The UOC's academic journals release their latest issues

Artnodes 25th node features a monograph titled "Dialogues Between Art and Fundamental Science" with seven articles by artists, philosophers, scientists and technologists from around the world who connect culture and art with fundamental physics and the sciences of the universe.

The monograph also includes an introduction written, which is suggestively titled "Black holes and objectivity" by editors Mónica Bello Bugallo, director of the Arts at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) programme, and Andy Gracie, artist whose work moves between art and science.

There are also features on projects such as Cogito in Space. This project in particular sends "thoughts" – stemming from dialogues between the worlds of art, radio astronomy and neuroscience – into outer space.

As always, this issue also includes four articles in the miscellaneous section, one of which looks at manifestos for heartfelt art in the digital age, explaining how the appearance of artistic practices relating to digital technological media, and even more so the introduction of the internet, have brought about the emergence of an abundant series of theoretical texts with the intention of defining said behaviours, and at the same time, justifying their existence.

Now available to read is "The future is now: libraries at the service of a changing society", a BiD monograph jointly coordinated by Maite Comalat (UB) and Ciro Llueca (UOC).

In his opening article, Ismael Peña-López, director general of Citizen Participation and Electoral Processes at the Government of Catalonia, asks "who should guide, train and support institutions and citizens in the open government ecosystem?" As part of the new information system, libraries are seen as a means to free citizens with a critical eye.

In the monograph included in the journal BiD, we find accounts on libraries' innovative experiences in adapting to users' current needs: transforming spaces at the Monterrey Institute library (Yolanda Maya); incorporating mobile technology into Peruvian public library services (Gabriela A. Quispe), and creating the University of California, Irvine's library chat bot (Danielle Kane).

In BiD's latest issue, the authors have reflected upon the challenges faced by libraries in terms of open education (Gemma Santos) and film preservation (Pablo García).

The latest issue connects the main conclusions from the international conference "From Munich to Paris (1938-1940). from the Spanish Civil War to the German New Europe", which was jointly organized last year by the journal's team in collaboration with the UOC's Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the Museu Memorial de l'Exili, the Fundació Carles Pi i Sunyer, the Memorial Democràtic and the European Observatory on Memories (EUROM-UB).

Issue no. 7 introduces new analytical perspectives on the contemporary European context between 1938 and 1940. It covers topics such as the crisis of democracies, the rise of Fascism, Nazi Germany, Franco's Spain, and the role of other actors on the international stage such as France, Mussolini's Italy, the United States and the former Soviet Union.

Some of the articles also analyse the interconnection of cross-continental conflict with the Spanish Civil War. Renowned professor Walter F. Bernecker (Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg), for example, analyses the inter-war democratic crisis following the Peace of Versailles and how it influenced the unfolding of the Spanish conflict in Hitler's plans.

What effect do technological and scientific advances have on companies, organizations and society? Issue 12 of Oikonomics opens up a conversation on today's progress-precariousness binomial based on an analysis of the opportunities and risks of the so-called Revolution 4.0. Coordinated by professor Josep Lladós from the UOC's Faculty of Economics and Business, the articles published within its pages weigh up and evaluate the matter from different perspectives.

You'll be able to ask yourself whether we are really facing a genuine industrial revolution (Eduard Aibar), discover one of the first approximations of the impact of the new generation of technologies on productivity (Joan Torrent), delve into the robot boom in the labour market (Josep Lladós) and reflect upon the new professional profiles that will be necessary to deal with the digital transformation process (Xavier Pi and Pere Tuset).

Sidestepping from production systems, two articles from the monograph look at the impact of artificial intelligence being used by public administrations (Agustí Cerrillo) and by the justice system (David Martínez).

As well as these hot-off-the-press publications, you can also enjoy articles from the other academic journals published or co-published by the UOC.

• Digithum will be soon be publishing its 25th issue, a special monograph on the materiality of the body featuring studies on feelings and emotions. But while you wait for its release, you could start by taking a look at some of the articles from the 24th issue, featuring two special monographs. The first looks at how fiction could be used as a theoretical resource in social scientific thinking and the second, at the theoretical aspects, uses and practices to do with money in the 21st century.
• This year's issue of the journal ETHE,on e-learning in higher education, has published two articles: «Mapping research in student engagement and educational technology in higher education: a systematic evidence map» and «An academic Arabic corpus for Plagiarism detection: design, construction and experimentation». The monograph «Can artificial intelligence transform higher education?»will also be ready to read in the next few months.
• The first articles from the 30th issue of IDP, are also available, which will be published on 1 March with a monograph dedicated to the right to an artificial intelligence service focused on human beings and institutions. You will also find an article that presents a rethinking of the possibilities offered by cryptoeconomics from a taxation perspective, an analysis of the national and international regulations that set the rules of the game in cyberspace, and a study that clarifies some of the main aspects of the new reform on package travel.
• COMeIN has a rapid publication rate, releasing two new articles per week that are often closely related to highly relevant topics. In fact, the first articles from the 96th issue will soon be available. For now, you can read the latest articles, such as the reflections of professor of Information and Communication Sciences, Alexandre López Borrull, on political communication and fake news in the United States presidential primaries.
• Among the most recent articles from Mosaic, fwhich publishes weekly content on technology and multimedia communication, you'll find an interview with Muriel Garreta and Carmen Hevia from the video game developer King, as well as the main outcomes from the 10th Jornada d'Experiència d'Usuari 2019 (User Experience Conference, Jux), set within the framework of studies on multimedia, video games and UX at the UOC.