ALBERT

Description: World of Warcraft rapidly became one of the most popular online world games on the planet, amassing 11.5 million subscribers—officially making it an online community of gamers that had more inhabitants than the state of Ohio and was almost twice as populous as Scotland. It's a massively multiplayer online game, or MMO in gamer jargon, where each person controls a single character inside a virtual world, interacting with other people's characters and computer-controlled monsters, quest-givers, and merchants. In My Life as a Night Elf Priest, Bonnie Nardi, a well-known ethnographer who has published extensively on how theories of what we do intersect with how we adopt and use technology, compiles more than three years of participatory research in Warcraft play and culture in the United States and China into this field study of player behavior and activity. She introduces us to her research strategy and the history, structure, and culture of Warcraft; argues for applying activity theory and theories of aesthetic experience to the study of gaming and play; and educates us on issues of gender, culture, and addiction as part of the play experience. Nardi paints a compelling portrait of what drives online gamers both in this country and in China, where she spent a month studying players in Internet cafes. Bonnie Nardi has given us a fresh look not only at World of Warcraft but at the field of game studies as a whole. One of the first in-depth studies of a game that has become an icon of digital culture, My Life as a Night Elf Priest will capture the interest of both the gamer and the ethnographer.

Description: This collection gathers the contributions of ten scholars on the topic of transnational cultural and physical mobility originating in China. These contributions aim to open conversations among Chinese Studies scholars by applying a Mobility Studies perspective. Exploring diverse narratives and forms of representation from people of Chinese heritage, the book is divided into three parts that each look closely at the relationship between movement and cultural production. The first part is dedicated to four types of mobility of people from China to Italy, namely tourist mobility (Miriam Castorina), labor mobility (Valentina Pedone), student mobility (Xu Hao), and mobility of social elites (Andrea Scibetta). The second part is dedicated to examples of reverse mobility from Italy to China (Gao Changxu, Chiara Lepri, Giuseppe Rizzuto). The third part focuses on case studies based on mobilities from China to territories other than Italy (Rebecca Ehrenwirth, Martina Renata Prosperi, Giulia Rampolla).

Description: According to the Ministry of Manpower, falling and slipping accidents are one of the most common accidents in addition, falls from heights (FFH), including accidents during scaffolding work, are still a major cause of death in the construction industry. Regular safety checks are currently being carried out on construction sites, but scaffold-related accidents continue to occur. Sensing technology is being attempted in many industrial sites for safety monitoring, but there are still limitations in terms of the cost of sensors and object detection, which are limited to certain risks. Therefore, this paper proposes a deep learning-based pose estimation approach to identify the risk of falling during scaffolding work in the construction industry. Through analysis of the correlation between unstable behavior during scaffold work and the angle of keypoints of workers, the proposed approach demonstrates the ability to detect the risk of falling. The proposed approach can prevent falling accidents not only by detecting construction site workers, but also by detecting specific risky behaviors. In addition, in limited work environments other than scaffolding work, the information on unstable behavior can be provided to safety managers who may not be aware of the risk, thus contributing to preventing falling accidents

Description: The chapter highlights the centrality of advocacy work for adult learners, particularly from marginalised and excluded communities, as a key feature of the work of Lalage Bown and its scope nationally and internationally. It explores effective work in representing the experience and demands of adult learners, and those who work with them, undertaken by adult learning associations at a national, regional and global level. The three examples considered are the work of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) in England and Wales, notably around the creation of Adult Learners’ Week as festival and advocacy tool; the work of the Asian South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE), in combining research-based policy work and advocacy, regionally and globally alongside developing advocacy skills among its members; and the work of the International Council for Adult Education, the global non-governmental association for adult learning, and the work of its International Academy for Lifelong Learning Advocacy in strengthening practitioners’ capacity to engage with global decision making processes affecting adult learning. The chapter concludes with reflections on the key skills needed for successful advocacy.

Description: The book meticulously analyses the history of the critical reception of avantguard art through the interpretations received by one of its greatest emblems, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Picasso, 1907. Since Les Demoiselles has been considered over this century the true paradigm of Modern Art, this book is, fundamentally, a sort of synthesis of the discourses about Modernism from formalism, iconology, Leo Steinberg's 'Other Criteria’, sociological, the biographical and psychoanalytical theses, cultural and historicist and lastly, the impact of post-structuralism and the feminist, post-colonialist and transnational interpretations. The final chapter deals with the artistic versions of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon made by artists. It is an essay on the different versions and identities of Modern Art and Modernism that have been produced throughout the last century.

Description: In these seven stories spanning the Midwest to California, Charles McLeod brings us characters estranged from their homelands and locked in conflict with their past and present selves. In “How to Start Your Own Midwestern Ghost Town,” an unnamed narrator hatches a plan to capitalize on rural decay. A porn star trying to transition to the mainstream does an interview with a German reporter in “The Subject of Our First Issue Is Art.” In the title story, a closeted heroin dealer follows a ghostly girl into an Oakland graveyard. And in “Rancho Brava,” the conductor of a focus group about corporate salsa keeps getting interrupted by visitors from the Old West. Alternating between the comic, the tragic, and the neurotic—and often all three at once—McLeod’s second collection transports readers from the American mainstream to the dark edges of cities and the heartland’s lost, forgotten towns, into the lives of people trying to decipher if they can escape their pasts, and at what cost.

Description: Symbols are a universal way to convey complex information in technical drawings since they can represent a wide range of elements, including components, materials, or relationships, in a concise and space-saving manner. Therefore, to enable a digital and automatic interpretation of pixel-based drawings, accurate detection of symbols is a crucial step. To enhance the efficiency of the digitization process, current research focuses on automating this symbol detection using deep learning models. However, the ever-increasing repertoire of model architectures poses a challenge for researchers and practitioners alike in retaining an overview of the latest advancements and selecting the most suitable model architecture for their respective use cases. To provide guidance, this contribution conducts a comparative study of prevalent and state-of-the-art model architectures for the task of symbol detection in pixel-based construction drawings. Therefore, this study evaluates six different object detection model architectures, including YOLOv5, YOLOv7, YOLOv8, Swin-Transformer, ConvNeXt, and Faster-RCNN. These models are trained and tested on two distinct datasets from the bridge and residential building domains, both representing substantial sub-sectors of the construction industry. Furthermore, the models are evaluated based on five criteria, i.e., detection accuracy, robustness to data scarcity, training time, inference time, and model size. In summary, our comparative study highlights the performance and capabilities of different deep learning models for symbol detection in construction drawings. Through the comprehensive evaluation and practical insights, this research facilitates the advancement of automated symbol detection by showing the strengths and weaknesses of the model architectures, thus providing users with valuable guidance in choosing the most appropriate model for their real-world applications

Description: The role of generations is an important, yet often overlooked, variable in the study of American politics. A topic of research in sociology, business, and marketing, the focus on generations frequently occurs in American pop culture and journalism. The general public often assumes that different generations have different political leanings and beliefs—that the Silent Generation is all Republican, white, and conservative, or that Millennials are liberal and diverse—but are these assumptions true? Generational Politics in the United States is the first comprehensive book that examines the concept of generations from a political science perspective. It defines what a generation is and how to sort out the differences between life cycle, cohort, and aging effect. The book then brings together chapters from an array of political science scholars that examine the role of generations in American politics and how it relates to other variables such as age, race, gender, and socioeconomic status. It discusses how politics in the United States are impacted by changes in generations, including how the passing of the Baby Boom generation and rise of the Millennials and Gen Z will change American politics. By examining the differences in political attitudes, engagement, and impact of recent generations, Generational Politics in the United States suggests how generational change will impact American politics in the future.

