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Planets that are smaller than Mercury and heated to sublimation temperatures of ∼2000 K lose mass catastrophically in dusty evaporative winds. The winds are observed to gust and recede largely without pattern; transit depths from the Kepler mission vary randomly from orbit to orbit by up to a factor of 10 or more. We explain how chaotic outflows may arise by constructing a map for the wind mass-loss rate as a function of time. The map is built on three statements: (1) The wind mass-loss rate scales in proportion to the surface equilibrium vapour pressure, rising exponentially with ground temperature. (2) Because the wind takes a finite time to escape the planet's gravity well, the surface mass-loss rate at any time determines the wind optical depth at a later time—the atmosphere has hysteresis. (3) The ground temperature increases with optical depth (greenhouse effect) when the atmosphere is optically thin and decreases with optical depth when the atmosphere is optically thick (nuclear winter). Statement (3) follows from how dust condenses in the face of intense stellar irradiation. As discussed recently, condensates initially naked before the star must be silicate-rich and iron-poor, staying cool enough for condensation by absorbing weakly in the visible and emitting strongly in the infrared. Later, when grains are numerous enough to self-shield from starlight, they may accrete more iron and reverse their visible-to-infrared opacity ratio. Depending on parameters, the map for the wind can regularly boom and bust between a greenhouse and a nuclear winter, or erupt into chaos. Lyapunov times are measured in orbital periods, the time for the wind to turn by Coriolis forces away from the planet's dayside, out of the Hill sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the practice of drawing sea routes on early modern East Asian maps, specifically focusing on Japanese, Chinese, and Korean maps. The lines on these maps represent mental constructs rather than physical routes, as ships can chart different courses based on changing conditions. Japanese maps often depict a network of routes connecting harbors and islands, emphasizing the archipelago's unity. Chinese maps, on the other hand, tend to focus on connecting China with other regions in Asia, highlighting tribute relations, military matters, and private trade. These maps also integrate the Americas, Europe, and Africa, showcasing Japan's place in an expanding world. The function of route lines on maps can change depending on their audience and purpose. East Asian maps emphasize a present network and maritime integration, challenging the notion of isolation. [Extracted from the article]

This article discusses the classification of route maps using multivariate analysis. The author proposes a model to systematize the classification of route-specific maps based on the features and density of the route line and the information around it. The author conducted a statistical analysis of a corpus of 280 itinerary and route maps from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries, focusing on maps from France and the United States. The analysis resulted in the identification of five classes of maps, ranging from linear and low complexity maps to maps with extensive road networks and detailed information. The study also explores the relationship between map medium and aspect, as well as the evolving representation of geographical space in digital maps. [Extracted from the article]

Comprised of eight charts and eight views that map the coastline of the Americas from Ecuador to Brazil, the Atlas maritimo del Reyno de el Perù, Chile, Costa Patagónica Oriental, y Occidental is an exquisite example of eighteenth-century Spanish American manuscript cartography whose production and content contribute to understanding imperial expansion and artistic exchange in the Atlantic World. Commissioned by a pilot of the Indies fleet and produced in Montevideo, this presentation atlas highlights a confluence of local and imperial interests in the cartographic production of the River Plate region. Sources include the works of prominent European explorers, and analysis of the atlas' elaborate trompe l'oeil cartouches suggests potential artistic links with Andalusia and France. The atlas also reflects changing imperial attitudes towards Patagonia as a geostrategic location, and advances Spanish claims to the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the problem of low positioning accuracy and poor robustness of the lidar SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping), this study proposes a SLAM method that combines IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) data with the three-dimensional point cloud registration process. Based on the research of LeGO-LOAM (Lightweight and Ground-Optimized Lidar Odometry and Mapping on Variable Terrain), IMU data is introduced in the ground point extraction link, and the point cloud is mapped to the world coordinate system to reduce the influence of carrier jitter on the ground point extraction. The output information of IMU is used to eliminate the distortion of the point cloud due to the movement of the carrier and enhance the robustness of the algorithm. The three-point clustering method is used to perform cluster analysis on a frame of point cloud, which reduces the interference of noise, speeds up the point cloud registration process and improves the positioning accuracy of the algorithm. Meanwhile, closed-loop detection is introduced to reduce the cumulative error in the matching process and obtain the global optimal solution. The results show that in a large-scale outdoor interference environment, the improved SLAM algorithm reduces the trajectory fluctuations obtained by the solution, improves the point cloud registration accuracy, and enhances the robustness of the algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on travels undertaken by future students of the Communist University of the Toilers of the East (KUTV). It puts