608 research outputs found

    30th European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2023)

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    This is the abstract book of 30th European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2023

    Systemic Circular Economy Solutions for Fiber Reinforced Composites

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    This open access book provides an overview of the work undertaken within the FiberEUse project, which developed solutions enhancing the profitability of composite recycling and reuse in value-added products, with a cross-sectorial approach. Glass and carbon fiber reinforced polymers, or composites, are increasingly used as structural materials in many manufacturing sectors like transport, constructions and energy due to their better lightweight and corrosion resistance compared to metals. However, composite recycling is still a challenge since no significant added value in the recycling and reprocessing of composites is demonstrated. FiberEUse developed innovative solutions and business models towards sustainable Circular Economy solutions for post-use composite-made products. Three strategies are presented, namely mechanical recycling of short fibers, thermal recycling of long fibers and modular car parts design for sustainable disassembly and remanufacturing. The validation of the FiberEUse approach within eight industrial demonstrators shows the potentials towards new Circular Economy value-chains for composite materials

    The Politics of Platformization: Amsterdam Dialogues on Platform Theory

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    What is platformization and why is it a relevant category in the contemporary political landscape? How is it related to cybernetics and the history of computation? This book tries to answer such questions by engaging in multidisciplinary dialogues about the first ten years of the emerging fields of platform studies and platform theory. It deploys a narrative and playful approach that makes use of anecdotes, personal histories, etymologies, and futurable speculations to investigate both the fragmented genealogy that led to platformization and the organizational and economic trends that guide nowadays platform sociotechnical imaginaries

    Innovation of Tourism Mobility Systems in Historic City Centres: The Case of Austria

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    Fundamentally, tourism involves people on the move. Although controlled and well-managed tourism mobility can facilitate the sustainable touristic utilisation of places, uncontrolled touristic movement often creates significant challenges for host destinations. Developments in technology and digitalisation, such as the ubiquitous use of smartphones, are changing not only the way tourists move and behave while visiting historic cities, but also the evolution and management of tourism mobility systems in cities. Therefore, it is crucial to understand these changes and their effects on existing tourism mobility systems to benefit from digitalisation. This thesis develops a detailed understanding of the configuration of existing tourism mobility systems to analyse and model digitally induced innovations in tourism mobility systems in tourist-historic cities in Europe. This study employs the multi-level perspective (MLP) as an analytical tool. This approach enables a holistic analysis of innovation processes within tourism mobility by incorporating both internal and external factors that may influence system change. A two-step empirical approach was adopted. First, a scoping study was employed to identify the current innovation status of tourism mobility systems in United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage City Centres in Europe. Based on these findings, in-depth expert interviews were then conducted for the Austrian case cities of Vienna, Salzburg and Graz to develop a detailed understanding of stepwise innovation within digitally penetrated tourism mobility systems. The main contribution of this study is the development of an analytical five-phase innovation model of tourism mobility systems in tourist-historic cities. This model provides a detailed understanding of the general characteristics of each innovation phase of the tourism mobility system and the drivers and constraints of innovation. The five-phase model can be used as an assessment tool to establish the current innovation status of a local tourism mobility system and to evaluate the readiness of the system to innovate (further). In addition, for the tourism mobility systems investigated in the research, a detailed understanding of the actor configuration was revealed, including the roles and responsibilities of the actors. This thesis also contributes to the conceptual discussion of tourism mobility as a joint objective for research and will be of utility to practitioners in developing more sustainable tourism mobility systems

    Examining the Relationships Between Distance Education Students’ Self-Efficacy and Their Achievement

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    This study aimed to examine the relationships between students’ self-efficacy (SSE) and students’ achievement (SA) in distance education. The instruments were administered to 100 undergraduate students in a distance university who work as migrant workers in Taiwan to gather data, while their SA scores were obtained from the university. The semi-structured interviews for 8 participants consisted of questions that showed the specific conditions of SSE and SA. The findings of this study were reported as follows: There was a significantly positive correlation between targeted SSE (overall scales and general self-efficacy) and SA. Targeted students' self-efficacy effectively predicted their achievement; besides, general self- efficacy had the most significant influence. In the qualitative findings, four themes were extracted for those students with lower self-efficacy but higher achievement—physical and emotional condition, teaching and learning strategy, positive social interaction, and intrinsic motivation. Moreover, three themes were extracted for those students with moderate or higher self-efficacy but lower achievement—more time for leisure (not hard-working), less social interaction, and external excuses. Providing effective learning environments, social interactions, and teaching and learning strategies are suggested in distance education

    Disinformation and Fact-Checking in Contemporary Society

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    Funded by the European Media and Information Fund and research project PID2022-142755OB-I00

    Metaverse. Old urban issues in new virtual cities

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    Recent years have seen the arise of some early attempts to build virtual cities, utopias or affective dystopias in an embodied Internet, which in some respects appear to be the ultimate expression of the neoliberal city paradigma (even if virtual). Although there is an extensive disciplinary literature on the relationship between planning and virtual or augmented reality linked mainly to the gaming industry, this often avoids design and value issues. The observation of some of these early experiences - Decentraland, Minecraft, Liberland Metaverse, to name a few - poses important questions and problems that are gradually becoming inescapable for designers and urban planners, and allows us to make some partial considerations on the risks and potentialities of these early virtual cities

    The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Future of Working Spaces

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    This edited volume presents a compendium of emerging and innovative studies on the proliferation of new working spaces (NeWSps), both formal and informal (such as coworking spaces, maker spaces, fab labs, public libraries, and cofee shops), and their role during and following the COVID-19 pandemic in urban and regional development and planning. This book presents an original, interdisciplinary approach to NeWSps through three features: (i) situating the debate in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has transformed NeWSp business models and the everyday work life of their owners and users; (ii) repositioning and rethinking the debate on NeWSps in the context of socioeconomics and planning and comparing conditions between before and during the COVID-19 pandemic; and (iii) providing new directions for urban and regional development and resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic, considering new ways of working and living. The 17 chapters are co-authored by both leading international scholars who have studied the proliferation of NeWSps in the last decade and young, talented researchers, resulting in a total of 55 co-authors from diferent disciplines (48 of whom are currently involved in the COST Action CA18214 ‘The Geography of New Working Spaces and Impact on the Periphery’ 2019–2023: www.newworking- spaces.eu). Selected comparative studies among several European countries (Western and Eastern Europe) and from the US and Lebanon are presented. The book contributes to the understanding of multi-disciplinary theoretical and practical implications of NeWSps for our society, economy, and urban/regional planning in conditions following the COVID-19 pandemic
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