Capturing the Visitor Profile for a Personalized Mobile Museum Experience: an Indirect Approach

An increasing number of museums and cultural institutions around the world use personalized, mostly mobile, museum guides to enhance visitor experiences. However since a typical museum visit may last a few minutes and visitors might only visit once, the personalization processes need to be quick and efficient, ensuring the engagement of the visitor. In this paper we investigate the use of indirect profiling methods through a visitor quiz, in order to provide the visitor with specific museum content. Building on our experience of a first study aimed at the design, implementation and user testing of a short quiz version at the Acropolis Museum, a second parallel study was devised. This paper introduces this research, which collected and analyzed data from two environments: the Acropolis Museum and social media (i.e. Facebook). Key profiling issues are identified, results are presented, and guidelines towards a generalized approach for the profiling needs of cultural institutions are discussed

On how technology-powered storytelling can contribute to cultural heritage sustainability across multiple venues-Evidence from the crosscult H2020 project

Sustainability in Cultural Heritage (CH) is a complex question that needs to be addressed by a group of experts tackling the different issues. In this light, the present work wishes to provide a multi-level analysis of the sustainability in CH, using as an example a recent European H2020 project (CrossCult) and the lessons learnt from its design, implementation and evaluation. The sustainability of CH has qualitatively changed over the last few years, under the developments in digital technology that seems to affect the very nature of the cultural experience. We discuss sustainability in venues using digital technologies, covering a span of needs of small/unknown and large/popular venues, which try to enhance the visitor experience, attract visitors, form venue networks, etc. Moreover, we explore issues of sustainability of digital content and its re usability through holistic design. Aspects of technology, human networks and data sustainability are also presented, and we conclude with the arguments concerning the sustainability of visitor reflection, the interpretation of social and historical phenomena and the creation of meaning.This research was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 693150. The authors from the University of Vigo got further support from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Galician Regional Government under agreement for funding the AtlantTIC Research Center for Information and Communication Technologies, as well as the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Gobierno de España) research project TIN2017-87604-R

Technology-Powered Strategies to Rethink the Pedagogy of History and Cultural Heritage through Symmetries and Narratives

Recent advances in semantic web and deep learning technologies enable new means for the computational analysis of vast amounts of information from the field of digital humanities. We discuss how some of the techniques can be used to identify historical and cultural symmetries between different characters, locations, events or venues, and how these can be harnessed to develop new strategies to promote intercultural and cross-border aspects that support the teaching and learning of history and heritage. The strategies have been put to the test in the context of the European project CrossCult, revealing enormous potential to encourage curiosity to discover new information and increase retention of learned informatio

Inmate cancer patients – highlighting the importance of a holistic approach to oncological care

Purpose: Inmate oncologic patients' rates increased drastically worldwide. Elderly, limited exercise, unhealthy diet, hepatitis, HIV+ status, tobacco and alcohol use, constitute the main cancer risk factors. We present an outline of practical oncological management and ethical thinking, in the specific environment of a detention facility. Methods: PubMed, Cochrane Database of Controlled Trials, SCOPUS and grey literature were extensively searched upto October 2021. Ιncarcerated oncologic patients experiencevarious everyday challenges:their confinement in high securityfacilities, the lack of access to critical care and related ethicaldilemmas inherent to the context of a correctional facility. Results: The detention facilities may be inadequate in providing early cancer diagnosis and appropriate care mainlydue to a lack of specialized personnel, b) in-house or in external specialized cancer hospitals, care variability (e.g. admissions in small local or regional hospitals), c) delays inproviding access and d) gatekeeper systems. There is a paucity of administration of a) systemic therapy(chemotherapy, targeted drug therapy etc), b) radiotherapy, c)palliative care, and d) enrollment in clinical trials.  Conclusions: Correctional facilities must encourage teamwork between healthcare and correctional professionals inorder to improve the provided anticancer care

Minimal information for studies of extracellular vesicles 2018 (MISEV2018):a position statement of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles and update of the MISEV2014 guidelines

