Spatial Peculiarities Research Articles

Spatial tendencies and peculiarities of socio-economic development of cities and rural areas of a region

Modern dynamic development of the Ukrainian society and its integration into global social and economic space is followed by emergence of a wide range of problems (internal and external calls and threats of political and financial and economic nature; spatial deformations at the regional and local levels, growth of a fragmentariness and asymmetry in social and economic development of regions, areas, cities and rural territories, lack of systemic nature and coordination of all participants of regional development), the majority of which is especially sharply shown at the regional level. In this regard, there is a need to reveal the spatial development characteristics and problems of the cities and rural territories for Ukrainian regions, to identify their weaknesses and strengths, in order to determine the optimal mechanism for improving spatial development, which would in the future allow for efficient combining of the state and regional interests in the process of ensuring sustainable development of social and economic space and its regional subsystems. The basic spatial tendencies and characteristic features of socio-economic development of cities and rural territories of Zaporizhia region are highlighted, as well as the optimum mechanism of improvement of their spatial development taking into account regional specificity is outlined. The analysis of the main socio-economic and spatial development indicators allowed us to identify the main characteristics of the urbanization process in the region and its impact on the development of suburban areas. Ranging of cities and areas of the region by the level of social and economic development by means of an integrated index of economic development of the cities and districts of the Zaporizhia region based on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of various aspects of social and economic dynamics of their development is carried out. This approach allowed us to ensure the validity and methodological correctness of comparisons of cities and districts parameters in Zaporizhia region by partial integral indexes (economic, social and environmental), and also to determine the place of each of them by rating in the region, which allowed to reliably estimate the depth and extent of their socio-economic development differentiation.

Raphael’s workshop at Villa Farnesina in Rome: the frescoed vault of Cupid and Psyche investigated by macro-X-ray fluorescence scanning

An acquisition campaign of macro-X-ray fluorescence scanning measurements on the vault of the Loggia of Cupid and Psyche, frescoed by Raphael and his workshop in the Villa Farnesina (Rome), supplied the occasion of testing the potentialities for such diagnostic tool/technique in studying wall paintings in situ. In this paper, the methodological approach is considered in depth, to highlight significant problematics deriving from nature of materials, painting technique and spatial peculiarities of this kind of artwork, as well as from the treatment and decoding of raw data. Data obtained through a single-spot XRF campaign, carried out during the past restorations of the Loggia, have been considered for comparisons.

Temperature and Humidity Regime Changes on the Black Sea Coast in 1982-2014

Specific features of climate change in the Black Sea and on its northeastern coast for the period of 1982-2014 are investigated based on weather station data, ERA-Interim reanalysis, and satellite data on sea surface temperature. The main trends in air temperature and precipitation are revealed from weather station data and are compared with reanalysis data. The spatial peculiarities of variations in air temperature, integrated water vapor, moisture flux divergence, CAPE, and vertical velocity are analyzed. It is shown that air temperature variations on the coast highly correlate with sea surface temperature. In general, surface air temperature in the region has risen, especially in summer. Despite the increase in integrated water vapor and CAPE, no statistically significant increase was revealed for the mean amount of precipitation, for its intensity and maximum values. This fact might be associated with the moisture flux divergence increase in the region due to the intensification of large-scale downdrafts.

A Novel Approach on Document Mining Using Dirichlet Process Mixture Models and Its Kernels

In machine learning and data mining tasks, Clustering is treated to be one of the most crucial approaches. The same sorts of documents are gathered by operating clustering approaches. Similarity measuring is used to resolve transaction liaisons. Hierarchical clustering model provoke tree structured results. Partitioned based clustering produces the result in a grid format. Text documents are unstructured data values with high spatial peculiarities. Document clustering association transforms unlabeled text documents into meaningful clusters. In the event of document grouping process, conventional clustering methods need cluster count (K). Clustering accuracy impair awfully with reference to the unsuitable cluster count. It is observed that document features are undoubtedly partitioned into two groups namely - discriminative words and non-discriminative words. In peculiar, discriminative words are only useful for grouping documents. The involvement of non-discriminative words amaze the clustering process and leads to poor clustering result in return. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for document clustering using Dirichlet process mixture models. We have taken Indian Dhobi System and analyze his/her working style using R programming.

