Paleoradiology, the use of modern imaging technologies to study archaeological and anthropological remains, offers new windows on millennial scale patterns of human health. Unfortunately, the radiographs collected during field campaigns are heterogeneous: bones are disarticulated, positioning is ad hoc, and laterality markers are often absent. Additionally, factors such as age at death, age of bone, sex, and imaging equipment introduce high variability. Thus, content navigation, such as identifying a subset of images with a specific projection view, can be time consuming and difficult, making efficient triaging a bottleneck for expert analysis. We report a zero shot prompting strategy that leverages a state of the art Large Vision Language Model (LVLM) to automatically identify the main bone, projection view, and laterality in such images. Our pipeline converts raw DICOM files to bone windowed PNGs, submits them to the LVLM with a carefully engineered prompt, and receives structured JSON outputs, which are extracted and formatted onto a spreadsheet in preparation for validation. On a random sample of 100 images reviewed by an expert board certified paleoradiologist, the system achieved 92% main bone accuracy, 80% projection view accuracy, and 100% laterality accuracy, with low or medium confidence flags for ambiguous cases. These results suggest that LVLMs can substantially accelerate code word development for large paleoradiology datasets, allowing for efficient content navigation in future anthropology workflows.
Market area models, such as the Huff model and its extensions, are widely used to estimate regional market shares and customer flows of retail and service locations. Another, now very common, area of application is the analysis of catchment areas, supply structures and the accessibility of healthcare locations. The huff Python package provides a complete workflow for market area analysis, including data import, construction of origin-destination interaction matrices, basic model analysis, parameter estimation from empirical data, calculation of distance or travel time indicators, and map visualization. Additionally, the package provides several methods of spatial accessibility analysis. The package is modular and object-oriented. It is intended for researchers in economic geography, regional economics, spatial planning, marketing, geoinformation science, and health geography. The software is openly available via the Python Package Index (PyPI) (https://pypi.org/project/huff/); its development and version history are managed in a public GitHub Repository (https://github.com/geowieland/huff_official) and archived at Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18639559).
Yasmine Bedoui, Zein Kallas, Adrià Menéndez i Molist
et al.
Pricing is an essential element that significantly impacts the supply chain mechanisms. The primary objective of this study is to explore the transmission of producer-to-consumer prices in the Spanish fresh tomato industry. Employing the Threshold Vector Autoregressive model, and subsequently utilizing the Generalized Impulse Response Function, we investigated the nonlinear price adjustments that occur in response to positive and negative shocks affecting both tomato prices of consumers and producers. The findings show a clear pattern of distinct reactions between segments in response to shocks. Specifically, the speed and intensity of consumer price responses to producer price shocks appear to surpass those observed when producer prices respond to consumer price shocks. Furthermore, it is evident from the current research that the behavior of producers has evolved from earlier studies that utilized outdated information, suggesting a more competitive approach. The research identifies a new trend in producer behavior within the supply chain. By analyzing tomato price fluctuations, it advances current knowledge and provides essential market insights to support informed decision-making.
Abstract Urban green and blue infrastructure (GBI) and associated ecosystem services (ES) are increasingly recognized for their potential to address urban sustainability challenges. This has resulted in an increase in studies quantifying ES in cities. In this review, we analysed 850 peer-reviewed publications to characterize urban ES assessment in terms of geographical location, urban GBI type and methodological aspects (e.g. ES indicators). The analyses covered six ES: local temperature regulation, stormwater regulation, waste treatment, air quality regulation, pollination, and recreation and aesthetic appreciation. The majority of ES assessments focused on local temperature regulation (36%) and recreation and aesthetic appreciation (23%) and assessments were often conducted within unspecified green space (30%) and parks (26%). A common method to assess GBI performance was the comparison of ES delivery along a gradient of vegetation cover (24%). Moreover, assessments used a wide variety of ES indicators. Most assessments quantified ecosystem properties (59%), while a minority assessed actual benefits to people, recognized values or societal demands. To advance insights in the effectiveness of GBI, we recommend increased research attention towards i) increasing the coverage of less studied ES, GBI types and geographical regions, ii) quantifying actual benefits of GBI by comparing ES supply and societal demand, and iii) comparing effectiveness across different GBI types and in relation to grey infrastructure.
