso, si sommano per le immigrate le restrizioni culturali d’origine e il destino di essere percepite come “diverse”, per il colore della pelle, per la lingua, per l’identità che le connota. Sono donne la cui diversità ci passa accanto, spesso in forme invisibili e silenziose, a cui come pedagogiste dobbiamo dare riconoscimento e accoglienza. In questo lavoro di incontro e di conoscenza ci aiutano le competenze della pedagogia di genere intrecciate con quelle messe a punto dalla pedagogia interculturale

Waiting for a miracle: a survey of Stanley Kubrick’s unrealized projects

A survey of Stanley Kubrick’s unfinished films generally includes Napoleon, Aryan Papers and A.I. Artificial Intelligence. A few extra projects are commonly included as well: One-Eyed Jacks, The German Lieutenant and The Burning Secret. Three more scripts have enjoyed media recognition recently, after the announcement of their tentative production: Lunatic at Large, The Down Slopeand and God Fearing Man. But this only scratches the surface of the extensive range of cinematic interests that Kubrick manifested. The following article lists all the projects the director considered, developed and abandoned in his career. A study of Kubrick’s work that encompasses his unsuccessful endeavors could help us better understand his tastes, methodology and the necessary ingredients that would make a good film according to Stanley Kubrick