The festivalization of the creative city: A study of two creative quarters in Barcelona and Berlin

In recent decades, the concepts of 'creative city', 'creative class' and 'experience economy' have gained growing attention by scholars and city administrations, bringing fundamental changes to the character of urban space in contemporary cities. These concepts and strategies emphasize the importance of 'soft' location factors and the experiential and cultural characteristics of a place to create prerequisites for culture-led regeneration. In this sense, one of the most popular instruments of cultural planning implementation is focusing cultural development on art festivals, to build continuity of 'happening' and thus attract creative individuals. These factors turn urban space into a constant festival; a phenomenon called festivalization. Considering festivalization and creative city development as tightly coupled processes, the research aims to bridge a gap between the two by addressing how festivalization is being produced within the experience economy paradigm. In order to do so, the research aims to analyze the organizational issues of festivalization in the case studies of El Raval in Barcelona and northern Neukölln in Berlin, two quarters facing a process of economic and social regeneration based on the experience economy and cultural activities.En las últimas décadas, los conceptos de ciudad creativa, clase creativa y economía de la experiencia han ganado una creciente atención por parte de académicos y administraciones municipales, lo que ha generado cambios fundamentales en el carácter del espacio urbano en las ciudades contemporáneas. Estos conceptos y estrategias enfatizan la importancia de los factores de ubicación "blandos" y las características experienciales y culturales de un lugar para crear prerrequisitos para la regeneración dirigida por la cultura. En este sentido, uno de los instrumentos más populares de la implementación de la planificación cultural es centrar el desarrollo cultural en los festivales de arte para construir la continuidad del 'happening' y así atraer a individuos creativos. Estos factores convierten el espacio urbano en un festival constante, fenómeno llamado festivalización. Considerando la festivalización y el desarrollo creativo de la ciudad como procesos estrechamente relacionados, la investigación tiene como objetivo superar la brecha entre ambos al abordar cómo se está produciendo la festivalización dentro del paradigma de la economía de la experiencia. Para ello, la investigación pretende analizar las cuestiones organizativas de la festivalización en los casos de estudio del Raval en Barcelona y Neukölln-Nord en Berlín, dos barrios que se enfrentan a un proceso de regeneración económica y social basado en la economía de la experiencia y las actividades culturales.En les últimes dècades, els conceptes de ciutat creativa, classe creativa i economia de l'experiència han guanyat una atenció creixent per part d'acadèmics i administracions municipals, la qual cosa ha generat canvis fonamentals en el caràcter de l'espai urbà a les ciutats contemporànies. Aquests conceptes i estratègies emfatitzen la importància dels factors d'ubicació "tous" i les característiques experiencials i culturals d'un lloc per crear prerequisits per a la regeneració dirigida per la cultura. En aquest sentit, un dels instruments més populars de la implementació de la planificació cultural és centrar el desenvolupament cultural en els festivals d'art per construir la continuïtat del 'happening' i així atraure individus creatius. Aquests factors converteixen l'espai urbà en un festival constant, fenomen anomenat festivalització. Considerant la festivalització i el desenvolupament creatiu de la ciutat com a processos estretament relacionats, la investigació té com a objectiu superar la bretxa entre tots dos abordant com s'està produint la festivalització dins del paradigma de l'economia de l'experiència. Per fer-ho, la recerca vol analitzar les qüestions organitzatives de la festivalització en els casos d'estudi del Raval a Barcelona i Neukölln-Nord a Berlín, dos barris que fan front a un procés de regeneració econòmica i social basat en l'economia de l'experiència i les activitats culturals.Societat de la informació i el coneixemen

Synthesis of oligo-α-(1→2)-4,6-dideoxy-4-formamido-d-mannopyranosides related to the A epitope of the Brucella O-polysaccharide and their use for assaying of serum immunoglobulins

Pathogenic bacteria of the genus Brucella cause a severe threat for public health and agricultural economics. The World Health Organization considers brucellosis to be one of the most serious and also neglected zoonotic diseases. The use of traditional whole-cell brucellosis vaccines complicates the differentiation between infected and vaccinated animals (DIVA). Moreover, diagnostics based on lipopolysaccharide of Brucella are susceptible to false positive results. Structural features of Brucella O-antigens make synthetic oligosaccharides promising agents for the development of diagnostic tools and vaccines against brucellosis. Here we report the synthesis of spacer-armed di-, tri-, tetra- and penta-4,6-dideoxy-4-formamido-α-(1→2)-d-mannopyranosides which are related to the A-epitope of Brucella O-antigen. The key α-(1→2)-linked disaccharide thioglycoside donor was synthesized by employing the strategy of orthogonal glycosylation of thioglycoside acceptor with trichloroacetimidate donor. Sequential block-wise assembly yielded a series of desired compounds, which were subsequently deprotected and converted into target molecules and then into their fluorescein-labeled conjugates. The obtained conjugates were employed as tracers in a fluorescence polarization assay (FPA) to detect anti-Brucella immunoglobulins. Among the studied compounds, the trisaccharide conjugate showed the greatest difference in median FP signals between Brucella-positive and Brucella-negative sera samples making it a promising candidate for developing FP diagnostic assays. The decreased FP signal in the cases of tetra- and pentasaccharide tracers can be associated with the known “propeller-effect” due to the rotational mobility of the part bearing the fluorescent label and of the fluorescein itself and/or the enlarging of the distance between the fluorescein part and the antibody-oligosaccharide complex. This observation demonstrates the advantages of using synthetic relatively small synthetic tracers with well-defined structure in comparison with heterogeneous fluorescein-labelled O-polysaccharides which are in use today in spite of the fact that they contain poorly characterized amounts of label attached along the polysaccharide chains