This article focuses on the challenges that uncertainty poses to countries in global and regional value chains. In this perspective, it focuses specifically on African countries and enriches the results with a comparative approach. Indeed, using a gravity model for 49 African countries and all their trading partners from 1990 to 2019, the paper proposes a comparative analysis of the effects of uncertainty on global trade in value chains and on trade in value chains within Africa. The robustness of the results shows that domestic uncertainty can drive the expansion of intra-African trade in value chains, while uncertainty in the partner country hinders the flourishing of trade relationships within a value chain.
Cities. Urban geography, Urbanization. City and country
L’histoire du football est autant écrite dans les grands stades des métropoles que dans ceux plus petits des villes moyennes ou des villages. Le bassin minier du nord de la France en offre un exemple tout à fait éclairant avec le stade de l’Étoile Sportive de Bully-les-Mines. Cette enceinte témoigne du dynamisme du football du Nord de la France dès la veille de la Grande Guerre et des aménagements et des œuvres sociales des Compagnies des Mines. Lieu autant de contrôle social que de réalisation de soi-même, le stade dont la tribune est achevée en 1927 est omnisport tout en devenant le terrain de l’ES Bully qui brille en Coupe de France. Aux heures de l’occupation allemande, le stade devient l’un des lieux de distraction en des temps difficiles. Il est aujourd’hui le théâtre du football amateur du dimanche.
Driven by access to large volumes of movement data, the study of human mobility has grown rapidly over the past decades. The field has shown that human mobility is scale-free, proposed models to generate scale-free moving distance distributions, and explained how the scale-free distribution arises. It has not, however, explicitly addressed how mobility is structured by geographical constraints. How mobility relates to the outlines of landmasses, lakes, and rivers; by the placement of buildings, roadways, and cities. Based on millions of moves, we show how separating the effect of geography from mobility choices, reveals a power law spanning five orders of magnitude. To do so, we incorporate geography via the `pair distribution function' that encapsulates the structure of locations on which mobility occurs. Showing how the spatial distribution of human settlements shapes human mobility, our approach bridges the gap between distance- and opportunity-based models of human mobility.
The planetary boundaries framework defines a safe operating space for humanity. To date, these boundaries have mostly been investigated separately, and it is unclear whether breaching one boundary can lead to the transgression of another. By employing a dynamic global vegetation model, we systematically simulate the strength and direction of the effects of different transgression levels of the climate change boundary (using climate output from ten phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project models for CO _2 levels ranging from 350 ppm to 1000 ppm). We focus on climate change-induced shifts of Earth’s major forest biomes, the control variable for the land-system change boundary, both by the end of this century and, to account for the long-term legacy effect, by the end of the millennium. Our simulations show that while staying within the 350 ppm climate change boundary co-stabilizes the land-system change boundary, breaching it (>450 ppm) leads to critical transgression of the latter, with greater severity the higher the ppm level rises and the more time passes. Specifically, this involves a poleward treeline shift, boreal forest dieback (nearly completely within its current area under extreme climate scenarios), competitive expansion of temperate forest into today’s boreal zone, and a slight tropical forest extension. These interacting changes also affect other planetary boundaries (freshwater change and biosphere integrity) and provide feedback to the climate change boundary itself. Our quantitative process-based study highlights the need for interactions to be studied for a systemic operationalization of the planetary boundaries framework.
Benaissa Chaimae, Rossi Abdelhamid, Bouhmadi Belkacem
et al.
This study aims to investigate the physical, chemical, and bacteriological quality of water derived from both a well and a spring across three distinct periods (2008, 2012, and 2021) in both summer and winter. These sampling points are situated within the urbanized area of Al Hoceima and serve as crucial sources of drinking water for a substantial portion of the city's population due to their proximity to the city center. The water hardness values observed at these natural points ranged from 5.9 to 82 (°F), categorizing the water from these sources as very hard. Furthermore, the Piper diagram revealed chemical facies characterized by chlorinated sodium and calcium magnesium sulfate. The elevated concentrations of sodium and chloride were attributed to the proximity of the Mediterranean Sea shoreline. Analysis of bacteriological parameters in these waters uncovered notable contamination by fecal germs. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of the water samples identified two primary groups, elucidated by two factors that collectively account for 79.37% of the variance. The first factor (50.11%) is linked to gypsum dissolution and marine intrusion, while the second factor (29.26%) is associated with external contributions such as anthropogenic pollution.