The last decade has seen a sharp increase in the number of scientific publications describing physiological and pathological functions of extracellular vesicles (EVs), a collective term covering various subtypes of cell-released, membranous structures, called exosomes, microvesicles, microparticles, ectosomes, oncosomes, apoptotic bodies, and many other names. However, specific issues arise when working with these entities, whose size and amount often make them difficult to obtain as relatively pure preparations, and to characterize properly. The International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) proposed Minimal Information for Studies of Extracellular Vesicles (“MISEV”) guidelines for the field in 2014. We now update these “MISEV2014” guidelines based on evolution of the collective knowledge in the last four years. An important point to consider is that ascribing a specific function to EVs in general, or to subtypes of EVs, requires reporting of specific information beyond mere description of function in a crude, potentially contaminated, and heterogeneous preparation. For example, claims that exosomes are endowed with exquisite and specific activities remain difficult to support experimentally, given our still limited knowledge of their specific molecular machineries of biogenesis and release, as compared with other biophysically similar EVs. The MISEV2018 guidelines include tables and outlines of suggested protocols and steps to follow to document specific EV-associated functional activities. Finally, a checklist is provided with summaries of key points

VR Games in Cultural Heritage: A Systematic Review of the Emerging Fields of Virtual Reality and Culture Games

In recent years, the use of VR games in cultural heritage has been growing. VR Games have increasingly found their way into museums and exhibitions, highlighting the increasing cultural value associated with games and the institutionalization of game culture. In particular, serious VR games have a variety of benefits for educational purposes. There are several studies that deployed VR games to improve visitor experiences in several contexts. However, there are not sufficient studies in the field that examine the benefits and drawbacks of VR gaming. This lack of classification studies is regarded as an obstacle to developing more effective games and proposing guidance on the best way of using them in cultural heritage. This review aims to analyze how VR games are used in cultural heritage settings, to explore the evolution and opportunities of this emerging field, the challenges and tensions these innovations present, and to collectively advance this work to benefit visitor experiences

A methodology for the development of museum educational applications: visitor inspired museum adaptive learning technologies

The research objective was to create a holistic design methodology for the development of educational technology for museums. After the analysis of the three scientific disciplines involved, education, museums, technology, the results of the literature research were organised in taxonomies in order to be used as design tools. Furthermore, moving towards adaptable solutions, the factors affecting learning in museums were analysed (i.e. visit style, environmental factors, type of visitor, etc.) and other personal learning characteristics (i.e. cognitive style). The analysis of questionnaires collected in different museums, allowed the modelling of the different profiles of visitors. In an attempt to involve visitors in the design processes, a visitor-centred participatory design method was developed. Finally, the different tools developed and used in this research, were organized into a methodology for the development of educational technologies for museums, which consists of discrete steps and provides clear instructions of use. The methodology was used and evaluated in a case study at the Industrial Museum of Hermoupolis, Syros, and specific solutions were proposed.Ο ερευνητικός στόχος ήταν η δημιουργία μίας ολιστικής μεθοδολογίας σχεδιασμού και ανάπτυξης εκπαιδευτικών τεχνολογιών για μουσεία. Αναλύθηκαν οι τρεις εμπλεκόμενοι επιστημονικοί κλάδοι, εκπαίδευση, μουσειολογία, τεχνολογία και τα αποτελέσματα της βιβλιογραφικής έρευνας οργανώθηκαν σε ταξινομήσεις, έτσι ώστε να μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν ως σχεδιαστικά εργαλεία. Στη συνέχεια, προχωρήσαμε προς προσαρμοζόμενες λύσεις και αναλύσαμε τους παράγοντες που επηρεάζουν τη μάθηση στα μουσεία (στυλ επίσκεψης, περιβαλλοντικοί παράγοντες, τύπος επισκέπτη, κλπ), καθώς και άλλα προσωπικά χαρακτηριστικά μάθησης (π.χ. γνωσιακό στυλ). Η ανάλυση των ερωτηματολογίων που συλλέχτηκαν σε μουσεία, επέτρεψαν τη μοντελοποίηση των διαφορετικών προφίλ των επισκεπτών. Σε μία προσπάθεια εμπλοκής των επισκεπτών στις σχεδιαστικές διαδικασίες, αναπτύξαμε μία επισκεπτοκεντρική μέθοδο συμμετοχικού σχεδιασμού, για να καθορίσουμε τη φυσική υπόσταση των εκπαιδευτικών εφαρμογών. Τέλος, τα διαφορετικά εργαλεία που αναπτύχτηκαν στα πλαίσια της παρούσας έρευνας, οργανώθηκαν σε μία μεθοδολογία ανάπτυξης εκπαιδευτικών εφαρμογών για μουσεία, η οποία αποτελείται από διακριτά βήματα και παρέχει σαφής οδηγίες. Η μεθοδολογία χρησιμοποιήθηκε και αξιολογήθηκε στη μελέτη της περίπτωσης του Βιομηχανικού Μουσείου Ερμούπολης, Σύρου, όπου προτάθηκαν συγκεκριμένες λύσεις