Spatial Point Of View Research Articles

Spatial outlier detection in the PM10 monitoring network of Normandy (France)

We consider hourly PM10 measurements from 22 monitoring stations located in Basse–Normandie and Haute–Normandie regions (France) and also in the neighboring regions. All considered monitoring stations are either urban background stations or rural ones. The paper focuses on the statistical detection of outliers of the hourly PM10 concentrations from a spatial point of view. The general strategy uses a jackknife type approach and is based on the comparison of the actual measurement with some robust spatial prediction. Two spatial predictions are considered: the first one is based on the median of the concentrations of the closest neighboring stations which directly consider weighted concentrations while the second one is based on kriging increments, instead of more traditional pseudo–innovations. The two methods are applied to the PM10 monitoring network in Normandy and are fully implemented by Air Normand (the official association for air quality monitoring in Haute–Normandie) in the Measurements Quality Control process. Some numerical results are provided on recent data from January 1, 2013 to May 31, 2013 to illustrate and compare the two methods.

ASPECTS OF THE SILVOPASTORAL SYSTEM CORRELATED WITH PROPERTIES OF A TYPIC QUARTZIPSAMMENT (ENTISOL) IN MATO GROSSO DO SUL, BRAZIL

In Brazil, grazing mismanagement may lead to soil and pasture degradation. To impede this process, integrated cropping systems such as silvopasture have been an effective alternative, allied with precision agriculture based on soil mapping for site-specific management. In this study, we aimed to define the soil property that best sheds light on the variability of eucalyptus and forage yield. The experiment was conducted in the 2011/12 crop year in Ribas do Rio Pardo, Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brazil. We analyzed linear and spatial correlations between eucalyptus traits and physical properties of a Typic Quartzipsamment at two depths (0.00-0.10 and 0.10-0.20 m). For that purpose, we set up a geostatistical grid for collection at 72 points. Gravimetric moisture in the 0.00-0.10 m layer is an important index of soil physical quality, showing correlation to eucalyptus circumference at breast height (CBH) in a Typic Quartzipsamment. With an increase in resistance to penetration in the soil surface layer, there is an increase in eucalyptus height and in neutral detergent fiber content in the forage crop. From a spatial point of view, the height of eucalyptus and the neutral detergent fiber of forage can be estimated by co-kriging analysis with soil resistance to penetration. Resistance to penetration values above 2.3 MPa indicated higher yielding sites.

INTRODUCTION FOR THE SPECIAL ISSUE ON SPACE, TIME AND EVALUATION IN IDEOLOGICAL DISCOURSE

In the last decade, a cognitive school has begun to emerge in critical discourse analysis (CDA). Based in cognitive linguistics, this approach sees language as providing a set of indexical prompts for jointly performing a range of conceptual operations constitutive of meaning (Hart, 2010). This view of language argues that the semiotic processes involved in language rely on more general cognitive principles and processes that also function in domains such as vision, action, memory and reasoning (Croft & Cruse, 2004). One fundamental cognitive ability which seems to be crucial for meaning construction in language is a capacity for perspective-taking (Levinson, 2003; Talmy, 2000). In the real world, we necessarily adopt a continually shifting spatial perspective as we negotiate the physical environment. Equally, we experience perspective in remembering, empathizing and judging. In understanding discourse, at any moment in the unfolding text, the hearer is invited to share with the speaker a particular perspective indexed by elements present or presupposed in the text and defined within a mental model. This perspective is not restricted to spatial point of view, but includes also points of view conceptualized in social, temporal, epistemic and deontic ‘space’ (Croft & Cruse, 2004). Such perspectives provide an anchorage point in an intersubjective worldview. Other information in the worldview expressed by the text is organized, evaluated and deliberated over relative to this deictic point of reference (Chilton, 2004). Cognitive approaches to language have modelled the worldviews indexed in text and invoked in the course of discourse in terms of ‘text worlds’ (Werth, 1999), ‘mental spaces’ (Fauconnier, 1994), and, geometrically, in terms of coordinate sets in a threedimensional ‘deictic discourse space’ (Chilton, 2014). Perspective is defined within these models as the ‘background’, ‘base’ or the ‘deictic centre’. What these models have in common is that textual information is cognitively represented relative to some starting point defined as the conceptualizer’s presumed spatial, social, temporal, epistemic and deontic ‘ground’ (cf Hart, 2014; Langacker, 2008). An important challenge for linguistics and discourse analysis, then, is to address how concepts such as distance and focus, which structure our worldviews, are signified in discourse. Here, certain textual elements such as deictic adverbs, personal pronouns and modal verbs have already been identified. However, as the papers included in this special issue demonstrate, the story is certainly much more complex. The role of cognitive worlds and points of view in understanding texts has been studied in branches of discourse analysis such as Stylistics and Poetics (Dancygier, Sanders, & Vandelanotte, 2012; Dancygier & Sweetser, 2012; Stockwell, 2009). However, Critical Discourse Studies, 2015 Vol. 12, No. 3, 235–237, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2015.1013480