Geoinformation approach to the urban geographic system research (case studies of Kharkiv region)

Research problem introduction. The main research goal of this paper is to provide the urban geosystem research concept with both the theoretical basics presentation of GIS involvement in urban studies, and with examples of its practical applications. An urbogeosystem (UGS) has been presented not as a simple aggregate of cities, but as the emergent entity that produced complicated interconnections and interdependencies among its constituents. By the urbogeosystem concept the authors attempt to introduce a reliable research approach that has been deliberately developed to identify the nature and spatial peculiarities of the urbanization process in a given area. The exigency of this concept elaboration is listed by the number of needs and illustrated with ordinary 2D digital city cadaster limitations. The methodological background has been proposed, and its derivative applied solutions meet the number of necessities for more efficient urban mapping, city understanding, and municipal mana-gement. The geoinformation concept of the urban geographic system research. External and internal urbogeosystems. The authors explain why an UGS can be formalized as three major components: an aggregate of point features, a set of lines, an aggregate of areal features. The external UGS represents a set of cities, the internal one – a set of delineated areas within one urban territory. Algorithmic sequence of the urbogeosystem study with a GIS. The authors introduce algorithmic sequence of research provision with GIS, in which the LiDAR data processing block has been examined in the details with the procedure of the automated feature extraction explanation. Relevant software user interface sample of the visualization of the urban modeled feature attributes is provided. A case study of the external urbogeosystem. The regional case study of the external urbogeosystem modeling is introduced with GIS MapInfo Professional. The authors present the spatial econometric analysis for commuting study directed to a regional workforce market. The results of the external UGS research mainly correspond to some published social economic regularities in the area, but nonetheless it also demonstrates significant deviations that may be explained by this system’s emergent properties. Case studies of the internal urbogeosystem of Kharkiv-City. Two case studies of the internal urbogeosystem of Kharkiv City have been demonstrated, too. In the first one, automated feature extraction provided by the authors’ original software from LiDAR data has been applied for modeling this UGS content throughout a densely built-up urban parcel. In another case the GIS-analysis of the urbogeosystem functional impact on the catering services spatial distribution has been provided with the ArcGIS software. Results and conclusion. Summarizing all primary and derivative data processed with this technique as well as generalizing key ideas discussed in the text, the authors underline this whole methodological approach as such that can be considered as a general outlining showing how to use geoinformation software for the analysis of urban areas. Concluding their research, the authors emphasize that the urbogeosystem concept may be quite useful for visualization and different analysis applied for urban areas, including city planning, facility and other municipal management methods. The short list of the obtained results has been provided at the end of the text.

The spatial peculiarities of economic and social convergence in Central and Eastern Europe

The spatial peculiarities of economic and social convergence in Central and Eastern Europe

A questão da mobilidade nos projetos de urbanização: o teleférico como modal de transporte nas favelas

Este artigo expõe um estudo sobre o teleférico como um equipamento implantado pelo poder público nas favelas de encostas para solucionar a mobilidade urbana. Os projetos apresentados são o Metrocable em Medellín, que se tornou um modelo para os projetos realizados posteriormente no Rio de Janeiro: o teleférico do Complexo do Alemão, o teleférico do morro da Providência e o projeto para o teleférico da favela da Rocinha. A princípio é exposta a questão da mobilidade nas favelas de encostas com suas peculiaridades espaciais e os transportes existentes nas favelas do Rio de Janeiro: tanto os alternativos e informais, quanto os equipamentos executados pelo Estado, como os planos inclinados da favela do Pavão Pavãozinho e do morro Santa Marta, assim como o elevador do Cantagalo. Por fim, aprofunda a questão da mobilidade a partir dos exemplos de teleféricos citados, onde se buscou evidenciar quais foram os impactos sociais resultantes da implantação desse sistema nas favelas cariocas. Foi observado que foram altos os investimentos direcionados à execução dos teleféricos, enquanto outras demandas prioritárias como educação, saúde e saneamento básico não foram completamente atendidas. Esse estudo foi desenvolvido a partir de análises contextuais, avaliações empíricas de visitas ao local e pesquisa dos conteúdos bibliográficos.

