Placemaking within Urban Planning: Open Public Space between Regulations, Design and Digitalization

Placemaking is generally considered as a multi-layer and multi-aspect approach in urban studies focused on public open spaces, such as streets, parks, town squares or quays. These places are the core of local community identity. In research and practice, placemaking is more related to concrete open spaces and their urban design. This means that they have been planned without regard to urban relationships and urban planning connections. However, these elements cannot be omitted even though they are less prominent and exploited within placemaking. Therefore, the main topic of this chapter is to explore the possibilities of the placemaking approach in the urban planning process, which is a process to embrace creative and flexible strategies to design and manage public open spaces, with the ultimate aim to contribute to the development of both urban environments and local communities. From this perspective, placemaking-driven urban planning is close to community planning as a wider concept. In addition, urban planning is becoming more complex in the present-day digital age, which embraces digitalization as a tool to enhance the whole process. The practical aim of this chapter is to examine this complex relation by utilizing the eleven key principles of successful placemaking, which are critical for its in situ implementation, and to determine which part of these principles need to be adjusted to this perspective of the urban planning process in the digital age. The principles that properly address this aim are used as criteria to examine five case studies – the master plans and other planning strategies of five secondary cities from four Southern European countries: Bari in Italy, Chania and Trikala in Greece, Estepona in Spain and Smederevo in Serbia. All of the case cities share the Southern European experience of having traditionally lively and vibrant public open spaces, which is important for placemaking. Furthermore, the common scale of the cities versus different national regulatory frameworks enables the main purpose of this multi-case study – to identify the scope and local variations of the (potential) applicability of placemaking within the urban planning process. Also to be questioned is how their master plans as key planning documents support public open spaces and their importance for local communities. This challenge requires a comparative analysis, where both the selected cities and their main master plans will be compared according to selected principles of successful placemaking. The findings of this comparison are inputs for three sets of recommendations related to: (1) how to complement the current knowledge in the placemaking approach in the future to develop more integrated urban planning methods; (2) how to improve local urban planning to be more responsive to the local community, making them more liveable and distinctive places; and (3) how to apply digital tools, in the context of their current roles and perspectives, in order to facilitate the implementation of placemaking principles within the urban planning process

Structural dynamics in the evolution of a bilobed protein scaffold

Novel biophysical tools allow the structural dynamics of proteins and the regulation of such dynamics by binding partners to be explored in unprecedented detail. Although this has provided critical insights into protein function, the means by which structural dynamics direct protein evolution remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated how proteins with a bilobed structure, composed of two related domains from the periplasmic-binding protein–like II domain family, have undergone divergent evolution, leading to adaptation of their structural dynamics. We performed a structural analysis on ∼600 bilobed proteins with a common primordial structural core, which we complemented with biophysical studies to explore the structural dynamics of selected examples by single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer and Hydrogen–Deuterium exchange mass spectrometry. We show that evolutionary modifications of the structural core, largely at its termini, enable distinct structural dynamics, allowing the diversification of these proteins into transcription factors, enzymes, and extracytoplasmic transport-related proteins. Structural embellishments of the core created interdomain interactions that stabilized structural states, reshaping the active site geometry, and ultimately altered substrate specificity. Our findings reveal an as-yet-unrecognized mechanism for the emergence of functional promiscuity during long periods of evolution and are applicable to a large number of domain architectures

Preprotein mature domains contain translocase targeting signals that are essential for secretion

Secretory proteins are only temporary cytoplasmic residents. They are typically synthesized as preproteins, carrying signal peptides N-terminally fused to their mature domains. In bacteria secretion largely occurs posttranslationally through the membrane-embedded SecA-SecYEG translocase. Upon crossing the plasma membrane, signal peptides are cleaved off and mature domains reach their destinations and fold. Targeting to the translocase is mediated by signal peptides. The role of mature domains in targeting and secretion is unclear. We now reveal that mature domains harbor their own independent targeting signals (mature domain targeting signals [MTSs]). These are multiple, degenerate, interchangeable, linear or 3D hydrophobic stretches that become available because of the unstructured states of targeting-competent preproteins. Their receptor site on the cytoplasmic face of the SecYEG-bound SecA is also of hydrophobic nature and is located adjacent to the signal peptide cleft. Both the preprotein MTSs and their receptor site on SecA are essential for protein secretion. Evidently, mature domains have their own previously unsuspected distinct roles in preprotein targeting and secretion

