Journal articles on the topic 'Emilii Plater'

Recently, new recording devices, such as the Imaging Plate and a slow scan CCD camera, have come into wide use for digitally recording and storing transmission electron microscope images. A digital image has advantages of transferring, sharing and storing data. Furthermore the improvement of world wide computer network systems, for example, Internet makes it easier to transfer and share digital data among researchers. We have studied the processing and a quantitative analysis of digital high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HREM) images by means of a standard EWS and an SX-3 super-computer on the intelligent computer network system in Tohoku University, which is called Super TAINS (Fig. 1). With the increase of digital HREM images, we are in need of tools to help us store and quickly search these data.A web site called “EMILIA (Electron Microscope Image Library and Archive)” was established in October 1996 as a database of HREM images. EMILIA is implemented by a WWW server on Super TAINS and HTML documents. Figure 2 shows sample pages from EMILIA.

El artículo propone una lectura crítica del guion cinematográfico El castillo de la pureza, del escritor José Emilio Pacheco, con el objetivo de insertar el texto en el marco de la obra narrativa del autor. Se analizan las analogías que presenta el guion con la descripción de la psicopatología del nazi en la novela Morirás lejos, y con el tema del despertar erótico del adolescente en El principio del placer y Las batallas en el desierto.

The molecular characteristics of CNG (cyclic nucleotide-gated) channels in auditory/vestibular hair cells are largely unknown, unlike those of CNG mediating sensory transduction in vision and olfaction. In the present study we report the full-length sequence for three CNGA3 variants in a hair cell preparation from the trout saccule with high identity to CNGA3 in olfactory receptor neurons/cone photoreceptors. A custom antibody targeting the N-terminal sequence immunolocalized CNGA3 to the stereocilia and subcuticular plate region of saccular hair cells. The cytoplasmic C-terminus of CNGA3 was found by yeast two-hybrid analysis to bind the C-terminus of EMILIN1 (elastin microfibril interface-located protein 1) in both the vestibular hair cell model and rat organ of Corti. Specific binding between CNGA3 and EMILIN1 was confirmed with surface plasmon resonance analysis, predicting dependence on Ca2+ with Kd=1.6×10−6 M for trout hair cell proteins and Kd=2.7×10−7 M for organ of Corti proteins at 68 μM Ca2+. Pull-down assays indicated that the binding to organ of Corti CNGA3 was attributable to the EMILIN1 intracellular sequence that follows a predicted transmembrane domain in the C-terminus. Saccular hair cells also express the transcript for PDE6C (phosphodiesterase 6C), which in cone photoreceptors regulates the degradation of cGMP used to gate CNGA3 in phototransduction. Taken together, the evidence supports the existence in saccular hair cells of a molecular pathway linking CNGA3, its binding partner EMILIN1 (and β1 integrin) and cGMP-specific PDE6C, which is potentially replicated in cochlear outer hair cells, given stereociliary immunolocalizations of CNGA3, EMILIN1 and PDE6C.

Root zone geometry research is usually done in a conventional way which is destructive, time-consuming, and requires a considerable cost. Several non-destructive measurements used geophysical methods have been developed, one of which is the Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) method. Tree root zone determination using ERT has been carried out in Kiara Payung area, Sumedang, West Java, with Maesopsis eminii tree as the object study. A total of 29 ERT lines were measured using dipoledipole configuration with electrodes spacing of 50 cm. The results of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) inversion modeling show that the ERT method has been successfully imaging the tree root zone. The root zone is characterized as 100-700 Ωm with an elliptical shape geometry of the root plate. The root radius is estimated to be 4-5 m from the stem, the root zone diameter reaches 8-9 m at the shallow soil surface and the root zone depth is approximately 2-2.5 m. ABSTRAK Pencitraan geometri zona perakaran pohon menggunakan electrical resistivity tomography. Penelitian geometri zona perakaran biasa dilakukan dengan cara konvensional yang destruktif, memakan waktu, dan membutuhkan biaya yang tidak sedikit. Beberapa pengukuran non-destruktif menggunakan metode geofisika telah dikembangkan, salah satunya adalah metode Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT). Penentuan zona perakaran pohon menggunakan metode ERT telah dilakukan di daerah Kiara Payung, Sumedang, Jawa Barat, dengan pohon Maesopsis eminii sebagai objek studi. Sebanyak 29 lintasan ERT diukur menggunakan konfigurasi dipole-dipole pada dengan jarak antar elektroda 50 cm. Hasil pemodelan inversi dua dimensi (2D) dan tiga dimensi (3D) menunjukkan bahwa metode ERT telah berhasil mencitrakan zona perakaran pohon. Zona perakaran teridentifikasi berada pada nilai resistivitas 100-700 Ωm dengan root plate dan root cross-sections berbentuk elips. Radius akar diperkirakan sejauh 4-5 m dari pangkal batang, sedangkan diameter zona perakaran mencapai sekitar 8-9 m di permukaan tanah dangkal dan kedalaman zona perakaran diperkirakan antara ~2-2.5 m.

Here we describe and illustrate in detail four early zoeal stages of Alpheus estuariensis Christoffersen, 1984 from larvae reared in the laboratory. Two ovigerous females were collected in the tidal creek of the Bragança estuary, state of Pará, northeastern Brazil. After hatching, the larvae were placed in small containers (with 10 larvae in each). Females were deposited in the Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi (MPEG 0803) and the larvae of each larval stage in the Zoological Museum of São Paulo University (MUSP18452). Ten larvae and exuviae were dissected with fine needles under an ocular microscope. Morphological comparisons with previous studies on larval development of the Alpheus species are briefly discussed.

The goal of this article consists in demonstration of the impact of research in the field of history and theory of law alongside the hermeneutics of Emilio Betti impacted the vector of this philosophical thought. The subject of this article is the lectures read by Emilio Betti (prolusioni) in 1927 and 1948, as well as his writings of 1949 and 1962. Analysis is conducted on the succession of Betti's ideas in these works, which is traced despite the discrepancy in their theme (legal and philosophical). The author indicates “legal” origin of the canons of Bettis’ hermeneutics, namely the canon of autonomy of the object. Emphasis is placed on the problem of objectivity in Betti's theory, as well as on dialectical tension between the historicity of the interpreted subject and strangeness of the object that accompanies legal, as well as any other type of interpretation. The article reveals the key moment of Betti's criticism of Hans-Georg Gadamer. Regarding the question of historicity of the subject of interpretation. The conclusion is made that the origin of the general theory of interpretation lies in the approaches and methods developed and implemented by Betti back in legal hermeneutics and in studying history of law.   Betti's philosophical theory was significantly affected by the idea on the role of modern legal dogma in interpretation of the history of law. Namely this idea that contains the principle of historicity of the subject of interpretation, which commenced  the general hermeneutical theory of Emilio Betti, was realized in canon of the relevance of understanding in the lecture in 1948, and later in the “general theory of interpretation”. The author also underlines that the question of objectivity of understanding, which has crucial practical importance in legal hermeneutics, was transmitted into the philosophical works of E. Betti, finding reflection in dialectic of the subject and object of interpretation.

ObjectivesTo evaluate an algorithm developed for identifying non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) candidates among patients with lung cancer with a diagnosis International Classification of Diseases: ninth revision (ICD-9) 162.x code in administrative databases. Algorithm could then be applied for identifying the NSCLC population in order to assess the appropriateness and quality of care of the NSCLC care pathway.DesignAlgorithm discrimination capacity to select both NSCLC or non-NSCLC was carried out on a sample for which electronic health record (EHR) diagnosis was available. A bivariate frequency distribution and other measures were used to evaluate algorithm’s performances. Associations between possible factors potentially affecting algorithm accuracy were investigated.SettingAdministrative databases used in a specific geographical area of Emilia-Romagna region, Italy.ParticipantsAlgorithm was carried out on patients aged >18 years, with a lung cancer diagnosis from January to December 2017 and resident in Emilia-Romagna region who have been hospitalised at IRST or in one of the hospitals placed in the Forlì-Cesena area and for which EHR diagnosis data were available.Outcome measuresOverall accuracy, positive (PPV) and negative (NPV) predictive values, sensitivity and specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios and diagnostic OR were calculated.ResultsA total of 430 patients were identified as lung cancer cases based on ICD-9 diagnosis. Focusing on the total incident cases (n=314), the algorithm had an overall accuracy of 82.8% with a sensitivity of 88.8%. The analysis confirmed a high level of PPV (90.2%), but lower specificity (53.7%) and NPV (50%). Higher length of stay seemed to be associated with a correct classification. Hospitalisation regimen and a supply of antiblastic therapy seemed to increase the level of PPV.ConclusionThe algorithm demonstrated a strong validity for identifying NSCLC among patients with lung cancer in hospital administrative databases and can be used to investigate the quality of cancer care for this population.Trial registration numberNCT04676321.

Resumen:El pragmatismo y la sociología son, por decirlo así, primos hermanos ya que fueron engendrados en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX por la modernidad y la imperiosa necesidad de contrastar procesos sociales y económicos mediante una postura científica, crítica y participativa. Sin embargo este lazo de parentesco no significa que en la actualidad se haya dado una relación real a través de la constitución por ejemplo de un programa sociológico de corte pragmatista. La tradición pragmatista no es sino una fuente entre muchas otras para el pensamiento de autores tan diversos como son Jürgen Habermas y David Bloor. Lo único que encontramos cuando se revisan las fuentes son contados casos de acercamiento teórico entre ambas miradas y formas de acción, esto es, mediante textos de Emilio Durkheim (1913-1914), Charles W. Mills (1968) y hoy día con Hans Joas (1998 y 2002). En este artículo se pretende discutir sobre los posibles aportes del pensamiento pragmatista para la reflexión sociológica, los cuales giran en torno a buscar soluciones a problemas metodológicos-teóricos. En este sentido la concepción “práctica” de la realidad social como un proceso continuo y situado en un espacio “plástico” o, conforme a G.H. Mead y John Dewey, el re-planteamiento del concepto de acción social como “acción creadora culturalmente situada” pueden ser de gran interés para ampliar las perspectivas de la reflexión sociológica.Palabras clave: Sociología, Pragmatismo, Acción Creadora, Creencia y Continuidades.AbstractPragmatism and sociology are sort of first-cousins as both emerged from modernity in the second half of the nineteenth century, upon the need to contrast social processes with economic ones from a scientific, critical and participative approach. However, this does not mean there is currently a real link between the two of them given by, for instance, the development of a sociological programme based on pragmatism. The pragmatic tradition is only one of the many other sources for various thinkers like Jürgen Habermas and David Bloor. The only theoretical link and ways of action connecting these two disciplines are given in cases such as Emilio Durkheim (1913-1914), Charles W. Mills (1968) and nowadays Hans Joas (1998 and 2002). This article aims at discussing about the potential contributions of the pragmatic thought to the sociological one in order to find answers to methodological and theoretical problems. In this sense, the "practical" conception of the social reality as a continuous process placed in a "plastic" space, as stated by G.H Mead and John Dewey, reshaping the social action concept as a "creative action culturally placed" may be of help to expand sociological perspectives.Key words: sociology; pragmatism; creative action; belief and continuities

Resumen:El pragmatismo y la sociología son, por decirlo así, primos hermanos ya que fueron engendrados en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX por la modernidad y la imperiosa necesidad de contrastar procesos sociales y económicos mediante una postura científica, crítica y participativa. Sin embargo este lazo de parentesco no significa que en la actualidad se haya dado una relación real a través de la constitución por ejemplo de un programa sociológico de corte pragmatista. La tradición pragmatista no es sino una fuente entre muchas otras para el pensamiento de autores tan diversos como son Jürgen Habermas y David Bloor. Lo único que encontramos cuando se revisan las fuentes son contados casos de acercamiento teórico entre ambas miradas y formas de acción, esto es, mediante textos de Emilio Durkheim (1913-1914), Charles W. Mills (1968) y hoy día con Hans Joas (1998 y 2002). En este artículo se pretende discutir sobre los posibles aportes del pensamiento pragmatista para la reflexión sociológica, los cuales giran en torno a buscar soluciones a problemas metodológicos-teóricos. En este sentido la concepción “práctica” de la realidad social como un proceso continuo y situado en un espacio “plástico” o, conforme a G.H. Mead y John Dewey, el re-planteamiento del concepto de acción social como “acción creadora culturalmente situada” pueden ser de gran interés para ampliar las perspectivas de la reflexión sociológica.Palabras clave: Sociología, Pragmatismo, Acción Creadora, Creencia y Continuidades.AbstractPragmatism and sociology are sort of first-cousins as both emerged from modernity in the second half of the nineteenth century, upon the need to contrast social processes with economic ones from a scientific, critical and participative approach. However, this does not mean there is currently a real link between the two of them given by, for instance, the development of a sociological programme based on pragmatism. The pragmatic tradition is only one of the many other sources for various thinkers like Jürgen Habermas and David Bloor. The only theoretical link and ways of action connecting these two disciplines are given in cases such as Emilio Durkheim (1913-1914), Charles W. Mills (1968) and nowadays Hans Joas (1998 and 2002). This article aims at discussing about the potential contributions of the pragmatic thought to the sociological one in order to find answers to methodological and theoretical problems. In this sense, the "practical" conception of the social reality as a continuous process placed in a "plastic" space, as stated by G.H Mead and John Dewey, reshaping the social action concept as a "creative action culturally placed" may be of help to expand sociological perspectives.Key words: sociology; pragmatism; creative action; belief and continuities

The paper relies upon the recent discovery of the textbook of Accounting adopted in Palermo’s High Business School (the ‘ancestor’ of the Faculty of ‘Economics & Business’, founded after in 1936), just in its first years of opening (academic year 1930-31). It is a printed manuscript. This book was written by the local professor of Accounting, Emilio Ravenna, who operated in Sicily between the last decades of XIX century and the firstones of XX one, commonly considered (Guzzo, 2003) an intermediate scholar between the ‘Venetian’ (Besta) and ‘Tuscan’ (Cerboni) Italian Schools, adhering to the former for the accounting method and to the latter for the general theory of administrative functions, but here revealing more as belonging to the latter. The book is placed within a period of strong debate for the Italian community, after Zappa’s manifesto for the new science of “Economiaaziendale”, and also includes a full conception of Accounting as an open criticism to “Economia aziendale”. The interest for this discovery is due to the explicit answer to the defy launched at ‘Ca’ Foscari’ (University of Venice) by Gino Zappa. But the most relevant issue is that this answer does not come from the main ‘Venetian School’ of Besta disciples, then dominating in Italy, but from a true ‘survivor’ of the older ‘Tuscan School’, strictly follower of Giovanni Rossi work, and in those times already declined. It is noteworthy the fact Ravenna generally agrees with Zappa, confuting, however, only that his conceptions would be really new. The following paper, then, presenting the basic contents of the aforementioned book, with a peculiar stress on the doctrinal items concerning Accounting and “Economia aziendale”, reveals a continuity, perhaps overestimated by Ravenna,between the late XIX-century ‘Scientific Accounting’ by Cerboni and the early XX-century “Economia aziendale” by Zappa.

