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Smart Wildlife Monitoring: Real-Time Hybrid Tracking Using Kalman Filter and Local Binary Similarity Matching on Edge Network
No full textReal-time wildlife monitoring on edge devices poses significant challenges due to limited power, constrained bandwidth, and unreliable connectivity, especially in remote natural habitats. Conventional object detection systems often transmit redundant data of the same animals detected across multiple consecutive frames as a part of a single event, resulting in increased power consumption and inefficient bandwidth usage. Furthermore, maintaining consistent animal identities in the wild is difficult due to occlusions, variable lighting, and complex environments. In this study, we propose a lightweight hybrid tracking framework built on the YOLOv8m deep neural network, combining motion-based Kalman filtering with Local Binary Pattern (LBP) similarity for appearance-based re-identification using texture and color features. To handle ambiguous cases, we further incorporate Hue-Saturation-Value (HSV) color space similarity. This approach enhances identity consistency across frames while reducing redundant transmissions. The framework is optimized for real-time deployment on edge platforms such as NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano and Raspberry Pi 5. We evaluate our method against state-of-the-art trackers using event-based metrics such as MOTA, HOTA, and IDF1, with a focus on detected animals occlusion handling, trajectory analysis, and counting during both day and night. Our approach significantly enhances tracking robustness, reduces ID switches, and provides more accurate detection and counting compared to existing methods. When transmitting time-series data and detected frames, it achieves up to 99.87% bandwidth savings and 99.67% power reduction, making it highly suitable for edge-based wildlife monitoring in resource-constrained environments
Many-body enhancement of energy storage in a waveguide QED quantum battery
No full textQuantum batteries have demonstrated remarkable charging properties, showing that a quantum advantage is possible in the realm of quantum thermodynamics. However, finding an effective strategy to store energy for long periods remains crucial in these systems. Here, we investigate different configurations of a waveguide QED system acting as a quantum battery and show that, in this context, collective effects can slow down the self-discharging time of the battery, thus improving the storage time. Specifically, when the artificial atoms of the array are arranged randomly, the energy and ergotropy of the optical system are shown to decay at a subexponential rate over long periods, in contrast to the energy decay of a single atom in a waveguide. In the case of atoms arranged in an ordered lattice, collective effects slow down dissipative discharging only for a specific lattice spacing. Thus, in both configurations, collective effects can be used to boost the energy-protection properties of optical systems
Dynamic Resource Allocation in Cloud-to- Things Continuum for Real-Time IoT Applications
No full textThe proliferation of loT devices and the growing demand for real-time applications have driven a shift in the computation paradigm, from Cloud computing to Edge computing, creating the Cloud-to-Things Continuum (C2TC). Many real-time loT applications involve Mobile Nodes (MNs), which may dynamically join or leave. In addition, in future reconfigurable loT systems, applications with different requirements will coexist, and will be dynamically introduced or removed. All this asks for dynamic management mechanisms to ensure the requirements of different real-time applications, even when the system configuration changes over time. In this paper, we propose DJ-NECORA, an online algorithm for the joint allocation of networking and computing resources in C2TC that is capable of guaranteeing the requirements of real-time applications and efficiently managing possible changes in the system configuration. We evaluated DJ-NECORA through simulation in a realistic scenario. The results show that DJ-NECORA effectively handles application dynamics and, in some scenarios, outperforms offline resource allocation solutions by supporting 14% more MNs
New data on archaic homodont odontocetes from the Early Miocene of Peru reveal a second species of Chilcacetus Lambert, Muizon & Bianucci, 2015 and a Southern Hemisphere record for a northeastern Pacific species
No full textThe systematic affinities of several homodont odontocetes (toothed whales) in the genera Argyrocetus Lydekker, 1893 and Macrodelphinus Wilson, 1935 from the Early Miocene of the northeastern Pacific and southwestern Atlantic have long been debated. The description of the longirostrine dolphin Chilcacetus cavirhinus Lambert, Muizon & Bianucci, 2015, based on two finely preserved skulls from the Early Miocene of Peru, revealed similarities with part of these taxa, but questions remained about their phylogenetic relationships. Two new specimens from the Burdigalian of the Chilcatay Formation (East Pisco Basin, Peru) and recently rediscovered skull parts for the holotype of C. cavirhinus lead to the diagnosis of a new species of Chilcacetus Lambert, de Muizon & Bianucci, 2015, Chilcacetus ullujayensis n. sp., and the description of cranial regions previously unknown (or poorly known) for that genus, especially the ear bones. Another smaller skull from the Chilcatay Formation is referred here to Amphidelphis bakersfieldensis n. comb., a species previously only known from California whose palaeogeographic distribution is thus expanded across the equator. Rostral morphological features in the new specimen of A. bakersfieldensis n. comb. differ markedly from Argyrocetus patagonicus Lydek-ker, 1893, the Patagonian species that was earlier recognized as closely related to A. bakersfieldensis n. comb., and from Eurhinodelphinidae Abel, 1901, the family long proposed to have housed these two species. Finally, two other specimens from the Chilcatay Formation are identified as Odontoceti aff. A. bakersfieldensis. New phylogenetic analyses recover Chilcacetus spp. and A. bakersfieldensis n. comb. in a clade of longirostrine to hyper-longirostrine stem odontocetes, also including Eopla-tanista Dal Piaz, 1916, Macrodelphinus, and eurhinodelphinids. The new records of A. bakersfieldensis n. comb. and Chilcacetus spp. presented here confirm the predominance of long-snouted species in the Burdigalian odontocete assemblages of the East Pisco Basin