Spatial Peculiarities of Stem Cells in Plants and Animals

Spatial Peculiarities of Stem Cells in Plants and Animals

Evaluation of Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Remotely Sensed Evapotranspiration to Infer Information about Hydrological Behaviour in a Data-Scarce Region

Information about the hydrological behaviour of a river basin prior to setting up, calibrating and validating a distributed hydrological model requires extensive datasets that are hardly available for many parts of the world due to insufficient monitoring networks. In this study, the focus was on prevailing spatio-temporal patterns of remotely sensed evapotranspiration (ET) that enabled conclusions to be drawn about the hydrological behaviour and spatial peculiarities of a river basin at rather high spatial resolution. The prevailing spatio-temporal patterns of ET were identified using a principal component analysis of a time series of 644 images of MODIS ET covering the Wami River basin (Tanzania) between the years 2000 and 2013. The time series of the loadings on the principal components were analysed for seasonality and significant long-term trends. The spatial patterns of principal component scores were tested for significant correlation with elevations and slopes, and for differences between different soil texture and land use classes. The results inferred that the temporal and spatial patterns of ET were related to those of preceding rainfalls. At the end of the dry season, high ET was maintained only in areas of shallow groundwater and in cloud forest nature reserves. A region of clear reduction of ET in the long-term was related to massive land use change. The results also confirmed that most soil texture and land use classes differed significantly. Moreover, ET was exceptionally high in natural forests and loam soil, and very low in bushland and sandy-loam soil. Clearly, this approach has shown great potential of publicly available remote sensing data in providing a sound basis for water resources management as well as for distributed hydrological models in data-scarce river basins at lower latitudes.

GIS-based FRASTIC model for pollution vulnerability assessment of fractured-rock aquifer systems

All groundwater is vulnerable to pollution, but the level of susceptibility depends on the spatial peculiarities of a region. Among the numerous vulnerability assessment methodologies, the geographical information system-based DRASTIC model is the most sophisticated and achieves reliable results even in complex areas. Fractured-rock aquifers are not only complex, but they are also potential sources of radioactive and other types of waste and are liable to high recharge rates. Hence, they can serve as a conduit for fluid (and potentially) contaminants. Therefore, in this study, a new parameter, ‘fracture media’ (F), is fashioned to replace the weakest parameter (i.e. depth to water, D) in the standardized DRASTIC model to create a new model (FRASTIC) for the complex fractured aquifer system. The proposed model was tested on a case study area (Kano, Nigeria), and the FRASTIC minimum and maximum indices obtained were in the range of 63–170. The region was characterized as having very low (covering 0.16% of the total study area), low (55.52%), medium (42.53%), and high (1.79%) vulnerability based on the standardized classification system. In addition, the modified FRASTIC model was further developed using the sensitivity analysis (SA) and recorded the highest vulnerable area coverage (32.86%) within Kano. Thus, the modified FRASTIC model is appropriate for the complex nature of the study area because it contributes appreciably to defining the vulnerable zones. The single-parameter SA was employed to obtain effective weights for two modified models, which were then implemented to improve efficacy. Conventional nitrate validation indicated that there is a strong correlation between nitrate and vulnerability for the modified models. In addition, a new approach for identifying the relationship between the water quality and vulnerability indices was developed by this study and was proven to be an effective validation tool.