Of Other Spaces? Hybrid Forms of Chinese Engagement in Sub-Saharan Africa

Chinese economic activities in Africa have gained increased visibility in parallel to the recent acceleration of Sino-African relations. This paper, which is framed from a geographical perspective that is often absent or neglected in studies covering China–Africa, focuses on the spatial forms and dynamics. It depicts the way in which two contrasting Chinese economic entities – a state-owned company in Chad and privately owned commercial malls in Johannesburg, South Africa – engage with their respective host environments. While drawing on concepts of “liminality” as well as “heterotopias”, I argue that the modalities of the Chinese footprint are characterised both by closure and interaction, creating a dynamic tension that produces its own set of unique practices. This ambivalence between enclave and active linkages with host societies is not only perceivable from a spatial point of view, but also emerges with regard to economic strategies. In the midst of a transitional period, along with a launching and a consolidating phase, the Chinese economic entities in both case studies show signs of change in terms of behaviour and territorial foothold.

D’une hétérotopie à l’autre où le vagabondage au féminin (Jean Echenoz, Un an)

Jean Echenoz’s text presents Victoria’s story who runs away from Paris, believing that she has killed her lover. Her straying (that embraces the form of a relative deterritorialization in a Deleuzian sense) lasts one year and it is built up geographically upon a descent (more or less symbolical) to the South of France and, after that, she comes back to Paris and encloses the spatial and textual curl. From a spatial point of view, she turns into a heterotopia (Foucault) every place where she is located, fact that reflects her incapability of constituting a personal, intimate space. The railway stations, the trains, the hotels, the improvised houses of those with no fixed abode are turning, according to Marc Augé’s terminology, into a « non-lieux » that excludes human being. Her vagrancy is characterized through a continuous flight from police and people and through a continuous decrease of her standard of living and dignity. It’s not about a quest of oneself, but about a loss of oneself. Urged by a strong feeling of culpability, her vagrancy is a self-punishment that comes to an end when the concerns of her problems disappear and she finds out that her lover is alive.

A multiscale analysis of ecosystem services supply in the NW Iberian Peninsula from a functional perspective

In recent years, the assessment of ecosystem services (ES) supply has been based on the use of Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) data as proxies for spatial representation of ecosystems. Nevertheless, some shortcomings of this method, such as uncertainties derived from generalization of the ecosystem types and assumptions of invariance across spatial scales, indicate the need for new approaches. Such approaches could be aimed at improving knowledge of the relationships between ecosystem services and landscape structure and the spatial characteristics of ES patterns. In this study, we propose an integrative approach that involves the generation and analysis of continuous maps representing the supply of five ES potentially related to the amount of biomass. Five remote sensing images of the Northwestern Iberian Peninsula, obtained with Landsat-5 TM, were used to generate a proxy for net primary production by combining the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of each image to calculate a ΣNDVI index that could act as a potential indicator of some ecosystem services. This information was combined with three variables – terrain slope, population density and occurrence of protected areas – to produce spatial models for the five ES and eventually a series of five supply maps. Food, materials and energy provision services showed a clustered pattern, with high supply values in flat zones and areas with high population densities. In contrast, mass flow and climate regulation services were more widely distributed throughout the study area. The five ecosystem service patterns were analyzed at different scales by two methods: lacunarity and four term local quadrat variance (4TLQV) analysis. These methods revealed differences in the spatial pattern: lacunarity analysis was useful for detection of scale thresholds at the local level, whereas 4TLQV was more sensitive to scale thresholds at larger spatial levels. Thus, the variance analysis yielded higher values for larger windows sizes, particularly for provisioning services. The results demonstrated the suitability of the proposed approach for the spatially explicit modeling of ecosystem services, avoiding the uncertainty of other assessments such as those based on LULC data, and for the exploratory analysis of ES supply from a spatial point of view.