This article investigates the significance of personifications depicted on national currencies of Eastern Europe in the 19th – 21st cent. Eastern Europe is considered as a region of high research potential due to its status of borderland space with active symbolic struggle on political, socioeconomic and cultural levels. Currency design is an ideological tool that defines collective cultural tradition and historical memory, while national narratives vary in their response to the conditions of their formation. Basing on the visual analysis of money that circulated on the territories of Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and the Ukraine, the author outlines main categories of human depictions used in the currency design of the states that emerged in the region during the mentioned period. In the 19th cent., most widespread were money of the Russian Empire featuring the emperors and state representation Mother Russia. After the October Revolution in 1917, new states emerged in the region, but no personifications were used in their currency design. Human depictions of that time featured either ordinary people correlating with socialist movements or notable persons denoting political and cultural authenticity of certain state. Another category of human depictions was allegorical feminine figures representing patriarchal values and reproductive resources. Most remarkable examples of this type are Polish coins depicting state representation Polonia (or queen Jadwiga) as well as Polish banknotes with Mother Poland and national heroine Emilia Plater, both issued during the dictatorship of Jósef Piłsudski. Contemporary issues of money use no state representations, preferring instead either notable people, mostly men among them, or introducing other means of cultural representations not related to human depictions. Thus state representations used in the designs of national currencies become less popular in the 21st cent. due to globalisation and de-materialisation of money.

Monilinia fructicola (G. Wint.) Honey, the causal agent of brown rot, is one of the most important fungal pathogens of stone fruit but may also affect pome fruits. The pathogen is common in North America, Oceania, South America, and Asia. It is a quarantined pathogen in Europe (3), but was recently detected in apple from the Czech Republic, Germany, and Serbia (1,2,4). In January 2012, during a survey for fungal postharvest pathogens, stored apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) belonging to the cultivars Gala and Pink Lady showing brown rot symptoms were observed in the Emilia Romagna region, Italy. Typical decay spots were circular and brown, tending toward black. Decayed tissues remained firm, and numerous grayish pustules containing spores appeared on rotted areas. The pathogen was isolated on V8 juice agar and culture plates were incubated at 25°C in darkness for 5 days. A conidial suspension was spread on malt extract agar and single spores were selected. The colonies were morphologically identified as M. fructigena. Two colonies developing a gray mass of spores in concentric rings with the reverse side black were further studied by molecular tools. The colony margins were even and the conidia were one-celled, limoniform, hyaline, and 12.1 to 17.4 × 8.4 to 11.2 μm. The ribosomal ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region was PCR-amplified from genomic DNA obtained from mycelium using primers ITS1 and ITS4. A BLAST search in GenBank revealed the highest similarity (99%) to M. fructicola sequences (GenBank Accession Nos. HQ893748.1 and FJ515894.1). Pathogenicity was confirmed using surface-sterilized mature ‘Gala’ apples, wounded with a sterile needle, and inoculated with an isolate conidial suspension (103 spores/ml). A 20 μl droplet was placed in the wound; control fruits received sterile water without conidia. After 5 days of incubation at 20°C in plastic containers with high humidity, typical symptoms of brown rot developed on inoculated fruits, while control fruits remained symptomless. The fungus isolated from inoculated fruit exhibited the same morphological and molecular features shown by the original isolates. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the fungus M. fructicola on apple in Italy. Further studies are necessary to determine geographic distribution, prevalence and economic importance of this quarantine organism in Italy. References: (1) J. Duchoslavovà et al. Plant Dis.91:907, 2007. (2) A. Grabke et al. Plant Dis. 95:772, 2011. (3) OEPP/EPPO. EPPO A2 list of pests recommended for regulation as quarantine pests. Version 2010-09. Retrieved from http://www.eppo.int/QUARANTINE/listA2.htm , 2010. (4) M. Vasic et al. Plant Dis. 96:456, 2012.

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) plants showing systemic downy mildew (Plasmopara helianthi Novot.) symptoms (stunting and leaf chlorosis) were collected during May and June 2001-2003 in fields located in four regions of central Italy (Umbria, Tuscany, The Marches, and Emilia-Romagna). Generally restricted, a low disease incidence (2 to 12%) was observed in fields planted with commercial hybrids. In the surveyed areas, higher field incidences (20 to 30%) of downy mildew were only observed where suitable climatic conditions occurred. To determine pathogen race variability of P. helianthi, 18 isolates (one for each field) were recovered directly from infected leaves showing sporulation or after 24 h of incubation in a humid chamber at room temperature. After increasing initial inocula on the susceptible cv. Ala, race identification of all isolates was determined by the whole-seedling immersion technique (2) on three sets of nine differential sunflower lines (three lines per each set): HA-304, RHA 265, RHA 274; PMI-3, PMI-17, 803-1; and HAR-4, QHP-1, HA 335 using triplet coding (1). All differential lines were tested twice with 40 seeds per replicate (three replicates per line). Twelve days after inoculation, plants were placed in a chamber maintained at 20°C and 100% relative humidity for 24 h and then evaluated for a susceptible (sporulation on cotyledons and/or first true leaves) or resistance (absence of sporulation) reaction. Races 700 and 703 were identified during the 3-year survey. Race 700 was recovered frequently (56% of isolates) from the Italian regions except Emilia-Romagna. Race 703 was not detected in Tuscany. Races 700 and 703 have been previously isolated in other European countries (3,4), but to our knowledge, this is the first report of the occurrence of either race in Italy. Our results confirm previous investigations and suggest that the restricted presence of downy mildew should be attributed to several factors: (i) lack of any source of resistance to both races in commercial hybrids; (ii) insufficient seed dressing with metalaxyl as observed on remnants of commercial hybrid treated seeds tested in laboratory analyses; and (iii) short rotation of cereals (often only 2- to 3-year interval) with sunflower crops. Although greenhouse tests showed most P. helianthi isolates were not controlled by metalaxyl seed treatment at the registered rate (2.1 g kg-1) loss of fungicide efficiency in fields has not yet been observed indicating that appropriate phytosanitary measures and proper seed treatment can provide control of sunflower downy mildew. References: (1) T. J. Gulya. Pages 76–78 in: Proc. 17th Sunflower Res. Workshop, Fargo, ND, 1995. (2) T. J. Gulya et al. Helia 14:11, 1991. (3) M. L. Molinero-Ruiz et al. Plant Dis. 86:736, 2002. (4) F. Virany and T. J. Gulya. Plant Pathol. 44:619, 1995.

Abstract STUDY QUESTION How do elastic matrisome components change during the lifetime of the human ovary? SUMMARY ANSWER The deposition and remodeling of mechanical matrisome components (collagen, elastin, elastin microfibril interface-located protein 1 (EMILIN-1), fibrillin-1 and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs)) that play key roles in signaling pathways related to follicle activation and development evolve in an age- and follicle stage-related manner. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY The mechanobiology of the human ovary and dynamic reciprocity that exists between ovarian cells and their microenvironment is of high importance. Indeed, while the localization of primordial follicles in the collagen-rich ovarian cortex offers a rigid physical environment that supports follicle architecture and probably plays a role in their survival, ovarian extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness limits follicle expansion and hence oocyte maturation, maintaining follicles in their quiescent state. As growing follicles migrate to the medulla of the ovary, they encounter a softer, more pliant ECM, allowing expansion and development. Thus, changes in the rigidity of the ovarian ECM have a direct effect on follicle behavior. Evidence supporting a role for the physical environment in follicle activation was provided in clinical practice by ovarian tissue fragmentation, which promoted actin polymerization and disrupted ovarian Hippo signaling, leading to increased expression of downstream growth factors, promotion of follicle growth and generation of mature oocytes. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION We investigated quantitative spatiotemporal changes in collagen, elastin, EMILIN-1, fibrillin-1 and GAGs from prepuberty to menopause, before conducting a closer analysis of the ECM surrounding follicles, from primordial to secondary stages, in both prepubertal and tissue from women of reproductive age. The study included ovarian tissue (cortex) from 68 patients of different ages: prepubertal (n = 16; mean age [±SD]=8 ± 2 years); reproductive (n = 21; mean age [±SD]=27 ± 4 years); menopausal with estrogen-based HRT (n = 7; mean age [±SD]=58 ± 4 years); and menopausal without HRT (n = 24; mean age [±SD]=61 ± 5 years). PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS Quantitative investigations of collagen and GAG deposition in ovarian tissue throughout a woman’s lifetime were conducted by analyzing brightfield images. Characteristic features of collagen fiber content were based on polarized light microscopy, since polarized light changes with fiber thickness. To evaluate the deposition and distribution of elastin, fibrillin-1 and EMILIN-1, multiplex immunofluorescence was used on at least three sections from each patient. Image processing and tailored bioinformatic analysis were applied to enable spatiotemporal quantitative evaluation of elastic system component deposition in the human ovary over its lifetime. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE While collagen levels increased with age, fibrillin-1 and EMILIN-1 declined. Interestingly, collagen and elastin reached their peak in reproductive-age women compared to prepubertal (P < 0.01; P = 0.262) and menopausal subjects with (P = 0.706; P < 0.01) and without (P = 0.987; P = 0.610) HRT, indicating a positive impact of secreted estrogen and hormone treatment on collagen and elastin preservation. Interestingly, HRT appears to affect elastin presence in ovarian tissue, since a significantly higher (P < 0.05) proportion of elastin was detected in biopsies from menopausal women taking HRT compared to those not. Higher GAG levels were found in adult ovaries compared to prepubertal ovaries (P < 0.05), suggesting changes in tissue ultrastructure and elasticity with age. In this context, elevated GAG values are suspected to participate in hampering formation of the fibrillin-1 network (r = −0.2475; P = 0.04687), which explains its decline over time. This decline partially accounts for the decrease in EMILIN-1 (r = 0.4149; P = 0.00059). Closer examination of the ECM surrounding follicles from the primordial to the secondary stage, both before and after puberty, points to high levels of mechanical stress placed on prepubertal follicles compared to the more compliant ECM around reproductive-age follicles, as suggested by the higher collagen levels and lower elastin content detected mainly around primordial (P < 0.0001; P < 0.0001, respectively) and primary (P < 0.0001; P < 0.001, respectively) follicles. Such a stiff niche is nonpermissive to prepubertal follicle activation and growth, and is more inclined to quiescence. LARGE SCALE DATA Not applicable. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION The duration and form of administered HRT were not considered when studying the menopausal patient group undergoing treatment. Moreover, we cannot exclude interference from other nongynecological medications taken by the study patients on ovarian ECM properties since there is no information in the literature describing the impact of each medication on the ECM. Finally, since the ECM is by definition a very heterogeneous meshwork of proteins, the use of two-dimensional histology could be a limitation. Single time points on fixed tissues could also present limitations, since following ovary dynamics from prepuberty to menopause in the same patient is not feasible. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS From a biomechanical perspective, our study revealed important changes to ECM properties dictating the mechanical features of ovarian tissue, in line with the existing literature. Our findings pave the way for possible therapeutic targets at the ECM level in the context of female fertility and ovarian rejuvenation, such as mechanical stimulation, antifibrotic treatments, and prevention or reversion of elastic ECM degradation. Our study also sheds light on the follicle-specific ECM composition that is dependent on follicle stage and age. These data will prove very useful in designing biomimetic scaffolds and tissue-engineered models like the artificial ovary. Indeed, they emphasize the importance of encapsulating each type of isolated follicle in an appropriate biomaterial that must replicate the corresponding functional perifollicular ECM and respect ovarian tissue heterogeneity in order to guarantee its biomimicry. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) This study was supported by grants from the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique de Belgique (FNRS) (C.A.A. is an FRS-FNRS research associate; grant 5/4/150/5 awarded to M.M.D.) and the Université Catholique de Louvain (PhD grant ‘Coopération au développement’ awarded to E.O.). None of the authors have any competing interests to declare.

Recent seismic events, such as the Central Italy (2016), the Emilia (2012) and L’Aquila (2009) earthquake, have demonstrated the high vulnerability of cultural heritage represented by historical and monumental buildings. These structures are often characterized by the presence of elements with a curved geometry such as arches and vaults, which interact with the vertical elements (walls or columns) during the earthquake motion, producing a significant effect on the seismic response of the entire structure. Aiming at the reduction of the seismic vulnerability of curved masonry elements, several techniques of reinforcing based on composite fiber materials, have been recently developed and widely investigated by means of experimental tests and numerical simulations. The using of fiber reinforced systems, applied through cementitious mortar (FRCM), is becoming a very common technique of retrofitting for historical and monumental masonry buildings. This technique, if compared to the using of fiber polymeric materials (FRP), is more compatible with the mechanical properties of the masonry and more appropriate with the preservation needs of cultural heritage, associated to the historical constructions. A discrete macro-modeling approach, already available in the literature for modeling masonry structures with plane and curved geometry, is here employed to predict the non-linear behaviour of masonry arches strengthened with FRCM. In that approach the reinforcement is explicitly modeled by using a rigid plate, while the interaction between the reinforcement and the masonry support is governed by a discrete zero thickness interface. In this paper the interfacial behavior is updated with a more sophisticated bond-slip constitutive law specifically conceived for FRCM reinforcement within the framework of fracture mechanics; in particular the proposed calibration takes into account both the pure opening mode (mode I) and the in plane shear mode (mode II). The obtained numerical results are compared with an analytical closed form solution of the problem and validated by mean of experimental tests on prototypes, available in the literature.

Abstract. We consider a fault system producing a sequence of seismic events of similar magnitudes. If the system is made up of n faults, there are n! possible sequences, differing from each other for the order of fault activation. Therefore the order of events in a sequence can be expressed as a permutation of the first n integers. We investigate the conditions for the occurrence of a seismic sequence and how the order of events is related to the initial stress state of the fault system. To this aim, we consider n coplanar faults placed in an elastic half-space and subject to a constant and uniform strain rate by tectonic motions. We describe the state of the system by n variables that are the Coulomb stresses of the faults. If we order the faults according to the magnitude of their Coulomb stresses, a permutation of the first n integers can be associated with each state of the system. This permutation changes whenever a fault produces a seismic event, so that the evolution of the system can be described as a sequence of permutations. A crucial role is played by the differences between Coulomb stresses of the faults. The order of events implicit in the initial state is modified due to changes in the differences between Coulomb stresses and to different stress drops of the events. We find that the order of events is determined by the initial stress state, the stress drops and the stress transfers associated with each event. Therefore the model allows the retrieval of the stress states of a fault system from the observation of the order of fault activation in a seismic sequence. As an example, the model is applied to the 2012 Emilia (Italy) seismic sequence and enlightens the complex interplay between the fault dislocations that produced the observed order of events.

Since its identification nearly fifty years ago, Marine Isotope Stage 5 (MIS 5) has been placed onto absolute time scales on the basis of three independent approaches. Cesare Emiliani, who set up the isotope stages (Emiliani, 1955), depended on uranium-series dating of the sediments, a method that today is regarded as not generally capable of yielding useful precision or accuracy. Broecker and van Donk (1970) pioneered the approach of correlating to radiometrically dated marine coral terraces; this has been much aided in recent years by improvements in the precision and accuracy of these age determinations that have flowed from the development of thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) for uranium-series dating (Edwards et al., 1986). The third approach is to use the astronomical record as a guide to the time scale. Martinson et al. (1987) generated a detailed time scale for MIS 5 using this approach. These authors suggested that the overall average error was of the order ±5000 yr, although the error would be smaller during interglacial periods with high precession-related variability, such as MIS5. At that time, the suggested confidence limits were smaller than typical values quoted for the radiometric dating of corals (typically ±6000 yr). Today the accuracy of the time scale of Martinson et al. (1987) is challenged by high-precision TIMS dates with quoted uncertainties of the order ±1000 yr or better. From the point of view of achieving a better understanding of the last interglacial period, the more serious disadvantage of the Martinson et al. (1987) time scale is the underlying hypothesis that all the proxy palaeoclimate records represent smoothly varying responses to changes in insolation; hence, there is no basis for estimating the duration of an extended interval with northern ice sheet volumes static at a size no greater than at present. From this point of view, the model of Gallée et al. (1993) is more promising, but that model is not at present sufficiently realistic to provide a reliable independent time scale. We have therefore chosen to depict the oxygen isotope record of core MD95-2042 (37°48′N, 10°10′W, water depth of 3146 m) on a time scale (Shackleton et al., 2001) that is based only on making use of selected radiometric dates obtained from fossil corals to calibrate the isotope record.

