scholarly journals Virtual Geosite Communication through a WebGIS Platform: A Case Study from Santorini Island (Greece)

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 5466
Author(s):  
Federico Pasquaré Mariotto ◽  
Varvara Antoniou ◽  
Kyriaki Drymoni ◽  
Fabio Luca Bonali ◽  
Paraskevi Nomikou ◽  
...  

We document and show a state-of-the-art methodology that could allow geoheritage sites (geosites) to become accessible to scientific and non-scientific audiences through immersive and non-immersive virtual reality applications. This is achieved through a dedicated WebGIS platform, particularly handy in communicating geoscience during the COVID-19 era. For this application, we selected nine volcanic outcrops in Santorini, Greece. The latter are mainly associated with several geological processes (e.g., dyking, explosive, and effusive eruptions). In particular, they have been associated with the famous Late Bronze Age (LBA) eruption, which made them ideal for geoheritage popularization objectives since they combine scientific and educational purposes with geotourism applications. Initially, we transformed these stunning volcanological outcrops into geospatial models—the so called virtual outcrops (VOs) here defined as virtual geosites (VGs)—through UAV-based photogrammetry and 3D modeling. In the next step, we uploaded them on an online platform that is fully accessible for Earth science teaching and communication. The nine VGs are currently accessible on a PC, a smartphone, or a tablet. Each one includes a detailed description and plenty of annotations available for the viewers during 3D exploration. We hope this work will be regarded as a forward model application for Earth sciences' popularization and make geoheritage open to the scientific community and the lay public.

Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 149
Author(s):  
Federico Pasquaré Pasquaré Mariotto ◽  
Fabio Luca Bonali

In this paper, we have adopted a modern, cutting-edge methodology to make geoheritage sites (geosites) available and explorable worldwide, through both immersive and non-immersive virtual reality, particularly suitable also in COVID-19 times. In doing this, we have focused our attention on five different outcroppings, shallow magma bodies in Iceland: such geological objects, although being often underestimated, are, on the contrary, very suitable for geoheritage popularization purposes. These outstanding outcrops have been transformed in virtual outcrops (VOs) through UAV-based photogrammetry 3D modelling, and have been uploaded on a brand-new, dedicated online resource (GeoVires Virtual Reality Lab for Earth Sciences) which is accessible worldwide for Earth Science teaching and communication. As already stressed above, the choice of these Icelandic shallow magma bodies has been suggested by the fact that such geological objects, although extraordinarily challenging both in terms of geotourism and teaching, are seldom the object of attention from the international scientific community. The five VOs are defined here as virtual geosites (VGs) because they are, indeed, geosites that are fully accessible with a smartphone, a tablet, or a PC; moreover, each is provided with a detailed description and notes available during 3D exploration. Our work could represent a model for future, similar efforts aimed at popularizing Earth Sciences and making geoheritage available to a broad public through VGs.


Author(s):  
Ginestra Bianconi

Defining the centrality of nodes and layers in multilayer networks is of fundamental importance for a variety of applications from sociology to biology and finance. This chapter presents the state-of-the-art centrality measures able to characterize the centrality of nodes, the influences of layers or the centrality of replica nodes in multilayer and multiplex networks. These centrality measures include modifications of the eigenvector centrality, Katz centrality, PageRank centrality and Communicability to the multilayer network scenario. The chapter provides a comprehensive description of the research of the field and discusses the main advantages and limitations of the different definitions, allowing the readers that wish to apply these techniques to choose the most suitable definition for his or her case study.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 1862
Author(s):  
Alexandros-Georgios Chronis ◽  
Foivos Palaiogiannis ◽  
Iasonas Kouveliotis-Lysikatos ◽  
Panos Kotsampopoulos ◽  
Nikos Hatziargyriou

In this paper, we investigate the economic benefits of an energy community investing in small-scale photovoltaics (PVs) when local energy trading is operated amongst the community members. The motivation stems from the open research question on whether a community-operated local energy market can enhance the investment feasibility of behind-the-meter small-scale PVs installed by energy community members. Firstly, a review of the models, mechanisms and concepts required for framing the relevant concepts is conducted, while a clarification of nuances at important terms is attempted. Next, a tool for the investigation of the economic benefits of operating a local energy market in the context of an energy community is developed. We design the local energy market using state-of-the-art formulations, modified according to the requirements of the case study. The model is applied to an energy community that is currently under formation in a Greek municipality. From the various simulations that were conducted, a series of generalizable conclusions are extracted.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron E. Gray ◽  
Alexis T. Riche ◽  
Isabel J. Shinnick-Gordon ◽  
James C. Sample

AbstractDespite earning half of all science and engineering undergraduate degrees between 2007 and 2016 in the USA, women were awarded only 39% of earth science degrees in the same time period. In order to better understand why women are both choosing and staying in geology programs, we conducted a multi-case study of nine current female undergraduate geology majors at a large public university in the USA within a department that is at gender parity among its undergraduate majors. The main data source was audio-recorded critical incident interviews of each participant. Data from the interviews were analyzed through an iterative coding process using codes adapted from previous studies that focused on factors both internal and external to the department. The students said that personal interests, influence by others outside of the department, and introductory classes attracted them to the geology program, but once declared, departmental factors such as relationship with faculty caused them to stay. We also found an emphasis on female role models, especially those teaching introductory courses. We believe this study offers important insights into the ways in which factors leading to recruitment and retention play out in the lived experiences of female geology majors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saba Moeinizade ◽  
Ye Han ◽  
Hieu Pham ◽  
Guiping Hu ◽  
Lizhi Wang

AbstractMultiple trait introgression is the process by which multiple desirable traits are converted from a donor to a recipient cultivar through backcrossing and selfing. The goal of this procedure is to recover all the attributes of the recipient cultivar, with the addition of the specified desirable traits. A crucial step in this process is the selection of parents to form new crosses. In this study, we propose a new selection approach that estimates the genetic distribution of the progeny of backcrosses after multiple generations using information of recombination events. Our objective is to select the most promising individuals for further backcrossing or selfing. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, a case study has been conducted using maize data where our method is compared with state-of-the-art approaches. Simulation results suggest that the proposed method, look-ahead Monte Carlo, achieves higher probability of success than existing approaches. Our proposed selection method can assist breeders to efficiently design trait introgression projects.


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