the experience 'on the road' on the map of the transnational world of the Cominternians as a quintessential part of the interwar communist experience. The article sets the backdrop with the initial expectations of the students. Then it discusses the hardships that KUTVians had to endure in their journey and its effect. Finally, it reconstructs the travel experience as a rite of passage towards the Cominternian militant habitus and as a site of political transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric Motion Vectors (AMVs) derived from Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) images are essential to understand atmospheric dynamics, in particular in polar areas where other types of measurements are scarce. EUMETSAT computes AMVs from several sensors on board LEO satellites, including Metop – Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and Sentinel-3 - Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR). Wind observations from these sensors have a positive impact on the Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) systems in which they are assimilated, but show strong speed biases when compared to the forecast model, especially in the tropics and the mid-latitude regions. Studies have tried to characterize these biases from a physical perspective and have hypothesized that a wrong height assignment could be responsible for these biases. In this article, we show however that the real culprit is the tracking algorithm. Indeed, our analysis of an SLSTR AMV dataset revealed that an approximation on the guess vector, combined with a lack of robustness of cross-correlation matching, is responsible for the patterns observed on our AMV bias world maps. As a side product of this finding, we elaborate on the necessity to investigate new algorithms to derive AMVs from LEO platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Initiatives such as the Open Educational Resources (OER) World Map provide a systematic means towards recording activities, documents and individuals related to open education (OE). In this article - which is part of a larger effort to evaluate and extend this World Map - the entries on Brazil and South Africa were critically evaluated in terms of the existing scholarship on open education from these two countries. Clear trends were evident from the World Map and the usefulness of both the methodology and platform to inform gaps and challenges within and across countries in terms of open education, providing inputs that can aid in the design of strategies and international cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the increasingly fragmented forest landscapes, it is necessary to map forest cover with fine spatial resolution in a large area. The European Space Agency (ESA) released the 10 m global land cover map in 2020 based on Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 images, and Dynamic World provides near real-time possibilities of many land cover classes based on Sentinel-2 images, but they are not designed particularly for forest cover. In this research, we aimed to develop a method to automatically estimate an accurate 10 m forest cover map in 2020 by fusing the ESA forest cover map and Dynamic World near real-time forest cover possibilities. The proposed method includes three main steps: (1) generating stable forest samples, (2) determining the threshold T and (3) producing the fused forest cover map. China's Han River Basin, dominated by complex subtropical forests, was used as the study site to validate the performance of the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method could produce a forest cover map with the best overall accuracy of 98.02% ± 1.20% and more accurate spatial details compared to using only one of the two data sources. The proposed method is thus superior in mapping forest cover in complex forest landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shale reserves have become an ever-increasing component of the world's energy map. The optimal design of multi-well multi-stage fracturing (MMF) treatments is essential to the economic development of such resources. However, optimizing MMF treatments is a complex process. It requires geomechanical simulation, reservoir simulation, and automatic optimization. In this work, an integrated workflow is proposed to optimize MMF treatments in an unconventional reservoir, and the net present value (NPV) of reserves was treated as the objective function. The forward model consists of two submodels: a hydraulic fracturing model and a reservoir simulation model. The stochastic simplex approximation gradient (StoSAG) is used with the steepest ascent algorithm to maximize the NPV function. The computational results show that optimizing the fracture design can achieve a 20% higher NPV than that obtained with the field reference case. The drainage area of the optimal design is larger than that of the initial design. The maximum gas production rate increases from 23.75 MMSCF/day to 34.43 MMSCF/day and the maximum oil production rate increases from 497 STB/day to 692 STB/day. Therefore, new optimization paths can accelerate fracture design and help increase well production. This paper innovatively proposes a coupled workflow that can reduce the waste of manpower and improve the optimization results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sozialer Sinn is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Floristic regions reflect the geographic organization of floras and provide essential tools for biological studies. Previous global floristic regions are generally based on floristic endemism, lacking a phylogenetic consideration that captures floristic evolution. Moreover, the contribution of tectonic dynamics and historical and current climate to the division of floristic regions remains unknown. Here, by integrating global distributions and a phylogeny of 12,664 angiosperm genera, we update global floristic regions and explore their temporal changes. Eight floristic realms and 16 nested sub-realms are identified. The previously-defined