Visualising open communities. Guidelines from three case studies

One of the most interesting and promising phenomena of the last years is the emergence of social innovation initiatives, a loose and world-wide movement of people, projects and organisations that are addressing social challenges in fields like healthcare, education, employment, democratic participation, migration and the environment. We especially consider to be very promising those initiatives that are based around communities that adopts digital platforms, develop digital solutions and are open in their processes and results. The importance of online open communities in developing and scaling social innovations could then lead to an improved and broader understanding of the dynamics of social innovations and online platforms. The article aims at improving the knowledge about the use of graphical visualisations for understanding open communities, which data sources and formats are available and which ones are missing for this task, which are the main design requirements and strategies for this task, and which are the common elements in existing ongoing experiences in visualising open communities

Use of Sugar Dispensers to Disrupt Ant Attendance and Improve Biological Control of Mealybugs in Vineyard

Planococcus ficus (Signoret) and Pseudococcus comstocki (Kuwana) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) are economically important pests occurring in vineyards, causing severe economic losses for growers and compromising bunch production. The partial effectiveness of insecticides used in controlling mealybug infestations as well as their high impact on the environment and on human health have led to the research of alternative and sustainable control methods, including biological control. Several natural enemies are reported to be effective against mealybugs, but their activity may be hindered by tending ants. These social insects are known to exhibit a mutualistic relationship with mealybugs, resulting in extremely aggressive behavior against beneficial insects. Consequently, this study explored a method to mitigate ant attendance by means of sugar dispensers in order to improve ecosystem services, as well as decrease mealybug infestation in vineyards. Field trials were carried out in four commercial vineyards of Northern Italy infested by mealybugs, in which Anagyrus vladimiri Triapitsyn (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) and Cryptolaemus montrouzieri Mulsant (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) were released as biological control agents. Our results showed that sugar dispensers reduced ant activity and mealybug infestation, leading to a significant enhancement of ecosystem services. The technique showed a great potential in boosting biological control against mealybugs in field conditions, though the field application seemed to be labour intensive and needs to be replicated for a multi-year evaluation

Multidisciplinary studies on a sick-leader syndrome-associated mass stranding of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) along the Adriatic coast of Italy

Mass strandings of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) are rare in the Mediterranean Sea. Nevertheless, in 2014 a pod of 7 specimens stranded alive along the Italian coast of the Central Adriatic Sea: 3 individuals died on the beach after a few hours due to internal damages induced by prolonged recumbency; the remaining 4 whales were refloated after great efforts. All the dead animals were genetically related females; one was pregnant. All the animals were infected by dolphin morbillivirus (DMV) and the pregnant whale was also affected by a severe nephropathy due to a large kidney stone. Other analyses ruled out other possible relevant factors related to weather conditions or human activities. The results of multidisciplinary post-mortem analyses revealed that the 7 sperm whales entered the Adriatic Sea encountering adverse weather conditions and then kept heading northward following the pregnant but sick leader of the pod, thereby reaching the stranding site. DMV infection most likely played a crucial role in impairing the health condition and orientation abilities of the whales. They did not steer back towards deeper waters, but eventually stranded along the Central Adriatic Sea coastline, a real trap for sperm whales

Topological band inversion in HgTe(001): surface and bulk signatures from photoemission

HgTe is a versatile topological material and has enabled the realization of a variety of topological states, including two- and three-dimensional (3D) topological insulators and topological semimetals. Nevertheless, a quantitative understanding of its electronic structure remains challenging, in particular due to coupling of the Te 5p-derived valence electrons to Hg 5d core states at shallow binding energy. We present a joint experimental and theoretical study of the electronic structure in strained HgTe(001) films in the 3D topological-insulator regime, based on angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional theory. The results establish detailed agreement in terms of (i) electronic band dispersions and orbital symmetries, (ii) surface and bulk contributions to the electronic structure, and (iii) the importance of Hg 5d states in the valence-band formation. Supported by theory, our experiments directly image the paradigmatic band inversion in HgTe, underlying its non-trivial band topology

Osservare la città connessa - Strumenti visuali per la mappatura di dinamiche quotidiane

Gli smartphone e gli altri dispositivi connessi a internet generano quotidianamente una crescente mole di dati che traccia il profilo di ogni singolo utente in modo sempre più dettagliato. Attraverso gli strumenti della comunicazione visiva tale massa di dati può essere analizzata al fine di comprendere i fenomeni complessi che avvengono nella città. Questo articolo intende fornire una panoramica delle attuali ricerche applicate nell’ambito della mappatura di utenti e luoghi nel contesto urbano, mettendone in luce i parametri indagati, le metodologie utilizzate e gli aspetti originali che caratterizzano gli strumenti di analisi visuale emergenti.Smartphones and other interconnected devices daily generate a growing amount of data that tracks the user profile in a more and more detailed manner. Through communication visual tools this amount of data can be analysed in order to understand complex phenomena happening in the city. This article intends to provide an overview of the ongoing applied researches in mapping users and places in the urban context. It highlights the investigated parameters, the applied methodologies and the original aspects characterizing the emerging visual tools

Visualizzare collezioni culturali aperte. Metodi per l’esplorazione dei contenuti culturali su Wikipedia

Con la digitalizzazione delle collezioni culturali e con l’introduzione di licenze libere stanno emergendo delle nuove opportunità di accesso e diffusione degli oggetti culturali digitalizzati. In particolare, con l’affermazione di Wikipedia sta crescendo l’interesse da parte delle istituzioni culturali a contribuire con tale catalogo digitale e a dotarsi di sistemi di rappresentazione che permettano di analizzarne l’impatto della collezione. Da ciò ne deriva la necessità di nuovi sistemi informativi che permettano di monitorare l’entità dei contenuti caricati online e di valutarne la loro diffusione. Nell’ambito della visualizzazione delle collezioni culturali esistono molteplici metodi e modalità di rappresentazione. Nel saggio è proposta una macro-categorizzazione delle metodologie adottate, distinguendo tra l’approccio gerarchico e l’approccio relazionale. Il primo utilizza dei metodi quantitativi e punta all’ottenimento di rappresentazioni grafiche che mettano in luce le caratteristiche degli oggetti culturali secondo un rigido modello costituito da classi e sottoclassi. Il secondo usa invece dei metodi qualitativi che hanno come obiettivo l’individuazione di significative correlazione tra gli oggetti della collezione culturale. Tramite la concettualizzazione delle attuali metodologie utilizzate nell’ambito della visualizzazione degli archivi digitali e la descrizione del processo di rappresentazione di una collezione culturale aperta, il saggio si propone di fornire dei metodi per lo studio degli oggetti culturali digitalizzati nel momento in cui questi sono rilasciati con licenze libere su Wikipedia

Displaying open cultural collections. Interface characteristics for effective cultural content aggregators

In recent years, cultural heritage institutions, such as museums and libraries, are introducing several strategies to enhance access to their collections. The digitization of extensive cultural collections and their release under open licences are fostering the creation of cultural content aggregators, namely Web platforms funded by non-profit organizations to converge digitized cultural collections from multiple cultural institutions. Cultural content aggregators, such as Europeana and Wikimedia Commons, aim to support scholars, writers and artists in their research, dissemination, and artistic activities. Although cultural content aggregators are adopting performative technologies and rigorous sharing methods, their user interfaces have several usability issues. Thus, part of the digitized heritage seems invisible to the end-user, as if it were a sort of digital depot. This paper adopts a research through design approach to investigate interface solutions that may foster access, navigation and use of digitized cultural objects within cultural content aggregators