Museums increasingly rely on cutting-edge digital technologies to attract visitors. Understanding the intricate factors influencing user acceptance of these technologies is, however, crucial for their effective use. This study therefore proposes a model, grounded in the technology acceptance model, to investigate user acceptance of online virtual reality (VR) museum exhibitions. Leveraging the online VR exhibition at Liangzhu Museum as a case study, data were collected from 313 participants and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with Smart PLS. Semi-structured interviews with 15 individuals were conducted to complement the quantitative findings. The results reveal that factors such as interactivity, immersion, and presence positively influenced users\' intrinsic technological beliefs (perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, and perceived usefulness), ultimately affecting their willingness to use and intention to visit on-site. Notably, immersion had a direct positive effect on perceived usefulness. There is a pressing need to leverage digital and web technologies to cater to the increasingly complex and diverse needs of online visitors, and emphasizing navigational performance in online VR exhibitions is also paramount for enhancing the overall user experience.

Understanding that good decision-making is paramount for the success of an organization and recognizing that strategic decision-making inside museums is a topic that has been over-passed by researchers, this paper intends to contribute to the relevance of the subject through the implementation of an innovative tool. Decision-making in museums is normally focused on the intuition, subjectivity, and experience of the curator, who brings all his knowledge to the exhibition programming. However, museums\' management and environment are constantly changing, thus the application of this tool would aim to make decisions in a more democratic, transparent, inclusive, and accurate manner. Besides, it will be easier to understand how distinct subjects can work together, demonstrating successful results to improve the decision-making process when programming and measuring temporary exhibition seasons in museums. This paper describes the design and implementation of the Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT) for the Museu Nacional d\'Art de Catalunya (MNAC). It also analyzes and evaluates the decision-making process when scheduling exhibitions for a season.

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Soft corals (Anthozoa: Octocorallia) are discreet components in the Southwestern Atlantic reef communities. In Brazil, the native octocoral shallow-reef fauna is mostly represented by gorgonians. Consequently, except for the nephtheid Neospongodes atlantica, most of the known soft corals from this region are considered non-indigenous. Hitherto, the monotypic genus Neospongodes, which was proposed in the early 1900s, has been considered to be endemic to the Northeastern Brazilian coast. Herein, based on in situ records, we show that N. atlantica is a substrate generalist that has been probably expanding its distribution by dominating extensive shallow and mesophotic sandy and reef bottoms, generally outcompeting other reef benthic organisms, including Brazilian endemic species. Based on previously unidentified museum specimens, new records, and a broad literature review, we provide the most comprehensive modelling of the potential distribution of this species in the Southwestern Atlantic. Based on molecular inference supported by in-depth morphological analysis, the probable non-indigenous and, therefore, ancient introduction of N. atlantica in Brazilian waters is discussed. Finally, these results support that Neospongodes and the Indo-Pacific Stereonephthya are synonyms, which led us to propose the latter as taxonomically invalid.

The use of cultural sites has been profoundly altered by the recent pandemic events with relevant consequences on the cultural heritage industry. While before the CoVid-19 pandemic access to Cultural Sites used to involve a simplified form of control, in the transitional period between the pandemic and the post-pandemic, additional steps are required. The research aims to combine seemingly distant aspects: counteracting the spread of contagion and reorganising the admission processes to institutes of culture, such as museums. Based on the literature, it has been shown that the parameters determining air quality (temperature, relative humidity, concentration of pollutants, dust, CO2, etc.) influence the state of conservation of works of art, while their interaction with the spread of the epidemic has been slightly investigated. The research seeks to find innovative technological solutions to allow access and safe visits to the greatest possible number of users. A conscious design, therefore, must be put in place to allow everyone to enjoy works of art, exhibitions and shows. This is how the concept of universal design is declined here, introducing the concept of \'safe environment accessibility\'. The first results of a research carried out on the microclimate and the air quality inside Tyrannicides Hall at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN) will be presented. A device called \'CapsulART\' is designed to be placed at the entrance of a specific room, which acts as a filter and as a decompression chamber to lower the level of pollutants present on people\'s clothes and shoe soles. Through a reduction in temperature, parameters that may increase the ease of contagion (e.g. sweating) should be decreased.