Holarctic, Neotropical and Australian realms are recognized, but Paleotropical, Antarctic and Cape realms are not. Most realms have formed since Paleogene. Geographic isolation induced by plate tectonics dominates the formation of floristic realms, while current/historical climate has little contribution. Our study demonstrates the necessity of integrating distributions and phylogenies in regionalizing floristic realms and the interplay of macroevolutionary and paleogeographic processes in shaping regional floras. This study updates the floristic realms of the world by integrating global distributions and mega-phylogenies of 12,664 angiosperm genera. Eight realms and 16 sub-realms are identified, most of which have formed since the Paleogene, and their formation is dominated by geographic isolation induced by plate tectonics rather than current or historical climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most people around the world have felt the effects of climate change on their quality of life. This study sought to achieve the maximum efficiency for climate change actions with the minimum negative impact on the well-being of countries and cities. The Climate Change and Country Success (C3S) and Climate Change and Cities' Quality of Life (C3QL) models and maps of the world created as part of this research showed that as economic, social, political, cultural, and environmental metrics of countries and cities improve, so do their climate change indicators. For the 14 climate change indicators, the C3S and C3QL models indicated 68.8% average dispersion dimensions in the case of countries and 52.8% in the case of cities. Our research showed that increases in the success of 169 countries saw improvements in 9 climate change indicators out of the 12 considered. Improvements in country success indicators were accompanied by a 71% improvement in climate change metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our aim was to assess the 5-year h -index (h 5)-index by nation. We aimed to assess the relationship between a nation's h 5-index and numbers of neurosurgeons, population, gross domestic product (GDP), and expenditure on both health and research. Using Web of Science we collected data on each nation's h 5-index and number of publications for the 5-year period 2016 to 2020. Neurosurgical data were collected from the global neurosurgical workforce map provided by the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies. National economic data were collected from the World Bank Open Data provided. We analyzed how economic and neurosurgical factors correlated with h5-index and publication numbers. We report the top 28 countries ranked according to their h 5-index. Regarding the h 5-index the strongest positive relationship was found with GDP, proportion of GDP spent on health and total amount spent on health per capita. In regard to the total number of publications (2016 to 2020), the strongest positive relationship was found with GDP and total number of neurosurgeons. This is the first study to explore the h -index between nations on an international level. GDP and proportion of GDP spent on health expenditure are the strongest correlates of the h 5-index. Although a higher number of neurosurgeons in a nation does result in more publications, this is not necessarily translated into higher quality research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to map the world's scientific production of bacterial and fungal microbiota in mollusks. The research was carried out in the Web of Science database, using "Fungi AND Mollusk" and "Bacteria AND Mollusk" descriptors and publication time between 2001 and 2021. Indexes were built by years, countries, research areas, and two maps of the co-occurrence of terms. There was a progressive increase in the production of microbiota in mollusks, with more research on bacteria during the investigated period. China and USA were the countries with the highest percentage of publications. Research with fungi and bacteria accounted for 28.41 and 17.66% in China, respectively. While the USA, the percentage was 21.05% for fungi and 16.02% for bacteria. Areas such as marine and freshwater biology (24.77%), fisheries (23.86%), biochemistry and molecular biology (18.60%), and pharmacy (17.83%) showed a higher percentage of indexed articles. There was also a high concentration of deposits of publications in the immunology area for both themes. The groups formed for bacteria and fungi indicated that studies had described the immune responses of mollusks, the genetic aspects associated with their defense mechanisms, pathogen virulence factors, and symbiotic and pathogenic microbiota, highlighting genera Vibrio, Aspergillus, and Escherichia coli pathogenic pathotypes. The bacterial and fungal microbiota in mollusks have been studied in several areas of knowledge and have given rise to research that can support the proper management of mollusks, application in the pharmaceutical industry, and implementation of measures in public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I propose a mosaic mode of qualitative analysis that is focused on how social order and regulations are established in a society. In this way researchers can analyze society as a whole and reconstruct how people govern and are governed by mapping social worlds/arenas and situations in an iterative-cyclic mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we show that Hjelmslev's approach to language description and crosslinguistic comparison, on the one hand, and the semantic maps model used in linguistic typology, on the other, differ significantly. Although Hjelmslev paved the way for employing graphic representations as a means to show how each language of the world subdivides the semantic continuum in its own way, he can hardly be considered as a forerunner of the semantic maps tradition. In a nutshell, Hjelmslev's schemas are meant to compare the specific organisation of individual linguistic systems, but the semantic maps method aims at unveiling semantic regularities