Humanities & Social Sciences

Research on multi-agent systems is enlarging our future technical capabilities as humans and as an intelligent society. During recent years many effective applications have been implemented and are part of our daily life. These applications have agent-based models and methods as an important ingredient. Markets, finance world, robotics, medical technology, social negotiation, video games, big-data science, etc. are some of the branches where the knowledge gained through multi-agent simulations is necessary and where new software engineering tools are continuously created and tested in order to reach an effective technology transfer to impact our lives. This book brings together researchers working in several fields that cover the techniques, the challenges and the applications of multi-agent systems in a wide variety of aspects related to learning algorithms for different devices such as vehicles, robots and drones, computational optimization to reach a more efficient energy distribution in power grids and the use of social networks and decision strategies applied to the smart learning and education environments in emergent countries. We hope that this book can be useful and become a guide or reference to an audience interested in the developments and applications of multi-agent systems.

This book investigates and analyses places in Europe, North America and Asia that are facing the immense challenges associated with climate change adaptation. Presenting real-world cases in the contexts of coastal change, drinking water and the cryosphere, Michael Buser shows how the concept of care can be applied to water security and climate adaptation.Exploring the everyday and often hidden ways in which water security is accomplished, the book demonstrates the pervasiveness and power of care to contribute to flourishing lives and communities in times of climate change.

The book brings together critical considerations and experiences linked to the work of the author, lecturer in restoration at the Florence University Faculty of Architecture, as supervisor of degree theses on restoration. The reflections concern teaching Restoration as a subject, the conditions within which the knowledge and culture of restoration can ripen within our universities and the most recent problems encountered by both the discipline and restoration projects. In the first part of the publication, these aspects are set out in broad and more precisely conceptual and methodological terms in chapters and themed paragraphs which also act as a guide to drawing up degree theses on restoration, as well as a contributing to the didactics and efficiency of the specific discipline. This is followed by a selection of degree theses on restoration discussed in recent years which show the route from the principles, general problems and intervention criteria for every case study to drawing up a project. They are projects that deal with analysis methods and techniques, surveys, specialist restorations, regeneration, and the relationship between old and new. In short, the projects are what gave the final stage in the university education meaning and substance, also in order to acquire fundamental keys to restoration culture and activities in the world after university.

As most industrialised countries, Switzerland is increasingly attempting to (re)integrate people with health restrictions and disabilities into the job market. The reinforced political demand to reintegrate people with health restrictions challenges both the involved organisations and its employees. While the means and methods to assess (in)capacity for work are more and more refined, the according practices become more and more diverse. On the basis of an ethnography of two Swiss cantonal work integration agencies, this study analyses how the institutions under scrutiny construct and deal with their clients’ (in)capacity for work. It reconstructs how “cases“ of health restrictions are organisationally problematized, negotiated, and dealt with and examines the underlying logic of these practices and strategies.

History education has a key contribution to make in developing a deeper understanding of the current environmental crisis, but its role is too often overlooked. When embedded in the school curriculum, environmental history adds crucial layers of knowledge to the learning from other subjects and can enable students to make their own informed contributions to one of the most pressing concerns of the 21st century. History and the Climate Crisis makes the case for including an environmental focus in the secondary school history curriculum by locating its arguments within established historiographical and revisionist debates. It provides much-needed subject knowledge in an area that is new for most history teachers. The author considers the disciplinary and pedagogical challenges and demonstrates how including an environmental focus can strengthen students’ disciplinary knowledge. She also builds her argument through the use of many examples and offers practical strategies for use in classrooms, including developed enquiries suitable for the secondary history curriculum. The book focuses on environmental history within a strong subject bound curriculum and will be relevant to teachers, academics and policymakers in the UK and internationally. Praise for History and the Climate Crisis 'There has never been a better time to explore how history can help young people make sense of the climate crisis and this book is the perfect starting point. It takes us on a journey across broad timespans and smaller stories, providing fresh insights into what is already taught in classrooms and introducing us to surprising and fascinating perspectives along the way. Its breadth and accessibility will make it indispensable to teachers at every stage of their career and I cannot recommend it highly enough.' Dr Alison Kitson, Associate Professor of Education and Programme Director, Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education, UCL Institute of Education ‘A welcome and much-needed book that will be invaluable for all those thinking about how to better integrate environmental sciences and history into the classroom. An incredibly helpful resource for teachers – and therefore for pupils too.’ Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History, Worcester College, University of Oxford