Large museums as services to the community, can be considered strategic facilities needing exploitation after the health emergency. Through optimising usability, some methodologies and tools taken from other building uses (hospitals, airports) for analysing users and flows seem effective in testing new spaces\' uses. The case study of Mercati Traianei-Museo dei Fori Imperiali was investigated in two different periods and methods for comparing the impacting factors on usability and orientation of visiting routes. A direct analysis in 2015 detected crucial issues for walking through museum routes and connections, while a more recent indirect analysis went deeper through configurational methodologies included in the Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS). This methodology empowers analysis of the space syntax, and the factors affecting the visitors\' satisfaction. The two methods were found to be effective for a deeper knowledge of the museum and its priorities. Tools of direct on-site observation are essential to promptly identify obstacles for upgrading usability. Instead, the configurational analysis allows a much faster application and supports a more global and dynamic vision of more inclusive visiting routes, avoiding visitors\' stigmatisation.

In this article, we design and develop a 3-D virtual museum with holistic metadata documentation and a variety of reptile behaviors and movements. First, we reconstruct the reptile\'s mesh in high resolution, and then create its rigged/skinned digital counterpart. We acquire the movement of two subjects using an optical motion capture system, accelerometers, and RGB-vision cameras; these movements are then segmented and annotated to various behaviors. The 3-D environment, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) functionalities of our online repository serve as tools for interactively educating the public on animals, which are difficult to observe and study in their natural environment. It also reveals important information regarding animals\' intangible characteristics (e.g., behavior), that is critical for the preservation of wildlife. Our museum is publicly accessible, enabling motion data reusability, and facilitating learning applications through gamification. We conducted a user study that confirms the naturalness and realism of our reptiles, along with the ease of use and usefulness of our museum.

The deployment of sensors is the first issue encountered when microclimate monitoring is planned in spaces devoted to the conservation of artworks. Sometimes, the first decision regarding the position of sensors may not be suitable for characterising the microclimate close to climate-sensitive artworks or should be revised in light of new circumstances. This paper fits into this context by proposing a rational approach for a posteriori deployment of microclimate sensors in museums where long-term temperature and relative humidity observations were available (here, the Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen, Denmark). Different statistical tools such as box-and-whisker plots, principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were used to identify microclimate patterns, i.e., similarities of indoor air conditions among rooms. Box-and-whisker plots allowed us to clearly identify one microclimate pattern in two adjoining rooms located in the basement. Multivariate methods (PCA and CA) enabled us to identify further microclimate patterns by grouping not only adjoining rooms but also rooms located on different floors. Based on these outcomes, new configurations about the deployment of sensors were proposed aimed at avoiding redundant sensors and collecting microclimate observations in other sensitive locations of this museum.

Museum directors play a fundamental role in the management of arts institutions, and they need to constantly adapt to the changes and requirements of the society. Questions have been raised about how decisions are made in museums, and if any specific method exists to analyze and select exhibitions for a complete annual program. Interviews conducted with several directors and experts have confirmed that, in general, the decision-making process within cultural institutions is intuitive and based on the experience and subjectivity of the director, who has an artistic background but sometimes lacks experience in arts management. In order to address this subject, this study applied the Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT) to CaixaForum Barcelona, an important cultural institution in Spain, and analyzed the decision-making process followed while selecting artists and topics for a temporary exhibition. This research contributes to a new decision-making method and the improvement of exhibition scheduling in arts organizations.

Ichthyological surveys have traditionally been conducted using whole-specimen, capture-based sampling with varied but conventional fishing gear. Recently, environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has emerged as a complementary, and possible alternative, approach to whole-specimen methodologies. In the tropics, where much of the diversity remains undescribed, vast reaches continue unexplored, and anthropogenic activities are constant threats; there have been few eDNA attempts for ichthyological inventories. We tested the discriminatory power of eDNA using MiFish primers with existing public reference libraries and compared this with capture-based methods in two distinct ecosystems in the megadiverse Amazon basin. In our study, eDNA provided an accurate snapshot of the fishes at higher taxonomic levels and corroborated its effectiveness to detect specialized fish assemblages. Some flaws in fish metabarcoding studies are routine issues addressed in natural history museums. Thus, by expanding their archives and adopting a series of initiatives linking collection-based research, training and outreach, natural history museums can enable the effective use of eDNA to survey Earth\'s hotspots of biodiversity before taxa go extinct. Our project surveying poorly explored rivers and using DNA vouchered archives to build metabarcoding libraries for Neotropical fishes can serve as a model of this protocol.