Most know Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–81) for his dramatic theory, specifically that which is found in his periodical the Hamburg Dramaturgy (1767–69), a collection of 101 essays that has since earned Lessing the moniker of “the first dramaturg.” Many are also familiar with Lessing's major plays, Miss Sara Sampson (1755), Minna von Barnhelm (1767), Emilia Galotti (1772), and Nathan the Wise (1779). Fewer, however, may be familiar with his acting theory and his long association with actors, an association that began in his college years and which so disturbed Lessing's father that the respectable pastor lured the wayward student home by falsely claiming that Lessing's mother was ill. During his time as a university student in Leipzig, Lessing translated plays for the troupe of Karoline Neuber (1697–1760) and socialized with the company's actors; over time he would continue to accrue significant firsthand knowledge of actors and the art of acting, not only through his frequent theatregoing but also through the coaching of his own plays. Lessing's familiarity with actors and acting informs both his performance and dramatic theory, including that which one finds in the Hamburg Dramaturgy; in Anglophone studies of Lessing's journal, however, one infrequently sees Lessing's dramatic theory placed in conversation with his acting theory, reception theory, or performance reviews. Due to the short and contentious life of the Hamburg National Theatre, the experimental theatre project to which the Hamburg Dramaturgy was ostensibly attached, historical narratives more often focus on Lessing's strained relations with the actors of the Hamburg acting company. If one views Lessing's writing about performance solely in terms of a frustrated critic's attempts to rein in “unruly” actors, however, one loses sight of how Lessing's acting theory supports his wider ideas about the form and function of theatre and about how the Hamburg Dramaturgy and the Hamburg theatre experiment might function as a force for social change.

Recently, a new strain rate map of Italy and the surrounding areas has been obtained by processing data acquired by the persistent scatterers (PS) of the synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) satellites—ERS and ENVISAT—between 1990 and 2012. This map clearly shows that there is a link between the strain rate and all the shallow earthquakes (less than 15 km deep) that occurred from 1990 to today, with their epicenters being placed only in high strain rate areas (e.g., Emilia plain, NW Tuscany, Central Apennines). However, the map also presents various regions with high strain rates but in which no damaging earthquakes have occurred since 1990. One of these regions is the Apennine sector, formed by Sannio and Irpinia. This area represents one of the most important seismic districts with a well-known and recorded seismicity from Roman times up to the present day. In our study, we merged historical records with new satellite techniques that allow for the precise determination of ground movements, and then derived physical dimensions, such as strain rate. In this way, we verified that in Irpinia, the occurrence of new strong shocks—forty years after one of the strongest known seismic events in the district that occurred on the 23 November 1980, measuring Mw 6.8—is still a realistic possibility. The reason for this is that, from 1990, only areas characterized by high strain rates have hosted significant earthquakes. This picture has been also confirmed by analyzing the historical catalog of events with seismic completeness for magnitude M ≥ 6 over the last four centuries. It is easy to see that strong seismic events with magnitude M ≥ 6 generally occurred at a relatively short time distance between one another, with a period of 200 years without strong earthquakes between the years 1732 and 1930. This aspect must be considered as very important from various points of view, particularly for civil protection plans, as well as civil engineering and urban planning development.

Incisional ventral hernia occurs after almost every fourth laparotomy. Still, both simple suturing of the hernia defect and open mesh repair, leads to high incidence of infections and recurrences. In recent years we observe a further evolution of the operational techniques used, in order to reduce the number of complications. The search for effective repair methods is currently going in two directions: on the one hand, techniques to reduce tissue tension in the suture line are being developed and disseminated (including modifications to the so-called Ramirez technique); on the other hand, minimally invasive techniques are introduced that allow placement of large synthetic meshes without the need for extensive tissue dissection using the open repair. In the first group of presented techniques the emphasis is put on basics and access in the following repair method: original Ramirez technique, modified Ramirez technique, anterior component separation with periumbilical perforators sparing, endoscopic anterior component separation and transversus abdominis release. In the second part of the manuscript the attention is drawn to the following hernia repair techniques: eTEP, reversed TEP, MILOS/eMILOS, stapler repair, TAPP, TARUP, TESLA, SCOLA, REPA, LIRA, IPOM, IPOM-plus. When choosing the optimal technique for a given patient, a surgeon should first of all be guided by technical feasibility, availability of materials, his/her own experience, as well as the characteristics of the patient and overall burdens present. Nevertheless, surgeons undertaking reconstruction of the abdominal wall in the case of hernias should know different surgical accesses and individual spaces of the abdominal integument, in which a synthetic material may be placed. However, it should be emphasized that the poor ergonomics of novel techniques, complex anatomy and complicated dissection of space, as well as the need for laparoscopic suturing in a difficult arrangement of tissue layers and in a narrow space, without a full triangulation of instruments, make these operations a challenge even for a surgeon experienced in minimally invasive operations.

Incisional ventral hernia occurs after almost every fourth laparotomy. Still, both simple suturing of the hernia defect and open mesh repair, lead to a high incidence of infections and recurrences. In recent years, we have observed a further evolution of operational techniques used in order to reduce the number of complications. The search for effective repair methods is currently going in two directions: on the one hand, techniques to reduce tissue tension in the suture line are being developed and disseminated (including modifications to the so-called Ramirez technique); on the other hand, minimally invasive techniques are introduced that allow placement of large synthetic meshes without the need for extensive tissue dissection using open repair. In the first group of presented techniques, emphasis is put on basics and access in the following repair method: original Ramirez technique, modified Ramirez technique, anterior component separation with periumbilical perforator-sparing, endoscopic anterior component separation and transversus abdominis release. In the second part of the manuscript, attention is drawn to the following hernia repair techniques: eTEP, reversed TEP, MILOS/eMILOS, stapler repair, TAPP, TARUP, TESLA, SCOLA, REPA, LIRA, IPOM, IPOM-plus. When choosing the optimal technique for a given patient, the surgeon should first of all be guided by technical feasibility, availability of materials, their own experience, as well as the characteristics of the patient and overall burdens. Nevertheless, surgeons undertaking reconstruction of the abdominal wall in the case of hernias should know different surgical accesses and individual spaces of the abdominal integument, in which a synthetic material may be placed. However, it should be emphasized that poor ergonomics of novel techniques, complex anatomy and complicated dissection of space, as well as the need for laparoscopic suturing in a difficult arrangement of tissue layers and in a narrow space, without a full triangulation of instruments, make these operations a challenge even for a surgeon experienced in minimally invasive surgeries.

Italy could be considered the main apple-producing country in the European Union. Italian apple (Malus domestica L. Borkh.) production is estimated at approximately 2.1 million tons and encompasses a wide range of cultivars, harvested from August to November. Colletotrichum acutatum, which causes severe losses to strawberry production, was a regulated organism for all European countries until 2008, when it was removed from the EPPO quarantine pathogen list because of its wide distribution in strawberry-production areas. During the growing season of 2010, fungi were isolated from apple fruits exhibiting bitter rot symptoms after 4 months of storage in several packinghouses in the Emilia Romagna Region. The apples belonged to the Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Pink Lady and Crisp Pink cultivars. Lesions on the fruit surface were circular and 1 to 3 cm in diameter. When lesions enlarged, they became sunken with relatively firm rotten tissues. The fungal fruiting structures, acervuli, were distributed sparsely or densely on old lesions, and under humid conditions, they discharged an orange conidial mass. Conidia observed with a light microscope appeared hyaline and fusiform, 8 to 16 × 2.5 to 4 μm, with two pointed ends or one rounded end. The fungal isolates were grown on potato dextrose agar (PDA) plates incubated at 25°C. After 7 days, colonies were white, becoming gray to pale orange, and when viewed from the reverse side, the color ranged from pink to reddish orange. Both cultural and morphological characteristics of the pathogen were similar to those described for C. acutatum J.H. Simmonds (3), which is responsible for bitter rot of apple (2). Koch's postulates were performed with one representative isolate from each host by artificial inoculation of 30 healthy apples from the cultivars listed above. Fruit surfaces were disinfected with 70% ethanol, wounded with a sterile needle, and then inoculated with 20 μl of a spore suspension (105 conidia ml–1) prepared from a 15-day-old culture on PDA. Inoculated fruits were sealed in a plastic bag and incubated at 25°C for 10 days. In 92% of fruits, symptoms appeared 10 days later, forming lesions with cream-to-salmon pink fruiting structures. The fungus was reisolated onto PDA from the lesions on the inoculated apples. After 7 days of incubation, the colonies and the morphology of conidia were the same as those of the original isolates. The tests were performed on all four cultivars with similar results. The PCR analysis, carried out using universal primers ITS1 and ITS4 (4) directly from single-spore-derived mycelium (1), resulted in an amplification product with 100% sequence homology with C. acutatum isolate AB626881 from GenBank database. Considering the results obtained, to our knowledge, this is the first report of C. acutatum in Italy causing bitter rot on apple. The disease is common in practically all countries where apples are commercially grown and since the losses could be severe under prolonged warm and wet weather conditions, C. acutatum could represent a serious issue for the Italian apple industry. References: (1) M. Iotti and A. Zambonelli. Mycol. Res. 110:60, 2006. (2) A. L. Jones et al. Plant Dis. 80:1294, 1996. (3) B. C. Sutton. Page 1 in: Colletotrichum: Biology, Pathology and Control. Brit. Soc. Plant Pathol. Oxon. UK 1992. (4) T. J. White et al. Page 315 in: PCR Protocols. A Guide to Methods and Applications. Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 1990.

Monilinia spp. are well-known pathogens causing brown rot of fruit trees in many fruit production areas worldwide. In Italy, three Monilinia species are particularly significant with regard to fruit trees, causing blossom and twig blight and brown rot in fruits: Monilinia laxa (Aderhold and Ruhland) Honey, M. fructicola (Winter) Honey, and M. fructigena (Aderhold and Ruhland). In 2009, a new species, M. polystroma, was distinguished from M. fructigena based on morphological and molecular characteristics in Europe (3). M. polystroma is not known to occur in Italy and to date has been reported from the Czech Republic (1), Hungary (3), Poland (4), Serbia (5), and Switzerland (2). In July 2013, during a survey for fungal postharvest pathogens, stored peaches (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) belonging to different cultivars showing brown rot symptoms were observed in the Emilia Romagna and Sardinia regions of Italy. Typical decay spots were circular and brown, tending toward black, and 5% of peaches presented a large number of yellowish or buff-colored stromata and firm decayed tissues, the symptoms originated by M. polystroma. The pathogen was isolated on V8 agar (V8A) and culture plates were incubated at 25°C in darkness for 5 days. A conidial suspension was spread on malt extract agar (MEA) and single spores were selected. M. polystroma colonies grown on potato dexstrose agar (PDA) were yellowish in color. Irregular black stromatal crusts occurred on the edges of the colonies after 10 to 12 days of incubation and on the margin was present sporogenous tissue slightly elevated above the colony surface, color buff/pale luteous (1). The conidia were one-celled, ovoid or limoniform, smooth and hyaline, and 12 to 20 × 8 to 12 μm in distilled water when grown on V8A at 22°C. The ribosomal ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region was PCR-amplified from genomic DNA obtained from mycelium using primers ITS1 and ITS4. A BLAST search in GenBank revealed the highest similarity (99%) to M. polystroma sequences (GenBank Accession No. GU067539). Pathogenicity was confirmed using surface-sterilized mature ‘Red Heaven’ peaches. The fruits were wounded (2 × 2 × 2 mm) twice with a sterile needle and inoculated with 2-mm plugs of 7-day-old mycelia from fungal colony margins. The sample unit was represented by 10 fruits. Control fruits were inoculated with PDA. After 7 days of incubation at 20°C in plastic containers with high humidity, typical symptoms of brown rot developed on both the wounds of all inoculated fruits, while control fruits remained symptomless. By the 14th day, all fruits had rotted and the yellowish exogenous stromata appeared on the surface of infected peaches. The fungus isolated from inoculated fruit exhibited the same morphological and molecular features of the original isolates; the molecular analysis performed using the primers by Petroczy (3) confirmed the result of the PCR with ITS1 and ITS4 primers. To our knowledge, this is the first report of M. polystroma on peach in Italy. This is relevant because the new pathogen could spread into other European countries that are main peach producers (such as Spain), causing economic losses. Bringing it to the attention of the scientific community allows the arrangement of research studies for assessing potential resistances with a significant impact on disease control management. Further studies are necessary to determine geographic distribution, prevalence, and economic importance of this organism in Italy. References: (1) EPPO Reporting Service. 2011/134: First reports of Monilinia polystroma in Hungary and the Czech Republic. No. 6, 2011. (2) M. Hilber-Bodmer et al. Plant Dis. 96:146, 2012. (3) M. Petroczy and L. Palkovics. Eur. J. Plant Pathol. 125:343, 2009. (4) A. Poniatowska et al. Eur. J. Plant Pathol. 135:855, 2013. (5) M. Vasic et al. Plant Dis. 97:145, 2013.

Abstract Background: Approximately 9% to 27% of patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) develop a cardiac arrhythmia (CA).[1] This complication correlates with longer length of stays, higher probability of ICU admission, and higher mortality compared to patients who do not develop CA. Moreover, post-transplant CA is associated with greater risk of death within a year of HSCT. Identification of predictive risk factors for CA in patients undergoing HSCT has been elusive. Traditional risk factors like male gender, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, or established coronary artery disease, have not been found to be predictive of pre or post-transplant CA in HSCT patients. Echocardiogram may help identifying patients at risk of post-surgical arrhythmias but this has not been the case in HSCT.[2] MUGA scan has not been able to identify patients at risk for developing cardiac events during HSCT either.[3] In view of the detrimental consequences associated with CA during HSCT and the lack of reliable predictive risk factors, we decided to analyze and identify potential risk factors for CA in patients transplanted at our institution. Objective: This study aims to determine risk factors for the development of CA in patients undergoing HSCT. Methodology: A retrospective analysis of 138 consecutive patients undergoing HSCT at our institution between January 1st, 2015 and December 31st, 2017 was performed. One patient was excluded due to lack of baseline EKG. Data from patients ≥ 18 y/o who underwent autologous or allogeneic HSCT was analyzed. Variables analyzed included: age, gender, ethnicity, prior HSCT, diagnosis, type of transplant (autologous vs allogeneic), prior anthracycline exposure, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, hypertension, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, hyperlipidemia, previous arrhythmias, amyloidosis, documented STEMI or NSTEMI, home medications continued during HSCT, prior cardiovascular procedures, left ventricular ejection fraction prior to HSCT, baseline QTc prior to HSCT, stem cell dose, conditioning regimen, graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis, number of prior acute kidney injuries using RIFLE criteria, documented infections, electrolyte abnormalities, and hemoglobin < 7.0 g/dL. Statistical Methods: The Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) System program V9.0 was used for analysis. To compare potential risk factors of categorized data by patients with a documented arrhythmia and patients without a documented arrhythmia, a univariate comparison was performed using chi-square or Fisher's Exact test. Variables that were collected and demonstrated, as per-patient means, were analyzed using a multivariable T Test linear regression. A difference in incidence of arrhythmias between variables with a P-value of < 0.05 were statistically significant. Results: 31 patients (23%) developed CA during their HSCT. The most common type was atrial fibrillation (n= 13; 42%). The incidence of CA was greater in patients with a diagnosis of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (17/31; 54.8%) vs (7/106; 6.6%); (p < 0.001) and QTc greater than 500 msec at any time during transplantation (8/31; 25.8%) vs (6/106; 5.6%) (p= 0.0011). All other risk factors did not have an association with an increased risk of CA during HSCT. Mean length of hospital stay, incidence of ICU admission, and number of in-hospital deaths were not statistically different between groups. Conclusion: Our data suggests that a diagnosis of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma or QTc prolongation ≥ 500 msec at any time during HSCT may be risk factors for CA during HSCT. Our study has the limitation of being a single institution analysis however, most patients (70%) in this analysis were prospectively placed on cardiac telemetry making our assessment of the incidence of CA during HSCT reliably accurate. Prospective interventional studies are warrant. [1] Tonorezos, Emilys S; Stillwell, Elizabth E; Calloway, James J., et al., Bone Marrow Transplant. 2015 Sep; 50(9): 1212-1216. [2] Osranek M, Fatema K, Qaddoura F, et al. Left atrial volume predicts the risk of atrial fibrillation after cardiac surgery: a prospective study. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2006;48(4):779-786. [3] Garcia I., Rodriguez T.E., Davis S., et al.; The Necessity of MUGA Scans to Detect Risks for Cardiac Toxicity in Patients Considered for Bone Marrow Transplantation. Tandem IBMTR/ASBMT Meeting; Orlando, FL 2002. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Woody Biomasses (from agriculture and forestry activities) are among the most promising renewable energy sources. Current literature describes woody biomass feedstock supply chains supporting biofuels and utilities industries: the potentially productive land area overheads required for biomass production may results in a complex logistic within the whole chain. Its effective enhancement requires significant changes in the logistics environment of energy plants for sustainable energy production and the sequence-dependent procurement chains for biomasses furthermore complicate these changes. According to this, optimizing harvesting and supplying operations turns out to be strategic within the framework of the current energy policy. In this work we present a case study carried out monitoring 57 short rotation forestry (SRF) production sites placed in Emilia Romagna Region, Northern Italy, all supplying the harvested biomass to the same biomass power plant placed in the province of Ravenna (Italy). The overall average yield of these sites was 55 t/ha, the site surfaces ranged from 0.3 to 20 hectares and the distance from the power plant ranged between 8.2 to 102 km with one production site only within 10 km from the power plant. Harvest and transport costs were calculated according to two different harvesting scenarios: i) single phase harvesting (one cutting/chopping machine + tractors and trailers); ii) double phase harvesting (cutting/mowing machine followed after 80 days by chopping machine + tractors and trailers). Results show that, according to the first scenario, at increasing distances overall harvesting and transport costs ranged from 8.9 to 21.0 ± 1.3 􀀍/t (average ± standard deviation), while, with reference to the second scenario, they increased from 10.3 to 23.8 ± 1.5 􀀍/t with the transportation costs accounting from 16 to almost 70% of the total costs.