across languages. The former targets the particular 'grid' imposed by each language on a given semantic space, but the latter abstracts away from specific linguistic systems and posits universal atoms of sense that can be organised in cross-linguistically valid networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data sharing is proposed because the issue of data islands hinders advancement of artificial intelligence technology in the 5G era. Sharing high-quality data has a direct impact on how well machine-learning models work, but there will always be misuse and leakage of data. The field of financial technology, or FinTech, has received a lot of attention and is growing quickly. This field has seen the introduction of new terms as a result of its ongoing expansion. One example of such terminology is "FinTech". This term is used to describe a variety of procedures utilized frequently in the financial technology industry. This study aims to create a cloud-based intrusion detection system based on IoT federated learning architecture as well as smart contract analysis. This study proposes a novel method for detecting intrusions using a cyber-threat federated graphical authentication system and cloud-based smart contracts in FinTech data. Users are required to create a route on a world map as their credentials under this scheme. We had 120 people participate in the evaluation, 60 of whom had a background in finance or FinTech. The simulation was then carried out in Python using a variety of FinTech cyber-attack datasets for accuracy, precision, recall, F-measure, AUC (Area under the ROC Curve), trust value, scalability, and integrity. The proposed technique attained accuracy of 95%, precision of 85%, RMSE of 59%, recall of 68%, F-measure of 83%, AUC of 79%, trust value of 65%, scalability of 91%, and integrity of 83%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HLA frequencies show widespread variation across human populations. Demographic factors as well as selection are thought to have shaped HLA variation across continents. In this study, a worldwide comparison of HLA class I and class II diversity was carried out. Multidimensional scaling techniques were applied to 50 HLA-A and HLA-B (class I) as well as 13 HLA-DRB1 (class II) first-field frequencies in 200 populations from all continents. Our results confirm a strong effect of geography on the distribution of HLA class I allele groups, with principal coordinates analysis closely resembling geographical location of populations, especially those of Africa-Eurasia. Conversely, class II frequencies stratify populations along a continuum of differentiation less clearly correlated to actual geographic location. Double clustering analysis revealed finer intracontinental sub-clusters (e.g., Northern and Western Europe vs. South East Europe, North Africa and Southwest Asia; South and East Africa vs. West Africa), and HLA allele group patterns characteristic of these clusters. Ancient (Austronesian expansion) and more recent (Romani people in Europe) migrations, as well as extreme differentiation (Taiwan indigenous peoples, Native Americans), and interregional gene flow (Sámi, Egyptians) are also reflected by the results. Barrier analysis comparing DST and geographic location identified genetic discontinuities caused by natural barriers or human behavior explaining inter and intra-continental HLA borders for class I and class II. Overall, a progressive reduction in HLA diversity from African to Oceanian and Native American populations is noted. This analysis of HLA frequencies in a unique set of worldwide populations confirms previous findings on the remarkable similarity of class I frequencies to geography, but also shows a more complex development for class II, with implications for both human evolutionary studies and biomedical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in tropical (30 S–30 N) land hydroclimate following CO2‐induced global warming are organized according to climatological aridity index (AI) and daily soil moisture (SM) percentiles. The transform from geographical space to this novel process‐oriented phase space allows for interpretation of local, daily mechanistic relationships between key hydroclimatic variables in the context of time‐mean and/or global‐mean energetic constraints and the wet‐get‐wetter/dry‐get‐drier paradigm. Results from 16 CMIP models show coherent patterns of change in the AI/SM phase space that are aligned with the established soil‐moisture/evapotranspiration regimes. We introduce an active‐rain regime as a special case of the energy‐limited regime. Rainfall shifts toward larger rain totals in this active‐rain regime, with less rain on other days, resulting in an overall SM reduction. Consequently, the regimes where SM constrains evapotranspiration become more frequently occupied, and corresponding hydroclimatic changes align with the position of the critical SM value in the AI/SM phase space. Plain Language Summary: Predictions of terrestrial hydroclimate changes (temperature, precipitation, evaporation, etc.) in a warming world rely largely on model simulations with often diverging results when presented in map view. Here, we introduce a process‐based phase space that organizes the spatial complexity by climatological aridity, and organizes the temporal complexity by daily soil moisture (SM). This allows for the analysis of model predictions in a comprehensive yet compact display which clearly reveals the connections between variables and mechanisms responsible for changes. Key results include the impact of SM limitation on elevated temperature extremes and the repartitioning of rainfall toward fewer, stronger events. This compact display is an efficient new tool for intercomparisons between models. The remarkably clean results suggest quantitative theoretical advances are possible despite the complexity of the system. Key Points: A novel process‐oriented phase space reveals coherent patterns of terrestrial hydroclimate changePatterns emphasize the impact of soil moisture on temperature