Agrorecreational ecoparks in the quarries territory as a new type of urban production (on the example of Kryvbas)

The article analyzes the main conditions of formation of agrorecreational ecoparks in the quarries territory, which no longer perform their initial functions. Agrorecreational ecoparks are regarded as a new type of urban development in combination with recreational function for industrial cities. Thus agrorecreational ecoparks are researched as structural elements of both agroproductive and recreational complexes of a country. Depending on types of activity there have been established main functional subzones and their interposition according to the exploitation mode and territory security. The planning structure of an agrorecreational ecopark locates the subzones of scientific use in the middle of a park, in the most accessible places as they are main attraction for visitors. Natural landscape of recreational use subzone adjoins the scientific zone; service centers and utility zones are located along the edges of the park thus creating a buffer area. The main groups of relief forms have been analyzed, which directly affect the planning structure of the researched parks. The main types of agrorecreational ecoparks in terms of relief forms have been identified; dimensional and spatial peculiarities of organization of such territories have been determined. In the context of a complex terrain and intensive soil erosion the major component of agrorecreational ecoterritories is geoplastic relief with drainage network (columbine), which determines precipitations run-off and the water regime of the park in general. The main notions and special features of landscape columbine and geoplastics (terracing) have been analyzed. The major types of agrolandscapes under the conditions of agrorecreational ecoparks formation have been established.

Динаміка стану та структура сосняків в умовах забруднення атмосфери викидами Рівненського відкритого акціонерного товариства «Азот»

Представлено результати дослідження протягом 1993-2013 рр. стану та просторової структури сосняків в умовах аеротехногенного забруднення в Поліссі. Вивчено середньовікові сосняки, що розташовані на відстані 4,5-25 км від Рівненського ВАТ «Азоту» і складають екологічний ряд за рівнем забруднення. Встановлено, що через погіршення стану та падіння приросту зменшилися розмір та частка крон у висоті дерева і як наслідок – знизилася потужність біогоризонту фотосинтезу сосняків. За гострого пошкодження гірший стан був надпанівних та панівних дерев, а за хронічного він найгірший у нижній частині намету. Зі зростанням пошкодження дерев вирівнюються у висоті і порушується співвідношення груп класів Крафта. Зростає відсоток дерев,які мають парасолькоподібну форму крони, що є свідченням передчасного старіння дерев унаслідок дії аеротехногенного забруднення.

Asymmetry and spatial specificity of auditory aftereffects following adaptation to signals simulating approach and withdrawal of sound sources

The spatial specificity of auditory approaching and withdrawing aftereffects was investigated in an anechoic chamber. The adapting and testing stimuli were presented from loudspeakers located in front of the subject at the distance of 1.1 m (near) and 4.5 m (far) from the listener's head. Approach and withdrawal of stimuli were simulated by increasing or decreasing the amplitude of the wide-noise impulse sequence. The listeners were required to determine the movement direction of test stimulus following each 5-s adaptation period. The listeners' "withdrawal" responses were used for psychometric functions plotting and for quantitative assessment of auditory aftereffect. The data summarized for all 8 participants indicated that the asymmetry of approaching and withdrawing aftereffects depended on spatial localization of adaptor and test. The asymmetry of aftereffects was largest when adaptor and test were presented from the same loudspeaker (either near or far). Adaptation to the approach induced a directionally dependent displacement of the psychometric functions relative to control condition without adaptation and adaptation to the withdrawal was not. The magnitude of approaching aftereffect was greater when adaptor and test were located in near spatial domain than when they came from far domain. When adaptor and test were presented from the distinct loudspeakers, magnitude approaching aftereffect was decreasing in comparison to the same spatial localization, but after adaptation to withdrawal it was increasing. As a result, the directionally dependent displacements of the psychometric functions relative to control condition were observed after adaptation as to approach and to withdrawal. The discrepancy of the psychometric functions received after adaptation to approach and to withdrawal at near and far spatial domains was greater under the same localization of adaptor and test in comparison to their distinct localization. We assume that the peculiarities of approaching and withdrawing aftereffects observed reflect their spatial specificity. It is possible that spatial peculiarities of approaching and withdrawing aftereffects can be associated with specialized mechanisms for analysis of motion at the different distance from subject.

