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The expansion of connectivity on a national scale in Brazil, whether through mobile Internet or fixed broadband, is described as one of the factors that can lead to social and economic benefits for large parts of the population who do not have a network connection. It can also help to reduce poverty by improving the infrastructure of services and increasing Internet use for education purposes. It also provides people with the ability to communicate with online administrative services – local, regional, and national. In Brazil, the main difficulty facing an effective universalization of telecommunications has been limitations in accessing services. This chapter demonstrates the relevance of small Internet providers for the expansion of fixed broadband in less commercially attractive regions (in terms of subscribers, income, and distance) who have been growing over recent years and are now present in 70% of Brazilian municipalities and whose role is paramount to reducing the digital divide.

This study focuses on the classification of targets with varying shapes using radar cross section (RCS), which is influenced by the target’s shape. This study aims to develop a robust classification method by considering an incident angle with minor random fluctuations and using a physical optics simulation to generate data sets.

The approach involves several supervised machine learning and classification methods, including traditional algorithms and a deep neural network classifier. It uses histogram-based definitions of the RCS for feature extraction, with an emphasis on resilience against noise in the RCS data. Data enrichment techniques are incorporated, including the use of noise-impacted histogram data sets.

The classification algorithms are extensively evaluated, highlighting their efficacy in feature extraction from RCS histograms. Among the studied algorithms, the K-nearest neighbour is found to be the most accurate of the traditional methods, but it is surpassed in accuracy by a deep learning network classifier. The results demonstrate the robustness of the feature extraction from the RCS histograms, motivated by mm-wave radar applications.

This study presents a novel approach to target classification that extends beyond traditional methods by integrating deep neural networks and focusing on histogram-based methodologies. It also incorporates data enrichment techniques to enhance the analysis, providing a comprehensive perspective for target detection using RCS.

The study seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of the relationship between remediations and participation in new media. By lending some transparency, the analysis hopes to contribute toward generating a critical optics aware of the potentials and pitfalls of emergent media.

The methodology is visual semiotic analysis. The author make no claim for one, true interpretation or critical judgment about the images.

In demonstrating some shortfalls of Instagram affordances, the analysis shows how social media sites can develop tools that encourage users to engage in civic consciousness and respectful political debate. The study makes clear that new media tools can hamper or aid participatory logics.

To author’s knowledge, no other study that has analyzed remediated images related to the controversial confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. It is also important to place these images in the contexts of “iconicity” in emergent media (a concept increasingly being eroded in new media environment).

Most of the linear encoders are based on optics. The accuracy and reliability of these encoders are greatly reduced in polluted and noisy environments. Moreover, these encoders have a complex structure and large sensor volume and are thus not suited to small application scenarios and do not have universality. This paper aims to present a new absolute magnetic linear encoder, which has a simple structure, small size and wide application range.

The effect of swing error is analyzed for the sensor structural arrangement. A double-threshold interval algorithm is then proposed to synthesize multiple interval electrical angles into absolute angles and convert them into actual displacement distances.

The final linear encoder measurement range is 15.57 mm, and the resolution reaches ± 2 µm. The effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated experimentally.

The linear encoder has good robustness, and high measurement accuracy, which is suitable for industrial production. The linear encoder has been mass-produced and used in an electric power-assisted braking system.

This chapter details a practice-based investigation of a 19th-century astronomical device known as ‘Janssen’s apparatus’. It questions traditional narratives of linear technological advancement and ‘sole inventor’ to reframe the historical artefact as a site which makes visible a network of technological knowledge interconnecting astronomy and visual culture. Approached from this perspective, the Janssen artefact is reframed as an ‘intersite of knowledge’, exploring how the various know-how contained within the device is located across disciplines rather than within a single field. Originally developed to calculate the Astronomical Unit during the 1874 Transit of Venus, Janssen’s apparatus failed in its endeavour as a measuring instrument, but its motion mechanism was successfully adapted into early cinema technologies. This chapter applies praxis through the development of a prototype artwork and the concept of ‘techne’ as speculative means of understanding how this mechanism was transferred from astronomy to the Western cultural realm. It proposes that the development of the apparatus was partially gleaned from moving image techniques already in use within 19th-century visual culture. The development of the prototype artwork is discussed in relation to the specific timing mechanism of the Janssen apparatus and how it establishes its own ‘intersite of knowledge’ relevant to its contemporary context. Finally, this chapter elaborates on how witnessing the Janssen mechanism in motion provided unique insight and how creating a dialogue between historical and contemporary apparatus facilitates a reconsideration of how galleries, libraries, archives, and museums [GLAM] and other host institutions that contain artefacts might share their hidden stories.