In late summer 2019, a severe outbreak of fruit rot was observed in commercial ‘Pink Lady’ apple orchards (>20 ha in total) in the region Emilia-Romagna (Northern Italy). The symptoms on the fruit appeared as small circular red to brown lesions. Disease incidences of over 50% of the fruits were observed. To isolate the causal agent, 15 affected apples were collected and small portions of fruit flesh were excised from the lesion margin and placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA). The plates were incubated at 20°C in the dark, and pure cultures were obtained by transferring hyphal tips on PDA. The cultures showed light to dark gray, cottony mycelium, with the underside of the culture being brownish and becoming black with age. Conidia (n=20) were cylindrical, aseptate, hyaline, rounded at both ends, and 12.5 to 20.0 × 5.0 to 7.5 μm. The morphological characteristics were consistent with descriptions of Colletotrichum species of the C. gloeosporioides species complex, including C. fructicola (Weir et al. 2012). The identity of two representative isolates (PinkL2 & PinkL3) from different apples was confirmed by means of multi-locus gene sequencing. Genomic DNA was extracted using the LGC Mag Plant Kit (Berlin, Germany) in combination with the Kingfisher method (Waltham, USA). Molecular identification was conducted by sequencing the ITS1/ITS4 region and partial sequences of four other gene regions: chitin synthase (CHS), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), actin (ACT), and beta-tubulin (TUB). The sequences have been deposited in GenBank under accession numbers MT421924 & MT424894 (ITS), MT424612 & MT424613 (CHS), MT424616 & MT424617 (GAPDH), MT424614 & MT424615 (ACT), and MT424620 & MT424621 (TUB). MegaBLAST analysis revealed that our ITS sequences matched with 100% identity to Colletotrichum fructicola (Genbank JX010177). The CHS, GAPDH, ACT and TUB sequences of both isolates were 100% identical with C. fructicola culture collection sequences in Genbank (JX009807, JX009923, JX009436 and JX010400, respectively), confirming the identity of these isolates as C. fructicola. Koch's postulates were performed with 10 mature ‘Pink Lady’ apples. Surface sterilized fruit were inoculated with 20 μl of a suspension of 105 conidia ml–1 after wounding with a needle. The fruits were incubated at 20˚C at high relative humidity. Typical symptoms appeared within 4 days on all fruit. Mock-inoculated controls with sterile water remained symptomless. The fungus was reisolated and confirmed as C. fructicola by morphology and sequencing of all previously used genes. Until recently the reported causal agents of bitter rot of apple in Europe belong to the Colletotrichum acutatum species complex (Grammen et al. 2019). C. fructicola, belonging to C. gloeosporioides species complex, is known to cause bitter rot of apple in the USA, Korea, Brazil, and Uruguay (Kim et al. 2018; Velho et al. 2015). There is only one report of bitter rot associated with C. fructicola on apple in Europe (France) (Nodet et al. 2019). However, C. fructicola is also the potential agent of Glomerella leaf spot (GLS) of apple (Velho et al. 2015; 2019). To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of C. fructicola on apples in Italy. It is important to stress that the C. gloeosporioides species complex is still being resolved and new species on apple continue to be identified, e.g. C. chrysophilum that is very closely related to C. fructicola (Khodadadi et al. 2020). Given the risks of this pathogen the presence of C. fructicola in European apple orchards should be assessed and management strategies developed.

This article aims to set a theoretical framework for a debate about the advantages and disadvantages of the actual way in which celebrities are portrayed in Spanish television. This work deals with how fame has been present in several societies over time. The phenomenon of celebrity is placed in a context that includes the USA and Britain. The piece introduces the idea, argued by a relevant number of Anglo-Saxon authors, that fame and democracy have walked and developed together in a number of countries.q Si hay un tipo de televisión que no queremos es la que se conoce como «televisión basura». Se trata de un concepto complejo, que el Consejo Audiovisual de Cataluña (CAC) ha definido con gran habilidad. No alude, según el CAC, a un género televisivo específico, ni se limita sólo al entretenimiento, sino que se produce cuando determinados programas degradan determinados géneros vulnerando los derechos fundamentales de terceras personas o por el atropello de valores democráticos o cívicos. A continuación el consejo considera que la telebasura se encuentra básicamente concentrada en la programación denominada «del corazón», aunque matiza que el género en sí no ha de caer irremisiblemente en los despropósitos propios de la telebasura y, de hecho, reconoce que no siempre lo hace. Este trabajo aborda de manera esquemática la evolución de la fama en nuestras sociedades, y se concentra en las circunstancias socio-económicas que han hecho posible su expansión. Tal material nos permitirá proceder a una breve reflexión acerca de la representación mediática de la fama hoy en día. Precisamente porque «el corazón» no es irremisiblemente telebasura, ni debemos permitir que los despropósitos en materia cívica propios de la telebasura secuestren las potencialidades positivas del género, que las tiene. Como el propio filósofo Emilio Lledó reconoce en una entrevista con Juan Cruz sobre la fama (Cruz, 1999). En la idea de la fama hay siempre ago positivo: la lucha por el reconocimiento que es una forma peculiar de compañía y solidaridad, y de «progreso» y «movimiento de tu ser». Aunque claro está, Lledó se refiere fundamentalmente a una fama que insta a aquel que la desea a ser mejor y superarse con el propósito de ser querido. En estos últimos años la importancia de los famosos en los medios de comunicación se ha intensificado. Esto, desde luego, es perceptible en España, pero está vigente en toda Europa, incluyendo los países nórdicos (Sparre, 2003), EE.UU, América Latina, y de manera progresiva, otras zonas del globo. En el texto completo de la comunicación se ofrecen razones contundentes que ilustran la proliferación del fenómeno de los famosos en el Reino Unido, EE.UU y otras áreas del mundo como se argumentará en el texto completo de la comunicación. El interés que despiertan los famosos y la destacada presencia de éstos, sobre todo en las sociedades occidentales permite establecer cierta vinculación entre los famosos y una serie de cambios sociales económicos y culturales propios de la era moderna, democrática y capitalista. Varios investigadores ligan el progreso de ‘la cultura de la celebridad’ en el siglo XX a la democracia. Entre ellos están Leo Braudy, Victoria Price, Richard Dyer, David Marshall y Chris Rojek. La fama en sí siempre ha existido, y el deseo de celebridad también, que Leo Broudy ya achaca a Alejandro Magno varios siglos antes del nacimiento de Jesucristo. Pero para que la fama y los famosos alcancen el grado de influencia y expansión actual han de producirse una serie de cambios sociales que se han sucedido desde el desarrollo de la fotografía y las agencias de noticias. La expansión de la fama es un fenómeno de la modernidad ilustrada, así como algunas perversiones de la fama pueden analizarse como síntomas de un desequilibrio entre valores democráticos y valores mercantilistas. En resumen, la comunicación que se propone trata la fama en un contexto social y económico amplio que puede aplicarse a Europa y Estados Unidos y describe los cambios más importantes del último siglo en la forma de entender este fenómeno. Todo ello tiene el objetivo de ofrecer una perspectiva amplia desde la que reflexionar acerca de la forma actual en la que los famosos aparecen en televisión en España, y en concreto acerca de la mercantilización de la fama y de la aparición de famosos que lo son por su relación con otros y no por motivos meritocráticos.

