Combinatorial locational analysis of public services in metropolitan areas. Case study in the city of Volos, Greece.

Social prosperity largely depends on spatial structure, a relation which becomes stronger in urban areas where the quality of life is menaced by several factors. Traffic, over-building, lack of open space and deficient location of services come to the fore. The latter reflects access inequality and is one of the main reasons for everyday movement difficulties of citizens. Particularly, public services, as part of the public sector, are considered to be driven by the principle of social well-fare. Therefore the study of their location gives rise to the question: how can access of city blocks to public services be evaluated and how can the results of this evaluation be combined with the monetary values assigned by the state? In this respect, the main aim of this paper is the determination of a synthetic methodological framework for the locational analysis and evaluation of public services in urban areas. The proposed approach is based on spatial analysis methods and techniques as well as on the analytical capabilities of GIS and finally leads to the definition of the locational value for each city block. The public services are classified according to served population age groups and to their yearly utilization levels. The minimum and average Manhattan distances to the services of each classification group are calculated along with the percentages of services that are closer than a critical radius to each city block. At the final step, city blocks are classified through the use of cluster analysis to the calculated distances and percentages and then ranked according to their overall accessibility to public services. Their score is utilized in the definition of their locational value and in the formulation of a combinatorial index which compares locational and land values throughout the study area. The methodological framework is applied in the city of Volos where according to the results of the analytical process the majority of city blocks (60,7%) indicates a comparatively lower locational than monetary land value.

Evaluation of Public Service Networks’ Efficiency and Accessibility Levels in Urban Areas.

Trips in urban areas from residence to different activities constitute a large amount of daily transportations. The study of these trips and especially those towards public sector services and by public transportation means is essential in order to evaluate the effectiveness of public networks planning. In this paper, both public services and public buses networks are studied in a joint framework in order to evaluate their spatial allocation association which reflects effective service of citizens’ daily trips. The proposed methodology utilizes GIS technology and spatial analysis methods and is applied to the city of Volos (Greece). In this framework, population of each building block is assigned to the closest bus station (destination) while each bus station (origin) is assigned to its closest public facility. Different service areas are defined for each station and public service and the proximity of all building blocks is calculated. Further processing of the resulting information leads to the quantification of the spatial relationship between demand (population) and supply (public services and bus stations) and therefore, to the evaluation of the efficiency and effectiveness levels of public networks in urban areas.

Sport elektroniczny i jego medialne interfejsy

This paper provides an overview of changes on the electronic sports information circuit in the period from 2012 to 2022. The research here focuses on visual components of e-sports events, especially games’ GUIs and interactive elements of the digital platform interfaces that provide technological scaffolding for e-sports broadcasts (such as Twitch). The analysis is conducted from the software studies perspective, with the StarCraft franchise as a chief example of the phenomena assessed in the paper. The findings presented in this study stem from the juxtaposition of divergent modes of interaction between the viewers, players and e-sports media professionals, which are subsequently confronted with the computational rules of e-sports games’ mechanics.This paper provides an overview of changes on the electronic sports information circuit in the period from 2012 to 2022. The research here focuses on visual components of e-sports events, especially games’ GUIs and interactive elements of the digital platform interfaces that provide technological scaffolding for e-sports broadcasts (such as Twitch). The analysis is conducted from the software studies perspective, with the StarCraft franchise as a chief example of the phenomena assessed in the paper. The findings presented in this study stem from the juxtaposition of divergent modes of interaction between the viewers, players and e-sports media professionals, which are subsequently confronted with the computational rules of e-sports games’ mechanics

The View from the Stadium: The University of Kansas' Memorial Stadium

The View from the Stadium: The University of Kansas’ Memorial Stadium, is a meditation over the college football stadium movement of the post-World War I era. The study incorporates higher education history, intellectual and social history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, African and African American history, Indigenous Nations history, whiteness studies, geography, sports history, and political philosophy. This dissertation seeks to establish the social and political backgrounds that inform the stadium movement of the 1920s. The aim is to understand the factors that influenced how KU’s Memorial Stadium (1921) was conceptualized, completed and subsequently. It is a conceptual intervention focused on stadium space and use, and contributes to the scholarship of higher education and sport

Evolution of acoustical design in football stadia in the last 60 years

Stadia acoustics have seen tremendous evolution in the last decades. Ranging from their geometry and consequent impact on sound propagation to state-of-the-art sound system designs. In fact, the way sound will function in these stadia will have a profound impact on the spectators and surrounding community. It will influence the spectators’ enjoyment and determine the successful outcome of a newly inaugurated stadium, as it will reshape the soundscape its inserted in. Careful acoustical design will determine the quality of speech intelligibility in the advent of needed announcements and improve overall atmosphere. This dissertation will strive to understand past and current trends of stadia acoustics and engineering so we can understand where we are heading. We will be discussing the origins of the football stadium, its conceptual and construction phases, choice of materials and different installation approaches. These aspects will then be supported by diverse case studies made on stadia acoustical properties throughout these last couple of centuries. Several interviews were also conducted with experts in the field of stadia design and engineering so that their methodology and vision can be further discussed. A sustainable and environmentally friendly mindset is clearly a 21st century phenomenon and football stadia do not stray away from it. This is a predicted trend for future stadia design and also applicable to their acoustical capabilities

The State of News Photography 2016

First paragraph: The power of the image to draw public attention and generate debate was evident in the news photography of 2016. To understand who and what is behind the production and publication of those images, this report describes the results of a survey of 1,991 photojournalists from more than 100 countries and territories

Keeping Score in the 2010 World Cup: How Do Sports Mega-Events Compete with Pro-Poor Development?

This thesis uses the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, which was framed as a catalyst for economic growth and broader development, to consider the relationship between global sporting events and pro-poor priorities. The study is driven by three main questions. To what extent did the World Cup deliver on its expectations; are event-driven strategies compatible with pro-poor needs; and why, given a priori doubts about the effectiveness of mega-events as development instruments, do political elites and publics embrace them? I find the event piqued international interest and improved perceptions, potentially boosting tourism and foreign investment, but its other impacts were negligible and came at the expense of more critical needs and the marginalized communities it aimed to uplift. The priorities of FIFA and mega-events’ assumptions about economic growth suggest mega-events are incompatible with pro-poor principles. Yet regardless of significant tolls, financial and otherwise, mega-events are embraced based on factors other than the public good, influenced by dynamics of decision-making, perceptions of personal benefit, and symbolic appeal

It’s Not Just a Game: Virtual Edgework and Subjective Well-Being in E-Sports

The authors investigate subjective well-being in the context of e-sports (competitive video games). They adopt the theoretical lenses of virtual edgework theory, a recent adaptation of edgework theory from physical to digital contexts. Sports have long been used as a tool to improve subjective well-being. The research question is whether e-sports lead to well-being, as their physical sport counterparts do, and through what psychological mechanisms. The authors answer through a conceptual model of moderated mediation tested on hundreds of e-sports players. They also address the role of privacy concerns, as e-sports pose several potential threats to players' privacy that could hinder players' achievement of well-being. Findings suggest that virtual edgework provides a useful theoretical perspective for understanding consumers' behavior in digital environments. They also show that e-sports can lead to well-being by achieving feelings of self-enhancement under the positive moderation of perceived control over the digital environment and the negative moderation of privacy concerns