Post digital publishing, hybrid and processual objects in print.

The influence of digital on publishing has reached a preponderant level, questioning the very core of the practice. But more than speeding up a much touted "definitive transition" from traditional to fully digital publishing (still to be accomplished on mass) there are various practices which are pervading the timeless stoicism of the printed page with calculated processes, transforming it into something new. This had lead to the creation of "hybrids" which can be considered as new types of publications with the potential for having both physical and digital qualities, and which are helping to pave the way towards more complex transitions

The impact of theoretical assumptions in the determination of the neutrino effective number from future CMB measurements

One of the major goals of future Cosmic Microwave Background measurements is the accurate determination of the effective number of neutrinos $N_{\rm eff}$. Reaching an experimental sensitivity of $\Delta N_{\rm eff} = 0.013$ could indeed falsify the presence of any non-standard relativistic particles at $95 \%$ c.l.. In this paper, we test how this future constraint can be affected by the removal of two common assumptions: a negligible running of the inflationary spectral index $n_{\rm run}$ and a precise determination of the neutron lifetime $\tau_n$. We first show that the constraints on $N_{\rm eff}$ could be significantly biased by the unaccounted presence of a running of the spectral index. Considering the Stage-IV experiment, a negative running of ${\rm d}n/{\rm d}\ln k= - 0.002$ could mimic a positive variation of $\Delta N_{\rm eff} = 0.03$. Moreover, given the current discrepancies between experimental measurements of the neutron lifetime $\tau_n$, we show that the assumption of a conservative error of $\Delta\tau_n \sim 10$s could bring to a systematic error of $\Delta N_{\rm eff} = 0.02$. Complementary cosmological constraints on the running of the spectral index and a solution to the neutron lifetime discrepancy are therefore needed for an accurate and reliable future CMB bound of $N_{\rm eff}$ at percent level.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

The hacking monopolism trilogy.

The three artworks of the Hacking Monopolism Trilogy are Face to Facebook, Amazon Noir and GWEI-Google Will Eat Itself. These works have much in common in terms of both methodologies and strategies. They all use custom programmed software to exploit three of the biggest online corporations, deploying conceptual hacks that generate unexpected holes in their well-oiled marketing and economic system. All three projects were 'Media Hack Performances' that exploited security vulnerabilities of the internet giants' platforms to raise media attention about their abuse of power. These performances were staged through the global mass media for millions of spectators worldwide. The processes of the projects are always illustrated diagrams that show the main directions and processes under which the software has been developed to execute the performances. Finally, all the installations we exhibited did not use computers or networks, focusing more on the display of the processes than on the technologies

Digital analytics and high organizational performance: a fuzzy-set QCA approach

Empirical evidence and previous literature on the effect of customer analytics on organizational performance demonstrate contrasting results. The enormous expansion of digital customer-related data, which is accessible almost freely and in real time, has made this a critical issue for contemporary marketing managers. Employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analyses (fsQCA), this study examines which configurations of digital analytics and organizational customer-related culture, processes and capabilities drive high market performance. The evidence finds certain conditions are necessary for achieving high market performance, and other conditions constitute a path of sufficient conditions, depending on the level of environmental dynamisms

Design of a Low-cost GPS/magnetometer System for Land-based Navigation: Integration and Autocalibration Algorithms

The land-based navigation, paying attention to precision farming, is the research topic: the final purpose is the design and development of a guidance-aided system focusing on a low-cost GPS receiver able to provide a pseudorange-based solution only. Specific tests have been carried out to reproduce the trajectories followed by the vehicle in agricultural applications, whose accuracy target is typically 1 m. Results show that the investigated low-cost receiver is affected by a drift in time which is mainly detected while turning and causing a deviation from the optimal reference solution. Thus, the goal is to correct this behavior because the deviation accumulates during time and causes a not optimal treatment of the field (waste of material and money). Paying attention to the cost of the system, a new idea is proposed: the integration between the low-cost GPS with a magnetometer/digital compass. A dedicated algorithm has been also implemented, taking the heading provided by th e magnetometer and using it to correct the deviation in turns. Unluckily a magnetometer is deeply influenced by ferrous materials and the sensor is supposed to be installed on the vehicle, which is mainly made by metal. As a consequence, the sensed measurements are affected by a deviation from the actual magnetic field. Those disturbances need to be properly reduced by an autocalibration procedure. A new approach for the autocalibration problem has been developed and implemented; then the comparison with respect to the traditional method has been also performed in order to test and validate the new idea. A comprehensive and detailed description of all the algorithms will be produced concerning both the sensors integration (GPS and magnetometer) along with the magnetometer autocalibration. Particular attention will be focused on results and performances of the autocalibration procedure, which appears to provide very interesting results. The new approach, which is simply based on the covariance matrix, appears to be more successful than the traditional one. Several tests have been analyzed: the stand-alone low-cost GPS provides solutions which are not acceptable for precision farming applications, while the integration with a magnetometer slightly increases the accuracy. Furthermore, the innovation of the research is connected to the autocalibration algorithm itself. The final goal was the design of a low-cost system for supporting the guidance in land-based navigation; improvements are still required but the goal is close to be achieved