Game of Thrones (GoT) has become the most popular way of referring to a universe that was previously known under the title A Song of Ice and Fire by fans of fantasy novels. Indeed, thanks to its huge success, the TV series is now the most common entry into what is today a complex narrative constellation. Game of Thrones began as a series of five novels written by George R. R. Martin (first published in 1996). It was adapted as a TV series by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss for HBO in 2011, as a comic book series (2011—2014), several video games (Blood of Dragons, 2007; A Game of Thrones: Genesis, 2011; Game of Thrones, 2012; Game of Thrones Ascent, 2013; Game of Thrones, 2014), as well as several prequel novellas, a card game (A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, 2002), and a strategy board game (2003), not to mention the promotional transmedia developed by Campfire to bring the novels’ fans to the TV series. Thus, the GoT ensemble does indeed look like a form of transmedia, at least at first sight.Game of Thrones’ UniverseGenerally, definitions of transmedia assemble three elements. First, transmedia occurs when the content is developed on several media, “with each new text making a distinctive and valuable contribution to the whole. … Each franchise entry needs to be self-contained so you don’t need to have seen the film to enjoy the game, and vice versa” (Jenkins 97-98). The second component is the narrative world. The authors of Transmédia Dans Tous Ses États notice that transmedia stories “are in some cases reduced to a plain link between two contents on two media, with no overall vision” (Collective 4). They consider these ensembles weak. For Gambarato, the main point of transmedia is “the worldbuilding experience, unfolding content and generating the possibilities for the story to evolve with new and pertinent content,” what Jenkins called “worldmaking” (116). The third ingredient is the audience. As the narrative extends itself over several platforms, consumers’ participation is essential. “To fully experience any fictional world, consumers must assume the role of hunters and gatherers, chasing down bits of the story across media channels” (Jenkins 21).The GoT constellation does not precisely match this definition. In the canonical example examined by Jenkins, The Matrix, the whole was designed from the beginning of the project. That was not the case for GoT, as the transmedia development clearly happened once the TV series had become a success. Not every entry in this ensemble unfolds new aspects of the world, as the TV series is an adaptation of the novels (until the sixth season when it overtook the books). Not every component is self-contained, as the novels and TV series are at the narrative system’s centre. This narrative ensemble more closely matches the notion of “modèle satellitaire” conceived by Saint-Gelais, where one element is the first chronologically and hierarchically. However, this statement does not devalue the GoT constellation, as the canonical definition is rarely actualized (Sepulchre “La Constellation Transmédiatique,” Philipps, Gambarato “Transmedia”), and as transmedia around TV series are generally developed after the first season, once the audience is stabilized. What is most noticeable about GoT is the fact that the TV series has probably replaced the novels as the centre of the ensemble.Under the influence of Jenkins, research on transmedia has often come to be related to fan studies. In this work, he describes very active and connected users. Research in game studies also shows that gamers are creative and form communities (Berry 155-207). However, the majority of these studies focused on hardcore fans or hardcore gamers (Bourdaa; Chen; Davis; Jenkins; Peyron; Stein). Usual users are less studied, especially for such transmedia practices.Main Question and MethodologyDue to its configuration, and the wide spectrum of users’ different levels of involvement, the GoT constellation offers an occasion to confront two audiences and their practices. GoT transmedia clearly targets both fiction lovers and gamers. The success of the franchise has led to heavy consumption of transmedia elements, even by fans who had never approached transmedia before, and may allow us to move beyond the classical analysis. That’s why, in that preliminary research, by comparing TV series viewers in general with a quite specific part of them, ordinary gamers of the videogame GOT Ascent, we aim to evaluate transmedia use in the GOT community. The results on viewers are part of a broader research project on TV series and transmedia. The originality of this study focuses on ordinary viewers, not fans. The goal is to understand if they are familiar with transmedia, if they develop transmedia practices, and why. The paper is based on 52 semi-structured interviews conducted in 2012 (11) and 2013 (41). Consumers of fictional extensions of TV series and fans of TV series were selected. The respondents are around twenty years old, university students, white, mostly female (42 women, 10 men), and are not representative outside the case study. Therefore, the purpose of this first empirical sample was simply to access ordinary GOT viewers’ behaviours, and to elaborate an initial landscape of their use of different media in the same world.After that, we focused our analysis on one specific community, a subset of the GOT’s universe’s users, that is, players of the GoT Ascent videogame (we use “gamers” as synonym for “players” and “users”). Through this online participative observation, we try to analyse the players’ attitudes, and evaluate the nature of their involvement from a user perspective (Servais). Focusing on one specific medium in the GOT constellation should allow us to further flesh out the general panorama on transmedia, by exploring involvement in one particular device more deeply. Our purpose in that is to identify whether the players are transmedia users, and so GoT fans, or if they are firstly players. During a three month in-game ethnography, in June-August 2013, we played Aren Gorn, affiliated to House Tyrell, level 91, and member of “The Winter is Dark and Full of Terrors” Alliance (2500 members). Following an in-game ethnography (Boellstorff 123-134), we explored gamers’ playing attitudes inside the interface.The Users, TV Series, and TransmediaThe respondents usually do not know what transmedia is, even if a lot of them (36) practice it. Those who are completely unaware that a narrative world can be spread over several media are rare. Only ten of them engage in fan practices (cosplay, a kind of costuming community, fan-fiction, and fan-vidding, that is fans who write fiction or make remix videos set in the world they love), which tends to show that transmedia does not only concern fans.Most of the ordinary viewers are readers, as 23 of them cite books (True Blood, Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, Les Piliers de la Terre), one reads a recipe book (Plus Belle la Vie), and seven consume comics (The Walking Dead, Supernatural). They do not distinguish between novelisation (the novel adapted from a TV series) and the original book. Other media are also consumed, however a lot less: animation series, special episodes on the Internet, music, movies, websites (blogs, fictional websites), factual websites (about the story, the production, actors), fan-fiction, and cosplay.Transmedia does not seem to be a strong experience. Céline and Ioana respectively read the novels adapted from Plus Belle la Vie and Gossip Girl, but don’t like them. “It is written like a script … There’s no description, only the dialogues between characters” (Ioana). Lora watched some webisodes of Cougar Town but didn’t find them funny. Aurélie has followed the Twitter of Sookie Stackouse (True Blood) and Guilleaume D. sometimes consumes humoristic content on 9gag, but irregularly. “It’s not my thing” (Aurélie). The participants are even more critical of movies, especially the sequels of Sex and the City.That does not mean the respondents always reject transmedia components. First, they enjoy elements that are not supposed to belong to the world. These may be fan productions or contents they personally inject into the universe. Several have done research on the story’s topic: Alizée investigated mental disorders to understand United States of Tara; Guilleaume G. wandered around on Google Earth to explore Albuquerque (Breaking Bad); for Guilleaume D., Hugh Laurie’s music album is part of the character of Gregory House; Julie adores Peter Pan and, for her, Once Upon A Time, Finding Neverland, and Hook are part of the same universe. Four people particularly enjoy when the fictional characters’ couples are duplicated by real relationships between actors (which may explain all the excitement surrounding Kit Harrington and Rose Leslie’s real-life love story, paralleling their characters’ romance on GOT). If there is a transmedia production, it seems that there is also a kind of “transmedia reception,” as viewers connect heteroclite elements to build a coherent world of their own. Some respondents even develop a creative link to the world: writing fan-fiction, poetry, or building scale models (but that is not this paper’s topic, see Sepulchre “Les Constellations Narratives”, “Editorial”).A second element they appreciate is the GOT TV series. Approximately half of the respondents cite GoT (29/52). They are not fundamentally different from the other viewers except that more of them have fan practices (9 vs. 1), and a few more develop transmedia consumption (76% against 61%). To the very extent that there is consensus over the poor quality of the novels (in general), A Song of Ice and Fire seems to have seduced every respondent. Loic usually hates reading; his relatives have pointed out to him that he has read more with GoT than in his entire lifetime. Marie D. finds the novels so good that she stopped watching the TV series. Marine insists she generally reads fan-fiction because she hates the novelisations, but the GoT books are the only good ones. The novels apparently allow a deeper immersion into the world and that is the manifest benefit of consuming them. Guilleaume G. appreciates the more detailed descriptions. Céline, Florentin, Ioana, and Marine like to access the characters’ thoughts. Julie thinks she feels the emotions more deeply when she reads. Sometimes, the novels can change their opinions on a character. Emilie finds Sansa despicable in the TV series, but the books led her to understand her sensibility.Videogames & TransmediaThe vast majority of transmedia support from the GoT universe primarily targets “world lovers,” that is, users involved in media uses because they love the fantasy of the universe. However, only video games allow a personalized incarnation as a hero over a long term of time, and thus a customized active appropriation. This is in fact undoubtedly why the GoT universe’s transmedia galaxy has also been deployed in video games. GOT Ascent is a strategy game edited by Disruptor Beam, an American company specialising in TV games. Released in February 2013, the franchise attracted up to 9,000,000 players in 2014, but only 295,107 monthly active users. This significant difference between the accumulated number of players and those actually active (around 3 %) may well testify that those investing in this game are probably not a community of gamers.Combining role playing and strategy game, GoT Ascent is designed in a logic that deeply integrates the elements, not only from the TV series, but also from books and other transmedia extensions. In GoT Ascent, gamers play a small house affiliated to one of the main clans of Westeros. During the immersive game experience, the player participates in all the GoT stories from an insider’s point of view. The game follows the various GoT books, resulting in an extension whenever a new volume is published. The player interacts with others by PVE (Player versus Environment) or PVP (Player versus Player) alliances with a common chat and the possibility of sending goods to other members. With a fair general score (4,1 on 10), the game is evaluated weakly by the players (JeuxOnLine). Hence a large majority of them are probably not looking for that kind of experience.If we focus on the top players in GoT Ascent, likely representing those most invested, it is interesting to examine the names they choose. Indeed, that choice often reveals the player’s intention, either to refer to a gamer logic or the universe of GoT. During our research, we clearly distinguished two types of names, self-referential ones or those referring to the player’s general pseudonym. In concrete terms, the name is a declination of a pseudonym of more general avatars, or else refers to other video game worlds than GoT. In GoT Ascent, the second category of names, those very clearly anchored in the world of Martin, are clearly dominant.Is it possible to correlate the name chosen and the type of player? Can we affirm that people who choose a name not related to the GoT universe are players and that the others are GoT fans? Probably not obviously, but the consistency of a character’s name with the universe is, in the GoT case, very important for an immersive experience. The books’ author has carefully crafted his surnames and, in the game, assuming a name is therefore very clearly a symbolically important act in the desire to roleplay in that universe. Choosing one that is totally out of sync with the game world clearly means you are not there to immerse yourself in the spirit of GoT, but to play. In short, the first category is representative of the gamers, but the players are not restricted to those naming their avatar out of the world’s spirit.This intuition is confirmed by a review of the names related to the rank of the players. When we studied high-level players, we realized that most of them use humorous names, which are totally out of the mood of the GoT universe. Thus, in 2013, the first ranked player in terms of power was called Flatulence, a French term that is part of a humorous semantics. Yet this type of denomination is not limited to the first of the list. Out the top ten players, only two used plausible GoT names. However, as soon as one leaves the game’s elite’s sphere, the plausible names are quickly in the majority. There is a sharp opposition between the vast majority of players, who obviously try to match the world, and pure gamers.We found the same logic for the names of the Alliances, the virtual communities of players varying from a few to hundreds. Three Alliances have achieved the #1 rank in the game in the game’s first two years: Hear Me Roar (February 2013), Fire and Blood (January 2014), and Kong's Landing (September 2014). Two of those Alliances are of a more humoristic bent. However, an investigation into the 400 alliances demonstrates that fewer than 5 % have a clear humoristic signification. We might estimate that in GoT Ascent the large majority of players increase their immersive experience by choosing a GoT role play related Alliance name. We can conclude that they are mainly GoT fans playing the game, and that they seek to lend the world coherence. The high-level players are an exception. Inside GOT Ascent, the dominant culture remains connected to the GoT world.ConclusionA transmedia story is defined by its networked configuration, “worldmaking,” and users’ involvement. The GoT constellation is clearly a weak ensemble (Sepulchre, 2012). However, it has indeed developed on several platforms. Furthermore, the relationship between the novels and the TV series is quite unprecedented. Indeed, both elements are considered as qualitative, and the TV series has become the main entry for many fans. Thus, both of them acquire an equal authority.The GoT transmedia storyworld also unfolds a fictional world and depends on users’ activities, but in a peculiar way. If the viewers and gamers are analysed from fan or game studies perspectives, they appear to be weak users. Indeed, they do not seek new components; they are mainly readers and do not enjoy the transmedia experience; the players are not regular ones; and they are much less creative and humorous than high-level gamers.These weak practices have, however, one function: to prolong the pleasure of the fictional world, which is the third characteristic of transmedia. The players experiment with GoT Ascent by incarnating characters inserted into Alliances whose names may exist in the original world. This appears to be a clear attempt to become immersed in the universe. The ordinary viewers appreciate the deeper experience the novels allow. When they feed the world with unexpected elements, it is also to improve the world.Thus, transmedia appropriation by users is a reality, motivated by a taste for the universe, even if it is a weak consumption in comparison with the demanding, creative, and sometimes iconoclastic practices gamers and fans usually develop. It is obvious, in both fields, that they are new TV series fans (they quote mainly recent shows) and beginners in the world of games. For a significant part of them, GoT was probably their first time developing transmedia practices.However, GoT Ascent is not well evaluated by gamers and many of them do not repeat the experience (as the monthly number of gamers shows). Likewise, the ordinary viewers neglect the official transmedia components as too marketing oriented. The GoT novels are the exception proving the rule. They demonstrate that users are quite selective: they are not satisfied with weak elements. The question that this paper cannot answer is: was GoT a first experience? Will they persevere in the future? Yet, in this preliminary research, we have seen that studying ordinary users’ weak involvement (series viewers or gamers) is an interesting path in elaborating a theory of transmedia user’s activities, which takes the public’s diversity into account.ReferencesBerry, Vincent. L’Expérience Virtuelle: Jouer, Vivre, Apprendre Dans un Jeu Video. Rennes: UP Rennes, 2012.Boellstorff, Tom. “A Typology of Ethnographic Scales for Virtual Worlds.” Online Worlds: Convergence of the Real and the Virtual. Ed. William Sim Bainbridge. London: Springer, 2009.Bourdaa, Mélanie. “Taking a Break from All Your Worries: Battlestar Galactica et Les Nouvelles Pratiques Télévisuelles des Fans.” Questions de Communication 22 (2012) 2014. <http://journals.openedition.org/questionsdecommunication/6917>.Chen, Mark. Leet Noobs: The Life and Death of An Expert Player Group in World of Warcraft. New York: Peter Lang, 2012.Collective. Le Transmédia Dans Tous Ses États: Les Cahiers de Veille de la Fondation Télécom. Paris: Fondation Télécom, 2012. 29 Dec. 2017 <https://www.fondation-mines-telecom.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/2012-cahier-veille-transmedia.pdf\>.Davis, C.H. “Audience Value and Transmedia Products.” Media Innovations. Eds. T. Storsul and A. Krumsvik. Gothenburg: Nordicom, 2013. 179-190.Gambarato, Renira. “How to Analyze Transmedia Narratives?” Conference New Media: Changing Media Landscapes. Saint Petersburg, 2012. 2017 <http://prezi.com/fovz0jrlfsn0/how-to-analyze-transmedia-narratives>.Gambarato, Renira. “Transmedia Storytelling.” Serious Science, 2016. 2017 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thZnd_K8Vfs>.Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture. Where Old and New Media Collide. Updated ed. New York: New York UP, 2006.JeuxOnLine. “Game of Thrones Ascent.” 2013. <http://www.jeuxonline.info/jeu/Game_of_Thrones_Ascent>.Peyron, David. Culture Geek. Limoges: FYP Editions, 2013.Philipps, Andrea. A Creator’s Guide to Transmedia Storytelling: How to Captivate and Engage Audiences across Multiple Platforms. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2012.Saint-Gelais, Richard. Fictions Transfuges. La Transfictionnalité et Ses Enjeux. Paris: Seuil, 2011.Sepulchre, S. Le Transmédia Dans Tous Ses États: Les Cahiers de Veille de la Fondation Télécom. Paris: Fondation Télécom, 2012. 29 Dec. 2017 <https://www.fondation-mines-telecom.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/2012-cahier-veille-transmedia.pdf>.———. “La Constellation Transmédiatique de Breaking Bad: Analyse de la Complémentarité Trouvée entre la Télévision et Internet.” ESSACHESS-Journal for Communication 4.1 (2011). 29 Dec. 2017 <http://www.essachess.com/index.php/jcs/article/view/111>. ———. “Les Constellations Narratives: Que Font les Téléspectateurs des Adaptations Multimédiatiques des Séries Télévisées?” TV/Series 3 (2013). 29 Dec. 2017 <http://journals.openedition.org/tvseries/729>. ———. “Editorial.” Inter Pares: Revue Électronique de Jeunes Chercheurs en Sciences Humains et Sociales 6 (2016). 29 Dec. 2017 <https://epic.univ-lyon2.fr/medias/fichier/inter-pares-6-maquette-v8web_1510576660265-pdf>.Servais, Olivier. “Funerals in the “World of Warcraft”: Religion, Polemic, and Styles of Play in a Videogame Universe.” Social Compass 62.3 (2015): 362-378.Stein, Louisa Ellen, and Kristina Busse. Sherlock and Transmedia Fandom: Essays on the BBC series. Jefferson: McFarland, 2014.