The Latinx population in the United States (US) is growing. While Latinxs have historically been present in US cities and southwestern states, there is a notable surge in migration to new destination states, including South Carolina (SC). As the Latinx population grows and extends to new geographies, there is a need to examine the evolution of Latinxs’ outdoor recreation patterns. Exploring their changing preferences regarding public spaces can inform park management planning and policy. This study examines outdoor recreation use among SC-based Latinxs, exploring three central questions: 1. What are the outdoor recreation preferences among Latinxs living in SC? 2. What constraints do Latinxs face while engaging in outdoor recreation? 3. What are Latinxs’ primary motivations in visiting natural areas? This study employs a convergent parallel mixed method design. The quantitative phase consists of a cross-sectional sampling approach via online surveys, while the qualitative phase utilizes focus groups. Analyses of survey results include descrip-tive statistics and ANOVA and Chi-square tests for select variables. Qualitative analyses are based on a priori open coding with thematic development. Quantitative and qualitative data were first examined separately and later compared. Results suggest that walking/hiking is the primary outdoor recreation activity in which Latinxs engage. Focus-group participants also mentioned a variety of land- and water-based outdoor recreation activities. The most prevalent motivations for recreation experiences included relaxation, escape, and improved health. The top five factors preventing survey respondents from visiting natural areas were tiredness after work, insufficient time off work, insufficient time and money to visit natural areas, and proximity to natural areas. Focus group participants also reported various constraints hindering their visits to natural areas, including time, cost, safety, inadequate on-site amenities, weather, and Latinx-specific constraints. The findings indicate that natural resource agencies wanting to improve Latinx outdoor recreation experiences should have bilingual front-line staff and provide communicative media, such as website information or on-site signage, in Spanish. Our findings also underscore the importance of Latinx-focused social media groups as useful tools for disseminating information.
The purpose of the scientific research is to reflect on the example of the Carpathian region of Ukraine the resources of flower tourism, to study the geography of their distribution, as well as the current state and prospects for the development of this type of tourism within the region. Methodology. In the study, the method of scientific systematization of information is used to identify places of flower tourism in the Carpathian region of Ukraine; the method of field research to identify the specifics of the activities of farms engaged in the cultivation of flowering plants; the location of resources within the region is displayed using the cartographic method. Results. The concept of "flower tourism" is specified, in particular, attention is focused on its belonging to niche types of tourism. The types of resources of flower tourism of the Carpathian region of Ukraine are summarized and their classification by the method of growth and purpose of use is proposed. The list of places for flower tourism in the region is grouped using such parameters as: type of location, presence of a flowering plant, flowering period, etc. It was found out that Zakarpattia region is the leader in the number of flower locations. The region has a wide range of flowering plants - sakura, lavender, crocuses, daffodils, magnolias, tulip trees, and almonds. The map of the geography of flower tourism resources allows to draw conclusions about their location within the region, as well as proximity or distance from the main tourist centers. On the example of the Lviv tour operator "Vidviday", selected tourist products involving places of flower tourism were analyzed. It was revealed that an essential feature of all flower tours is the additional inclusion of other tourist objects in the program of stay. The problems of development are summarized, and conclusions are made regarding the prospects for the development of flower tourism in the region. The scientific novelty of the results is analysis of the resource potential of flower tourism in the Carpathian region of Ukraine, study of created tourist products with the involvement of these resources, as well as justification of the possibilities of their further use in tourism. The practical importance. The obtained research results will be used in the process of forming tourist products in the territory of the Carpathian region of Ukraine, as well as in the educational process of training future specialists in the specialty "Tourism and Recreation". In addition, the findings can be useful for state authorities for the formation of strategies, as well as the implementation of state or regional tourism development programs.