Description: Poor construction quality is one of the most significant challenges for the construction industry. However, failures can be avoided or minimized by inspections based on detailed quality inspection plans as a part of quality assurance. Therefore, structured and project-specific planning of inspection plans is required to provide inspectors with the right information. Nevertheless, inspection planning is mainly manual, dependent on the individual’s experience and high level of effort. As a result, inspection planning is often neglected and limited to providing general checklists that often lack semantically rich descriptions and are unspecific concerning individual project requirements. Furthermore, proper planning of inspections requires multiple information sources, such as building design, schedules, contractual and supplier guidelines, and standards, all of which must be provided or linked via an information model. Current research lacks an adequate formalized knowledge model to provide the knowledge-driven inspection planning process with the necessary domain knowledge to support inspection planning with heterogeneous information defined in isolated systems. Therefore, this paper extends the Ontology for Construction Quality Assurance (OCQA) with the OCQA-Thermal Insulation (OCQA-TI) to formalize thermal insulation inspection planning knowledge. The OCQA offers a new linked data model that provides explicit knowledge of quality inspection planning. The development of the OCQA-TI follows the Linked Open Terms (LOT) methodology and is implemented using the Web Ontology Language (OWL). The proposed ontology is evaluated using various approaches, including automatic consistency checking, answering competency questions, and criteria-based evaluation. The results indicate that the OCQA-TI can provide inspectors with relevant inspection planning knowledge and integrate various related information streams, thus providing a more comprehensive and efficient approach to insulation inspection planning. The functionality of OCQA-TI enables the fulfillment of increased sustainability and energy efficiency requirements by providing insulation inspection knowledge

Description: Main objective of this study was to describe chemical composition of MP collected in surface waters of Mediterranean Sea. Samples were collected by manta net during Tara Mediterranean expedition (June–Nov.2014). Our results pointed to certain homogeneity at Mediterranean Sea scale. Main polymers collected were polyethylene (PE) (67.3±2.4%), polypropylene (20.8±2.1%), polystyrene (3.0±0.9%). Still, discrepancies, confirmed by literature, were observed at mesoscale level. Thus, in North Tyrrhenian Sea, proportion of PE was significantly lower than average value of Mediterranean Sea (57.9±10.5%).

Description: The term «moral science» was used in universities and academies prior to the emergence of the expression «humanities and social sciences». However, its connection with the modern eastern Asian context has not yet been sufficiently investigated. This paper tries to fill the gap with a case study on its import and appropriation by late nineteenth-century Japan to its socio-cultural sphere, having lacked the framework of classifying the sciences into «moral» and «physical» ones. The study achieves this by examining the activities of Meirokusha, a learned society created in 1773 to promote Western studies, and the writings of one of its leading members, Yukichi Fukuzawa, who tried to understand Francis Wayland’s Elements of Moral Science (1835), a famous American textbook in his time.

Description: The great challenge of global climate change urges world economies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote sustainable development, where the building sector plays a vital role. Carbon tracking technology is one of the keys to capturing carbon emissions for sustainable construction such as net-zero buildings. This paper reviews five key carbon tracking technologies – life cycle assessment (LCA), energy modeling, building operation monitoring, carbon accounting software, and green certification and rating systems. With summarized advantages, beneficiaries, and limitations of the five technologies, we propose a Carbon Tracking ‘Cabbage’ (CTC) framework that incorporates all carbon tracking tools as inner technological layers for multiple stakeholders at multiple stages of construction management. The main contribution of this paper is the CTC framework that rationalizes the scopes and adoption strategies of carbon tracking technologies by collaborative stakeholders to achieve informed decision-making, implement effective carbon reduction strategies, and subsequently contribute to climate change mitigation actively

Description: The study of complexity in world politics began painstakingly in the 1980s on the initiative of authors such as James Rosenau, and looks at different types of complexity such as non-linear interactions, the interaction between actors at different levels (turbulence), the emergence of structures. The chapter intends to analyze the contribution the study of competition processes can provide by means of the theory of dynamical systems. For this purpose, nonlinear equations derived from Richardson's and equations formulated in the framework of population theories concerning crime or terrorism are considered. Finally, the need to move on to the theory of self-organization and emergent structures is indicated.

Description: Video-based fire detection is a crucial object detection problem that relies on accurate and reliable data to detect fires. However, collecting and labeling fire-related data can be time-consuming and expensive, making it difficult to obtain sufficient data for training machine learning models. To address this challenge, uncertainty-based active learning techniques can be used to iteratively select the most informative samples for labeling. This can reduce the amount of labeled data needed to achieve high model performance and has the potential to even prune the training data with fewer informative samples. The traditional sampling-based uncertainty estimation methods are computationally expensive. Hence, an efficient prior network-based ensemble distillation State-of-the-Art approach is evaluated on an internal dataset which still requires relatively higher overhead computation making it difficult for production deployment. A biased softmax differencing-based uncertainty approach and a feature-based hard data mining approach are proposed and compared with the distillation approach. The novel approaches are found to have a very low overhead uncertainty estimation time compared to the ensemble distillation approach and traditional sampling techniques. The methods are evaluated in the context of curating the unlabeled pool data and improving the training data. For completeness, the experiments are performed on three different data sizes, and overall, the frame-wise selection strategy is proved to be better than the sequence-wise querying strategy. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA)-based hard data mining outperformed other methods and improved the model performance by 16.33% with AUC2% metric when compared with the random selection of data. The approach even outperformed the main network trained on full data by 7.33%, henceforth improving the training data by using informative 26.39% data. The results indicate that novel data mining provides efficient training and pool data curation

Description: Another way of showing interpretations of Picasso's Demoiselles is to heed the replicas, copies, pictorial or artistic versions made by contemporary artists. This chapter presents the artistic versions of the work done by artists at the end of the 20th and start of the 21st century. It begins the pop replicas by Caulfield or Equipo Crónico and the appropriationists like Richard Prince or Mark Bidlo. And continuing with those done by feminist or Afroamerican artists like Faith Ringgold or the queer versions of Rafael Agredano. Finally it deals with the geographical and culturally situated critical proposals of Francis Alÿs or Rogelio López Cuenca/Elo Vega.

Description: Technologies to communicate construction project information (engineering designs, schedules) have evolved into a wider range of innovative ecosystems for engineering practices (e.g., cloud-based 3D representations and advanced immersive environments). There is a lack of exploration of effective user interaction for learning and training in relation to how presented information influences cognition in these ecosystems. The presented research investigates the users’ cognitive and attentional differences using the interactive capabilities of Mixed reality (MX) technology. The enhanced user-situation interactions are analyzed by measuring cognitive dynamics with an emphasis on two processes (attentional focus and cognitive load) in relation to the challenge of the engineering learning task— defined by its complexity (limited time frame for observations of the situations, number of required observations) and nature (episodic). Cognitive dynamics were measured using an electroencephalography (EEG) device that senses electrical activity in response to changing levels of cognitive stimuli via electrodes placed on the scalp. Measuring fluctuations in cognitive processing (related to the intensity of various task demands) allows associating efforts on semantic information processing for learning and training tasks (e.g., walkthroughs for safety checks in job site in MX). The approach enhances opportunities to design technology that best adapts to the user needs for engineering practices with an efficient comprehensive performance assessment

Description: Serhiy Zhadan’s poetry and prose has garnered critical acclaim both in Ukraine and beyond, captivating audiences with its raw emotional intensity, vivid imagery, and a deep sense of social consciousness. His works often delve into themes of personal and collective identity, the struggles of marginalized communities, and the challenges of post-Soviet transformations. The objective of this paper is to examine how Zhadan’s literary voice is perceived both in Ukraine and in the West, and to understand the implications of his work in a transnational context. The study analyzes interviews, critical responses, and reviews of Zhadan’s works to uncover how Ukrainian, American and European readers, critics, and scholars have embraced and interpreted his writings.

Description: The diffusion of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and advanced visualization technologies in the increasingly digitalised construction sector is fostering the development and implementation of disruptive approaches for workforce Health and Safety (H&S) training. Project-specific risks, safety procedures and information can be administered through immersive Virtual Reality (VR) experiences where construction site environments and activities are reproduced without exposing the trainees to real hazards. However, despite numerous research and industry applications demonstrating the potential benefits of these technologies, a standardized framework and methodology for the evaluation of VR safety training effectiveness for construction workers is still lacking hence hindering its large scale-adoption and recognition from policymakers. Within the scope of previous authors contributions on the development and implementation of BIM-based VR experiences for construction workers’ safety training, this paper aims to address the evaluation of their effectiveness proposing a novel semi-qualitative approach based on the integration of trainees’ subjective and objective data. A post-experience evaluation questionnaire is developed to collect trainees’ direct and qualitative feedback about the experience immersivity and perceived safety content transfer. Furthermore, the integration with trainees’ spatial tracking data is proposed to complement the qualitative feedback with the quantitative evaluation of their use of the virtual space for safety training purposes. The application of the presented approach in case study is currently undergoing and the related results will be subject of future contributions

Description: The victory of Justinian, achieved after a lacerating war, put an end to the ambitious project conceived and implemented by Theoderic after his arrival in Italy: that of a new society in which peoples divided by centuries-old cultural barriers would live together in peace and justice, without renouncing their own traditions but respecting shared principles inspired by the values of civilitas. What did this great experiment leave to Europe and Italy in the centuries to come? What were the survivals and the ruptures, what were the revivals of that world in early medieval society? How did that past continue to be recounted and how did it interact with the present, especially in the decisive moment of the Frankish conquest of Italy? This book aims to confront these questions, and it does so by exploring different themes, concerning politics and ideology, culture and literary tradition, law, epigraphy and archaeology.

