Browsing by Person "Paladini, Stefania"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 43

A deep learning pipeline for age prediction from vocalisations of the domestic feline
(Nature Research, 2025-10-03) van Toor, Astrid; Qazi, Nadeem; Paladini, Stefania
Accurate age estimation is essential for advancing interspecies communication but remains a challenge across non-human species. This study presents the first dataset of domestic feline vocalisations specifically designed for age prediction and introduces a novel deep learning pipeline for this purpose. By applying transfer learning with models like VGGish, YAMNet, and Perch, we demonstrate the potential for automated age classification, with VGGish achieving the best results. Our findings hold significant potential for applications in veterinary care and wildlife conservation, building on existing research and pushing forward the boundaries of automated age classification within digital bioacoustics. Future work could explore improving model generalisability and robustness, potentially expanding its application across species.
The ACFTA (ASEAN-China Free Trade Area) – An update based on econometric evidence
(City University Press, 2016) Cheng J.Y.S.; Paladini, Stefania
América Latina Frente A La Iniciativa Del Cinturón Y LaRuta: Retos Y Oportunidades” [Latin America and China’s OBOR Initiative: Challenges And Opportunities]
(2018) Cordoba, T; Paladini, Stefania
The ASEAN–China Free Trade Area — A Success or a Failure? A Preliminary Evaluation Based on Econometric Evidence
(IGI Global, 2015-07-20) Paladini, Stefania; Cheng J.Y.S.
The ASEAN–China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) is the first of the free trade agreements signed by ASEAN with its major trade partners, and is generally considered a success. However, while liberalization of trade among ASEAN countries has historically not provoked any major issues, things went differently concerning the ACFTA, and complaints have been raised that the treaty allows China too many trade benefits. The purpose of this article is to evaluate, using trade gravity equations, if there is any evidence that the ACFTA has been responsible for the growing trade imbalance between China and Indonesia. The model has not produced any conclusive results about the negative effects on the ACFTA for Indonesia. Given the relevance of this treaty for the ongoing regional integration in Asia, however, the coming years will be crucial in determining the form of it among the existing options and the outcome now seems more uncertain than ever.
Asian Worlds in Latin America
(Routledge, 2018-01-12) Paladini, Stefania
There has been increasing Asian interest in Latin America in recent years, beginning with Japanese investment in the 1980s, and continuing into the present decade when there is growing investment by China. This book examines the nature and extent of Asian business and related activity in Latin America. It shows how investment is not just from Japan and China, with Korea and India also involved, and with Taiwan directly competing with China. It explores activity in the minerals and energy sector, and also in trade and other areas. It demonstrates how Asian activity has a wide impact on the countries of both South America and the Caribbean, making them less exclusively "the United States’ backyard"; how different countries are affected differently by Asian activity; and how the growing links with Asia increasingly open up the possibility of greater Latin American activity in Asia.
Cambios recientes en la política exterior China y sus efectos sobre América Latina” [Recent Issues in Chinese Foreign Policy and their Effects on Latin America]
(2013) Cordoba, T; Paladini, Stefania
The Case for Space Sustainability: Crowded Orbits, Debris Crisis, and Global Space Governance
(Roma TrE-Press, 2024-10) Paladini, Stefania; Zolea, Sirio
China’s Cyber-Security Strategy
(AFIO, 2016) Paladini, Stefania
China's Maritime Security Strategy
(City University Press, 2016) Cheng, Y.S.; Paladini, Stefania
China's ocean development strategy and its handling of the territorial conflicts in the South China Sea
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2014-11-27) Cheng J.Y.S.; Paladini, Stefania
China's economic growth leads to an increasingly ambitious ocean development strategy. In addition, China has been more assertive in the South China Sea territorial disputes. In view of the exacerbating “China threat” perception, Chinese leaders attempt to maintain a balance: while building a modern navy, China avoids its deployment in maritime law enforcement and the handling of minor territorial conflicts. Efforts have also been made to de-escalate such conflicts while establishing a deterrence effect. Given such context, the recent Sino-Filipino conflict over the Scarborough Shoal is now presented as a model of the way China asserts its sovereignty claims in territorial disputes. This article considers Chinese foreign policy from a traditional realism approach based on content analysis of existing documents, literature and interviews of Chinese academics in the field. It observes how China's neighbours remain suspicious of Beijing's intentions. It concludes that China's relations with ASEAN have been adversely affected by the recent confrontation, demonstrating its problem of maintaining a balance in the pursuit of multiple foreign policy objectives.
Chinese Cyber-Security Activities
(AFIO, 2015) Paladini, Stefania
The Cost of (Un)regulation: Shrinking Earth’s Orbits and the Need for Sustainable Space Governance
(Elsevier, 2023-11-10) Martin-Lawson, D; Paladini, Stefania; Saha, K; Yerushalmi, E
Outer space is infinite, useable planetary orbits are not. This makes the Earth's orbit a unique case of an Area Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ) complex to address, difficult to use in a sustainable and equitable way and almost intractable to regulate at an international level. As of 2023, we remain far from attaining a sustainable orbital environment, and future uses of the Earth's orbits for new satellites constellations appear now increasingly at risk. Adopting a probability-based empirical model to project the growth trajectory of objects in space, this article argues that the sector will cross a 'critical density' threshold within the upcoming years unless strong remedial actions to clear up the orbits are implemented and estimates the potential costs of active debris removal measures. Our findings suggest that orbital sustainability is unlikely to come from technology alone, no matter how advanced or ground-breaking. A long-term solution will necessarily require a radical rewriting of the outdated, often conflicting international regulatory framework, which contributed to creating this debris crisis in the first place, shrinking the Earth's orbit to (almost) the point of no return.