Michael Zanger-Tishler, Julian Nyarko, Sharad Goel
In designing risk assessment algorithms, many scholars promote a "kitchen sink" approach, reasoning that more information yields more accurate predictions. We show, however, that this rationale often fails when algorithms are trained to predict a proxy of the true outcome, as is typically the case. With such "label bias", one should exclude a feature if its correlation with the proxy and its correlation with the true outcome have opposite signs, conditional on the other model features. This criterion is often satisfied when a feature is weakly correlated with the true outcome, and, additionally, that feature and the true outcome are both direct causes of the remaining features. For example, due to patterns of police deployment, criminal behavior and geography may be weakly correlated and direct causes of one's criminal record, suggesting one should exclude geography in criminal risk assessments trained to predict arrest as a proxy for behavior.
Zilberova Inna, Novoselova Irina, Petrov Konstantin
et al.
Housing and public utility services constitute one of the most important sectors of the national economy. Reforming and renewal of the housing and public utility services sector is unthinkable without technological modernization of the utility pipeline networks. At the same time, public utility infrastructure facilities in many cities and towns of Russia can be characterized by significant deterioration. Frequent accidents negatively affect the life support of populated areas, which urges the development of organizational and technological approaches to the reconstruction of municipal infrastructure facilities.
The genre of travel notes or a traveler's diary is definitely of interest to a wide audience and to field researchers due to the close interweaving of the cognitive and emotional levels of perception of the events observed by the author. The classic works of cultural anthropology are precisely the field notes from which future generations learn. The book under review Appropriation of Space from the series Letters of a Russian Traveler does not pretend to be scientific, but this is its advantage. The author, prose-writer Ilya Kochergin, based the text on his autobiographical experience of travelling in Siberia in the 1990s. He plunges into his memories to bring to life visions of the past. The first part of the book, Sensitivity to Geography, tells the story of his return to Altai, where he once was a forester in the Barguzinsky Nature Reserve. Despite all the measures taken, human intervention is visible in the Reserve. The author questions the very possibility for a city-dweller to experience virgin nature. In the second part, My House, the author takes the reader from the mystical space of the Altai mountains to the construction of a house in a village in the Ryazan region. The collective image here is associated with the interpretation of historical heritage. While the first chapter runs about man and nature, the second is devoted to the city versus the countryside. The third part brings the readers to the natural landscape of the middle zone, to fields, swamps, rivers, and forests. We cannot get back to nature, the cultivated lands are void of life, people, animals… The author observes the world shrink over the past decades: Russian cultural code rife with concepts of grandeur and vastness of the environment has been passed down from generation to generation, yet now it might not be adequate. In modern Russian society, the urban population predominates; in large agglomerations it is difficult to feel the true space and breadth. In the fourth part, Walks in the Water Meadows, I. Kochergin shares a tourist’s view of outdoor recreation on the left bank of the Oka river between Old Ryazan and Kasimov. The image of almost untouched nature relatively close to Moscow causes him boredom, anxiety or even fear. In the wild, different species of animals coexist in the same territory; it belongs to them, and humans are strangers here. In the final part, Inheritance, the author sets off with his teenage son along the route to the Barguzinsky Nature Reserve. A lot has changed in 30 years: transport accessibility, everyday life, and perhaps people. This part poses the key question of the book: “How can you inherit a space that doesn’t seem to belong to you? At times it is completely yours, appropriated and mastered, and at times it is completely alien.” Thus, balancing between involvement and alienation, Ilya Kochergin shares his field experience, shedding light on what is outside the urban civilization.
ABSTRACT This article examines the contributions made to Arctic knowledge by Kallihirua, a member of the Inughuit community of Northern Greenland who was abducted by the crew of the Assistance during the 1850–51 expedition in search of the missing ships Erebus and Terror. Unpacking this important moment of cultural encounter, the article explores the ways in which Kallihirua’s presence on board the ship became embroiled in wider scholarly debates pertaining to the ‘origins of the Inuit’ and to the historical migrations of human beings around the world. Furthermore, it studies the ways in which this ‘indigenous intermediary’ became an important influence on the emergent scholarly disciplines of anthropology and geography which were undergoing a process of institutionalization and professionalization during this period. The article therefore contributes new insights into the fundamental, yet overlooked, roles that Arctic indigenous peoples have historically played in shaping non-indigenous knowledge about the region.