Description: Agricultural Meteorology and Climatology is an introductory textbook for meteorology and climatology courses at faculties of agriculture and for agrometeorology and agroclimatology courses at faculties whose curricula include these subjects. Additionally, this book may be a useful source of information for practicing agronomists and all those interested in different aspects of weather and climate impacts on agriculture. In times when scientific knowledge and practical experience increase exponentially, it is not a simple matter to prepare a textbook. Therefore we decided not to constrain Agricultural Meteorology and Climatology by its binding pages. Only a part of it is a conventional textbook. The other part includes numerical examples (easy-to-edit worksheets) and recommended additional reading available on-line in digital form. To keep the reader's attention, the book is divided into three sections: Basics, Applications and Agrometeorological Measurements with Numerical Examples.

Description: Encounters between the species in an anthology of lively solo performances and commentary

Description: The International Conference the European Pilgrimage Routes for promoting sustainable and quality tourism in rural areas took place December 4 to 6, 2014 in Firenze (Italy) and was organized by the Department of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Systems – University of Florence in collaboration with the Tuscany Region, the Department for Life Quality Studies and Department of Agricultural Sciences – University of Bologna, the Italian Association of Agricultural Engineering and the European Association of the Francigena Way. The Conference involving 150 experts from 18 countries and was divided into five areas of discussion: conservation and evolution of the landscape along the routes; life quality and social impact; tourism and local development; sustainability in the rural areas; tools and methods for building a tourist attraction.

Description: Play Redux is an ambitious description and critical analysis of the aesthetic pleasures of video game play, drawing on early twentieth-century formalist theory and models of literature. Employing a concept of biological naturalism grounded in cognitive theory, Myers argues for a clear delineation between the aesthetics of play and the aesthetics of texts. In the course of this study, Myers asks a number of interesting questions: What are the mechanics of human play as exhibited in computer games? Can these mechanisms be modeled? What is the evolutionary function of cognitive play, and is it, on the whole, a good thing? Intended as a provocative corrective to the currently ascendant, if not dominant, cultural and ethnographic approach to game studies and play, Play Redux will generate interest among scholars of communications, new media, and film.

Description: This book illustrates the main results deriving from fourteen studies, dealing with the impact of climate change on different agricultural and natural ecosystems, carried out within the Impact of Climate change On agricultural and Natural Ecosystems (ICONE) project funded by the ALFA Programme of the European Commission. During this project, a common methodology on several Global Change-related matters was developed and shared among members of scientific communities coming from Latin America and Europe. In order to facilitate this interdisciplinary approach, specific mobility programmes, addressed to post-graduate, Master and PhD students, have been organized. The research, led by the research groups, was focused on the study of the impact of climate change on various environmental features (i.e. runoff in hydrological basins, soil erosion and moisture, forest canopy, sugarcane crop, land use, drought, precipitation, etc). Integrated and shared methodologies of atmospheric physics, remote sensing, eco-physiology and modelling have been applied.

Description: The AXMEDIS International Conference series has been established since 2005 and is focused on the research, developments and applications in the cross-media domain, exploring innovative technologies to meet the challenges of the sector. AXMEDIS2007 deals with all subjects and topics related to cross-media and digital-media content production, processing, management, standards, representation, sharing, interoperability, protection and rights management. It addresses the latest developments and future trends of the technologies and their applications, their impact and exploitation within academic, business and industrial communities.

Description: "Myst and Riven is well-written, interesting, on-topic, insightful, and a real pleasure to read." -Edward Castronova, Indiana University Video games have become a major cultural force, and within their history, Myst and its sequel Riven stand out as influential examples. Myst and Riven: The World of the D'ni is a close analysis of two of the most popular and significant video games in the history of the genre, investigating in detail their design, their functionality, and the gameplay experience they provide players. While scholarly close analysis has been applied to films for some time now, it has only rarely been applied at this level to video games. Mark J. P. Wolf uses elements such as graphics and sound, the games' mood and atmosphere and how they are generated, the geography and design of the digital worlds, and the narrative structures of the games to examine their appeal to both critical and general audiences, their legacy, and what made them great. Myst and Riven is the inaugural book in the Landmark Video Games series, edited by Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron, which is the first series to examine individual video games of historical significance.

Description: A close examination about what is considered the most important first-person video game ever made and its influence on how we play games today

Description: A look at what it's like to play video games, their cultures in three different international cities, and their significance in everyday life

Description: "In May 2000 I was fired from my job as a reporter on a finance newsletter because of an obsession with a video game. It was the best thing that ever happened to me." So begins this story of personal redemption through the unlikely medium of electronic games. Quake , World of Warcraft, Eve Online, and other online games not only offered author Jim Rossignol an excellent escape from the tedium of office life. They also provided him with a diverse global community and a job-as a games journalist. Part personal history, part travel narrative, part philosophical reflection on the meaning of play, This Gaming Life describes Rossignol's encounters in three cities: London, Seoul, and Reykjavik. From his days as a Quake genius in London's increasingly corporate gaming culture; to Korea, where gaming is a high-stakes televised national sport; to Iceland, the home of his ultimate obsession, the idiosyncratic and beguiling Eve Online, Rossignol introduces us to a vivid and largely undocumented world of gaming lives. Torn between unabashed optimism about the future of games and lingering doubts about whether they are just a waste of time, This Gaming Life also raises important questions about this new and vital cultural form. Should we celebrate the "serious" educational, social, and cultural value of games, as academics and journalists are beginning to do? Or do these high-minded justifications simply perpetuate the stereotype of games as a lesser form of fun? In this beautifully written, richly detailed, and inspiring book, Rossignol brings these abstract questions to life, immersing us in a vibrant landscape of gaming experiences. "We need more writers like Jim Rossignol, writers who are intimately familiar with gaming, conversant in the latest research surrounding games, and able to write cogently and interestingly about the experience of playing as well as the deeper significance of games." -Chris Baker, Wired "This Gaming Life is a fascinating and eye-opening look into the real human impact of gaming culture. Traveling the globe and drawing anecdotes from many walks of life, Rossignol takes us beyond the media hype and into the lives of real people whose lives have been changed by gaming. The results may surprise you." -Raph Koster, game designer and author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design "Is obsessive video gaming a character flaw? In This Gaming Life, Jim Rossignol answers with an emphatic 'no,' and offers a passionate and engaging defense of what is too often considered a 'bad habit' or 'guilty pleasure.'" -Joshua Davis, author of The Underdog "This is a wonderfully literate look at gaming cultures, which you don't have to be a gamer to enjoy. The Korea section blew my mind." -John Seabrook, New Yorker staff writer and author of Flash of Genius and Other True Stories of Invention digitalculturebooks is an imprint of the University of Michigan Press and the Scholarly Publishing Office of the University of Michigan Library dedicated to publishing innovative and accessible work exploring new media and their impact on society, culture, and scholarly communication. Visit the website at www.digitalculture.org.

Description: Video games have become a major cultural force, and within their history, Myst and its sequel Riven stand out as influential examples. Myst and Riven: The World of the D'ni is a close analysis of two of the most popular and significant video games in the history of the genre, investigating in detail their design, their functionality, and the gameplay experience they provide players. While scholarly close analysis has been applied to films for some time now, it has only rarely been applied at this level to video games. Mark J. P. Wolf uses elements such as graphics and sound, the games' mood and atmosphere and how they are generated, the geography and design of the digital worlds, and the narrative structures of the games to examine their appeal to both critical and general audiences, their legacy, and what made them great.