extremes and the redistribution of rainfall toward more intense eventsPatterns of P − E changes reveal how land differs from the wet‐get‐wetter/dry‐get‐drier paradigm [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most important map in American history is the famous Martin Waldseemüller world map of 1507. Despite this position, its geography contains an unanswered mystery: "What current-day geography is represented by its large northwest landmass?" It appears to mimic the coast of North America, and many contemporary authors agree. There is a problem with this conclusion. The coast of North America was not explored until years after this map's publication. This enigma has been debated for centuries. With the reexamination of maps and information that predates this map (some of which were unavailable to earlier historians), the authors disagree with conventional wisdom and conclude that the continental-sized landmass that superficially resembles North America is actually the island of Cuba, as imagined by Christopher Columbus. Although this has been a minority opinion in the past, the current authors present important new information that leaves their conclusion in little doubt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic climate change is a complex process that does not respect political boundaries. Thus it is argued states are problematic agencies for tackling the global climate emergency. But it is the world political map that provides the geographical ontology foundation of the massive efforts of climate policy development. Geography's long tradition of regional study is suggested as a means of countering focus on states for policy development. Ontological inventions are proposed that transcend states. These take the form of experimenting with geographical regions encompassing human‐environmental interactions as alternative spatial policy framings to the world political map. Three examples are presented: intergovernmental resilient regions for mitigation; localization through urban sustainable regions; and regions for planetary stewardship of humans‐in‐nature. None of these are 'solutions', rather they are illustrations of possible future regional geographies intended to stimulate current cohorts of geographers to contribute necessary regional thinking to the scholarship unpinning climate change policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fourth edition of the international soil classification system World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) was released in 2022. It maintains the 32 Reference Soil Groups at the first classification level. Most qualifiers (second level) and most diagnostic horizons, properties and materials were maintained but some were abolished and new ones introduced. The main part of the fourth edition is followed by six annexes, most of them are new. For the first time, the WRB has a Field Guide (Annex 1) to facilitate field survey and to assure that all field characteristics required in the classification are reported. The fourth edition also provides designations for horizons and layers (Annex 3), which was not the case in the second and the third edition. The wordings of the definitions were harmonized, and the same features are worded in the same way throughout the text (including the annexes). Ambiguities have been corrected and many definitions written in a more concise and a more didactical way. The WRB has a long history. Four editions have been published: 1998, 2006 (with update 2007), 2014 (with update 2015) and 2022. Editor is the Working Group WRB of the International Union of Soil Sciences. The WRB followed the Legend and the Revised Legend of the Soil Map of the World. This map was edited by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and UNESCO, and the system is known as the FAO Soil Classification System. In addition, WRB incorporated ideas from the former Working Group International Reference Base for Soil Classification that existed from 1982 to 1994. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive maps, or mental maps, are externalized portrayals of mental models—people's mental representations of reality and their presumptions about how the world works. They are often used as the intermediary step toward uncovering individuals' presumptions of the outside world. Yet, the next step is often vague: once one's understanding of the real world is mapped, how can we systematically evaluate the maps and compare and contrast them? In this note, we review several common approaches to analyzing cognitive maps, some rooted in network theories, and apply them to a dataset of 30 graduate students who analyzed a complex socioenvironmental problem. Our analysis shows that these methods provide inconsistent results and often fall short of capturing variations in mental models. The analysis points to a lack of effective methods for examining such maps and helps articulate a major research problem for systems‐thinking scholars. © 2023 System Dynamics Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to show that the intertextual perspective activated by Krzysztof Kłosiński, the author of Mimesis w chłopskich powieściach Orzeszkowej (Mimesis in Orzeszkowa's Peasant Novels, 1990), allowed to search for the specificity of the realist novel not as a typical world and people mapping, but as characteristic transformations of literary and non-literary matrices into presentations. Kłosiński's analyses portend what provides foundations of novelistic realism and objectivity: forgotten language productivity, but also compositional and stylistic diversity. Eliza Orzeszkowa, when depicting the country's life after granting land to peasants, referred to other works but, as Kłosiński demonstrated, she consciously transformed them and in many ways to employ them as elements of her own narratives, presentations, and meanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate and efficient large-scale mapping of P. euphratica distribution is of great importance for managing and protecting P. euphratica forests, policy making, and