Custom Unions and Common Markets as Economic Security Fault Lines. The Garlic Case
(Emerald Publishing Limited, 2019-03-19) Paladini, Stefania; de Ruyter, A.; Nielsen, B.
One of the most heated discussions regarding Brexit is over the nature of any future trade deal the UK is going to sign with the EU. There have been endless discussions since the referendum result about this crucial aspect question and nothing has been so far agreed. Some analysts, however, have already pointed to a series of issues that anything different from the status quo could cause. The case analysed in the following pages serves as a cautionary tale, and there is an important reason for that. It is a good illustration of the issues that can emerge when countries are members of some forms of regional associations but not of others and whose consequences can produce spill-overs from pure trade matters to more serious security concerns. It is not very often that something as common as the import and export of agricultural products – especially non-exotic fruits and vegetables – becomes the object of such a dispute across multiple states. This is what happened in the now infamous case of Chinese garlic exports, which have seen several instances of smuggling, conviction, and fraud all over Europe in the last 20 years. Most incidents have taken place in Northern Europe, particularly Sweden, Norway, the UK and Ireland. There's a reason for that, which will be explained below.
Environmental threats and its effects on the innovation landscape in thailand: toward a quintuple helix?
(2015) Paladini, Stefania; Anoyrkati, Eleni; Walter, C.; Sinkakis, S
Several “helices multiple models” have been proposed for analyzing and to a certain extent for predicting innovation pattern in the twenty-first century. While the basic triple helix stresses the university-industry-government relation, the quadruple model embeds a technological-savvy civil society in this equation. However, other important factors have emerged to be especially sensitive in affecting—positively and adversely—societal conditions for innovation, and environment is certainly a key one. Both doctrine (Carayannis et al. 2012) and institutions have been discussing, directly or indirectly, about a quintuple helix, including ecology in its wider meaning. In the specific geographic and institutional framework of Southeast Asia, environmental conditions, and the unique challenges they present, constitute essential components to analyze and predict innovation forces. It is important to remember that environmental security has emerged as one of the most relevant non-traditional security issues in the region, and that migration, climate changes, and environmental hazards have always affected countries of this area in a measure even more significant than in other parts of the planet. It is not accidental that one of the first and most renowned centers of non-traditional security is hosted in Singapore—that is, RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies—as a leading research center in the field for the last 15 years.
European security in a post-Brexit world
(Emerald Publishing Limited, 2019-10-22) Paladini, Stefania; Castellucci, Ignazio
Evaluating Water Security in the Asia-Pacific Region: A New Approach Based on Vulnerability Indices
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2013) Paladini, Stefania
A specialist in non-traditional security issues in China and Southeast Asia outlines a new approach to investigating the emerging issue of water security in East Asia. The author develops a composite vulnerability index linking water availability with economic and social conditions, and applies the index to assess the effects of water supply constraints on 26 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The paper demonstrates that the index provides useful insights for further analyses, although additional work is needed before it can be considered fully reliable for forecasting purposes.
How Mars became the prize for the new space race – and why China is hellbent on winning it
(2021-02-04) Paladini, Stefania
How to Excel at Intelligence Analysis: A Bayesian Approach
(2017) Barbieri, D; Paladini, Stefania
Innovation intermediaries and emerging digital technologies [Editorial]
(Elsevier, 2024-04-30) Colovic, Ana; Caloffi, Annalisa; Rossi, Federica; Paladini, Stefania; Bagherzadeh, Mehdi
Digital technologies have brought about fundamental changes to innovation intermediaries’ business models, and the ways in which they facilitate innovation and the adoption of these technologies. Digital technologies have also stimulated the emergence of non-human intermediaries such as crowdsourcing platforms. Yet knowledge is lacking on how intermediaries and intermediation are changing under the influence of digital technologies. The special issue on Innovation intermediaries and emerging digital technologies was designed to contribute to filling this gap. In this editorial, we reflect on these major developments and introduce the articles published in this special issue, which advance knowledge on how intermediaries contribute to the adoption of digital technologies, how they respond to technological change, and how they support intermediation for innovation. Building on the insights from this special issue, we suggest several avenues for future research.
Intelligence and European security in the aftermath of Brexit: an Italian perspective
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2017-06-11) Paladini, Stefania; Castellucci, Ignazio
The Italian perception of Brexit is complex, at any level, and the intelligence and security dimensions do not represent anexception. The general view on this matter is that the exit of the UK from the European Union (EU) should not pose any special challenge in terms of traditional security issues: the UK and most EU members are member states of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), with the ensuing obligations in matters of collective security. Dramatic shifts are not expected either for what concerns intelligence services. If it is true there are friendly nations, but not friendly intelligence services’, Italy and the UK have a long tradition in terms of exchanges, and cooperation – both successful and unsuccessful - which has always happened outside of any EU setting. What is probably going to change is what affects law enforcement and extradition procedures, where EUROPOL has instead proved effective, and where it is not clear how the new arrangements are going to be.