Description: "Links" are among the most basic---and most unexamined---features of online life. Bringing together a prominent array of thinkers from industry and the academy, The Hyperlinked Society addresses a provocative series of questions about the ways in which hyperlinks organize behavior online. How do media producers' considerations of links change the way they approach their work, and how do these considerations in turn affect the ways that audiences consume news and entertainment? What role do economic and political considerations play in information producers' creation of links? How do links shape the size and scope of the public sphere in the digital age? Are hyperlinks "bridging" mechanisms that encourage people to see beyond their personal beliefs to a broader and more diverse world? Or do they simply reinforce existing bonds by encouraging people to ignore social and political perspectives that conflict with their existing interests and beliefs? This pathbreaking collection of essays will be valuable to anyone interested in the now taken for granted connections that structure communication, commerce, and civic discourse in the world of digital media. "This collection provides a broad and deep examination of the social, political, and economic implications of the evolving, web-based media environment. The Hyperlinked Society will be a very useful contribution to the scholarly debate about the role of the internet in modern society, and especially about the interaction between the internet and other media systems in modern society." ---Charles Steinfield, Professor and Chairperson, Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media, Michigan State University Joseph Turow is Robert Lewis Shayon Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. He was named a Distinguished Scholar by the National Communication Association and a Fellow of the International Communication Association in 2010. He has authored eight books, edited five, and written more than 100 articles on mass media industries. His books include Niche Envy: Marketing Discrimination in the Digital Age and Breaking up America: Advertisers and the New Media World. Lokman Tsui is a doctoral candidate at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. His research interests center on new media and global communication. Cover image: This graph from Lada Adamic's chapter depicts the link structure of political blogs in the United States. The shapes reflect the blogs, and the colors of the shapes reflect political orientation---red for conservative blogs, blue for liberal ones. The size of each blog reflects the number of blogs that link to it. digitalculturebooks is an imprint of the University of Michigan Press and the Scholarly Publishing Office of the University of Michigan Library dedicated to publishing innovative and accessible work exploring new media and their impact on society, culture, and scholarly communication. Visit the website at www.digitalculture.org.

Description: Silent Hill: The Terror Engine, the second of the two inaugural studies in the Landmark Video Games series from series editors Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron, is both a close analysis of the first three Silent Hill games and a general look at the whole series. Silent Hill, with its first title released in 1999, is one of the most influential of the horror video game series. Perron situates the games within the survival horror genre, both by looking at the history of the genre and by comparing Silent Hill with such important forerunners as Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil. Taking a transmedia approach and underlining the designer's cinematic and literary influences, he uses the narrative structure; the techniques of imagery, sound, and music employed; the game mechanics; and the fiction, artifact, and gameplay emotions elicited by the games to explore the specific fears survival horror games are designed to provoke and how the experience as a whole has made the Silent Hill series one of the major landmarks of video game history.

Description: Atari’s 1981 arcade hit Tempest was a “tube shooter” built around glowing, vector-based geometric shapes. Among its many important contributions to both game and cultural history, Tempest was one of the first commercial titles to allow players to choose the game’s initial play difficulty (a system Atari dubbed “SkillStep”), a feature that has since became standard for games of all types. Tempest was also one of the most aesthetically impactful games of the twentieth century, lending its crisp, vector aesthetic to many subsequent movies, television shows, and video games. In this book, Ruggill and McAllister enumerate and analyze Tempest’s landmark qualities, exploring the game’s aesthetics, development context, and connections to and impact on video game history and culture. By describing the game in technical, historical, and ludic detail, they unpack the game’s latent and manifest audio-visual iconography and the ideological meanings this iconography evokes.

Description: COST Action 734 was launched thanks to the coordinated activity of 29 EU countries. The main objective of the Action was the evaluation of impacts from climate change and variability on agriculture for various European areas. Secondary objectives were: collection and review of existing agroclimatic indices and simulation models, to assess hazard impacts on European agricultural areas; to apply climate scenarios for the next few decades; the definition of harmonised criteria to evaluate the impacts of climate change and variability on agriculture; the definition of warning systems guidelines. Based on the result, possible actions (specific recommendations, suggestions, warning systems) were elaborated and proposed to the end-users, depending on their needs.

Description: Since its launch in 2006, Twitter has served as a major platform for political performance, social justice activism, and large-scale public debates over race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and nationality. It has empowered minoritarian groups to organize protests, articulate often-underrepresented perspectives, and form community. It has also spread hashtags that have been used to bully and silence women, people of color, and LGBTQ people. #identity is among the first scholarly books to address the positive and negative effects of Twitter on our contemporary world. Hailing from diverse scholarly fields, all contributors are affiliated with The Color of New Media, a scholarly collective based at the University of California, Berkeley. The Color of New Media explores the intersections of new media studies, critical race theory, gender and women's studies, and postcolonial studies. The essays in #identity consider topics such as the social justice movements organized through #BlackLivesMatter, #Ferguson, and #SayHerName; the controversies around #WhyIStayed and #CancelColbert; Twitter use in India and Africa; the integration of hashtags such as #nohomo and #onfleek that have become part of everyday online vernacular; and other ways in which Twitter has been used by, for, and against women, people of color, LGBTQ, and Global South communities. Collectively, the essays in this volume offer a critically interdisciplinary view of how and why social media has been at the heart of US and global political discourse for over a decade.

Description: The AXMEDIS International Conference series aims to explore all subjects and topics related to cross-media and digital-media content production, processing, management, standards, representation, sharing, protection and rights management, to address the latest developments and future trends of the technologies and their applications, impacts and exploitation. The AXMEDIS events offer venues for exchanging concepts, requirements, prototypes, research ideas, and findings which could contribute to academic research and also benefit business and industrial communities. In the Internet as well as in the digital era, cross-media production and distribution represent key developments and innovations that are fostered by emergent technologies to ensure better value for money while optimising productivity and market coverage.

Description: Fluid-structure and pedestrian-structure interaction phenomena are extremely important for non-conventional bridges. The results presented in this volume concern: simplified formulas for flutter assessment; innovative structural solutions to increase the aeroelastic stability of long-span bridges; numerical simulations of the flow around a benchmark rectangular cylinder; examples of designs of large structures assisted by wind-tunnel tests; analytical, computational and experimental investigation of the synchronisation mechanisms between pedestrians and footbridge structures. The present book is addressed to a wide audience including professionals, doctoral students and researchers, aiming to increase their know-how in the field of wind engineering, bluff-body aerodynamics and bridge dynamics.

Description: Peripheries are processes and places in which conditions and actors constantly shift. The contingent forms of peripheries in this book are assembled around embodied identities and are rooted in specific genealogies: peripheries as urban fringes, periphery countries in the modern world-system theory, and peripheral urbanization. Through these genealogies, the heterogeneous forms of peripheries acquire layered meanings that decenter urban theory. Since no form can exist outside historical relations of power, it is critical to apply methodological approaches that can address the political agency emerging from embodied identities.

Description: The International Workshop on Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications (MAVEBA) came into being in 1999 from the particularly felt need of sharing know-how, objectives and results between areas that until then seemed quite distinct such as bioengineering, medicine and singing. MAVEBA deals with all aspects concerning the study of the human voice with applications ranging from the newborn to the adult and elderly. Over the years the initial issues have grown and spread also in other fields of research such as occupational voice disorders, neurology, rehabilitation, image and video analysis. MAVEBA takes place every two years in Firenze, Italy. This edition celebrates twenty-two years of uninterrupted and successful research in the field of voice analysis.

Description: This report is a result of a questionnaire and subsequent collation of data, which outlines the current status of wood modification across Europe in terms of national inventories and groups that have reported current activity in the respective research areas covered in this report.

Description: The MAVEBA Workshop proceedings, held on a biannual basis, collect the scientific papers presented both as oral and poster contributions, during the conference. The main subjects are: development of theoretical and mechanical models as an aid to the study of main phonatory dysfunctions, as well as the biomedical engineering methods for the analysis of voice signals and images, as a support to clinical diagnosis and classification of vocal pathologies.

Description: WINDERFUL (an acronym for Wind and INfrastructures: Dominating Eolian Risk For Utilities and Lifelines) is the title of a research project carried out by eight Italian Universities from the end of 2001 to the end of 2003. The project was centred on how "to keep a city running and ensuring quality services during and after major windstorms", avoiding "major failures" of engineering facilities and main infrastructures. The book reports the main results obtained in the project, and for each typology the tool for assessing its reliability are discussed, together with the criteria for its improvement.