Neben der Zeitschrift Wiener Slawistischer Almanach erscheinen seit 1980 auch 2-3 Mal jährlich Sonderbände (seither 94 Ausgaben) mit literaturwissenschaftlichem oder linguistischem Schwerpunkt. Die literarische Reihe umfasst Monographien oder Tagungsbeiträge aus allen Bereichen der aktuellen slavischen Literaturwissenschaft und weit darüber hinaus (Medientheorie, Kulturwissenschaft, Literaturkritik). Die Beiträge oder Monographien erscheinen in der Regel in deutscher, russischer oder endlischer Sprache. Publikationsvorschläge an [email protected]

The first invention and development of the functional diesel engine was in 1897 by Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel, German inventor. Until now, this invention has been superseded by the development of very productive engines and mechanics. Current diesel engines are well known to many people around the world and serve in innumerable applications for various types of public transport, light and heavy duty transportation, for automotive, railway, maritime or aviation transportation, in different harsh environments, in construction, in mining, and for diverse industries. The light duty or heavy-duty diesel engines have some drawbacks. One of the main concerns is connected with exhaust emissions generated by diesel engines. This book discusses the generation of diesel exhaust emissions and mitigations, performance, emissions and combustion evaluations, utilisation of alternative biodiesel fuels, comparison of different techniques for measurement of soot and diesel particulate matter, analyses of diesel particulate matter flow pattern, and chemical composition of diesel particulate matter. The main concern of this book is to expand knowledge of readers and bring together the latest research findings related to diesel engine exhaust emissions.

Cashews from Africa’s Gold Coast, butterflies from Sierra Leone, jalap root from Veracruz, shells from Jamaica—in the eighteenth century, these specimens from faraway corners of the Atlantic were tucked away onboard inhumane British slaving vessels. Kathleen S. Murphy argues that the era’s explosion of new natural knowledge was deeply connected to the circulation of individuals, objects, and ideas through the networks of the British transatlantic slave trade. Plants, seeds, preserved animals and insects, and other specimens were gathered by British slave ship surgeons, mariners, and traders at slaving factories in West Africa, in ports where captive Africans disembarked, and near the British South Sea Company’s trading factories in Spanish America. The specimens were displayed in British museums and herbaria, depicted in published natural histories, and discussed in the halls of scientific societies. Grounded in extensive archival research on both sides of the Atlantic, Captivity’s Collections mines scientific treatises, slaving companies' records, naturalists' correspondence, and museum catalogs to recover in rich detail the scope of the slave trade’s collecting operations. The book reveals the scientific and natural historical profit derived from these activities and the crucial role of specimens gathered along the routes of the slave trade on emerging ideas in natural history.

Physics and Literature is a unique collaboration between physicists and literary scholars, the first book to explore together the relations between both fields in depth. Contributors analyze central aspects of literary and scientific thought and representation, and the forms of exchange between them. They clarify how narrative, fiction, metaphor and language interact with models, experiment, measurement and mathematics, across eras and genres.

Thessaly was a region of great importance in the ancient Greek world, possessing both agricultural abundance and a strategic position between north and south. It presents historians with the challenge of seeing beyond traditional stereotypes (wealth and witches, horses and hospitality) that have coloured perceptions of its people from antiquity to the present day. It also presents a complex and illuminating interaction between polis and ethnos identity. In daily life, most Thessalians primarily operated within, and identified with, their specific polis; at the same time, the regional dimension – being Thessalian – was rarely out of sight for long. It manifested itself in stories told, in deities worshipped, in modes of political co-operation, in language, rituals, sites and objects. Chapter by chapter, this book follows the emergence, development and adaptation of Thessalian regional identity from the Archaic period to the early second century BC. In so doing, rather than rejecting ancient stereotypes as a mere inconvenience for the historian, it considers the constant dialogue between Thessalian self-presentation and depictions of the Thessalian character by other Greeks. It also confronts some of the prejudices and assumptions still influencing modern approaches to studying the region. All in all, the reader is invited to see Thessaly not as a region of marginal significance in Greek history, but as occupying a central role in many aspects of ancient cultural and political discourse.

