Urban configurations have substantial impacts on lifestyles, behaviors, and people’s daily lives. Elaborating urban plans based on smart and sustainable initiatives is a challenging task as it encompasses numerous multidisciplinary premises due to the dynamics of the urban context. This research aims to conduct a systematic review of the literature in three axes: sustainable urban development, city master plans, and smart cities. From the portfolio of papers built, it was possible to map projects designed for sustainable urban development in order to verify the integration of these projects with city master plans, specifically for smart cities. The content analysis also sought to identify global regions that use robust models, their frameworks, and technologies for this purpose as a strategy to identify which research or frameworks can be replicated in the future, helping to develop city master plans for smart cities. Although some results were found, it was observed that there is a lack of studies integrating the topics of smart cities, sustainability, and city master plans in the same discussion. Few types of research involve the three themes or their full application, being mostly described in isolation. Thus, the originality of this study is filling this gap in the literature.

This paper presents a novel interdisciplinary approach to aid with the growing concern about how to showcase computer science and engineering degrees to pre-university level students. This novel approach is based on empowering students to create their own music-related game using real music instruments. In order to allow the students to program their games we have used the Greenfoot Introductory Learning Environment to teach object-oriented programming skills with the java programming language. We have also taught the students music theory and practice. All these skills were required to allow the students to successfully develop their musical games that interact with the music instruments.

In this Innovative Practice paper we describe our experience on using an updated methodology based on the paper “Music Education Meets Computer Science and Engineering” with a focus on pre-university female students. The main differences from this work are: (1) We taught the girls how to program and how to play the music instruments in parallel, having two classes per week, one for each subject instead of weekly meetings; (2) We started the project by using some of the games and puzzles from lightbot.com and code.org and then move to the Greenfoot Initial Learning Environment; (3) We asked the students to survey some music games related to their music instrument and design three potential games that they would like to develop using the music instruments; (4) They had to present and pitch the projects they designed to the undergraduate and graduate students of our computer music technology laboratory. Given the time constrains of the project, we had to help them to select the most feasible idea; (5) We applied a questionnaire to capture the perception of the students at the end of the project. It should be noted that all students successfully developed their music-based games using the digital music instruments and the Greenfoot Initial Learning Environment. In total four games were developed: (1) A game that allows drummers to perform ear training where they list to a particular drumming sequence and must replicate the sequence; (2) A game that allows guitar players to practice the execution of musical scales; (3) A game that allows keyboard players to practice their sight reading based on the simultaneous of two or more notes at the same time; (4) A game that allows bass players to practice their sight reading. It should be noted that by participating in the project one of the students acquired the skills and confidence to join the school and church bands.

This article describes the automatic classification of emotions through five novel feature descriptors based on the "cifras" of the songs. A "cifra" is a document that contains the harmonic structure and harmonic progression a song. In order to evaluate the proposed feature sets, we have created a novel database, namely the Latin Music Cifras Mood Database (LMCMD). This database was created manually by the authors by querying different websites for the "cifras" of songs.

Smart cities leverage information and communication technologies to enhance urban life quality, essential in densely populated environments requiring comprehensive planning. A critical area in urban settings is food production and delivery, where effective management becomes vital. New technologies can assist, but require models that support innovative production and commercialization methods. This study proposes an integration model between family farming—producers of organic food—and urban areas—consumers of these products. The model focuses on the management of organic food production and delivery to meet urban demands, serving as a tool in the transformation of these areas into smart municipalities. Additionally, this study suggests an alternative certification method for organic food production within family farming. A systematic literature review was conducted using the Methodi Ordinatio methodology. Content analysis of the selected articles identified strategies cities can adopt to promote organic certification, emphasizing transparent governance, public food procurement policies, and participatory certification systems. The proposed model aims to reduce bureaucracy and improve family farmers’ income, aligning with several Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), SDG 15 (Life on Land), and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).