The spatio-temporal dynamics of PKA activity profile during mitosis and its correlation to chromosome segregation

The cyclic adenosine monophosphate dependent kinase protein (PKA) controls a variety of cellular processes including cell cycle regulation. Here, we took advantages of genetically encoded FRET-based biosensors, using an AKAR-derived biosensor to characterize PKA activity during mitosis in living HeLa cells using a single-cell approach. We measured PKA activity changes during mitosis. HeLa cells exhibit a substantial increase during mitosis, which ends with telophase. An AKAREV T>A inactive form of the biosensor and H89 inhibitor were used to ascertain for the specificity of the PKA activity measured. On a spatial point of view, high levels of activity near to chromosomal plate during metaphase and anaphase were detected. By using the PKA inhibitor H89, we assessed the role of PKA in the maintenance of a proper division phenotype. While this treatment in our hands did not impaired cell cycle progression in a drastic manner, inhibition of PKA leads to a dramatic increase in chromososme misalignement on the spindle during metaphase that could result in aneuploidies. Our study emphasizes the insights that can be gained with genetically encoded FRET-based biosensors, which enable to overcome the shortcomings of classical methologies and unveil in vivo PKA spatiotemporal profiles in HeLa cells.

On the Behrens–Fisher problem from the spatial median point of view

We present a non-parametric affine-invariant test for the multivariate Behrens–Fisher problem. The proposed method based on the spatial medians is asymptotic and does not require normality of the data. To improve its finite sample performance, we apply a correction of the type which was already used in a similar test based on trimmed means, however, our simulations show that in the case of heavy-tailed distributions our method performs better. Also in a simulation comparison with a recently published rank-based test our test yields satisfactory results.

Identifying Potential Zones of Crime Commitment against Tourists in a Park: Conceptual and Logical Spatial Data Modeling

Location is considered as an important element in studying tourism security. Therefore, mapping crime hotspots has recently been an interesting research topic in tourism development. In order to identify crime patterns and hotspots, it is essential to create a database containing the required spatial data. It should also be integrated with additional qualitative/quantitative attributes affecting criminal actions. Designing a geographic information system (GIS) can be considered as the most efficient way to deal with this problem considering the complex nature of tourism security. This paper presents the theoretical scheme of spatial data modeling with the purpose of indentifying potential crime zones within a developed park. From the spatial point of view, the factors and the constraints, which make a location vulnerable, are defined. The entities are identified by their attributes and characterized by their relationships. Finally, the conceptual and the logical models to create the crime suitability maps are generated. The models provided in this paper are designed in an explicit way; therefore, they can be easily modified or generalized for any specific case study. The presented data modeling procedure can be applied to generate essential databases for crime mapping via any GIS software.

Modeling the intracellular organization of calcium signaling

Calcium (Ca²⁺) is a key signaling ion that plays a fundamental role in many cellular processes in most types of tissues and organisms. The versatility of this signaling pathway is remarkable. Depending on the cell type and the stimulus, intracellular Ca²⁺ increases can last over different periods, as short spikes or more sustained signals. From a spatial point of view, they can be localized or invade the whole cell. Such a richness of behaviors is possible thanks to numerous exchange processes with the external medium or internal Ca²⁺ pools, mainly the endoplasmic or sarcoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria. These fluxes are also highly regulated. In order to get an accurate description of the spatiotemporal organization of Ca²⁺ signaling, it is useful to resort to modeling. Thus, each flux can be described by an appropriate kinetic expression. Ca²⁺ dynamics in a given cell type can then be simulated by a modular approach, consisting of the assembly of computational descriptions of the appropriate fluxes and regulations. Modeling can also be used to get insight into the mechanisms of decoding of the Ca²⁺ signals responsible for cellular responses. Cells can use frequency or amplitude coding, as well as take profit of Ca²⁺ oscillations to increase their sensitivity to small average Ca²⁺ increases.