On the mechanism of the generation of seismic “nails”

The spatial and temporal peculiarities of seismic “nails” are analyzed. Some nails are related to strong earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions, while some do not show any coincidence with any fault zone or other tectonic structures. In some cases, poorly expressed trends in the depths of earthquake occurrence sequences occur. Based on the calculation of the Hurst exponent, a stable tendency in the order sequence for the depths of hypocenters that form a nail has been revealed. This tendency is consistent with self-organization models, which demonstrate positive feedback during interactions between fluid flows and tectonic deformations and have been used to explain the earthquake generation mechanism. The peculiarities of changes in earthquake numbers on the day when a nail is formed agree well with the acoustical emission dynamics during earthquake triggering through water injections, based on the long-term experimental data. The most probable mechanism that generates the seismic nails that are not related to strong earthquakes is seismic activation under the effects of fluids.

Mapping Malaria Case Event and Factors of Vulnerability to Malaria in Ile-Ife, Southwestern Nigeria: Using GIS

The paper examines the spatial patterns of malaria case event, people’s perception of transmission and prevention of malaria, and the factors of vulnerability to malaria in, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Data on malaria reported cases (2004-2007) was obtained from Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife. Ile-Ife town comprising of two LGAs was stratified into the 21 existing administrative wards (neighbourhoods); in which 200 questionnaire were administered to households. Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System analytical operations employed with ArcGIS 9.2 include query, overlay among others. Results show there exists spatial variation in the occurrence of malaria with the highest cases recorded at Ilare1 (73), while Yekemi, Akarabata, Okewere1 and Modakeke2 have no reported case. Three mosquito prevention practices were reported, the use of mosquito repellent (30%), insecticide (20.5%) and bed-net (7.5%). Chi square analysis shows that significant relationship existed at p<0.05 between bed-net usage and income level (X2 =13.520) and bed-net usage and education level (X2 =1.012) Some observed environmental and behavioural factors make people vulnerable to malaria; for instance, 57.5% of households have temporary pools of water and water containers favourable for the breeding of mosquitoes around their dwellings. Also, 56.5% of the housing units surveyed do not have good drainages and 62.5% with no proper means of refuse disposal. The study concludes that the occurrence of malaria varies over space. Hence, malaria prevention efforts should take cognizance of spatial peculiarities as well as access to resources.Key words: Malaria case event; prevention; vulnerability; GIS; Nigeria.

A correspondence between the model ensemble simulations and observations of temperature changes on the territory of Russia

The results are presented of the statistical analysis of correspondence between the model simulations and observations of temperature changes on the territory of Russia. Three model ensembles are considered, differing in the level of taking account of the impact of external forcings on the climate system of the Earth. For each of them, the statistical correspondence is estimated between the observed surface air temperature variations in the second half of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century and model simulations taking account of the natural variability typical of the climate system. The analysis demonstrated that, in spite of the uncertainties associated with the differences in the representation of anthropogenic and natural external forcings on the climate in model simulations as well as with the imperfection of climate models and with internal variability of the climate system, the model experiments enable to obtain the relevant information both on the temporal evolution of temperature changes on the territory of Russia and on their spatial peculiarities.