The Radio Science Experiment on Hera, Juventas and Milani
No full textHera, the European Space Agency’s first planetary defence mission, complements NASA’s DART mission as part of the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment collaboration. Its primary objective is to conduct a detailed post-impact analysis of the Didymos binary asteroid system, with a focus on Dimorphos, the smaller moon impacted by DART. Hera will assess the effectiveness of the kinetic impactor technique for asteroid deflection while investigating the physical and compositional properties of Dimorphos. The mission’s radio science experimental setup includes an X-band radio link enabling two-way range and range-rate measurements as well as Delta-DOR observations, complemented by additional data from inter-satellite ranging with the Juventas and Milani CubeSats, optical navigation imaging, and altimetry. These measurements will enhance the accuracy of the post-impact data analysis. This paper summarizes the existing literature, outlines the experimental configuration and mission operations during the cruise phase and at the Didymos system, and discusses the expected scientific outcomes of Hera’s radio science experiment
La realtà oltre il mito. La fantomatica tipicità dei delitti di intermediazione illecita e di sfruttamento dei lavoratori
No full textLo scritto esamina il contesto sociale e normativo nel quale è stato inserito il delitto di intermediazione illecita e sfruttamento dei lavoratori, destinato a fronteggiare la piaga sociale del caporalato. Si ripercorrono le ragioni politico-criminali che hanno indotto il legislatore a intervenire, evidenziando le difficoltà di tipizzazione che è stato necessario affrontare per definire gli aspetti realmente caratterizzanti del fenomeno da trattare. Particolare attenzione è stata rivolta alle tecniche di formulazione adoperate dal legislatore, ritenute espressive di una modalità discorsiva di nuova emersione, e ai rapporti che l'art. 603-bis c.p. intrattiene inevitabilmente con le fattispecie di reato concernenti fenomeni criminosi interferenti con quello di caporalato. Per l'uno e per l'altro aspetto si conferma decisiva l'opera di valutazione rimessa al giudice che è chiamato a verificare attentamente l'inverarsi delle condizioni che racchiudono il disvalore della fattispecie
Salt-induced nutritional and metabolic shifts in halophytes: implications for food security
No full textPlant species vary in their response to salinity: some crops show a degree of salt tolerance, while halophytes – whether wild or cultivated – are characterized by a high capacity to thrive under saline conditions. Halophytes are considered a source of valuable secondary metabolites with potential economic value, yet they might also produce secondary metabolites posing nutritional challenges for human consumption. Moreover, halophytes often accumulate high concentrations of sodium and chlorides. However, a clear understanding of how salinity modulates the production of both the beneficial and non-nutritional factors is limited because widely variable in relation to specific environments and species. This review, written in the framework of the COST Action SUSTAIN (CA22144) on the sustainable use of salt-affected land, explores the main potential and challenges associated with the introduction of halophytes in the human diet through a revision of the effects of salinity on salt tolerant plants' secondary metabolism and mineral elements' accumulation. Moreover, the potential antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties of halophytes are discussed. © 2025 The Author(s). Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry
Trash Politics: i meme tra partecipazione e rinegoziazione del discorso pubblico
No full textNella comunicazione politica contemporanea i meme svolgono una duplice funzione, estremamente contraddittoria rispetto agli esiti che produce nella sfera pubblica democratica.
Da un lato, agiscono come strumenti di democratizzazione del discorso pubblico, abbassando le barriere di accesso all’informazione politica per una pluralità di utenti attraverso satira e ironia.
Dall’altro lato, operano come veicoli efficaci nel processo di normalizzazione di posizioni antidemocratiche, nascondendole sotto la plausible deniability, ovvero la possibilità di formulare messaggi anche molto tossici e al contempo negare intenzioni offensive o sovversive con la giustificazione del “si stava solo scherzando”.
Questa ambivalenza viene ulteriormente sollecitata nei meme che abbracciano l’estetica trash, una declinazione della trash culture che fa dell’esasperazione di elementi di bassa qualità, di formati obsoleti e di ricontestualizzazioni di cattivo gusto la sua cifra stilistica e che attraverso l’assurdità e l’ironia, a volte anche eccessivamente grottesche, diventano il mezzo per amplificare la circolazione di artefatti densi di contenuti dissacranti che viaggiano lungo il sottile perimetro del discorso democratico