Support subspaces method for synthetic aperture radar automatic target recognition

This article offers a new object recognition approach that gives high quality using synthetic aperture radar images. The approach includes image preprocessing, clustering and recognition stages. At the image preprocessing stage, we compute the mass centre of object images for better image matching. A conjugation index of a recognition vector is used as a distance function at clustering and recognition stages. We suggest a construction of the so-called support subspaces, which provide high recognition quality with a significant dimension reduction. The results of the experiments demonstrate that the proposed method provides higher recognition quality (97.8%) than such methods as support vector machine (95.9%), deep learning based on multilayer auto-encoder (96.6%) and adaptive boosting (96.1%). The proposed method is stable for objects processed from different angles. </jats:p

STOCK ASSESSMENT AND LONG-TERM DYNAMICS OF AZOV SEA ROACH (RUSSIAN WATERS), BASED ON CMSY MODEL FOR DATA-LIMITED MODELLING IN PERIOD (1999-2019)

Stock assessment of Azov sea roach Rutilus rutilus (Linnaeus, 1758) has been performed by CMSY model in period 1999-2019 by data-limited modelling in R. The current population status – in biological safe zone for stock biomass and no overfishing signals (B2019/BMSY = 1,32, F2019/FMSY = 0,53). Perhaps, current paper results can be a slightly incomplete in background that there is no relevant data about IUU fishery ever exists, which can lead to fishing mortality underestimation. Azov sea roach population continue to be in “depleted” status after river flow regulation in 1950’s. Joined continuous biomass estimates time series over whole fishing his-tory 1932–2019 showed at least 2 population collapses: in 1940’s and 1980’s years. According to model re-sults TAC (total allowed catch) should be accepted at level 516.9 t. If the recommendation is followed stock biomass will stay at safety in level 1828.1 t. Data limited modelling shows a good performance for sea roach in background of data lucking and in this reason still the best choose against cohor or surplus production models.</jats:p

SwipeBot: DNN-based Autonomous Robot Navigation among Movable Obstacles in Cluttered Environments

In this paper, we propose a novel approach to wheeled robot navigation through an environment with movable obstacles. A robot exploits knowledge about different obstacle classes and selects the minimally invasive action to perform to clear the path. We trained a convolutional neural network (CNN), so the robot can classify an RGB-D image and decide whether to push a blocking object and which force to apply. After known objects are segmented, they are being projected to a cost-map, and a robot calculates an optimal path to the goal. If the blocking objects are allowed to be moved, a robot drives through them while pushing them away. We implemented our algorithm in ROS, and an extensive set of simulations showed that the robot successfully overcomes the blocked regions. Our approach allows a robot to successfully build a path through regions, where it would have stuck with traditional path-planning techniques

Innovative technologies for critical infrastructure resilience: Impact-informed governance in energy and water sectors

Critical infrastructures (CIs) provide essential public services, including energy and water supply, transport services, and healthcare, which are vital for the functioning of society and the economy (Constantin et al., 2022). Given their strategic importance, CIs are considered (semi)public goods, requiring a comprehensive assessment of their broader societal impacts – both positive (e.g. economic growth, social well-being) and negative (e.g. service disruptions, environmental risks). The increasing integration of innovative technologies in CIs to enhance resilience during crises and normal operations necessitates a systematic approach to impact assessment that considers public benefits and associated costs. Despite the widespread use of impact assessment methodologies to evaluate new technologies in organisations (Yurrita et al, 2022), studies focusing on public interest indicators in the governance of CI remain limited. This study applies an impact assessment framework developed within the SUNRISE project (the SUNRISE project, 2022; Zherdev et al, 2024) to examine how CIs in the energy and water sectors account for socio-economic and environmental effects in their decision-making. Given the significance of externalities – such as ensuring uninterrupted service supply, mitigating climate risks, and sustaining economic stability (Paoli et al, 2010) – the research integrates relevant social, economic, and environmental indicators to assess the implementation of novel technological solutions. The analysis considers the multi-level impacts (micro, regional and national) of CI resilience strategies and evaluates how their operations align with EU and national policies on public service provision. Using policy analysis, qualitative interviews with CI operators, regulators, and experts, as well as survey data, the study identifies key challenges and opportunities in aligning technological innovation with governance frameworks. Findings highlight gaps and misalignments between current CI strategies and regulatory policies, offering evidence-based policy recommendations to enhance resilience and sustainable service provision