a review of methodological design choices

Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.This systematic literature review aimed to provide an overview of the characteristics and methods used in studies applying the Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY) concept for infectious diseases within European Union (EU)/European Economic Area (EEA)/European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries and the United Kingdom. Electronic databases and grey literature were searched for articles reporting the assessment of DALY and its components. We considered studies in which researchers performed DALY calculations using primary epidemiological data input sources. We screened 3,053 studies of which 2,948 were excluded and 105 studies met our inclusion criteria. Of these studies, 22 were multi-country and 83 were single-country studies, of which 46 were from the Netherlands. Food- and water-borne diseases were the most frequently studied infectious diseases. Between 2015 and 2022, the number of burden of infectious disease studies was 1.6 times higher compared to that published between 2000 and 2014. Almost all studies (97%) estimated DALYs based on the incidence- and pathogen-based approach and without social weighting functions; however, there was less methodological consensus with regards to the disability weights and life tables that were applied. The number of burden of infectious disease studies undertaken across Europe has increased over time. Development and use of guidelines will promote performing burden of infectious disease studies and facilitate comparability of the results.publishersversionepub_ahead_of_prin

Burden of disease attributable to risk factors in European countries: a scoping literature review

Objectives: Within the framework of the burden of disease (BoD) approach, disease, and injury burden estimates attributable to risk factors are a useful guide for policy formulation and priority setting in disease prevention. Considering the important differences in methods, and their impact on burden estimates, we conducted a scoping literature review to: (1) map the BoD assessments including risk factors performed across Europe, and (2) identify the methodological choices in comparative risk assessment (CRA) and risk assessment methods. Methods: We searched multiple literature databases, including grey literature websites, and targeted public health agencies' websites. Results: A total of 113 studies were included in the synthesis and further divided into independent BoD assessments (54 studies) and studies linked to the Global Burden of Disease (59 papers). Our results showed that the methods used to perform CRA varied substantially across independent European BoD studies. While there were some methodological choices that were more common than others, we did not observe patterns in terms of country, year, or risk factor. Each methodological choice can affect the comparability of estimates between and within countries and/or risk factors since they might significantly influence the quantification of the attributable burden. From our analysis, we observed that the use of CRA was less common for some types of risk factors and outcomes. These included environmental and occupational risk factors, which are more likely to use bottom-up approaches for health outcomes where disease envelopes may not be available. Conclusions: Our review also highlighted misreporting, the lack of uncertainty analysis, and the under-investigation of causal relationships in BoD studies. Development and use of guidelines for performing and reporting BoD studies will help understand differences, and avoid misinterpretations thus improving comparability among estimates.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Burden of infectious disease studies in Europe and the United Kingdom: a review of methodological design choices.

This systematic literature review aimed to provide an overview of the characteristics and methods used in studies applying the disability-adjusted life years (DALY) concept for infectious diseases within European Union (EU)/European Economic Area (EEA)/European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries and the United Kingdom. Electronic databases and grey literature were searched for articles reporting the assessment of DALY and its components. We considered studies in which researchers performed DALY calculations using primary epidemiological data input sources. We screened 3053 studies of which 2948 were excluded and 105 studies met our inclusion criteria. Of these studies, 22 were multi-country and 83 were single-country studies, of which 46 were from the Netherlands. Food- and water-borne diseases were the most frequently studied infectious diseases. Between 2015 and 2022, the number of burden of infectious disease studies was 1.6 times higher compared to that published between 2000 and 2014. Almost all studies (97%) estimated DALYs based on the incidence- and pathogen-based approach and without social weighting functions; however, there was less methodological consensus with regards to the disability weights and life tables that were applied. The number of burden of infectious disease studies undertaken across Europe has increased over time. Development and use of guidelines will promote performing burden of infectious disease studies and facilitate comparability of the results

The Role of Games in Special Preschool Education

Recent development in new technology has led many teachers, schools and other educators to use it with their students in their learning process. Especially, in the field of special preschool education the role of educational computer games seem significant. In this short review paper we give a brief overview of the most representative articles that concentrate on these games that support preschool children who face literature, math, cognitive, intellectual and physical difficulties. The role of computer educational games in children who are gifted or face developmental disorders (autism) is also explored

Mobile Learning For Preschool Education

Nowadays preschool education is considered crucial for a child’s development. Recent researches    support the view that the role of kindergarten in children’s progress is very important, as this age is sensitive for their future academic and social life. The use of mobile learning is recognized as a tool that can foster the knowledge and the experiences for this age and the support of specific areas according to the educational perspective. In this paper we try to give a brief overview of the most representative studies of the last decade (2005-2015), which focus on the skills that are explored in kindergarten and are supported by the mobile applications. The effectiveness of mobile learning in special preschool education is also explored