Educating Professionals and Professional Education in a Geographical Context

AbstractEconomic geography has a well‐established tradition of studying a range of professional service firms (PSFs), including law, advertising, architecture, accountancy, management consultancy and banking. Within this literature, considerable attention has been paid to the role of highly skilled professionals who use their expertise to deliver bespoke, knowledge‐rich products to a range of corporate clients. However, comparatively, little attention has been paid to the role of professional education, offered by institutions such as law schools, university business schools and professional associations in preparing future employees for their careers in PSFs. This forms part of a broader silence within economic geography on the role of different forms of education in the legitimisation and emergence of powerful professional industries and practices. In this article, we begin to address this lacuna by showing how geographers’ understanding of professional industries and firms can be enhanced by integrating studies from the sociology of the professions, research into the so‐called ‘knowledge‐based economy’ more generally and studies of the spatial heterogeneity of professional practice that all focus specifically on the socialising and legitimating influence of educational institutions and practices. Two arguments run throughout the article. First, we identify the different roles played by professional education in relation to the production of professionals and the regulation of PSFs. We argue that the way the activities of PSFs have been limited by the regulation of education to date has been understudied, something that has continued as forms of transnational regulation emerge that create new questions about the geographies of the professions. Second, we consider how the relationship between professional education and PSFs varies both geographically and between different professions. We show that coupling an understanding of these geographies to debates about the varieties of capitalism offers a fruitful way to better understand the forms of continuity and change in national institutions and capitalisms. Combined, we suggest that economic geography can learn a lot about the spatial peculiarities of different professions from studies of professional education, something that is in need of significant empirically grounded research.

Thermally Induced Magnetic Anomalies in Solvates of the Bis(hexafluoroacetylacetonate)copper(II) Complex with Pyrazolyl-Substituted Nitronyl Nitroxide

We succeeded in synthesizing of a whole family of isostructural solvates of the copper(II) hexafluoroacetylacetonate complex with pyrazolyl-substituted nitronyl nitroxide (L): Cu(hfac)2L x 0.Solv. The main feature inherent in nature of Cu(hfac)2L x 0.5 Solv single crystals is their incredible mechanical stability and ability to undergo reversible structural rearrangements with temperature variation, accompanied by anomalies on the mu(eff(T)) dependence. Structural investigation of the complexes over a wide temperature range before and after the structural transition and the ensuing magnetic phase transition showed that the spatial peculiarities of the solvent molecules incorporated into the solid govern the character of the mu(eff(T)) dependence and the temperature region of the magnetic anomaly. Thus, doping of crystals with definite solvent molecules could be used as an efficient method of control over the magnetic anomaly temperature (T(a)). The investigation of this special series of crystals has revealed the relationship between the chemical step and the magnetic properties. It was shown that "mild" modification of T(a) for Cu(hfac)2L x 0.5 Solv required a much smaller structural step than the typical change of one -CH2- fragment in a homologous series in organic chemistry. Quantum-chemical calculations with the use of X-ray diffraction data allowed us to trace the character of changes in the exchange interaction parameters in the range of the phase transition. In the temperature range of the phase transition, the exchange parameter changes substantially. The gradual decrease in the magnetic moment, observed in most experiments during sample cooling to T(a), is the result of the gradual increase in the fraction of the low-temperature phase in the high-temperature phase.

Spatial peculiarities of Lithuania's soil cover structure in the landscape context

Spatial peculiarities of Lithuania's soil cover structure in the landscape context

Positioning of Carbon nanostructures on metal surfaces using laser acceleration and the Raman analyses of the patterns

The laser-induced acceleration of nanoparticles using intense light irradiation was used for positioning and ordering of carbon nanomaterials to form periodical surface structures. Such systems are of interest for different nanotechnology applications. The nanodiamond with averaged size 100 nm, and fullerene (C60) suspended in distilled water were accelerated using high focused laser beam and attached onto metal surface of silver and gold thin films evaporated on Si substrate. The laser was operating both in CW and femtosecond modes with the wavelength of ∼800 nm, pulse duration 150 fs, and average laser power of 300-600 mW. In case of pulse irradiation the repetition rate of 76 MHZ was applied. The nanoparticles were positioned on the metal surface in accordance with a predetermined program to allow patterning of the nanoparticles. The positioning was analyzed for different treatment conditions and compared to the calculated data. To investigate the obtained nanoparticles/metal structures, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) was used utilizing its high sensitivity on the local properties of the nanostructures. SERS allows the observing of carbon nanostructures with their characteristic peculiarities, such as blinking effect and selective enhancement. Here we try to explain the spectral and spatial peculiarities occurring during the laser acceleration process and the interaction of attached carbon nanostructures with metal surface.