Abstract
This work aims to identify teaching and learning practices in practical classes of Computer Network Technology courses, which promote the use of the Physical Laboratory (PL) as an epistemic tool to improve learning in epistemic terms. Content analysis of Multimodal Narrations (MN) of three classes by two teachers were used. An MN aggregates and organizes the data collected in the PL environment. Based on the results, we infer that the student and the teacher, under certain conditions, use the physical laboratory as an epistemic tool since the physical interactions prove its use and reuse. In addition, this study allows, in the context of work in the physical laboratory of networks, to identify that the orchestrations of mediation patterns adopted by the teacher influence the students' epistemic practices and the use of the laboratory as a tool to produce new knowledge. The following contributions are presented: (1) The quality of the students' epistemic practices is increased if, in the teacher's dynamics of mediation, the control of the students' action is reduced; (2) The orchestration of the teacher's mediation patterns is essential to achieve beneficial results in student learning with the use of artifacts from the physical laboratory of Computer Networks; (3) For the physical laboratory to become an epistemic tool, it is necessary that the mediation standards allow students to develop epistemic practices to a high or very high degree and there is a certain mediation orchestration.

Abstract
Software testing is an important part of the software development lifecycle. As it is a highly sought-after skill in the industry, it is not surprising that there has been a great deal of research into the teaching of software testing in higher education. Most of this research proposes or evaluates pedagogical approaches or software testing tools to assist teachers in educating the next generation of software engineers. These evaluations are often limited to measuring teachers' opinions about the use of a novel pedagogical approach or an educational tool and students' acceptance and performance in terms of desired software testing skills. While tools and pedagogical approaches address specific aspects of a course, to date, little attention has been paid to the opinions of the students about all the individual aspects of a software testing course. This paper aims to address this missing student perspective by taking a holistic view of software testing course designs. To address this gap, an exploratory study was performed by distributing a questionnaire to 103 students from ten different courses to gauge their opinions on a software testing course they are enrolled in. The results show that students generally have a positive perception of the different aspects of their software testing course. However, several areas for improvement were suggested based on the gathered data.

Abstract
In recent years, there has been growing interest in digital twins (or virtual representations) of the environment. Programs in the European Union and the UN are investing in digital twins, particularly those of the ocean (DTOs). While citizen science has been mentioned as a potential data source for digital twins, the full potential of citizen science in this context has yet to be fully realised. The Iliad project (https://ocean-twin.eu), funded by the European Commission, is developing a comprehensive set of digital twins of the oceans which are interoperable, data-intensive, and cost-effective. The project (2022-2025) brings together over 50 partners to demonstrate the technologies and methodologies required to develop DTOs. Citizen science and engagement play a pivotal role in the project, with the following goals: (a) exploring the potential for citizen science to contribute to digital twins of the oceans; (b) demonstrating how citizen scientists (and society more broadly) can benefit from digital twins. The Iliad team is currently working on over 20 separate digital twins of the oceans that fall into two primary categories: (i) environmental and ecological digital twins; (ii) engineering and industrial digital twins. Using the Iliad DTOs as case studies, lessons learned for citizen science are presented from the development of each digital twin.

Abstract
Europe's position in the current cloud market needs to be improved. This market is currently dominated by non-European players by 75%, shaping the way that Europe is deploying and using cloud services. Although these players are bound to laws and regulations of foreign powers, such as PR China and USA, generating legitimate concerns for the EU, its businesses and citizens. EU's digital future resides on having installed secure, high-quality data processing capacity. This can only be offered by cloud services both centrally and at the edge. In this context NOUS's ambition is completely in line with the European Strategy for data as aims to create the foundations for a European Cloud Service which exploits the HPC network and tackles specific-to-the-EU-economy requirements as well as leverages different data spaces (Mobility, Energy, Green Deal and Manufacturing).

Abstract
Climate change is causing the emergence of new pest species and diseases, threatening economies, public health, and food security. In Europe, olive groves are crucial for producing olive oil and table olives; however, the presence of the olive fruit fly (Bactrocera Oleae) poses a significant threat, causing crop losses and financial hardship. Early disease and pest detection methods are crucial for addressing this issue. This work presents a pioneering comparative performance study between two state-of-the-art object detection models, YOLOv5 and YOLOv8, for the detection of the olive fruit fly from trap images, marking the first-ever application of these models in this context. The dataset was obtained by merging two existing datasets: the DIRT dataset, collected in Greece, and the CIMO-IPB dataset, collected in Portugal. To increase its diversity and size, the dataset was augmented, and then both models were fine-tuned. A set of metrics were calculated, to assess both models performance. Early detection techniques like these can be incorporated in electronic traps, to effectively safeguard crops from the adverse impacts caused by climate change, ultimately ensuring food security and sustainable agriculture.

Abstract
Immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) is a promising educational tool for learning a second/foreign language. However, interactive iVR studies remain in their infancy, with more research required to validate what and how it can be implemented. This study focuses on the English listening dimension and evaluates the impact of a realistic interactive iVR compared to traditional listening exercises. The results were favourable and indicated that interactive iVR positively impacts the users' knowledge retention compared to a traditional listening approach. Likewise, the users revealed a preference for using iVR for learning when compared to traditional listening exercises, as well as higher user satisfaction with the iVR experiment.