This paper aims to examine the uniform diffracted fields from a perfectly magnetic conductive (PMC) surface with the extended theory of boundary diffraction wave (BDW) approach.

Miyamoto and Wolf’s symbolic expression of the vector potential was used in the extended theory of BDW integral. This vector potential is applied to the problem, and the nonuniform field expression found was made uniform. Here, the expression is made uniform, using the detour parameter with the help of the asymptotic correlation of the Fresnel function. The BDW theory for the PMC surface extended the diffracted fields, and the uniform diffracted fields were calculated.

The field expressions obtained were interpreted with the graphs numerically for different aperture radii and observation distances. It has been shown that the BDW is continuous behind the diffracting aperture. There does not exist any discontinuity at the geometrically light-to-shadow transition boundary, as is required by the theory.

The results were graphically compared with diffracted fields for other surfaces. As far as we know, the uniform diffracted fields from the circular aperture on a PMC surface were calculated for the first time with the extended theory of the BDW approach.

Large class sizes are becoming the norm in higher education against concerns of dropping learning qualities. To maintain the standard of learning and add value, one of the common strategies is for the course convenor to proactively monitor student engagement with learning activities against their assessment outcomes and intervene timely. Learning analytics has been increasingly adopted to provide these insights into student engagement and their performance. This case study explores how learning analytics can be used to meet the convenor’s requirements and help reduce administrative workload in a large health science class at the University of New South Wales.

This case-based study adopts an “action learning research approach” in assessing ways of using learning analytics for reducing workload in the educator’s own context and critically reflecting on experiences for improvements. This approach emphasises reflexive methodology, where the educator constantly assesses the context, implements an intervention and reflects on the process for in-time adjustments, improvements and future development.

The results highlighted ease for the teacher towards the early “flagging” of students who may not be active within the learning management system or who have performed poorly on assessment tasks. Coupled with the ability to send emails to the “flagged” students, this has led to a more personal approach while reducing the number of steps normally required. An unanticipated outcome was the potential for additional time saving through improving the scaffolding mechanisms if the learning analytics were customisable for individual courses.

The results provide further benefits for learning analytics to assist the educator in a growing blended learning environment. They also reveal the potential for learning analytics to be an effective adjunct towards promoting personal learning design.

This study aims to explore the interplay between community dynamics and knowledge production using the quantum computing research field as a case study. Quantum computing holds the promise of dramatically increasing computation speed and solving problems that are currently unsolvable in a short space of time. In this highly dynamic area of innovation, computer companies, research laboratories and governments are racing to develop the field.

After constructing temporal co-authorship networks, the authors identify seven different events affecting communities of researchers, which they label: forming, growing, splitting, shrinking, continuing, merging, dissolving. The authors then extract keywords from the titles and abstracts of their contributions to characterize the dynamics of knowledge production and examine the relationship between community events and knowledge production over time.

The findings show that forming and splitting are associated with retaining in memory what is currently known, merging and growing with the creation of new knowledge and splitting, shrinking and dissolving with the curation of knowledge.

Although the link between communities and knowledge has long been established, much less is known about the relationship between the dynamics of communities and their link with collective cognitive processes. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present contribution is one of the first to shed light on this dynamic aspect of community knowledge production.

This paper explores the collaborative dynamics and dimensions within a virtual multi-cultural and interdisciplinary workplace. The study focusses on the use of online communication technologies to enhance social inclusion and networking within academia.

This study uses an autoethnographic approach to draw on the personal experiences of a team of four scholars, including three early-career researchers and a senior scholar. Their reflections on their academic positionality and the institutional constraints reveal both the strengths and vulnerabilities of collaborating in a virtual workplace.

The findings offer insights into the complexities of navigating social dynamics, such as delegating responsibilities, organising meetings across various time zones and encouraging continuous collaboration, inclusivity and effective communication during an extensive timeline. As a result, their experiences revealed that a virtual workplace culture with similar and different attributes to a “normal” workplace emerged.

The paper demonstrates how to create an effective and inclusive virtual workplace by exemplifying best practices in academia and providing practical guidance for individuals and institutions based on honest, co-produced autoethnographic reflections of the authors’ lived experiences.