Description: The Publication is following the yearly Editions of EVA FLORENCE. The State of Art is presented regarding the Application of Technologies (in particular of digital type) to Cultural Heritage. The more recent results of the Researches in the considered Area are presented. Information Technologies of interest for Culture Heritage are presented: multimedia systems, data-bases, data protection, access to digital content, Virtual Galleries. Particular reference is reserved to digital images (Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts), regarding Cultural Institutions (Museums, Libraries, Palace - Monuments, Archaeological Sites). The International Conference includes the following Sessions: Strategic Issues; New Science and Culture Developments & Applications; New Technical Developments & Applications; Cultural Activities – Real and Virtual Galleries and Related Initiatives, Access to the Culture Information. One Workshop regards Innovation and Enterprise. The more recent results of the Researches at national and international level are reported in the Area of Technologies and Culture Heritage, also with experimental demonstrations of developed Activities.

Description: The theme of ’The Impact of Engineering Practices on a Sustainable Built Environment’ emphasises the importance of considering various dimensions of resilient infrastructure. Selecting the location for a Hyperscale Data Centre is a crucial process that involves assessing the impact of various location variables. To determine the viability of a location, it is essential to identify the potential risks associated with each variable. This paper presents a proprietary methodological approach that includes a Delphi study to identify risks, a Likert scoring system to assess prior probabilities, and a Bayesian theory-based decision tree to assess the impact through risk prediction. The paper's contributions are significant, and the proposed methodology makes it possible to predict the risk level of each location variable by identifying the appropriate contingency percentage. The study's findings indicate that the paper's proposed approach is an effective way to mitigate the risks associated with selecting a location for a Hyperscale Data Centre. Embracing this knowledge allows us to align research and practise with the conference’s call to studying the resilience of buildings and infrastructure to natural disasters and climate change, and developing strategies for adaptation and mitigation, ensuring that these practises become integral to shaping the future of Data Centres

Description: This volume presents the theoretical basics of solid mechanics collecting the lectures held by the Authors for the course of Mechanics of Solids to environmental engineering students at the University of Florence. Lectures on Solid Mechanics is organized in two parts. The first one introduces the theory of three-dimensional elasticity where, after a preparatory synthesis of the basic concepts of mathematics and geometry, the fundamental framework of strain and stress in elastic bodies are introduced. Then the classical law of linear elasticity is presented and finally the part concludes with the "Principle of Virtual Work and variational methods". Moreover, at the end of selected chapters the essential notions of the theory of shells are discussed. The second part concerns the traditional theory of beams focusing on the four fundamental cases: beam under axial forces, terminal couples, torsion, bending and shear. The Readers addressed by this volume are mainly the undergraduate students of Engineering Schools.

Description: The Pan European VOice Conference (PEVOC) was born in 1995 and therefore in 2015 it celebrates the 20th anniversary of its establishment: an important milestone that clearly expresses the strength and interest of the scientific community for the topics of this conference. The most significant themes of PEVOC are singing pedagogy and art, but also occupational voice disorders, neurology, rehabilitation, image and video analysis. PEVOC takes place in different European cities every two years (www.pevoc.org). The PEVOC 11 conference includes a symposium of the Collegium Medicorum Theatri (www.comet collegium.com)

Description: Information Technologies of interest for Culture Heritage are presented: multimedia systems, data-bases, data protection, access to digital content, Virtual Galleries. Particular reference is reserved to digital images (Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts), regarding Cultural Institutions (Museums, Libraries, Palace - Monuments, Archaeological Sites). The International Conference includes the following Sessions: Strategic Issues; New Science and Culture Developments & Applications; New Technical Developments and Applications; Museums - Virtual Galleries and Related Initiatives; Access to the Culture Information. An International Forum on “Culture & Technology” is enclosed. One Workshop regards: Innovation and Enterprise.

Description: The study tests the hypothesis according to which the Slavic anthroponyms in -e and -o underwent evolution from vocative endings to hypocoristic derivative suffixes and then to anthroponymic formants. According to the Author, such a hypothesis can be considered entirely plausible, albeit only as a mechanism of formation parallel to and intertwined with other processes of morphemic function change. As a phenomenon observable in both diachrony and synchrony, categorial lability between vocative and word formation can thus be considered inherent in the system of Slavic languages. However the anthroponyms in -e and -o have had different diffusion and distribution in the various Slavic languages and today occupy dissimilar places within the system and varieties of each language.

Description: COST Action IE0601 "Wood Science for Conservation of Cultural Heritage" (www.woodculther.org) aims to improve the conservation of European wooden cultural heritage objects, by fostering research and interaction between researchers in various fields of wood science, conservators of wooden artworks, scientists from related fields. These proceedings contain the papers presented in the 2nd International Conference held in Braga (Portugal) 5-7/11/2008, dealing with themes such as material properties, biological degradation, characterization and measurement techniques, conservation, structures. This conference was patronized by the European Society for Wood Mechanics (ESWM), an informal body promoting wood mechanics in Europe by regular organisation of meetings through running COST Actions.

Description: The 5th European-African Conference of Wind Engineering is hosted in Florence, Tuscany, the city and the region where, in the early 15th century, pioneers moved the first steps, laying down the foundation stones of Mechanics and Applied Sciences (including fluid mechanics). These origins are well reflected by the astonishing visionary and revolutionary studies of Leonardo Da Vinci, whose kaleidoscopic genius intended the human being to become able to fly even 500 years ago… This is why the Organising Committee has decided to pay tribute to such a Genius by choosing Leonardo's "flying sphere" as the brand of 5th EACWE.

Description: Beginning with Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, Passionate Amateurs tells a new story about modern theater: the story of a romantic attachment to theater’s potential to produce surprising experiences of human community. Ridout argues that theater in modern capitalism can help us think afresh about notions of work, time, and freedom. Passionate Amateurs tells a new story about modern theater: the story of a romantic attachment to theater’s potential to produce surprising experiences of human community. It begins with one of the first great plays of modern European theater—Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in Moscow—and then crosses the 20th and 21st centuries to look at how its story plays out in Weimar Republic Berlin, in the Paris of the 1960s, and in a spectrum of contemporary performance in Europe and the United States.

Description: The MAVEBA Workshop proceedings, held on a biannual basis, collect the scientific papers presented both as oral and poster contributions, during the conference. The main subjects are: development of theoretical and mechanical models as an aid to the study of main phonatory dysfunctions, as well as the biomedical engineering methods for the analysis of voice signals and images, as a support to clinical diagnosis and classification of vocal pathologies.

Description: The International Workshop on Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications (MAVEBA) came into being in 1999 from the particularly felt need of sharing know-how, objectives and results between areas that until then seemed quite distinct such as bioengineering, medicine and singing. MAVEBA deals with all aspects concerning the study of the human voice with applications ranging from the neonate to the adult and elderly. Over the years the initial issues have grown and spread also in other aspects of research such as occupational voice disorders, neurology, rehabilitation, image and video analysis. MAVEBA takes place every two years always in Firenze, Italy.

Description: Glass structures are being built ever more frequently all over the world, in a growing architectural trend towards light, transparency and sustainability. The engineering design of laminated glass elements being profoundly influenced by properties of interlayers, this multi-scale research highlights some among the key elements on the hyperelastic and viscoplastic response of such synthetic materials. Results and new discoveries are interpreted to better model and predict the response of laminated glass structures: examples are provided for design applications to post-failure safety assessments, structural design and cold-bending techniques. Still, in a vastly unknown field, a growing market and foggy regulatory framework, many challenges and research opportunities remain to be dealt with.

Description: This thesis presents a numerical model capable of simulating offshore wind turbines exposed to extreme loading conditions. External condition-based extreme responses are reproduced by coupling a fully nonlinear wave kinematic solver with a hydro-aero-elastic simulator. First, a two-dimensional fully nonlinear wave simulator is developed. The transient nonlinear free surface problem is formulated assuming the potential theory and a high-order boundary element method is implemented to discretize Laplace's equation. For temporal evolution a second-order Taylor series expansion is used. The code, after validation with experimental data, is successfully adopted to simulate overturning plunging breakers which give rise to dangerous impact loads when they break against wind turbine substructures. Emphasis is then placed on the random nature of the waves. Indeed, through a domain decomposition technique a global simulation framework embedding the numerical wave simulator into a more general stochastic environment is developed. The proposed model is meant as a contribution to meet the more and more pressing demand for research in the offshore wind energy sector as it permits taking into account dangerous effects on the structural response so as to increase the global structural safety level.