realizing sustainable development goals in the ecological environments of desert areas. In large regions, numerous types of vegetation exhibit spectral characteristics that closely resemble those of P. euphratica, such as Tamarix, artificial forests, and allée trees, posing challenges for the accurate identification of P. euphratica. To solve this issue, this paper presents a method for large-scale P. euphratica distribution mapping. The geographical distribution characteristics of P. euphratica were first utilized to rapidly locate the appropriate region of interest and to further reduce background complexity and interference from other similar objects. Spectral features, indices, phenological features, and backscattering features extracted from all the available Sentinel-2 MSI and Sentinel-1 SAR data from 2021 were regarded as the input for a random forest model used to classify P. euphratica in the GEE platform. The results were then compared with the results from the method using only spectral features and index features, the results from the method that only added phenological features, and the results from the method that added phenological features and backscattering features by visually and quantitatively referencing field-surveyed samples, UAV data, and high-spatial-resolution data from Google Earth Data and Map World. The comparison indicated that the proposed method, which adds both phenological and time-series backscattering features, could correctly distinguish P. euphratica from other types of vegetation that have spectral information similar to P. euphratica. The rates of omission errors (OEs), commission errors (CEs), and overall accuracy (OA) for the proposed method were 12.53%, 11.01%, and 89.32%, respectively, representing increases of approximately 9%, 17%, and 13% in comparison with the method using only spectral and index features. The proposed method significantly improved the accuracy of P. euphratica classification in terms of both omission and, especially, commission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to understand students' knowledge of the use of political maps in flags. Students from a module at the National University of Singapore were provided a six-item questionnaire. The questions asked students to identify countries looking at a map, identify the Korean Unification Flag, identify the first flag of Bangladesh, identify flags with maps, and identify a theme in four different flags with maps. The results showed that Singapore was the most known country (92%), while Brunei was the least known (12%) based on the country's political boundary outline. Only 19% of students were able to identify the countries correctly in the Korean Unification Flag and 31% identified the historic flag of Bangladesh correctly. In the final questions only 13% identified the correct flags with maps, while 36% mentioned the theme of location as a common theme amongst the four flags provided. These results showed that more exposure to these maps and flags is needed. The use of maps in flags can provide a new perspective for cartographic approaches and expand knowledge of cartographic vexillology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Al-Adab / Al-ādāb is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Friedrich Eisenlohr presented a map projection in 1870 that is optimal for a conformal world map of the sphere interrupted along an entire meridian. The projection has received little attention in the literature despite its theoretical importance. This paper gives alternative formulations for the projection and its scale factors and develops an efficient inverse for the projection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the consequences of the rise of foreign state-led investment for international politics? Existing research oscillates between a 'geopolitical' and a 'commercial' logic driving this type of investment and remains inconclusive about its wider international reverberations. In this paper, I suggest going beyond this dichotomy by analyzing its systemic consequences. To do so, I conceptually delineate a geoeconomic approach that emphasizes the globalized nature of foreign state investment. I argue that foreign state investment creates system-level patterns, which can be studied by observing similar sectoral and geographic investment behavior. I map this phenomenon globally for the first time, drawing on the largest dataset on foreign state investment. Empirically, I show how foreign state investment is highly concentrated in Europe, North America and East Asia, and is owned by a handful of dominant states. It is especially European geo-industrial clusters that represent the hotspots of such concentration. The findings also suggest that three global industries – energy production, high-tech manufacturing, and transportation and logistics – form the key areas for current and future state-led investment concentration. With these contributions, the paper illuminates the increasing presence of states as owners in the global political economy, and facilitates its study as a geoeconomic phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A robot can accurately localize itself and navigate in an indoor environment based on information about the operating environment, often called a world or a map. While typical maps describe structural layouts of buildings, the accuracy of localization is significantly affected by non-structural building elements and common items, such as doors, appliances, and furniture. This study enhances the robustness and accuracy of indoor robot localization by dynamically updating the semantic building map with non-structural elements detected by sensors. We propose modified Adaptive Monte Carlo Localization (AMCL), integrating object recognition and map updating into the traditional probabilistic localization. With the proposed approach, a robot can automatically correct errors caused by non-structural elements by updating a semantic building map reflecting the current state of the environment. Evaluations in kidnapped