Writing in the American Annals of the Deaf in 1931, Emil S. Ladner Jr, a Deaf high school student, predicted the invention of words on screen to facilitate access to “talkies”. He anticipated:Perhaps, in time, an invention will be perfected that will enable the deaf to hear the “talkies”, or an invention which will throw the words spoken directly under the screen as well as being spoken at the same time. (Ladner, cited in Downey Closed Captioning)This invention would eventually come to pass and be known as captions. Captions as we know them today have become widely available because of a complex interaction between technological change, volunteer effort, legislative activism, as well as increasing consumer demand. This began in the late 1950s when the technology to develop captions began to emerge. Almost immediately, volunteers began captioning and distributing both film and television in the US via schools for the deaf (Downey, Constructing Closed-Captioning in the Public Interest). Then, between the 1970s and 1990s Deaf activists and their allies began to campaign aggressively for the mandated provision of captions on television, leading eventually to the passing of the Television Decoder Circuitry Act in the US in 1990 (Ellis). This act decreed that any television with a screen greater than 13 inches must be designed/manufactured to be capable of displaying captions. The Act was replicated internationally, with countries such as Australia adopting the same requirements with their Australian standards regarding television sets imported into the country. As other papers in this issue demonstrate, this market ultimately led to the introduction of broadcasting requirements.Captions are also vital to the accessibility of videos in today’s online and streaming environment—captioning is listed as the highest priority in the definitive World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guideline’s (WCAG) 2.0 standard (W3C, “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0”). This recognition of the requirement for captions online is further reflected in legislation, from both the US 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) (2010) and from the Australian Human Rights Commission (2014).Television today is therefore much more freely available to a range of different groups. In addition to broadcast channels, captions are also increasingly available through streaming platforms such as Netflix and other subscription video on demand providers, as well as through user-generated video sites like YouTube. However, a clear discrepancy exists between guidelines, legislation and the industry’s approach. Guidelines such as the W3C are often resisted by industry until compliance is legislated.Historically, captions have been both unavailable (Ellcessor; Ellis) and inadequate (Ellis and Kent), and in many instances, they still are. For example, while the provision of captions in online video is viewed as a priority across international and domestic policies and frameworks, there is a stark contrast between the policy requirements and the practical implementation of these captions. This has led to the active development of a solution as part of an ongoing tradition of user-led development; user-generated captions. However, within disability studies, research around the agency of this activity—and the media savvy users facilitating it—has gone significantly underexplored.Agency of ActivityInformation sharing has featured heavily throughout visions of the Web—from Vannevar Bush’s 1945 notion of the memex (Bush), to the hacker ethic, to Zuckerberg’s motivations for creating Facebook in his dorm room in 2004 (Vogelstein)—resulting in a wide agency of activity on the Web. Running through this development of first the Internet and then the Web as a place for a variety of agents to share information has been the hackers’ ethic that sharing information is a powerful, positive good (Raymond 234), that information should be free (Levey), and that to achieve these goals will often involve working around intended information access protocols, sometimes illegally and normally anonymously. From the hacker culture comes the digerati, the elite of the digital world, web users who stand out by their contributions, success, or status in the development of digital technology. In the context of access to information for people with disabilities, we describe those who find these workarounds—providing access to information through mainstream online platforms that are not immediately apparent—as the disability digerati.An acknowledged mainstream member of the digerati, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, articulated a vision for the Web and its role in information sharing as inclusive of everyone:Worldwide, there are more than 750 million people with disabilities. As we move towards a highly connected world, it is critical that the Web be useable by anyone, regardless of individual capabilities and disabilities … The W3C [World Wide Web Consortium] is committed to removing accessibility barriers for all people with disabilities—including the deaf, blind, physically challenged, and cognitively or visually impaired. We plan to work aggressively with government, industry, and community leaders to establish and attain Web accessibility goals. (Berners-Lee)Berners-Lee’s utopian vision of a connected world where people freely shared information online has subsequently been embraced by many key individuals and groups. His emphasis on people with disabilities, however, is somewhat unique. While maintaining a focus on accessibility, in 2006 he shifted focus to who could actually contribute to this idea of accessibility when he suggested the idea of “community captioning” to video bloggers struggling with the notion of including captions on their videos:The video blogger posts his blog—and the web community provides the captions that help others. (Berners-Lee, cited in Outlaw)Here, Berners-Lee was addressing community captioning in the context of video blogging and user-generated content. However, the concept is equally significant for professionally created videos, and media savvy users can now also offer instructions to audiences about how to access captions and subtitles. This shift—from user-generated to user access—must be situated historically in the context of an evolving Web 2.0 and changing accessibility legislation and policy.In the initial accessibility requirements of the Web, there was little mention of captioning at all, primarily due to video being difficult to stream over a dial-up connection. This was reflected in the initial WCAG 1.0 standard (W3C, “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0”) in which there was no requirement for videos to be captioned. WCAG 2.0 went some way in addressing this, making captioning online video an essential Level A priority (W3C, “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0”). However, there were few tools that could actually be used to create captions, and little interest from emerging online video providers in making this a priority.As a result, the possibility of user-generated captions for video content began to be explored by both developers and users. One initial captioning tool that gained popularity was MAGpie, produced by the WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) (WGBH). While cumbersome by today’s standards, the arrival of MAGpie 2.0 in 2002 provided an affordable and professional captioning tool that allowed people to create captions for their own videos. However, at that point there was little opportunity to caption videos online, so the focus was more on captioning personal video collections offline. This changed with the launch of YouTube in 2005 and its later purchase by Google (CNET), leading to an explosion of user-generated video content online. However, while the introduction of YouTube closed captioned video support in 2006 ensured that captioned video content could be created (YouTube), the ability for users to create captions, save the output into one of the appropriate captioning file formats, upload the captions, and synchronise the captions to the video remained a difficult task.Improvements to the production and availability of user-generated captions arrived firstly through the launch of YouTube’s automated captions feature in 2009 (Google). This service meant that videos could be uploaded to YouTube and, if the user requested it, Google would caption the video within approximately 24 hours using its speech recognition software. While the introduction of this service was highly beneficial in terms of making captioning videos easier and ensuring that the timing of captions was accurate, the quality of captions ranged significantly. In essence, if the captions were not reviewed and errors not addressed, the automated captions were sometimes inaccurate to the point of hilarity (New Media Rock Stars). These inaccurate YouTube captions are colloquially described as craptions. A #nomorecraptions campaign was launched to address inaccurate YouTube captioning and call on YouTube to make improvements.The ability to create professional user-generated captions across a variety of platforms, including YouTube, arrived in 2010 with the launch of Amara Universal Subtitles (Amara). The Amara subtitle portal provides users with the opportunity to caption online videos, even if they are hosted by another service such as YouTube. The captioned file can be saved after its creation and then uploaded to the relevant video source if the user has access to the location of the video content. The arrival of Amara continues to provide ongoing benefits—it contains a professional captioning editing suite specifically catering for online video, the tool is free, and it can caption videos located on other websites. Furthermore, Amara offers the additional benefit of being able to address the issues of YouTube automated captions—users can benefit from the machine-generated captions of YouTube in relation to its timing, then download the captions for editing in Amara to fix the issues, then return the captions to the original video, saving a significant amount of time when captioning large amounts of video content. In recent years Google have also endeavoured to simplify the captioning process for YouTube users by including its own captioning editors, but these tools are generally considered inferior to Amara (Media Access Australia).Similarly, several crowdsourced caption services such as Viki (https://www.viki.com/community) have emerged to facilitate the provision of captions. However, most of these crowdsourcing captioning services can’t tap into commercial products instead offering a service for people that have a video they’ve created, or one that already exists on YouTube. While Viki was highlighted as a useful platform in protests regarding Netflix’s lack of captions in 2009, commercial entertainment providers still have a responsibility to make improvements to their captioning. As we discuss in the next section, people have resorted extreme measures to hack Netflix to access the captions they need. While the ability for people to publish captions on user-generated content has improved significantly, there is still a notable lack of captions for professionally developed videos, movies, and television shows available online.User-Generated Netflix CaptionsIn recent years there has been a worldwide explosion of subscription video on demand service providers. Netflix epitomises the trend. As such, for people with disabilities, there has been significant focus on the availability of captions on these services (see Ellcessor, Ellis and Kent). Netflix, as the current leading provider of subscription video entertainment in both the US and with a large market shares in other countries, has been at the centre of these discussions. While Netflix offers a comprehensive range of captioned video on its service today, there are still videos that do not have captions, particularly in non-English regions. As a result, users have endeavoured to produce user-generated captions for personal use and to find workarounds to access these through the Netflix system. This has been achieved with some success.There are a number of ways in which captions or subtitles can be added to Netflix video content to improve its accessibility for individual users. An early guide in a 2011 blog post (Emil’s Celebrations) identified that when using the Netflix player using the Silverlight plug-in, it is possible to access a hidden menu which allows a subtitle file in the DFXP format to be uploaded to Netflix for playback. However, this does not appear to provide this file to all Netflix users, and is generally referred to as a “soft upload” just for the individual user. Another method to do this, generally credited as the “easiest” way, is to find a SRT file that already exists for the video title, edit the timing to line up with Netflix, use a third-party tool to convert it to the DFXP format, and then upload it using the hidden menu that requires a specific keyboard command to access. While this may be considered uncomplicated for some, there is still a certain amount of technical knowledge required to complete this action, and it is likely to be too complex for many users.However, constant developments in technology are assisting with making access to captions an easier process. Recently, Cosmin Vasile highlighted that the ability to add captions and subtitle tracks can still be uploaded providing that the older Silverlight plug-in is used for playback instead of the new HTML5 player. Others add that it is technically possible to access the hidden feature in an HTML5 player, but an additional Super Netflix browser plug-in is required (Sommergirl). Further, while the procedure for uploading the file remains similar to the approach discussed earlier, there are some additional tools available online such as Subflicks which can provide a simple online conversion of the more common SRT file format to the DFXP format (Subflicks). However, while the ability to use a personal caption or subtitle file remains, the most common way to watch Netflix videos with alternative caption or subtitle files is through the use of the Smartflix service (Smartflix). Unlike other ad-hoc solutions, this service provides a simplified mechanism to bring alternative caption files to Netflix. The Smartflix website states that the service “automatically downloads and displays subtitles in your language for all titles using the largest online subtitles database.”This automatic download and sharing of captions online—known as fansubbing—facilitates easy access for all. For example, blog posts suggest that technology such as this creates important access opportunities for people who are deaf and hard of hearing. Nevertheless, they can be met with suspicion by copyright holders. For example, a recent case in the Netherlands ruled fansubbers were engaging in illegal activities and were encouraging people to download pirated videos. While the fansubbers, like the hackers discussed earlier, argued they were acting in the greater good, the Dutch antipiracy association (BREIN) maintained that subtitles are mainly used by people downloading pirated media and sought to outlaw the manufacture and distribution of third party captions (Anthony). The fansubbers took the issue to court in order to seek clarity about whether copyright holders can reserve exclusive rights to create and distribute subtitles. However, in a ruling against the fansubbers, the court agreed with BREIN that fansubbing violated copyright and incited piracy. What impact this ruling will have on the practice of user-generated captioning online, particularly around popular sites such as Netflix, is hard to predict; however, for people with disabilities who were relying on fansubbing to access content, it is of significant concern that the contention that the main users of user-generated subtitles (or captions) are engaging in illegal activities was so readily accepted.ConclusionThis article has focused on user-generated captions and the types of platforms available to create these. It has shown that this desire to provide access, to set the information free, has resulted in the disability digerati finding workarounds to allow users to upload their own captions and make content accessible. Indeed, the Internet and then the Web as a place for information sharing is evident throughout this history of user-generated captioning online, from Berner-Lee’s conception of community captioning, to Emil and Vasile’s instructions to a Netflix community of captioners, to finally a group of fansubbers who took BRIEN to court and lost. Therefore, while we have conceived of the disability digerati as a conflation of the hacker and the acknowledged digital influencer, these two positions may again part ways, and the disability digerati may—like the hackers before them—be driven underground.Captioned entertainment content offers a powerful, even vital, mode of inclusion for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Yet, despite Berners-Lee’s urging that everything online be made accessible to people with all sorts of disabilities, captions were not addressed in the first iteration of the WCAG, perhaps reflecting the limitations of the speed of the medium itself. This continues to be the case today—although it is no longer difficult to stream video online, and Netflix have reached global dominance, audiences who require captions still find themselves fighting for access. Thus, in this sense, user-generated captions remain an important—yet seemingly technologically and legislatively complicated—avenue for inclusion.ReferencesAnthony, Sebastian. “Fan-Made Subtitles for TV Shows and Movies Are Illegal, Court Rules.” Arstechnica UK (2017). 21 May 2017 <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/fan-made-subtitles-for-tv-shows-and-movies-are-illegal/>.Amara. “Amara Makes Video Globally Accessible.” Amara (2010). 25 Apr. 2017. <https://amara.org/en/ 2010>.Berners-Lee, Tim. “World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Launches International Web Accessibility Initiative.” Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) (1997). 19 June 2010. <http://www.w3.org/Press/WAI-Launch.html>.Bush, Vannevar. “As We May Think.” The Atlantic (1945). 26 June 2010 <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/1969/12/as-we-may-think/3881/>.CNET. “YouTube Turns 10: The Video Site That Went Viral.” CNET (2015). 24 Apr. 2017 <https://www.cnet.com/news/youtube-turns-10-the-video-site-that-went-viral/>.Downey, Greg. 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Cambridge: MIT P, 1996.Smartflix. “Smartflix: Supercharge Your Netflix.” 2017. 9 Apr. 2017 <https://www.smartflix.io/>.Sommergirl. “[All] Adding Subtitles in a Different Language?” 2016. 9 Apr. 2017 <https://www.reddit.com/r/netflix/comments/32l8ob/all_adding_subtitles_in_a_different_language/>.Subflicks. “Subflicks V2.0.0.” 2017. 9 Apr. 2017 <http://subflicks.com/>.Vasile, Cosmin. “Netflix Has Just Informed Us That Its Movie Streaming Service Is Now Available in Just About Every Country That Matters Financially, Aside from China, of Course.” 2016. 9 Apr. 2017 <http://news.softpedia.com/news/how-to-add-custom-subtitles-to-netflix-498579.shtml>.Vogelstein, Fred. “The Wired Interview: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.” Wired Magazine (2009). 20 Jun. 2010 <http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/06/mark-zuckerberg-speaks/>.W3C. “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.” W3C Recommendation (1999). 25 Jun. 2010 <http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/>.———. “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.” 11 Dec. 2008. 21 Aug. 2013 <http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/>.WGBH. “Magpie 2.0—Free, Do-It-Yourself Access Authoring Tool for Digital Multimedia Released by WGBH.” 2002. 25 Apr. 2017 <http://ncam.wgbh.org/about/news/pr_05072002>.YouTube. “Finally, Caption Video Playback.” 2006. 24 Apr. 2017 <http://googlevideo.blogspot.com.au/2006/09/finally-caption-playback.html>.

