Abstract Smart technologies (such as big data, AI, robotics, smart platforms/apps) have become important in the hospitality industry, as they allow companies to interact with a variety of stakeholders and provide better experiences to consumers, while improving efficiency (Stylos et al., 2021b, b). Industry 4.0 applications (e.g., big data, robotics, 3D printing, blockchain technologies and smart platforms/apps) have given a boost to open innovation, and call for new business models (BMs) to turn technological capabilities to new business opportunities for organizations across the spectrum of the service sector (Jiang & Stylos, 2021). SMEs in the hospitality sector have been distressed during the COVID-19 pandemic, with much uncertainty about their ability to survive. Organizational resilience has become a key concern for SMEs in the hospitality industry (Ntounis et al., 2022; El-Said et al., 2023; Rahimi & Kozak, 2017; Rahimi & Gunlu, 2016). Smart technologies have been considered to provide the potential to…
This chapter investigates screen representations of migrants in Italian productions over the last two decades through a methodological blend of textual analysis and statistical analysis of select hard data. A representative sample of feature films (Saimir, Good morning Aman, La desconocida, Cover Boy, Mar Nero, Francesca, Terraferma, Fuego en el mar) reveals a balance between narratives of clash and encounter between cultures while highlighting the frequency of the victim paradigm almost always through a vision ab intra that, in most cases, carries a symbolic function of condemnation of a social issue (be it racism or injustice) and of promoting integration in the form of compassionate realism. However, a detailed analysis of audience numbers and box office records (both in Italy and in other European markets such as Spain) also reveals the low impact and public outreach of these films. The real paradigm shift in the past two decades has been from film to serial television, which has become capable of attra…
Studies of narratives as complex systems pre-date the official birth of Complex Systems Theory but only in the last couple of decades a new cross-disciplinary approach picked up substantial pace. Investigations in film and other screen media studies, though, are generally limited to the complexity of narrative structures—and all too often tend to rely on analogies and axiomatic reasoning, rarely tackling screenwriting or the screenplay, if at all. This chapter aims to fill this gap by introducing a screenplectical, that is, a pragmatic/processual epistemological take to the study of screenwriting as a complex adaptive system (SCAS) by: (i) outlining its constituent functional ontologies as they express relational properties and processes of the core screenwriting system that is nested hierarchically within higher-level complex systems with which it constantly interacts; and (ii) proposing modelling options (e.g. cellular automata, networks, 4-D manifolds) that rely extensively on a Critical Digital Humanities…
The emergence and diversification of morphological novelties is a major feature of animal evolution.[1–9] However, relatively little is known about the genetic basis of the evolution of novel structures and the mechanisms underlying their diversification. The epandrial posterior lobes of male genitalia are a novelty of particular Drosophila species.[10–13] The lobes grasp the female ovipositor and insert between her abdominal tergites and, therefore, are important for copulation and species recognition.[10–12,14–17] The posterior lobes likely evolved from co-option of a Hox-regulated gene network from the posterior spiracles[10] and have since diversified in morphology in the D. simulans clade, in particular, over the last 240,000 years, driven by sexual selection.[18–21] The genetic basis of this diversification is polygenic but, to the best of our knowledge, none of the causative genes have been identified.[22–30] Identifying the genes underlying the diversification of these secondary sexual structures is e…
In the last 240,000 years, males of the Drosophila simulans species clade have evolved striking differences in the morphology of their epandrial posterior lobes and claspers (surstyli). These appendages are used for grasping the female during mating and so their divergence is most likely driven by sexual selection. Mapping studies indicate a highly polygenic and generally additive genetic basis for these morphological differences. However, we have limited understanding of the gene regulatory networks that control the development of genital structures and how they evolved to result in this rapid phenotypic diversification. Here, we used new D. simulans/D. mauritiana introgression lines on chromosome 3L to generate higher resolution maps of posterior lobe and clasper differences between these species. We then carried out RNA-seq on the developing genitalia of both species to identify the expressed genes and those that are differentially expressed between the two species. This allowed us to test the function of …
Insect male genitalia are among the fastest evolving structures of animals. Studying these changes among closely related species represents a powerful approach to dissect developmental processes and genetic mechanisms underlying phenotypic diversification and the underlying evolutionary drivers. Here, we review recent breakthroughs in understanding the developmental and genetic bases of the evolution of genital organs among Drosophila species and other insects. This work has helped reveal how tissue and organ size evolve and understand the appearance of morphological novelties, and how these phenotypic changes are generated through altering gene expression and redeployment of gene regulatory networks. Future studies of genital evolution in Drosophila and a wider range of insects hold great promise to help understand the specification, differentiation, and diversification of organs more generally.