robot and traditional localization scenarios indicate that more accurate and robust pose estimation can be achieved with the map updating capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-quality soil maps are urgently needed by diverse stakeholders, but errors in existing soil maps are often unknown, particularly in countries with limited soil surveys. To address this issue, we used field soil data to assess the accuracy of seven spatial soil databases (Digital Soil Map of the World, Namibian Soil and Terrain Digital Database, Soil and Terrain Database for Southern Africa, Harmonized World Soil Database, SoilGrids1km, SoilGrids250m, and World Inventory of Soil Property Estimates) using topsoil texture as an example soil property and Namibia as a case study area. In addition, we visually compared topsoil texture maps derived from these databases. We found that the maps showed the correct topsoil texture in only 13% to 42% of all test sites, with substantial confusion occurring among all texture categories, not just those in close proximity in the soil texture triangle. Visual comparisons of the maps moreover showed that the maps differ greatly with respect to the number, types, and spatial distribution of texture classes. The topsoil texture information provided by the maps is thus sufficiently inaccurate that it would result in significant errors in a number of applications, including irrigation system design and predictions of potential forage and crop productivity, water runoff, and soil erosion. Clearly, the use of these existing maps for policy- and decision-making is highly questionable and there is a critical need for better on-site estimates and soil map predictions. We propose that mobile apps, citizen science, and crowdsourcing can help meet this need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Talking about the didactics of Brazilian Portuguese as foreign language is not a matter exhaustible just considering the didactics of a foreign language as a series of methodologies devoted to the teaching of specific linguistic and cultural elements, since when we think of the language used in Brazil, we are immediately led to consider the sociolinguistic aspects of this variety of the Portuguese language. In the first stage of learning, the students meet the Portuguese language only as a foreign language which has its geographical placement on the world map; then the students discover that there are differences between the Portuguese of Portugal, the Portuguese of Brazil and the Portuguese spoken in Africa, relating to concepts such as linguistic norms, linguistic registers, variation, and variability. The discourse becomes even more intricate when the difference that exists in Brazilian Portuguese between written and spoken language is presented, and it is necessary to consider that even the most dedicated students show a difficulty in getting around the variational intricacies of Brazilian Portuguese - there not being many occasions in class to reflect on this subject. This issue represents a linguistic, but also a social and cultural fact that learner may meet in his/her experience with this variety of Portuguese. Targeting the development of language skills and knowledge by an independent learner, it is desirable the development of a teaching practice based on communication and interaction that enjoys the potentialities of translation (although it does not directly develop any of the language skills, i.e., reading, writing, speaking and listening) together with credible data that can propose to the learner more verisimilar fictional situations in relation to the linguistic reality of Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chapter 5 turns to the first woodblock-printed Japanese Buddhist world map, which was produced in 1709 - the same year as the second of the two maps discussed in Chapter 4 - and created by a prominent monk of the era, Hotan (1659-1738). Moerman does allude, particularly in Chapter 2, to the specific concerns of Nara monks, but does not, in my view, sufficiently address the vast gulf between the very genres of these maps and their sources, respectively, in competing institutions. The earliest Buddhist maps created in Japan were often inscribed with the movement of the well-known traveler-monk Xuanzang (600-664), who was also historically influential both as an importer-cum-translator of vast quantities of sutras and as a progenitor of what came to be called the Faxiang (Jp. [Extracted from the article]

Following acquisition, digital maps need to be catalogued, but often limited suitable metadata are published with geospatial datasets, and (compared to paper maps) more metadata are needed to properly curate and archive digital map datasets. For map curators, digital maps hold some advantages over paper maps in requiring less physical space to store, in being simpler to copy and in being easier to distribute internationally to diverse audiences. This live, networked, interactive map viewer is able to display and to compare all map datasets that have been deposited, as well as compare different annual deposits of the same mapping over time. [Extracted from the article]