Chinese Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy in the 1970s undertakes a systematic examination of selected aspects of Peking’s foreign policy, using content analysis, both quantitative and qualitative, of the media. The first study treats media images of the United States and Taiwan in 1976–77; the second analyzes domestic politics and foreign trade, 1971–1976. [1, 2]

This book contains the proceedings from Weaponising Speculation, a two-day conference and exhibition that took place in Dublin in March 2013. Weaponising Speculation was organised by D.U.S.T. (Dublin Unit for Speculative Thought) and aimed to be an exploration of the various expressions of DIY theory operative in the elsewheres, the shafts and tunnels of the para-academy. The topics covered all come under the welcoming embrace of speculation, spanning a broad range: from art, philosophy, nature, fiction, and computation to spiders, culinary cosmology, and Oscar the Grouch. The book itself aims to be more than just a collection of essays and catalogue of artworks, but also a documentation of the event as a whole. An object that both those present at the event and those who missed it would want to own — bringing something new to both sets of readers

Nanotechnology is the science of manipulating atoms and molecules in the nanoscale thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair. The world market for products that contain nanomaterials is expected to increase enormously in the future. The use of nanotechnology has stretched across various streams of science, from electronics to medicine and has also found applications in the field of cosmetics. How will this revolution impact our lifestyle and our planet? Very often the progresses of science, human knowledge and evolution of our lifestyle has been associated with devastating effects on our forests, oceans and more in general on our planet. The real challenge in the years to come is the sustainability of human evolution. The reader of this interesting book will discover how nanotechnology, and in particular nanomaterials derived from plant biomass and fishery’s waste, can improve the quality of our environment by reducing carbon emissions, improving the recycling of materials and even, in the long run, became a profitable business. Green nanotechnologies can be applied to a huge number of products ranging from intelligent textiles to smart drugs or functional polymers which can have a big impact on our daily lives, but nevertheless help us in saving our biodiversity and our planet. However, to fully achieve all these benefits, companies and scientists should be supported by National and International Agencies and Institutions in order to facilitate and support scientific development in this field allowing from one side the protection of intellectual property, but on the other giving accessibility of these technologies to emerging countries for improving the quality of life and the environment all over the world equally.

Religionen stellen laut Rosa kategoriale Bedingungen der Möglichkeit für Resonanzerfahrungen bereit. Sie bieten mit ihrem Resonanzversprechen und Reservoir an Symbolen, Narrativen und Ritualen Beziehungsmöglichkeiten, die gegen die moderne Steigerungslogik wirken können. Zugleich ist feststellbar, dass viele von Christentum und Islam entfremdet sind und somit keine Resonanz in diesen Traditionen erfahren. Dieser Band untersucht innerreligiös motivierte Verhältnisse zwischen Gottesverständnis und Lebensform in kritischer Auseinandersetzung mit Hartmut Rosas Resonanztheorie . Es ist ein wesentliches Ziel des Bandes, eine Plattform für die kritische Auseinandersetzung mit der Resonanztheorie im religiösen Kontext zu schaffen und diesen mit anderen wissenschaftlichen Disziplinen zu realisieren. Aus theologischer Perspektive wird ein gegenseitiges Anregungsverhältnis auch für die Theorieentwicklung angezielt. Resonanzerfahrungen in ihrem Zusammenhang zum jeweiligen religiösen Sozialgestalt zu erkunden, leistet nicht nur einen Transfer von theologischer Begründung zu soziologischer Einsicht, sondern arbeitet die religionsbezogene Relevanz der Resonanztheorie weiter aus und ist somit für eine theolog., soziolog. und religionswiss. Leserschaft relevant.

Since its first publication in 2022, Racism in Modern Russia has become a key text for understanding the role that race has played in Russian, Soviet, and post-Soviet history and politics. Analyzing a wide range of printed and visual sources, this timely accessible open access volume marks the first serious attempt to understand the history of racialization over a span of 150 years. A brilliant examination of the complexities of racism, Eugene M. Avrutin's panoramic book asks powerful questions about inequality and privilege, denigration and belonging, power and policy, the creation of exclusionary boundaries in everyday life, and the complex historical links between race, whiteness, and geography. The revised edition includes significant new research on race and racism in the Caucasus and Central Asia, the history of color consciousness and biopolitics, and the aesthetics of anti-racism campaigns, as well as a thoroughly updated selected bibliography for further reading. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the University of Illinois, USA.