Monitoring polymorphic transformations by using in situ Raman hyperspectral imaging and image multiset analysis

Polymorphism is often encountered in many crystalline compounds. To control the quality of the products, it is relevant knowing the potential presence of polymorph transformations induced by different agents, such as light exposure or temperature changes. Raman images offer a great potential to identify polymorphs involved in a process and to accurately describe this kind of solid-state transformation in the surface scanned.As a way of example, this work proposes the use of multiset analysis on the series of Raman hyperspectral images acquired during a thermal induced transformation of carbamazepine as the optimal way to extract useful information about polymorphic or any other kind of dynamic transformation among process compounds. Image multiset analysis, performed by using Multivariate Curve Resolution-Alternating Least Squares (MCR-ALS), will furnish pure spectra and distribution maps of the compounds involved in the process and, hence, will allow the identification of polymorphs and, more important, the description of the process evolution at a global and local (pixel) level. Thus, process will be defined from a spatial point of view and by means of a set of global process profiles dependent on the process control variable. The results obtained confirm the power of this methodology and show the crucial role of the spatial information contained in the image (absent in conventional spectroscopy) for a correct process description.

From the Chalice to the Smart City: Attraction and Repulsion within Sanctified Space in the 21st Century: Projects in the New Urban Centres

Which are the issues posed for the construction of a church in the urban fabric of the third millennium? Which are, currently, the places of worship -- more or less visible -- capable of attracting the faithful, not just the inhabitants but also migrants or visitors in transit? What kind of conflicts can the construction of a church, or more generally of a sanctified space, create in a neighbourhood and, which could be the conditions to avoid it? In some cases, places of worship contribute to reinforce the feeling of belonging and/or identity. They are also points of orientation in the cities, which exceed the scale of their communities, opening up to other confessions, also. They participate in urban life through many events (concerts, kermesses, theatrical plays) that we can qualify within culture. This paper interrogates the notion of sanctified space from the spatial point of view, through the analysis of the sanctified space b uilt in Rome in the new place of urban centre, but also from the standpoint of individual and collective representations. Between tradition and future, attractiveness and repulsion, beyond the symbolic dimension (brand) of the sanctified building, the text places the question of methodological processes that lead to the construction of a space, both real and virtual. In the final argument, the comparison between the Italian and French experiences can help to identify the differences between the two systems -- of a technical and sociological nature -- in order to identify the manner in which we can overcome the mono-functional and restrictive use of the worship sites, in favour of multi-functional uses, both internal and aggregated, thereby allow a wider ownership of these spaces, in the present era where the churches are gradually becoming more and more empty.

Sacred Buildings and Brain Performance: The Effect of Sultan Hasan Mosque on Brain Waves of its Users

Which are the issues posed for the construction of a church in the urban fabric of the third millennium? Which are, currently, the places of worship -- more or less visible -- capable of attracting the faithful, not just the inhabitants but also migrants or visitors in transit? What kind of conflicts can the construction of a church, or more generally of a sanctified space, create in a neighbourhood and, which could be the conditions to avoid it? In some cases, places of worship contribute to reinforce the feeling of belonging and/or identity. They are also points of orientation in the cities, which exceed the scale of their communities, opening up to other confessions, also. They participate in urban life through many events (concerts, kermesses, theatrical plays) that we can qualify within culture. This paper interrogates the notion of sanctified space from the spatial point of view, through the analysis of the sanctified space b uilt in Rome in the new place of urban centre, but also from the standpoint of individual and collective representations. Between tradition and future, attractiveness and repulsion, beyond the symbolic dimension (brand) of the sanctified building, the text places the question of methodological processes that lead to the construction of a space, both real and virtual. In the final argument, the comparison between the Italian and French experiences can help to identify the differences between the two systems -- of a technical and sociological nature -- in order to identify the manner in which we can overcome the mono-functional and restrictive use of the worship sites, in favour of multi-functional uses, both internal and aggregated, thereby allow a wider ownership of these spaces, in the present era where the churches are gradually becoming more and more empty.