Description: Ground-based/terrestrial radar interferometry (GBRI) is a scientific topic of increasing interest in recent years. The GBRI is used in several field as remote sensing technique for monitoring natural environment (landslides, glacier, and mines) or infrastructures (bridges, towers). These sensors provide the displacement of targets by measuring the phase difference between sending and receiving radar signal. If the acquisition rate is enough the GBRI can provide the natural frequency, e.g. by calculating the Fourier transform of displacement. The research activity, presented in this work, concerns design and development of some advanced GBRI systems. These systems are related to the following issue: detection of displacement vector, Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) and radars with 3D capability.

Description: The MAVEBA Workshop proceedings, held on a biannual basis, collect the scientific papers presented both as oral and poster contributions, during the conference. The main subjects are: development of theoretical and mechanical models as an aid to the study of main phonatory dysfunctions, as well as the biomedical engineering methods for the analysis of voice signals and images, as a support to clinical diagnosis and classification of vocal pathologies. The Workshop has the sponsorship of: Ente Cassa Risparmio di Firenze, COST Action 2103, Biomedical Signal Processing and Control Journal (Elsevier Eds.), IEEE Biomedical Engineering Soc. Special Issues of International Journals have been, and will be, published, collecting selected papers from the conference.

Description: QUEECA is a Tempus project which aims at setting up and implementing a system of Quality Assurance of Engineering Education (EE) in Central Asia countries, finalized to the pre-professional accredition of engineering programmes (i.e. accredition of educational programmes as entry route to the eng. profession). The accredited programmes must satisfy the same pre-requisites for the award of the EUR-ACE quality label, i.e. the EUR-ACE Framework Standards (EAFS) and the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education.

Description: It has been a long history of Information Technology innovations within the Cultural Heritage areas. The Performing arts has also been enforced with a number of new innovations which unveil a range of synergies and possibilities. Most of the technologies and innovations produced for digital libraries, media entertainment and education can be exploited in the field of performing arts, with adaptation and repurposing. Performing arts offer many interesting challenges and opportunities for research and innovations and exploitation of cutting edge research results from interdisciplinary areas. For these reasons, the ECLAP 2012 can be regarded as a continuation of past conferences such as AXMEDIS and WEDELMUSIC (both pressed by IEEE and FUP). ECLAP is an European Commission project to create a social network and media access service for performing arts institutions in Europe, to create the e-library of performing arts, exploiting innovative solutions coming from the ICT.

Description: This book of Proceedings collects the papers presented at the 3rd International Workshop on Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications, MAVEBA 2003, held 10-12 December 2003, Firenze, Italy. The workshop is organised every two years, and aims to stimulate contacts between specialists active in research and industrial developments, in the area of voice analysis for biomedical applications. The scope of the Workshop includes all aspects of voice modelling and analysis, ranging from fundamental research to all kinds of biomedical applications and related established and advanced technologies.

Description: The MAVEBA Workshop proceedings, held on a biannual basis, collect the scientific papers presented both as oral and poster contributions, during the conference. The main subjects are: development of theoretical and mechanical models as an aid to the study of main phonatory dysfunctions, as well as the biomedical engineering methods for the analysis of voice signals and images, as a support to clinical diagnosis and classification of vocal pathologies.

Description: The Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions with Biomedical Applications (MAVEBA) workshop came into being in 1999 from the particularly felt need of sharing know-how, objectives and results between areas that until then seemed quite distinct such as bioengineering, medicine and singing. MAVEBA deals with all aspects concerning the study of the human voice with applications ranging from the neonate to the adult and elderly. Over the years the initial issues have grown and spread also in other aspects of research such as occupational voice disorders, neurology, rehabilitation, image and video analysis. MAVEBA takes place every two years always in Firenze, Italy.

Description: This chapter evaluates the role of photography in witnessing the modernising process in China during the late Qing period and conflicts which stemmed from it. The camera, introduced in China during the First Opium War (1839–1842), allowed Western eyes to record the establishment of trade routes and associated facilities. The photos examined here were taken immediately before and during the Russo-Japanese War. The photographs appear to have been focusing on technological developments in trade infrastructure, but they also captured the conspicuous Japanese and Russian military presence. Consequently, the photographs reveal the Western role in the “development” of China by its incorporation into global trading networks and violent conflicts fought over control of this infrastructure.

Description: Due to the practice-oriented nature of construction engineering education and barriers associated with physical site visits, videos are invaluable means to expose students to practical curricula content. Prior studies have investigated various design principles of multimedia pedagogical tools to enhance student learning and reduce cognitive load. These design principles and computer vision techniques can afford the design and usage of a multimedia learning environment with annotated content to teach students construction safety practices. Hence, using subjective and objective measures such as self-reported cognitive load, eye tracking metrics and verbal feedback, this study assesses the effectiveness of a computer vision-aided multimedia learning environment as well as examines variations across students’ demographics. Students were exposed to both annotated and unannotated versions of the learning environment. The annotated version of the learning environment was considered more effective in triggering students’ attention to learning content, but higher cognitive load levels were reported by participants. The same demographic groups that dwelled longer and on more annotated areas of interest also reported higher overall cognitive load. Keeping with individual differences principle of multimedia learning, demographic variations in participants' cognitive load and effectiveness of the learning environment were reported. The study provides implications for instructors in construction engineering programs on effective use of computer vision-aided annotated videos as instructional materials. This study could serve as a benchmark for future studies on artificial intelligence techniques for signaling in multimedia learning. This study reveals the affordances of computer vision-aided multimedia learning in construction engineering education and the need for adaptation of multimedia learning tools to students’ demographics

Description: If from 2nd post-war period and for following 20 years coastal space has maintained even a minimal break with anthropized spaces, starting from the 1970s rapid industrial development has increasingly occupied coasts. These changes along costal space can be understood referring to maritime-coastal region, which are places between land and sea, profoundly different by integration of resources. The chapter focuses its attention on one of the most symbolic maritime cultural assets: lighthouses. They are distributed along the European coastlines, responding to same historical function, and evoking a common past.

Description: The key aim of this Event is to provide a forum for the user, supplier and scientific research communities to meet and exchange experiences, ideas and plans in the wide area of Culture & Technology. Participants receive up to date news on new EC and international arts computing & telecommunications initiatives as well as on Projects in the visual arts field, in archaeology and history. Working Groups and new Projects are promoted. Scientific and technical demonstrations are presented.

Description: The International Workshop on Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications (MAVEBA) came into being in 1999 from the particularly felt need of sharing know-how, objectives and results between areas that until then seemed quite distinct such as bioengineering, medicine and singing. MAVEBA deals with all aspects concerning the study of the human voice with applications ranging from the neonate to the adult and elderly. Over the years the initial issues have grown and spread also in other aspects of research such as occupational voice disorders, neurology, rehabilitation, image and video analysis. MAVEBA takes place every two years always in Firenze, Italy. This edition celebrates twenty years of uninterrupted and succesfully research in the field of voice analysis.

Description: The book meticulously analyses the history of the critical reception of avantguard art through the interpretations received by one of its greatest emblems, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Picasso, 1907. Since Les Demoiselles has been considered over this century the true paradigm of Modern Art, this book is, fundamentally, a sort of synthesis of the discourses about Modernism from formalism, iconology, Leo Steinberg's 'Other Criteria’, sociological, the biographical and psychoanalytical theses, cultural and historicist and lastly, the impact of post-structuralism and the feminist, post-colonialist and transnational interpretations. The final chapter deals with the artistic versions of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon made by artists. It is an essay on the different versions and identities of Modern Art and Modernism that have been produced throughout the last century.

Description: Important Information Technology topics are presented: multimedia systems, data-bases, protection of data, access to the content. Particular reference is reserved to digital images (2D, 3D) regarding Cultural Institutions (Museums, Libraries, Palace – Monuments, Archaeological Sites). The main parts of the Conference Proceedings regard: Strategic Issues, EC Projects and Related Networks & Initiatives, International Forum on “Culture & Technology”, 2D – 3D Technologies & Applications, Virtual Galleries – Museums and Related Initiatives, Access to the Culture Information. Three Workshops are related to: International Cooperation, Innovation and Enterprise, Creative Industries and Cultural Tourism.