In the HBO series The Sopranos, Tony and his friends use “prosthetic memories” to anchor their ethnic and criminal identities. Prosthetic memories were theorised by Alison Landsberg in her book Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American Remembrance in the Age of Mass Culture. She argues that prosthetic memories are memories acquired through the mass media and do not come from a person’s lived experience in any sense (Landsberg 20). In this article, I will outline how The Sopranos television show and its characters interact with prosthetic memories. Extending Christopher Kocela’s work on The Sopranos and white ethnicities, I will show how characters use prosthetic memories to define their ethnicity while the show itself knowingly plays with this to provide comedic and critical commentary about the influence of gangster stereotypes. According to Landsberg, prosthetic memories are powerful memories of historical events or narratives that an individual was not present for. They are typically formed at the "interface between a personal and historical narrative about the past at an experiential site such as a movie theatre or museum" (2). It is at such a moment that a person can suture themselves into a larger history. Consequently, these memories do not just enhance an individual’s apprehension of a historical event. Rather, they create a deeply felt personal memory of a past event through which they did not live (Landsberg 4). Prosthetic memories are largely made available through the technologies of mass culture such as film, television and experiential places like museums. Their accessibility helps to differentiate them from other cultural strategies for passing on memories to future generations. Other strategies have typically been rooted in the cultural or racial status of an individual (Landsberg 22). In addition, Landsberg asserts that the successfulness of mnemotechnic rituals like the Jewish Passover Seder is dependent on ethnicity (26). Similarly, Walter Benn Michaels concludes that these rituals can only be effective if the individual has “some prior assumption of identity between you and them and this assumption is often racial” (680). Contrastingly, the perpetuation of prosthetic memories through mass media makes them widely accessible across racial lines. According to Landsberg, they are not “naturally- ethnically, racially or biologically- one’s intended inheritance” (26). Prosthetic memories introduce the possibility that memories can be acquired by anyone. The technologies of mass culture make these memories portable and as such, challenges the assumption that memory is “in anyway essential or organically grounded or the private property of a specific ethnic or racial group” (27). In The Sopranos, most characters are third or fourth generation Italian immigrants. Much like for many ‘real’ Italian migrants, time has severed familial connections to their homeland (see Landsberg 49-55). Landsberg suggests that immigrants initially became Americanised in order to escape persecution and being labelled as “other” (51). This meant that ethnically exclusive mnemotechnic rituals were not preserved for subsequent generations of immigrants. In order to sustain an ethnic identity, immigrants (and the characters in The Sopranos) have been forced to turn to more accessible tools like prosthetic memories. Christopher Kocela’s analysis of Italian-Americanness in The Sopranos, argues that characters maintain an Italian American ethnicity while still racially identifying as white. According to Colin Webster “white ethnicity” can be best exemplified through the long tradition of European immigration to America (295). With the influx of immigrants, there was a codification of the idea that “some whites are ‘whiter’ than others” (Webster 297). European working-class immigrants struggled to be afforded the same white “privileges” and membership to the white race. Instead, they were defined as being members of “other” white ethnicities. Roediger argued that such a denial of whiteness pushed European immigrants to insist on their own whiteness by defining themselves against other ethnic minorities like African Americans (8). Between 1890 and 1945, eventual assimilation saw white ethnicities become “fully white” (Roediger 8). Webster argues that: “In this sense, whiteness is nearly always salvageable in a way that black, Mexican, Asian, and Native American ethnicity is not (sic)” (Webster 297). In a similar vein, Kocela suggests that the assimilated characters in The Sopranos benefit from their white racial status while still maintaining an Italian ethnicity. This celebration of ethnic difference by Tony and his friends can serve as a smokescreen for the silent maintenance of whiteness (Kocela 14). Kocela suggests that the show critiques these types of responses that characters have to their ethnicity, stating that "we do not learn from The Sopranos the language of ethnic sons deprived of their Italian godfathers, but the language of racial misrecognition spoken by sons whose lost white fathers were never really their own" (16).Kocela’s article provides a useful discussion about the relationship that characters in The Sopranos have with their ethnicity. This article extends this discussion by showing how prosthetic memories and characters’ understanding of mass media are a crucial element in how such ethnic identities are formed. This will lead to a discussion about how The Sopranos comments on and treats these adopted stereotypes. “What do poor Italian-immigrants have to do with you?”: How Characters Interact with Prosthetic MemoriesCharacters in The Sopranos heavily rely upon stereotypes from gangster films to perform their version of Italian Americanness. A reliance on prosthetic memories from such films leads to the manifestation of violence being intertwined with the characters’ ethnic identities. Brian Faucette has discussed the inherent link between violence and gangster films from the 1930s-60s. He claims that “it was violence that enabled the upward mobility of these figures” (76). It is almost impossible to separate violence from the gangster films referenced in The Sopranos. As such, violence becomes part of the ritualistic ways prosthetic memories are created. This is evident in the pilot episode of The Sopranos when Christopher performs his first hit (kill). In the scene, he shoots rival gang member, Emil, in the back of the head at Satriales Pork Store. Before the hit, the pair are standing close together in front of a pinboard collage of “classic” Italian movie gangsters. As they both walk away in opposite directions the camera pulls out diagonally to follow Christopher. Throughout the duration of the shot, the collage is always placed behind Christopher. Finally, when the pan stops, Christopher is positioned in the foreground, with the collage behind him to the right. The placement of the collage gives it a front row seat to the ensuing murder while serving as a kind of script for it. It is not enough for Christopher to simply kill Emil, rather it is important that it is done in the presence of his idols in order to ensure his enhanced identification with them. Moreover, for Christopher, being an Italian American gangster and violence are inseparable. He must perform acts of extreme violence in order to suture himself into a larger, stereotypical narrative, that equates Italian-Americanness with the mafia. Through Landsberg’s theory, it is possible to see the intertwined relationship between performances of Italian-Americanness and violence. To enact their version of Italian-Americanism, characters follow the script of masculine-violence inherent to gangster films. As well as tools to perform Italian American identities, prosthetic memories can be used by characters to deny their whiteness. Kocela argues that Tony can deny or affirm his whiteness, depending on the situation. According to Kocela, Tony’s economic success is intrinsically linked to his racial status as a white man (16). However, this is not a view shared by characters in the show. In the episode From Where to Eternity Dr. Melfi asks Tony how he justifies his criminal lifestyle: Tony: When America opened the floodgates and let all us Italians in, what do you think they were doing it for? ... The Carnegies and the Rockefellers, they needed worker bees and there we were. But some of us didn't want to swarm around their hive and lose who we were. We wanted to stay Italian and preserve the things that meant something to us: honor, and family, and loyalty. ... Now we weren't educated like the Americans, but we had the balls to take what we wanted. And those other fucks, the J.P. Morgans, they were crooks and killers too, but that was the business, right? The American way.Dr. Melfi: That might all be true. But what do poor Italian immigrants have to do with you and what happens every morning when you step out of bed?Kocela describes Tony’s response as a “textbook recitation of the two-family myth of Italian-American identity in which criminal activities are justified in a need to resist assimilation” (28). It is evident that for Tony, being Italian American is defined by being ethnically different. To admit that whiteness contributes to his economic success would undermine the justification he gives for his criminal lifestyle and his self-perceived status as an Italian American. Despite this, Melfi’s statement rings true. The experience of “poor Italian immigrants” does not affect Tony’s daily lifestyle. Characters in The Sopranos do not face the same oppression and discrimination as first-generation migrants (Kocela 28). After decades of assimilation, Tony and his friends turn to the narratives of discrimination and ethnic difference present in gangster films. This is exemplified through Tony’s identification with Vito Corleone from The Godfather. Vito exemplifies Tony’s notion of Italian Americanism. He was a poor immigrant that turned to criminality to protect the Italian-American community and their way of life. Vito is also connected to Italy in a way that Tony admires. When Paulie asks Tony what his favourite scene from The Godfather is he responds with: Don Ciccio’s Villa, when Vito goes back to Sicily, the crickets, the great old house. Maybe it’s because I’m going over there, ya know? Gangster films and representations of Italian-Americanness often deliberately differentiate Italian families from “regular” white people (D’Acierno 566). According to D’Acierno, gangster narratives often involve two types of Italian families, one that has been left powerless by its assimilation to American culture and another that has resisted this through organised crime (D’Acierno 567). Tony and his friends tap into these narratives in their attempt to create prosthetic memories that differentiate their ethnicity and ultimately draw attention away from the whiteness which silently benefits them.The “inauthenticity” of these prosthetic memories is probably most pronounced in the episode Commendatori when Tony, Christopher and Paulie visit Italy. The trip shatters the expectations that the characters had of their homeland and sheds light on some of their delusions about what it means to be Italian. Paulie expects to love Italy and be greeted with open arms by the locals. Unfortunately, he dislikes it all because it is too foreign for him. At the banquet, Paulie finds the authentic Italian octopus uneatable and instead orders “spaghetti and gravy.” He is also unable to use the bathrooms because he is so used to American toilets. When at a local café he tries to initiate conversation with some local men using broken Italian. Even though they hear him, the group ignores him. Despite all this Paulie, pretends that it was a great trip:Big Pussy: So how was it?Paulie: Fabulous, I felt right at home… I feel sorry for anyone who hasn’t been … especially any Italian. The prosthetic memories that defined these characters’ perceptions of Italy are based on the American media’s portrayal of Italy. Commendatori thus exposes the differences between what is “authentically Italian” and the prosthetic memories about Italy generated by American gangster films. By the end of the episode it has become clear that these “inauthentic” prosthetic memories have forged an entirely different, hybrid ethnic identity.“Louis Brasi sleeps with the fishes”: How The Sopranos Treats Prosthetic MemoriesIntertextuality is an important way through which the audience can understand how The Sopranos treats prosthetic memories. The prosthetic memories generated by characters in The Sopranos are heavily based on stereotypes of Italian Americans. Papaleo states that the Italian stereotype is “composed of overreactions: after bowing, smiling and being funny, the Italian loses control” (93). Mafia films are crucial in defining the identity of Tony and his friends, and David Pattie suggests that they are a “symbolic framework within which Tony, Paulie, Christopher and Silvio attempt to find meaning and justification for their lives” (137). In a similar way, the audience is invited to use these same films as a frame for watching The Sopranos itself. Mafia stereotypes are one of the dominant ways that depict Italian Americans on screen. According to Larke-Walsh, this has perpetuated the belief that crime and Italian-Americanness are synonymous with each other (226). The show is obsessively referential and relies on the viewer’s knowledge of these films for much of its effect. Pattie describes how such use of intertextuality can be explained: "[there are] two ways of looking at self-referential programs: one in which readings of other media texts can be contained first of all within the film or program in which they occur; and a more covert type of referential work, which relies almost exclusively on the audience’s detailed, constantly-updated cultural intelligence" (137). The Sopranos operates on both levels as references that are simultaneously textual and meta-textual. This is evident through the way the show treats The Godfather films. They are by far the most frequently mentioned ones (Golden 95). According to Chris Messenger, the central link between the two is the acknowledgement that “America itself has been totally colonised by The Godfather” (Messenger 95). The Godfather is an urtext that frames how audiences are invited to view the show. As such, The Sopranos invites the viewer to use the Godfather as a lens to uncover extra layers of meaning. For example, The Sopranos uses the misguided ways in which its characters have taken on stereotypes from The Godfather as a source of humour. The series plays on the fact that characters will allow prosthetic memories derived from gangster films to dictate their behaviour. In the pilot episode, Christopher calls “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero to help him dispose of a body. Christopher informs Pussy that it’s his plan to leave the body at a garbage stop to be discovered by the rival Czechoslovakians. Christopher hoped this would emulate the “Luca Brasi situation” from The Godfather and intimidate the Czechoslovakians. When he explains this to Pussy, they have the following exchange. Pussy: The Kolar uncle is gonna find a kid dead on one of his bins and get on our fuckin’ business… no way!Christopher: Louis Brasi sleeps with the fishes.Pussy: Luca Brasi… Luca! There are differences Christopher… okay… from the Luca Brasi situation and this. Look, the Kolar’s know a kid is dead, it hardens their position... plus now the cops are lookin’ for a fuckin’ murderer!To members of the audience who are familiar with The Godfather, it immediately becomes clear that Christopher is comically misguided. In the Godfather, Luca Brasi was murdered because he was caught trying to infiltrate a powerful rival organisation. Fish wrapped in his bullet-proof vest were then sent back to the Corleones in order to notify them that their plan had been foiled (“Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes”). The “Luca Brasi situation” was a calculated and strategic move whereas Christopher’s situation amounts to a seemingly random, unauthorised killing. This sequence in The Sopranos uses this comparison for comedic effect and plays on the stereotype that all Italian Americans are mafioso and that all mafia behaviour is interchangeable. The symbolic language of the “Luca Brasi” scene is contrasted with explicit shots of a slumped, lifeless body. These shots are a source of macabre humour. The audience is invited to laugh at the contrast between the subtle, thoughtful nature of the Luca Brasi situation and the brash violence of Christopher’s own predicament. Through this comedic situation, The Sopranos critiques Christopher’s aspiration to be a godfather-esque gangster by showing his incompetence. Christopher’s misreading of the situation is further emphasised by his mistakenly referring to Luca Brasi as “Louis”. After Pussy says: “There are differences… from the Luca Brasi situation and this”, the dialogue pauses and the scene cuts to an immediate close up of Emil’s body falling to the side. This illustrates that part of the joke is that characters are willing to allow prosthetic memories derived from gangster films to dictate their behaviour, no matter how inappropriate. Therefore, Christopher is willing to refer to a scene from the Godfather that fails to account for the context of a situation without even consulting the knowledge of Big Pussy. This leads to a larger critique of the ways in which films like The Godfather are presented as a script for all Italian Americans to follow. Nevertheless, The Sopranos still has a role in perpetuating these same stereotypes. Tomasulo has argued that "despite its use of postclassical generic, narrative aesthetic devices, and its creation by an Italian American, The Sopranos relies heavily on demeaning tropes of ethnicity, class, sexuality and gender" (206). This results in a perpetuation of negative stereotypes about working class Italian Americans that affirm old Hollywood clichés. While The Sopranos has tried to transcend this through complex characterisation, irony and universalisation, Tomasulo asserts that most audiences “take The Sopranos as straight - that is a raw unvarnished anthropology of Americans of Italian descent” (206). The origin of characters’ anti-social personalities seems to stem directly from their ethnicity and their being Italian appears to constitute an explanation for their behaviour. In his article Kocela discusses the complicated relationship that characters have with their white ethnicity. Through an application of Landsberg’s theory it is possible to understand how these ethnicities are initially formed and how they continue to circulate. In response to assimilation, characters in The Sopranos have turned to mass media to generate prosthetic memories of their ethnic heritage. These memories generally originate in classic gangster films. They are used by characters in The Sopranos to deny their whiteness and justify their criminality. The Sopranos itself comments on the complex ways that characters interpret gangster film stereotypes for both comedic and critical commentary. In the epilogue of her book, Landsberg asks: “How can we be sure the politics inspired by prosthetic memories are progressive and ethical?” Prosthetic memories generated by gangster texts are almost inherently problematic. Scholars have criticised the hyper-aggressive masculinity and regressive gender roles that are rampant throughout the genre (Larke-Walsh 226). For Tony and his friends, these problematic gender politics have helped justify their criminal lifestyle and valorised violence as part of ethnic performance. Similarly, these stereotypes are not always circulated critically and are at times perpetuated for audience enjoyment. AcknowledgmentI would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Michelle Phillipov for providing constructive feedback on earlier drafts. References“Commendatori.” The Sopranos: The Complete Second Season. Writ. David Chase. Dir. Tim Van Patten. HBO, 2000. DVD.Coppola, Francis, and Mario Puzo. The Godfather. Hollywood, CA: Paramount Home Video, 1972.“D-Girl.” The Sopranos: The Complete Second Season. Writ. Todd A. Kessler. Dir. Allen Coulter. HBO, 2000. DVD.D'Acierno, Pellegrino. “Cinema Paradiso.” The Italian American Heritage: A Companion to Literature and Arts. New York: Garland, 1999. 563-690.Faucette, Brian. "Interrogations of Masculinity: Violence and the Retro-Gangster Cycle of the 60s." Atenea 28.1 (2008): 75-85.“From Where to Eternity.” The Sopranos: The Complete Second Season. Writ. Michael Imperioli. Dir. Henry Bronchtein. HBO, 2000. DVD. Golden, Cameron. "You're Annette Bening? Dreams and Hollywood Subtext in The Sopranos." Lavery, David. Reading The Sopranos: Hit TV from H.B.O. London: I.B. Tauris, 2006. 91-103.Kocela, Christopher. "Unmade Men: The Sopranos after Whiteness." Postmodern Culture 15.2 (2005). <http://pmc.iath.virginia.edu/issue.105/15.2kocela.html>.Landsberg, Alison. Prosthetic Memories: The Transformation of American Rememberance in the Age of Mass Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.Messenger, Christopher. Godfather and American Culture: How the Corleones Became Our Gang. New York: State University of New York Press, 2002.Michaels, Walter Ben. "Race into Culture: A Critical Geneology of Cultural Identity." Critical Inquiry 18.4 (1992): 655-85.Larke-Walsh, George. Screening the Mafia: Masculinity, Ethnicity and Mobsters from The Godfather to The Sopranos. Jefferson: McFarland, 2010.Papaleo, Joseph. "Ethnic Images and Ethnic Fate: The Media Image of Italian Americans." Ethnic Images in American Film and Television (1978): 44-95.Pattie, David. "Mobbed Up: The Sopranos and the Modern Gangster Film." Lavery, David. This Thing of Ours: Investigating The Sopranos. New York: Wallflower Press, 2002. 137-152.Roediger, D.R. The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class. London: Verso, 2007. Thorburn, D. "The Sopranos." In The Essential H.B.O Reader, eds. G. Edgerton and J. Jones. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2008. 61-70.Tomasulo, Frank. "The Guinea as Tragic Hero: The Complex Representation of Italian Americans." In The Essential Sopranos Reader, eds. David Lavery, Douglas Howard, and Paul Levinson. Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2011. 196-207.“The Sopranos.” The Sopranos: The Complete First Season. Writ. David Chase. Dir. David Chase. HBO, 1999. DVD. “Walk like a Man.” The Sopranos: The Complete Sixth Season. Writ. Terence Winter. Dir. Terence Winter. HBO, 2007. DVD. Webster, Colin. "Marginalized White Ethnicity, Race and Crime." Theoretical Criminology 12 (2008): 293-312.