Improving the allocation of flood-risk interventions from a spatial quality perspective

This paper describes an integral approach to flood-risk protection and spatial design that allows for an active involvement of landscape architects and urban designers in the allocation of flood-risk interventions within the Dutch Delta. The Dutch Rijnmond–Drechtsteden area is used as a case study to demonstrate how choices regarding the scale and layer of a flood-risk intervention can shift the location of that intervention. A spatial assessment framework is used to test the spatial impact of different flood-risk interventions at different locations, and determine where the intervention is most required from a spatial point of view.

¿Quién parte y reparte? Análisis de la disposición urbana en la Cartago fenicia

In this paper I would like to highlight the signifi cant architectural regularity which characterizes the pre-Roman archeological remains registered in Carthage. Despite having been repeatedly interpreted from a preconceived logical and spatial point of view, these remains allow us to set out that the Tyrian foundation was established in the Carthaginian peninsula according to a model that is referred to as per strigas in archaeological literature because it was documented better at the Archaic Greek colonies in Sicily. To defend this idea, I will indicate which architectonic remains make up its material basic, paying special attention to the remains found underneath the crossroads of the decumanus maximus and the cardo x-east, and I will try to summarize the state of the current issue on the urban shape of Phoenician Carthage. I will then go over several documentated examples of orthogonal land division in urban spaces from the Ancient Near East. This information will provide insight on the possible technical and practical context of Phoenician societies in the 9 th and 8 th centuries BC and, more specifically, the socio-political context of the Carthaginian founders. Finally, in light of these elements, I will put forward a proposal of a reconstruction of the urban layout of Phoenician Carthage as a whole.

Sugarcane trash management assessed by the interaction of yield with soil properties

Currently, sugarcane plays an important global role, particularly with a view to alternative energy sources. Thus, in a sugarcane field of the mill Vale do Paraná S/A Álcool e Açúcar, Rubineia, São Paulo State, managed under two green cane harvest systems (cane trash left on and cane trash removed from the soil), Pearson and spatial correlations between the sugarcane yield (variety RB855035 in the third cut) and soil physical and chemical properties were studied to identify the property best correlated with stalk yield and the best harvest method. For this purpose, two geostatistical grids (121 sampling points on 1.30 ha) were installed on a eutrophic Red Argisol (homogeneous slope of 0.065 m m-1), in 2011, to determine the properties: stalk yield and sugarcane plant population, and soil resistance to penetration, gravimetric moisture, bulk density, and carbon stock, in the layers 0-0.20 and 0.20-0.40 m. The data were analyzed by descriptive, linear correlation and geostatistical analysis. In both treatments, the property stand density was best correlated with sugarcane yield (r = 0.725 in the trash mulching treatment - TM and r = 0.769 in the trash removal treatment - TR). However, in relation to the soil properties, bulk density (0-0.20 m) was best correlated (r = 0.305 in TM, r = 0.211 in TR). Similarly, from the spatial point of view, stand density was the property that best explained the sugarcane yield. However, in the TM treatment the density (0.20-0.40 m) was the only soil property spatially correlated with stalk yield. The carbon stock in the soil of the TM was 11.5 % higher than in the TR treatment. Results of the TM treatment were best, also with regard to soil management and conservation.