Description: Contributing to the development and the enrichment of the European dimension in Engineering Education (EE), constituted the global goal of TREE. In other words to enhance the compatibility of the many diverse routes to the status of Professional Engineer which exist in Europe and, hence, to facilitate greater mobility of skilled personnel and integration of the various situations throughout Europe. The activity of the TN TREE, made up by some 110 higher education Institutions and Associations, has been developed along four main lines: A. the tuning line B. the education and research line C. the attractiveness of EE line D. the sustainability line This volume, accompanied by a CD Rom, presents the results of three years of works in the frame of the Thematic Network TREE which was activated and financed in the frame of the SOCRATES Programme in the period 2004-2007.

Description: This collection is a timely intervention in national debates about what constitutes original or plagiarized writing in the digital age. Somewhat ironically, the Internet makes it both easier to copy and easier to detect copying. The essays in this volume explore the complex issues of originality, imitation, and plagiarism, particularly as they concern students, scholars, professional writers, and readers, while also addressing a range of related issues, including copyright conventions and the ownership of original work, the appropriate dissemination of innovative ideas, and the authority and role of the writer/author. Throughout these essays, the contributors grapple with their desire to encourage and maintain free access to copyrighted material for noncommercial purposes while also respecting the reasonable desires of authors to maintain control over their own work.Both novice and experienced teachers of writing will learn from the contributors' practical suggestions about how to fashion unique assignments, teach about proper attribution, and increase students' involvement in their own writing. This is an anthology for anyone interested in how scholars and students can navigate the sea of intellectual information that characterizes the digital/information age.

Description: Existing scholarly discussions of theatrical realism have been predominantly limited to 19th-century European and Russian theater, with little attention paid to wider explorations and alternative definitions of the practice. Examining theater forms and artists from China, Japan, and Korea, Realisms in East Asian Performance brings together a group of theater historians to reconsider realism through the performing arts of East Asia. The book’s contributors emphasize trans-regional conversations and activate inter-Asian dialogues on theatrical production. Tracing historical trajectories, starting from premodern periods through today, the book seeks to understand realisms’ multiple origins, forms, and cultural significances, and examines their continuities, disruptions, and divergences. In its diversity of topics, geographic locations, and time periods, Realisms in East Asian Performance aims to globalize and de-center the dominant narratives surrounding realism in theater, and revise assumptions about the spectacular and theatrical forms of Asian performance. Understanding realism as a powerful representational style, chapters collectively reevaluate acts of representation on stage not just for East Asia, but for theater and performance studies more broadly.

Description: The 8-volume set contains the Proceedings of the 25th ECOS 2012 International Conference, Perugia, Italy, June 26th to June 29th, 2012. ECOS is an acronym for Efficiency, Cost, Optimization and Simulation (of energy conversion systems and processes), summarizing the topics covered in ECOS: Thermodynamics, Heat and Mass Transfer, Exergy and Second Law Analysis, Process Integration and Heat Exchanger Networks, Fluid Dynamics and Power Plant Components, Fuel Cells, Simulation of Energy Conversion Systems, Renewable Energies, Thermo-Economic Analysis and Optimisation, Combustion, Chemical Reactors, Carbon Capture and Sequestration, Building/Urban/Complex Energy Systems, Water Desalination and Use of Water Resources, Energy Systems- Environmental and Sustainability Issues, System Operation/ Control/Diagnosis and Prognosis, Industrial Ecology.

Description: PERBACCO (a free Italian acronym for Life-cycle Performance, Innovation and Design Criteria for Structures and Infrastructures Facing Æolian and Other Natural Hazards) is a research project partly funded by the Italian Ministry for University (MIUR) in the PRIN (Progetti di Ricerca di Interesse Nazionale) framework, for the years 2004-05.Within the project, a first attempt has been made to integrate different disciplines aiming at an overall optimization of the performance of a wide range of wind exposed structures and infrastructures, with consequent benefi cial impact on the society.The overall objectives were (a) to provide unifi ed concepts for "expected performance" and "risks induced by æolian and other natural hazards", to be applied to structures and infrastructures over their whole life-cycle, such to be acceptable to stakeholders in the construction process (i.e. from the owner to the end-user), (b) to provide models and methodologies for dynamic monitoring of the performance of structures and infrastructures, to be integrated in appropriately designed procedures, and (c) to collect, refi ne, fi le and disseminate the knowledge available on a European basis, concerning the performance of wind-exposed structures and facilities, in a way such to be of use to Construction Industry. This volume summarises the main results obtained during the Project, with each Section addressing a different class of problems, to which many research Units have contributed. A list of papers containing the main results of the research activities carried out within the Project is also provided in each Section.

Description: The proposal is founded to reconversion the existing breakwaters and artificial nourishments with an artificial reef positioned on the “calm belt” for mimics the location of coral reef. This calm is characterized by the conversion of pulsing vertical wave offshore energy into inshore horizontal currents. The soft barrier, far from the storm surges, diminish water velocity with no erosion in excess and electric power generation. Moreover, the turbines have the impeller semi-submerged and close to an indifferent buoyancy, in order to favor the number of revolutions at minimum currents

Description: Sea water quality monitoring is extremely demanding and expensive. This results in the sea being largely under-sampled. To solve this OGS developed innovative technologies to be used within a citizen science approach. The simultaneous installation of remote sensing devices on boats of opportunity allows to build a monitoring infrastructure able to acquire, process, validate and display in real-time georeferenced data on a web portal. This work reports on a survey done in collaboration with the Moana 60 Lab initiative in the South Thyrrenian Sea.

Description: On 2017, artificial reefs (ARs) targeting apex rocky species such as groupers were immersed in the National Park of the Calanques as part of an experimental ecological restoration project (REXCOR). The objective of the project is to evaluate the capacity of innovative designs of ARs to restore altered ecological functions impacted by the sewage outflow of the city of Marseilles. In 2018, one specimen of the dogtooth grouper, Epinephelus caninus, was observed during 7 months inside the ARs. Such a long-term site fidelity suggets that this urban area can shelter again high trophic level species.

Description: Littoral systems with macrophytes are nursery areas for fish. We aim to develop a combination of stereo-video and habitat mapping methods for studying fish recruitment at various temporal and spatial scales. Some benefits are: videos are permanent and data can be used for developments of artificial intelligence. There are also disadvantages: cameras have a limited field of view and video processing is time-consuming. Introducing this methodology is of great importance to assess changes in the habitat structure and the ecosystem functions provided for the fish community.

Description: The Levantine Basin (LB) is considered an impoverished and sensitive ecosystem in the Mediterranean Sea. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution this sea has been influenced by increasing global, regional and local anthropogenic pressures. The LB is at the eastern most terminus of the Mediterranean Sea with relatively long residence time of water subject to warming, salinization and acidification. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1864 linking the Red Sea with the Mediterranean has facilitated the migration and settling of hundreds of Eritrean species along the Levantine coasts at the expense of native species and irreversibly altering the ecosystem

Description: The Torre is an ancient watchtower, (15th century), and is subject to Italian laws for the protection of the historical and cultural heritage. Located in the port of Livorno the Torre del Marzocco symbolizes the past rooted in port activities and its traffic. This contribution presents a project of NTSNA to redevelop and renovate ancient marine landscape of Marzocco Tower. The project aims to widen the entry channel to Livorno port, as a safety measure towards the secure access of the great ships of new generation to the industrial area of Livorno’s port.

Description: Following the restoration of a P. oceanica meadow impacted by the Concordia shipwreck, we investigated the spatial dynamic of the most important and protected Mediterranean endemic seagrass over a two-year period applying three spatial metrics: number of patches, mean patch size and total cover. By means of underwater photomosaics, we noticed a diminution in the number of patches in favour of the mean size and total cover. The outcomes showed that, under suitable environmental conditions, P. oceanica colonizes rapidly the dead matte substrate.

Description: The complex dune ecosystem and beaches of Guardamar del Segura has proven to be an excellent test site for monitoring coastal processes using a small, lightweight, easily deployable and affordable commercial RPAS. The possibility of quickly obtaining orthophotos and Digital Surface Models of very high resolution, covering large extensions at a low cost, enables us to model and monitor these rapid-changing environments with regularity and accuracy.

Description: Over the past decade, the video camera has become a commonplace household technology. With falling prices on compact and easy-to-use cameras, as well as mobile phones and digital still cameras with video recording capabilities, access to moving image production technology is becoming virtually universal. Home Truths? represents one of the few academic research studies exploring this everyday, popular use of video production technology, looking particularly at how families use and engage with the technology and how it fits into the routines of everyday life. The authors draw on interviews, observations, and the participants' videos themselves, seeking to paint a comprehensive picture of the role of video making in their everyday lives. While readers gain a sense of the individual characters involved in the project and the complexities and diversities of their lives, the analysis also raises a range of broader issues about the nature of learning and creativity, subjectivity and representation, and the ""domestication"" of technology—issues that are of interest to many in the fields of sociology and media/cultural studies.

