Institution profile

University of Sassari

Academic institutioneurope · it
Official website
Research library3linked papers
Opportunities0open roles
Selected work

Representative Papers

Visual graphs for image classification: does the structure affect performance?

Jul 07, 2026

Existing deep learning models struggle to effectively encode spatial, topological, and semantic structural information inherent in images. This work systematically evaluates the impact of various visual graph construction strategies on image classification performance within a unified three-layer Graph Convolutional Network (GCN) framework. For the first time, it demonstrates that the graph structure itself plays a decisive role in model performance. The study underscores the critical importance of the graph construction preprocessing stage, providing empirical evidence that well-designed graph structures substantially enhance classification accuracy. These findings offer both methodological guidance and practical justification for graph structure selection and preprocessing in visual graph neural networks.

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Application of association rule mining to assess forest species distribution in Italy considering abiotic and biotic factors

Aug 09, 2025

Addressing the need for dynamic assessment of forest biodiversity and ecological conservation in Italy, this study tackles the challenge of uncovering latent ecological relationships from complex, multi-source environmental and vegetation data. Method: We propose the first analytical framework applying Association Rule Mining (ARM) to forest ecosystems, leveraging data from 6,784 plots—including plant community composition, geospatial information, bioclimatic indices, soil properties, and remote-sensing variables—and employing the FP-Growth algorithm to extract species–environment and interspecific co-occurrence rules. Contribution/Results: The approach reveals interpretable, data-driven ecological associations, identifying keystone “hub” species and their strong environmental responses—for instance, *Picea abies* exhibits high-confidence associations with temperature and precipitation seasonality (confidence: 90.9%; lift: 7.13). These findings advance mechanistic understanding of species coexistence, inform evidence-based territorial planning, and enhance ecosystem resilience under global change.

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Recent publications

Latest Papers

Visual graphs for image classification: does the structure affect performance?

Jul 07, 2026

Existing deep learning models struggle to effectively encode spatial, topological, and semantic structural information inherent in images. This work systematically evaluates the impact of various visual graph construction strategies on image classification performance within a unified three-layer Graph Convolutional Network (GCN) framework. For the first time, it demonstrates that the graph structure itself plays a decisive role in model performance. The study underscores the critical importance of the graph construction preprocessing stage, providing empirical evidence that well-designed graph structures substantially enhance classification accuracy. These findings offer both methodological guidance and practical justification for graph structure selection and preprocessing in visual graph neural networks.

0 citationsRead paper

Application of association rule mining to assess forest species distribution in Italy considering abiotic and biotic factors

Aug 09, 2025

Addressing the need for dynamic assessment of forest biodiversity and ecological conservation in Italy, this study tackles the challenge of uncovering latent ecological relationships from complex, multi-source environmental and vegetation data. Method: We propose the first analytical framework applying Association Rule Mining (ARM) to forest ecosystems, leveraging data from 6,784 plots—including plant community composition, geospatial information, bioclimatic indices, soil properties, and remote-sensing variables—and employing the FP-Growth algorithm to extract species–environment and interspecific co-occurrence rules. Contribution/Results: The approach reveals interpretable, data-driven ecological associations, identifying keystone “hub” species and their strong environmental responses—for instance, *Picea abies* exhibits high-confidence associations with temperature and precipitation seasonality (confidence: 90.9%; lift: 7.13). These findings advance mechanistic understanding of species coexistence, inform evidence-based territorial planning, and enhance ecosystem resilience under global change.

0 citationsRead paper