Food Sustainability as a Strategic Value Driver in the Hotel Industry

This paper aims at exploring the impact of green food on consumers’ purchase attitudes toward a hotel stay and on consumers’ behavioral intentions (i.e., intention to visit the hotel, intention to offer positive recommendations to others and willingness to pay a premium price), focusing on an Italian perspective where the food is a worldwide famous cultural element. This research employed a survey sent out by email to a database of contacts provided by an Italian company that operates in tourism. Data collection was completed in four weeks and the initial dataset counted 3586 of target respondents. A total of 302 surveys were completed and the data were analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM). Firstly, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed, followed by a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) that leads to the estimation of the structural model. The results show that personal beliefs toward green food are positively associated with respondents’ purchase attitudes toward green food. Moreover, stronger purchase attitudes toward green food lead to more favorable purchase attitudes toward hotels that offer green food, further substantiating the investigation about whether or not consumers’ attitudes employ similar concerns on sustainability for their daily purchases as well as for vacation products and services. In turn, the latter purchase attitudes are positively associated with individual behavioral intentions toward hotels that offer green food

Ukraine a country in crisis between Europe, Russia, and a complex electoral process

Abstract To this day, Ukraine is still experiencing difficult times both economically and politically. The economic and political crisis at the end of 2014, which led to the dismissal of President Yanukovich, meant that the territory of Crimea and, therefore, the port of Sevastopol as well, remained under Russian control. The new elections of 2019 carried a breath of fresh air and hope also for new relationships with Russia. The paper wants to photograph this situation and analyse the recent 2019 presidential elections

Audio dynamics automatic equalization inspired by visual perception

AbstractThis paper explores the behavior of an algorithm called Audio Dynamics Automatic Equalization (ADAE). This algorithm has been inspired by research carried out in the context of image restoration: it is the adaptation of a contrast and color unsupervised equalizer for images, called Automatic Color Equalization (ACE), into the audio domain. Beside testing if the domain shift from image to audio processing can bring some interesting result, this work also investigates if ADAE behaves like already-known technologies for audio manipulation and restoration. To this end, after a description of the original and the derived algorithms, quantitative test are carried out using typical analyses from the Sound and Music Computing literature, such as frequency response, transfer function, and harmonic distortion. Finally, the paper discusses how the algorithm introduces dynamic range adjustments and non-linear distortions, thus behaving like a dynamics processor, a harmonic exciter, and a waveshaper

Confocal light sheet microscopy: micron-scale neuroanatomy of the entire mouse brain.

Elucidating the neural pathways that underlie brain function is one of the greatest challenges in neuroscience. Light sheet based microscopy is a cutting edge method to map cerebral circuitry through optical sectioning of cleared mouse brains. However, the image contrast provided by this method is not sufficient to resolve and reconstruct the entire neuronal network. Here we combined the advantages of light sheet illumination and confocal slit detection to increase the image contrast in real time, with a frame rate of 10 Hz. In fact, in confocal light sheet microscopy (CLSM), the out-of-focus and scattered light is filtered out before detection, without multiple acquisitions or any post-processing of the acquired data. The background rejection capabilities of CLSM were validated in cleared mouse brains by comparison with a structured illumination approach. We show that CLSM allows reconstructing macroscopic brain volumes with sub-cellular resolution. We obtained a comprehensive map of Purkinje cells in the cerebellum of L7-GFP transgenic mice. Further, we were able to trace neuronal projections across brain of thy1-GFP-M transgenic mice. The whole-brain high-resolution fluorescence imaging assured by CLSM may represent a powerful tool to navigate the brain through neuronal pathways. Although this work is focused on brain imaging, the macro-scale high-resolution tomographies affordable with CLSM are ideally suited to explore, at micron-scale resolution, the anatomy of different specimens like murine organs, embryos or flies. (C) 2012 Optical Society of Americ