Description: This research proposes the acquisition of a time series from optical satellites to observe changes in the Venice lagoon, an ecosystem which is very challenging to monitor by means of in situ survey activities, let alone using remote sensing techniques, given the presence of land and sandbars (vegetated intertidal areas). The work describes the specific validation process performed by ISPRA on the results obtained as applied on some target sites of the Venice Lagoon, both natural and partially artificial islands, using fully artificial islands as reference.

Description: This study was carried out in the Regional Park of San Rossore (Italy) where we found natural regeneration of Stone pine (Pinus piena L.) in an even-aged stand of pine. The objectives of our study were to characterize the forest structure of the Stone pine stand and to quantify the natural regeneration of pine. Our results show that natural regeneration of P. pinea in the Park of San Rossore is a reachable target, however an adequate management is needed. The results are discussed with the intention of providing knowledge to support management of Stone pine forests along the Tyrrhenian coast.

Description: Naples Bay is affected by metal contamination of geogenic and anthropogenic nature. The grain size, organic matter, nutrients, and metal content of the seafloor sediments were analysed through a statistical approach, and a comparison was made with data ashore. The results identified four zones: one contaminated by volcanic rocks; a second and third zone contaminated by anthropogenic inputs; and a fourth distal zone with a low contamination rate. The results show that the river should be considered as a major source of anthropogenic contamination.

Description: Coastal areas are complex and fragile nature environments, they are strongly anthropized with a high level of pollution, habitat and ecological functions loss. The study area is the Italian coastal belt between Conero Promontory and Punta Aderci. The main goal of the work is both to analyse the present mosaic of land use/cover and investigate the morphodynamic processes to define rules necessary for the sector planning (e.g., Coastal defense planning, water catchment planning) and local planning.

Description: Removal of Posidonia oceanica banquettes from Sakarun beach (Dugi otok Island, Croatia) was a common practice to increase recreational use during the summer tourist season. The sandy part of the beach showed gradual erosion and has partially disappeared. Geological and geomorphological were conducted over nine-month period to investigate the relationship between the banquette removal and sediment loss. The results indicate that the continuous removal of sediment-laden posidonia banquette may cause a deficit in the beach sediment budget, the effects of which may not become apparent until several-year delay.

Description: An analysis of the main features of relict dunes and scarcely anthropized zones located along the littoral of the Marche Region is reported. The coast is strongly affected by man-made transformations mostly implemented from the ‘60s of the previous century to face beach erosion triggered by a reduction of river solid load derived from man-made interventions in the hydrographic basins. Presently, no real beach-dune still exists, but, locally, some eroded remnants can be found. The typical vegetation of dunes is very fragmented, depleted and strongly altered. Standing their extremely relevant ecologic function, it is instrumental to carry out actions aiming at preserving these relic dunal areas.

Description: MedSens index provides the environmental status of subtidal rocky coastal habitats based on open data collected by trained volunteers using the Reef Check Mediterranean Underwater Coastal Environment Monitoring protocol. It is based on 25 species, incorporating their sensitivities to the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive pressures and their distributions and abundances. MedSens was applied along the Tuscan Archipelago National Park Islands’ coasts, providing the mean sensitivity of the assemblages. It can help decision-makers in implementing marine biodiversity conservation measures.

Description: The systematic topographic researches conducted for many years by the CNR and by the Ancient Topography Laboratory of the University of Salento, in particular in the Salento peninsula, brought to an exponential increase in the knowledge of archaeological evidences and consequently to the analysis and reconstruction of the evolution of human settlement in the territory in the different phases. Data collected with detailed survey and use of various traditional and advanced technologies are collected in the "Territorial Information System of Cultural Heritage of the Italian territory" of the CNR

Description: The Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) has developed the Geodatabase “Linea di Costa”. that allows to perform spatial analysis on the recorded geometrical elements, and to provide a periodic update on the evolution of the coastline. The main objective of this work is to highlight the potential of a continuously updated geodatabase over time in monitoring and analysing the state of the coasts at a local level, presenting one of several case studies carried out by ISPRA, following specific requests related to local coastal dynamics received from the stakeholders.

Description: The paper presents the first acquisitions relating to the transformations of Isola Sacra, in the Agro Romano, between the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, implemented through the land reclamation and enhancement work started by Genio Civile and completed by the Opera Nazionale Combattenti. The intent is to return a crucial phase of the territorial development of the area to recompose the overall image of a context that suffered uncontrolled transformations and in which it is difficult, today, to identify the architectural and landscape features left by this significant and recent past.

Description: During the excavation for the construction of two new subway lines, which run from East to West along the city of Naples, traces and memories of the Greek-Roman port of Naples and the ancient Neapolitan coastal landscape emerged. The studies of the reconstruction of geoarchaeological prospecting campaigns clarified how the bay has been disappearing over the centuries. This phenomenon was caused by the overlapping of natural (subsidence, swamps, and coverings) and of anthropic phenomena, until the complete transformation of the coastline by the castings for the construction of the modern port.

Description: The ninth International Symposium Monitoring of Mediterranean Coastal Areas: Problems and Measurements Techniques was organized by CNR-IBE in collaboration with Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology, and Natural History Museum of the Mediterranean and under the patronage of University of Florence, Accademia dei Lincei, Accademia dei Georgofili, Tuscany Region, The North Tyrrhenian Sea Ports System Authority, Livorno Municipality and Livorno Province. In the Symposium Scholars had illustrated their activities and exchanged innovative proposals, with common aims to promote actions to preserve coastal marine environment. Despite the COVID 19 pandemic, the success of this edition is attested by the 170 contributions selected by the Scientific Committee from among those received. Participation involved all the thematic lines envisaged by the sessions, involving many countries of the Mediterranean Sea. A big endeavor for a costal environment of paramount importance but threatened by global changes. The importance of this Proceedings is attested by the fact that this volume is the first issue of a new FUP Series.

Description: Paper aim is to overview paper parks problem regarding Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Ocean makes Earth habitable for humankind; careful management of ocean is a key feature of sustainable future. MPAs are a key instrument of ocean protection; MPAs effective management is essential to reduce environmental challenges. A 2017 WWF report highlighted that EU protected areas were at risk due to lack of proper implementation of EU laws by member states and the Commission legal actions. The Report showed the importance of both management plans and to involve all stakeholders in its developing process

Description: Coastal erosion coupled with human-induced pressure has severely affected the coastal areas of the Mediterranean region. In this context, the Pisa coastal plain shows a long history of erosion, which started at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The work aims to provide a method and a software to extract the shoreline position. The algorithm is based on the variation of the topographic beach profile caused by the transition from water to sand. The algorithm is promoted by the release of a QGIS v3.x plugin uploaded on the official repository of the software.

Description: Liguria Region is totally exposed to the action of the sea storms and too the natural evolution of the profile of the shoreline. The phenomenon of coastal flood produces a direct damage represented by the loss of soil and an indirect damage correlated to the impact on tourism activity, social aspects and damage to heritage buildings. In recent years another type of damage source must be considered, and this is the phenomenon of the increasing of the mean sea water level, known as Sea Level Rise (SLR).

Description: Data analysis of groundwater dynamics requires dynamic panel data modelling. Static models that include δ18O values successfully represent the microbial pollution variations within a closed system characteristic of stock pollution. The need for dynamic modelling using first differences of δ18O values indicates that we deal with flow pollution. Policies regarded as optimal for stock and flow pollutants are different. The question of stock or flow is of great importance to decide whether the regulatory body should use price or quantitative allocation mechanisms.

Description: The Grotta dei Cervi in Porto Badisco, Otranto (Le) (Italy), is one of the most important monuments of post- paleolithic wall art in the Mediterranean. Currently, thanks to the 3D laser scanner survey carried out in the cave, there is a complete documentation, a digital archive that collects a database from which it is possible to extrapolate data regarding the morphology of the cave complex and the spatial location. Mapping of the corpus of pictograms, it is possible to digitally preserve the figurative apparatus, which has been and still is being studied by numerous scholars.