A New Freshwater Biodiversity Indicator Based on Fish Community Assemblages

Biodiversity has reached a critical state. In this context, stakeholders need indicators that both provide a synthetic view of the state of biodiversity and can be used as communication tools. Using river fishes as model, we developed community indicators that aim at integrating various components of biodiversity including interactions between species and ultimately the processes influencing ecosystem functions. We developed indices at the species level based on (i) the concept of specialization directly linked to the niche theory and (ii) the concept of originality measuring the overall degree of differences between a species and all other species in the same clade. Five major types of originality indices, based on phylogeny, habitat-linked and diet-linked morphology, life history traits, and ecological niche were analyzed. In a second step, we tested the relationship between all biodiversity indices and land use as a proxy of human pressures. Fish communities showed no significant temporal trend for most of these indices, but both originality indices based on diet- and habitat- linked morphology showed a significant increase through time. From a spatial point of view, all indices clearly singled out Corsica Island as having higher average originality and specialization. Finally, we observed that the originality index based on niche traits might be used as an informative biodiversity indicator because we showed it is sensitive to different land use classes along a landscape artificialization gradient. Moreover, its response remained unchanged over two other land use classifications at the global scale and also at the regional scale.

Spatial relationships in the Q fever outbreaks 2007–2010 in the Netherlands

We analyzed the Q fever epidemic in the Netherlands on a national scale from a spatial point of view. Data on dairy goat farms and Dutch population, whether or not infected, were geo-referenced. Human cases were counted in GIS at different distance classes for all dairy goat farms, farms with Q fever based on BTM analysis, and farms with clinical symptoms. In all selections, human incidence decreased with increasing distances from dairy goat farms. Incidence was highest around farms with clinical symptoms. Depending on the acceptable incidence value, a dairy goat-free zone around residential areas could be defined. Cluster analyses were performed to identify local clusters of both infected farms and human cases and to identify focused clusters of human cases. Focused clusters were detected for only 14 out of 29 farms with clinical symptoms, giving rise to a new hypothesis on the transmission of Q fever.

Hunting in Seneca’s Phaedra

Seneca, in his tragedy Phaedra, created an elegiac character using, among other elegiac conventions, the amorous hunting. His Phaedra turns into an aggressive erotic predator who wants to “hunt” Hippolytus whom she is in love with. The prologue of Phaedra connects the play with elegiac poetry through the extensive use of venery description, because it highlights Hippolytus’ attitude to love: the young man sees the forest as a place of reclusive solitude where he can hide from frenetic passion. The prologue to Phaedra is also important from a spatial point of view, for Seneca associates his two main characters with a fundamental difference in locale that recalls the roman elegiac paraclausithyron, where the lover tries, without success, to penetrate into his beloved’s intimate space, the house. Furthermore, Seneca reverses the relationship between the lovers: Hippolytus becomes the beloved, Phaedra, the lover, thus inverting the gender roles of normal erotic elegy. At the same time, he amplifies this convention, making it the main theme of his tragedy, for Phaedra has a fundamental impact on the play’s action through her desperate attempts to conquer her stepson. Roman love elegy often associates the lover, the feeble man, with the hunter, while representing the beloved, the dominant woman, as his prey. Seneca goes further, because Hippolytus, the true hunter, becomes the erotic prey, while the female character takes on the role of the erotic predator. In this way, Seneca justifies the reversal of the male and the female characters’ roles in his use of the elegiac theme of hunting.

Robust Temporal-Spatial Decomposition and Its Applications in Video Processing

In this paper, we propose a robust temporal-spatial decomposition (RTSD) model and discuss its applications in video processing. A video sequence usually possesses high correlations among and within its frames. Fully exploiting the temporal and spatial correlations enables efficient processing and better understanding of the video sequence. Considering that the video sequence typically contains slowly changing background and rapidly changing foreground as well as noise, we propose to decompose the video frames into three parts: the temporal-spatially correlated part, the feature compensation part, and the sparse noise part. Accordingly, the decomposition problem can be formulated as the minimization of a convex function, which consists of a nuclear norm, a total variation (TV)-like norm, and an <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">l</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1</sub> norm. Since the minimization is nontrivial to handle, we develop a two-stage strategy to solve this decomposition problem, and discuss different alternatives to fulfil each stage of decomposition. The RTSD model treats video frames as a unity from both the temporal and spatial point of view, and demonstrates robustness to noise and certain background variations. Experiments on video denoising and scratch detection applications verify the effectiveness of the proposed RTSD model and the developed algorithms.