This article presents an alternative approach to reading the temporal layer of medieval mappaemundi by comparing its shape to that of a sundial rather than superimposing a vertical chronological axis on the map. The possible uses of introducing such an analogy are discussed with regard to the late thirteenth-century Hereford world map. While this article does not seek to override established findings, it argues that adding this new interpretation to the existing research could potentially enrich our understanding of the ties between time and space in medieval cartography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nineteenth century marked a turning point in the way that European missionary endeavours were mapped. The expansion of missionary societies and their needs brought to the fore the issue of systematization and visualization of data related to missionization. The primary aim of maps was not to mark the geographical features of an unknown region but to quantify missionary activity and its distribution in various parts of the world, thus marking a shift in focus from exploration to statistics. This article analyses the production, reception and distribution of mission atlases during the nineteenth century, with a case study of Peter Grundemann's Allgemeiner Missions-Atlas (1867–1871), published by Justus Perthes in Gotha, Germany—the first interdenominational missionary world atlas. The appearance of such an atlas illustrates how Protestant societies spread modern Western concepts of mapping and used professionals in the production and marketing of missionary maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the efficiency of machine learning for improving land use/cover classification from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite imagery as a tool that can be used in some sub-Saharan countries that experience frequent clouds. Indeed, we aimed to map the land use and land cover, especially in agricultural areas, using SAR C-band Sentinel-1 (S-1) time-series data over our study area, located in the Kaffrine region of Senegal. We assessed the performance and the processing time of three machine-learning classifiers applied on two inputs. In fact, we applied the random forest (RF), K-D tree K-nearest neighbor (KDtKNN), and maximum likelihood (MLL) classifiers using two separate inputs, namely a set of monthly S-1 time-series data acquired during 2020 and the principal components (PCs) of the time-series dataset. In addition, the RF and KDtKNN classifiers were processed using different tree numbers for RF (10, 15, 50, and 100) and different neighbor numbers for KDtKNN (5, 10, and 15). The retrieved land cover classes included water, shrubs and scrubs, trees, bare soil, built-up areas, and cropland. The RF classification using the S-1 time-series data gave the best performance in terms of accuracy (overall accuracy = 0.84, kappa = 0.73) with 50 trees. However, the processing time was relatively slower compared to KDtKNN, which also gave a good accuracy (overall accuracy = 0.82, kappa = 0.68). Our results were compared to the FROM-GLC, ESRI, and ESA world cover maps and showed significant improvements in some land use and land cover classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores difference within geographical writings in the transition to modernity in nineteenth century China. In some maps, the experiential realities of travelers were valued and expressed. More significantly, landscape maps sometimes pointed to a reality of absence rather than of presence. This contrasted with the arising modern commitment to triangulation, which deleted the phenomenological in favour of an omniscient 'view from nowhere'. It is conventional to treat this transition as an expression of progress in which non-Western scholars started to undo a scientific deficit regarding precision and measurement with the use of new tools, or for postcolonial scholars to propose heroic resistance from native map makers. Against these interpretations, the minutiae in the 1886 Chinese gazetteer Tukao of Tibet do not simply show a progressive or coerced transition, but rather the expression of an inconsistent difference. Tukao reflects different survey methods, producing fundamentally incompatible ontological worlds. The paper shows that the Tukao does not legislate between different practices, and argues that the alterity in Tukao offers lessons for postcolonial theory and practice, avoiding both hegemony of modern science and relativism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents tools that help researchers implement the processes of data-led studies of upper-atmospheric phenomena. These tools were developed as a part of the activities of the Inter-university Upper atmosphere Global Observation NETwork (IUGONET) of Japan, which is a project to develop infrastructure for upper-atmospheric research data. This paper focuses on the data service named IUGONET Type-A, which was launched in October 2016 and has since evolved. In addition to being a conventional metadata catalogue, it has many other useful functions: an easy cross-searching system, a quick-look data-plotting procedure, an interactive data visualization system named UDAS web, and strong linkage with analysis software. Users can pick up relevant data from a huge number of data sets using either lists categorized by instruments/projects, observed regions and special campaigns or a world map of observatories. Users can quickly find the time, location and nature of phenomena that occurred by comparing the quick-look plots of various data displayed by the browser. UDAS web allows researchers to interactively create stacked plots of various data types that can facilitate the understanding of the relationships among phenomena observed in different regions. Furthermore, it presents a command list for software dedicated to data analysis that can smoothly lead users to perform detailed analyses. IUGONET Type-A provides a one-stop data service that can assist users in searching, examining and comprehending data for advanced analysis. It is also capable of handling old data, including analogue data and written paper documents. Thus, it will provide useful support for innovative interdisciplinary scientific research on solar-terrestrial phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WHERE IS PORTUGAL? This article examines the various locations of Portugal on the World map. It then attempts to find coherence in the collection of sites that are summarized by a single toponym. At the same time, it illustrates the diversity of meanings of a place from my experience as an individual, both rational and emotional, esthetic or ethical, which are presented in boxes inserted in the text. For me as a person, the question "Where are my Portugals?" also arises, and the many answers I have given through my various geographical practices are not easily unified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]