IntroductionIn late 2016, I undertook a short-term, three-month project to share some of my research through my Instagram account using the categorising hashtag #AustralianBeachspace. Much of this work emerged from my PhD thesis, which is being published in journal articles, but has yet to be published in any accessible or overarching way. I wanted to experiment with the process of using a visual social media tool for research dissemination. I felt that Instagram’s ability to combine text and image allowed for an aesthetically interesting way to curate this particular research project. My research is concerned with representations of the Australian beach, and thus the visual, image-based focus of Instagram seemed ideal. In this article, I briefly examine some of the existing research around academic practices of research dissemination, social media use, and the emerging research around Instagram itself. I then will examine my own experience of using Instagram as a tool for depicting curated, aesthetically-driven, research dissemination and reflect whether this use of Instagram is effective for representing and disseminating research. Research DisseminationResearchers, especially those backed by public funding, are always bound by the necessity of sharing the findings and transferring the knowledge gained during the research process. Research metrics are linked to workload allocations and promotion pathways for university researchers, providing clear motivation to maintain an active research presence. For most academics, the traditional research dissemination strategies involve academic publications: peer-reviewed scholarly books and journal articles.For academics working within a higher education policy climate that centres on measuring impact and engagement, peer-reviewed publications remain the gold standard. There are indicators, however, that research dissemination strategies may need to include methods for targeting non-academic outputs. Gunn and Mintrom (21), in their recent research, “anticipate that governments will increasingly question the value of publicly funded research and seek to evaluate research impact”. And this process, they argue, is not without challenges. Education Minister Simon Birmingham supports their claim by suggesting the Turnbull Government is looking to find methods for more meaningful ways of evaluating value in higher education research outcomes, “rather than only allocating funding to researchers who spend their time trying to get published in journals” (para 5).It therefore makes sense that academics are investigating ways of using social media as a way of broadening their research dissemination, despite the fact social media metrics do not yet count towards traditional citations within the university sector.Research Dissemination via Social MediaThere has been an established practice of researchers using social media, especially blogging (Kirkup) and Twitter, as ways of sharing information about their current projects, their findings, their most recent publications, or to connect with colleagues. Gruzd, Staves, and Wilk (2348) investigated social media use by academics, suggesting “scholars are turning to social media tools professionally because they are more convenient for making new connections with peers, collaboration, and research dissemination”. It is possible to see social media functioning as a new way of representing research – playing an important role in the shaping and developing of ideas, sharing those ideas, and functioning as a dissemination tool after the research has concluded.To provide context for the use of social media in research, this section briefly covers blogging and Twitter, two methods considered somewhat separated from university frameworks, and also professional platforms, such as Academia.edu and The Conversation.Perhaps the tool that has the most history in providing another avenue for academics to share their work is academic blogging. Blogging is considered an avenue that allows for discussion of topics prior to publication (Bukvova, 4; Powell, Jacob, and Chapman, 273), and often uses a more conversational tone than academic publishing. It provides opportunity to share research in long form to an open, online audience. Academic blogs have also become significant parts of online academic communities, such as the highly successful blog, The Thesis Whisperer, targeted for research students. However, many researchers in this space note the stigma attached to blogging (and other forms of social media) as useless or trivial; for instance, in Gruzd, Staves, and Wilk’s survey of academic users of social media, an overwhelming majority of respondents suggested that institutions do not recognise these activities (2343). Because blogging is not counted in publication metrics, it is possible to dismiss this type of activity as unnecessary.Twitter has garnered attention within the academic context because of its proliferation in conference engagement and linking citation practices of scholars (Marht, Weller, and Peters, 401–406). Twitter’s platform lends itself as a place to share citations of recently published material and a way of connecting with academic peers in an informal, yet meaningful way. Veletsianos has undertaken an analysis of academic Twitter practices, and there is a rise in popularity of “Tweetable Abstracts” (Else), or the practice of refining academic abstracts into a shareable Tweet format. According to Powell, Jacob, and Chapman (272), new media (including both Twitter and the academic blog) offer opportunities to engage with an increasingly Internet-literate society in a way that is perhaps more meaningful and certainly more accessible than traditional academic journals. Like blogging, the use of Twitter within the active research phase and pre-publication, means the platform can both represent and disseminate new ideas and research findings.Both academic blogs and Twitter are widely accessible and can be read by Internet users beyond academia. It appears likely, however, that many blogs and academic Twitter profiles are still accessed and consumed primarily by academic audiences. This is more obvious in the increasingly popular specific academic social media platforms such as ResearchGate or Academia.edu.These websites are providing more targeted, niche communication and sharing channels for scholars working in higher education globally, and their use appears to be regularly encouraged by institutions. These sites attempt to mediate between open access and copyright in academic publishing, encouraging users to upload full-text documents of their publications as a means of generating more attention and citations (Academia.edu cites Niyazov et al’s study that suggests articles posted to the site had improved citation counts). ResearchGate and Academia.edu function primarily as article repositories, albeit with added social networking opportunities that differentiate them from more traditional university repositories.In comparison, the success of the online platform The Conversation, with its tagline “Academic rigour, journalistic flair”, shows the growing enthusiasm and importance of engaging with more public facing outlets to share forms of academic writing. Many researchers are using The Conversation as a way of sharing their research findings through more accessible, shorter articles designed for the general public; these articles regularly link to the traditional academic publications as well.Research dissemination, and how the uptake of online social networks is changing individual and institution-wide practices, is a continually expanding area of research. It is apparent that while The Conversation has been widely accepted and utilised as a tool of research dissemination, there is still some uncertainty about using social media as representing or disseminating findings and ideas because of the lack of impact metrics. This is perhaps even more notable in regards to Instagram, a platform that has received comparatively little discussion in academic research more broadly.Instagram as Social MediaInstagram is a photo sharing application that launched in 2010 and has seen significant uptake by users in that time, reaching 700 million monthly active users as of April 2017 (Instagram “700 Million”). Recent additions to the service, such as the “Snapchat clone” Instagram Stories, appear to have helped boost growth (Constine, para 4). Instagram then is a major player in the social media user market, and the emergence of academic research into the platform reflect this. Early investigations include Manikonda, Hu and Kambhampati’s analysis social networks, demographics, and activities of users in which they identified some clear differences in usage compared to Flickr (another photo-sharing network) and Twitter (5). Hochman and Manovich and Hochman and Schwartz examined what information visualisations generated from Instagram images can reveal about the “visual rhythms” of geographical locations such as New York City.To provide context for the use of Instagram as a way of disseminating research through a more curated, visual approach, this section will examine professional uses of Instagram, the role of Influencers, and some of the functionalities of the platform.Instagram is now a platform that caters for both personal and professional accounts. The user-interface allows for a streamlined and easily navigable process from taking a photo, adding filters or effects, and sharing the photo instantly. The platform has developed to include web-based access to complement the mobile application, and has also introduced Instagram Business accounts, which provide “real-time metrics”, “insights into your followers”, and the ability to “add information about your company” (Instagram “Instagram Business”). This also comes with the option to pay for advertisements.Despite its name, many users of Instagram, especially those with profiles that are professional or business orientated, do not only produce instant content. While the features of Instagram, such as geotagging, timestamping, and the ability to use the camera from within the app, lend themselves to users capturing their everyday experience in the moment, more and more content is becoming carefully curated. As such, some accounts are blurring the line between personal and professional, becoming what Crystal Abidin calls Influencers, identifying the practice as when microcelebrities are able to use the “textual and visual narration of their personal, everyday lives” to generate paid advertorials (86). One effect of this, as Abidin investigates in the context of Singapore and the #OOTD (Outfit of the Day) hashtag, is the way “everyday Instagram users are beginning to model themselves after Influences” and therefore generate advertising content “that is not only encouraged by Influences and brands but also publicly utilised without remuneration” (87). Instagram, then, can be a very powerful platform for businesses to reach wide audiences, and the flexibility of caption length and visual content provides a type of viral curation practice as in the case of the #OOTD hashtag following.Considering the focus of my #AustralianBeachspace project on Australian beaches, many of the Instagram accounts and hashtags I encountered and engaged with were tourism related. Although this will be discussed in more detail below, it is worth noting that individual Influencers exist in these fields as well and often provide advertorial content for companies like accommodation chains or related products. One example is user @katgaskin, an Influencer who both takes photos, features in photos, and provides “organic” adverts for products and services (see image). Not all her photos are adverts; some are beach or ocean images without any advertorial content in the caption. In this instance, the use of distinctive photo editing, iconic imagery (the “salty pineapple” branding), and thematic content of beach and ocean landscapes, makes for a recognisable and curated aesthetic. Figure 1: An example from user @katgaskin's Instagram profile that includes a mention of a product. Image sourced from @katgaskin, uploaded 2 June 2017.@katgaskin’s profile’s aesthetic identity is, as such, linked with the ocean and the beach. Although her physical location regularly changes (her profile includes images from, for example, Nicaragua, Australia, and the United States), the thematic link is geographical. And research suggests the visual focus of Instagram lends itself to place-based content. As Hochman and Manovich state:While Instagram eliminates static timestamps, its interface strongly emphasizes physical place and users’ locations. The application gives a user the option to publicly share a photo’s location in two ways. Users can tag a photo to a specific venue, and then view all other photos that were taken and tagged there. If users do not choose to tag a photo to a venue, they can publically share their photos’ location information on a personal ‘photo-map’, displaying all photos on a zoomable word map. (para 14)This means that the use of place in the app is anchored to the visual content, not the uploader’s location. While it is possible to consider Instagram’s intention was to anchor the content and the uploader’s location together (as in the study conducted by Weilenmann, Hillman, and Jungselius that explored how Instagram was used in the museum), this is no longer always the case. In this way, Instagram is also providing a platform for more serious photographers to share their images after they have processed and edited them and connect the image with the image content rather than the uploader’s position.This place-based focus also shares origins in tourism photography practices. For instance, Kibby’s analysis of the use of Instagram as a method for capturing the “tourist gaze” in Monument Valley notes that users mostly wanted to capture the “iconic” elements of the site (most of which were landscape formations made notable through representations in popular culture).Another area of research into Instagram use is hashtag practice (see, for example, Ferrara, Interdonato, and Tagarelli). Highfield and Leaver have generated a methodology for mapping hashtags and analysing the information this can reveal about user practices. Many Instagram accounts use hashtags to provide temporal or place based information, some specific (such as #sunrise or #newyorkcity) and some more generic (such as #weekend or #beach). Of particular relevance here is the role hashtags play in generating higher levels of user engagement. It is also worth noting the role of “algorithmic personalization” introduced by Instagram earlier in 2017 and the lukewarm user response as identified by Mahnke Skrubbeltrang, Grunnet, and Tarp’s analysis, suggesting “users are concerned with algorithms dominating their experience, resulting in highly commercialised experience” (section 7).Another key aspect of Instagram’s functionality is linked to the aesthetic of the visual content: photographic filters. Now a mainstay of other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, Instagram popularised the use of filters by providing easily accessible options within the app interface directly. Now, other apps such as VCSO allow for more detailed editing of images that can then be imported into Instagram; however, the pre-set filters have proven popular with large numbers of users. A study in 2014 by Araújo, Corrêa, da Silva et al found 76% of analysed images had been processed in some way.By considering the professional uses of Instagram and the functionality of the app (geotagging; hashtagging; and filters), it is possible to summarise Instagram as a social media platform that, although initially perhaps intended to capture the everyday visual experiences of amateur photographers using their smart phone, has adapted to become a network for sharing images that can be for both personal and professional purposes. It has a focus on place, with its geotagging capacity and hashtag practices, and can include captions The #AustralianBeachspace ProjectIn October 2016, I began a social media project called #AustralianBeachspace that was designed to showcase content from my PhD thesis and ongoing work into representations of Australian beaches in popular culture (a collection of the project posts only, as opposed to the ongoing Instagram profile, can be found here). The project was envisaged as a three month project; single posts (including an image and caption) were planned and uploaded six times a week (every day except Sundays). Although I have occasionally continued to use the hashtag since the project’s completion (on 24 Dec. 2016), the frequency and planned nature of the posts since then has significantly changed. What has not changed is the strong thematic through line of my posts, all of which continue to rely heavily on beach imagery. This is distinct from other academic social media use which if often more focused on the everyday activity of academia.Instagram was my social media choice for this project for two main reasons: I had no existing professional Instagram profile (unlike Twitter) and thus I could curate a complete project in isolation, and the subject of my PhD thesis was representations of Australian beaches in literature and film. As such, my research was appropriate for, and in fact was augmented by, visual depiction. It is also worth noting the tendency reported by myself and others (Huntsman; Booth) of academics not considering the beach an area worthy of focus. This resonates with Bech Albrechtslund and Albrechtslund’s argument that “social media practices associated with leisure and playfulness” are still meaningful and worthy of examination.Up until this point, my research outputs had been purely textual. I, therefore, needed to generate a significant number of visual elements to complement the vast amount of textual content already created. I used my PhD thesis to provide the thematic structure (I have detailed this process in more depth here), and then used the online tool Trello to plan, organise, and arrange the intended posts (image and caption). The project includes images taken by myself, my partner, and other images with no copyright limitations attached as sourced through photo sharing sites like Unsplash.com.The images were all selected because of their visual representation of an Australian beach, and the alignment of the image with the themes of the project. For instance, one theme focused on the under-represented negative aspects of the beach. One image used in this theme was a photo of Bondi Beach ocean pool, empty at night. I carefully curated the images and arranged them according to the thematic schedule (as can be seen below) and then wrote the accompanying textual captions. Figure 2: A sample of the schedule used for the posting of curated images and captions.While there were some changes to the schedule throughout (for instance, my attendance at the 2016 Sculpture by the Sea exhibition prompted me to create a sixth theme), the process of content curation and creation remained the same.Visual curation of the images was a particularly important aspect of the project, and I did use an external photo processing application to create an aesthetic across the collection. As Kibby notes, “photography is intrinsically linked with tourism” (para 9), and although not a tourism project inherently, #AustralianBeachspace certainly engaged with touristic tropes by focusing on Australian beaches, an iconic part of Australian national and cultural identity (Ellison 2017; Ellison and Hawkes 2016; Fiske, Hodge, and Turner 1987). However, while beaches are perhaps instinctively touristic in their focus on natural landscapes, this project was attempting to illustrate more complexity in this space (which mirrors an intention of my PhD thesis). As such, some images were chosen because of their “ordinariness” or their subversion of the iconic beach images (see below). Figures 3 and 4: Two images that capture some less iconic images of Australian beaches; one that shows an authentic, ordinary summer's day and another that shows an empty beach during winter.I relied on captions to provide the textual information about the image. I also included details about the photographer where possible, and linked all the images with the hashtag #AustralianBeachspace. The textual content, much of which emerged from ongoing and extensive research into the topic, was somewhat easier to collate. However, it required careful reworking and editing to suit the desired audience and to work in conjunction with the image. I kept captions to the approximate length of a paragraph and concerned with one point. This process forced me to distil ideas and concepts into short chunks of writing, which is distinct from other forms of academic output. This textual content was designed to be accessible beyond an academic audience, but still used a relatively formal voice (especially in comparison to more personal users of the platform).I provided additional hashtags in a first comment, which were intended to generate some engagement. Notably, these hashtags were content related (such as #beach and #surf; they were not targeting academic hashtags). At time of writing, my follower count is 70. The most liked (or “favourited”) photo from the project received 50 likes, and the most comments received was 6 (on a number of posts). Some photos published since the end of the project have received higher numbers of likes and comments. This certainly does not suggest enormous impact from this project. Hashtags utilised in this project were adopted from popular and related hashtags using the analytics tool Websta.me as well as hashtags used in similar content styled profiles, such as: #seeaustralia #thisisqueensland #visitNSW #bondibeach #sunshinecoast and so on. Notably, many of the hashtags were place-based. The engagement of this project with users beyond academia was apparent: followers and comments on the posts are more regularly from professional photographers, tourism bodies, or location-based businesses. In fact, because of the content or place-based hashtagging practices I employed, it was difficult to attract an academic audience at all. However, although the project was intended as an experiment with public facing research dissemination, I did not actively adopt a stringent engagement strategy and have not kept metrics per day to track engagement. This is a limitation of the study and undoubtedly allows scope for further research.ConclusionInstagram is a platform that does not have clear pathways for reaching academic audiences in targeted ways. At this stage, little research has emerged that investigates Instagram use among academics, although it is possible to presume there are similarities with blogging or Twitter (for example, conference posting and making connections with colleagues).However, the functionality of Instagram does lend itself to creating and curating aesthetically interesting ways of disseminating, and in fact representing, research. Ideas and findings must be depicted as images and captions, and the curatorial process of marrying visual images to complement or support textual information can make for more accessible and palatable content. Perhaps most importantly, the content is freely accessible and not locked behind paywalls or expensive academic publications. It can also be easily archived and shared.The #AustralianBeachspace project is small-scale and not indicative of widespread academic practice. However, examining the process of creating the project and the role Instagram may play in potentially reaching a more diverse, public audience for academic research suggests scope for further investigation. Although not playing an integral role in publication metrics and traditional measures of research impact, the current changing climate of higher education policy provides motivations to continue exploring non-traditional methods for disseminating research findings and tracking research engagement and impact.Instagram functions as a useful platform for sharing research data through a curated collection of images and captions. Rather than being a space for instant updates on the everyday life of the academic, it can also function in a more aesthetically interesting and dynamic way to share research findings and possibly generate wider, public-facing engagement for topics less likely to emerge from behind the confines of academic journal publications. 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