Open Access Books

Advanced Biology delves into the intricate mechanisms and processes that govern life at molecular, cellular, and systemic levels. It extends beyond foundational biological principles to explore complex biological systems, including molecular genetics, cellular signaling, immunology, evolution, and ecology. This field integrates knowledge from genetics, biochemistry, physiology, and bioinformatics to provide a deeper understanding of the biological underpinnings of living organisms. Central to advanced biology is the study of cellular and molecular biology, including the mechanisms of gene expression, DNA replication, protein synthesis, and cellular regulation. Additionally, topics such as cell division, signal transduction pathways, and the molecular basis of diseases are explored in greater detail. Advanced biology also emphasizes the role of evolution in shaping the diversity of life, through mechanisms such as natural selection, genetic drift, and speciation. The principles of ecology and environmental biology are also integral, highlighting the interaction between organisms and their environments. The integration of advanced biotechnological tools, such as CRISPR gene editing, high-throughput sequencing, and computational modeling, has revolutionized our understanding of biological processes and opened new frontiers in medicine, agriculture, and environmental science. Advanced biology is key to addressing contemporary challenges, including the study of emerging diseases, personalized medicine, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable ecosystem management.

In his Zibaldone Magliabechiano (vvd. 223v-35v) Boccaccio wrote his personal rework of the first three books of Hayton's Flos historiarum terrae Orientis, renowned 1307 treatise on the crusade, soon re-interpreted as an odeporical text since few years after its publishing. As it's said in the preface, the author's intention was to improve the style of the original work, that he rated too verbose and rough; my article will consider the adaptation of the first book in order to understand the critical eye with which Boccaccio read the work and to analyse the particular attention dedicated to the geographical informations that he found in it.

Salt stress is one of the most damaging abiotic stresses because most crop plants are susceptible to salinity to different degrees. According to the FAO, about 800 million Has of land are affected by salinity worldwide. Unfortunately, this situation will worsen in the context of climate change, where there will be an overall increase in temperature and a decrease in average annual rainfall worldwide. This Special Issue presents different research works and reviews on the response of plants to salinity, focused from different points of view: physiological, biochemical, and molecular levels. Although an important part of the studies on the response to salinity have been carried out with Arabidopsis plants, the use of other species with agronomic interest is also notable, including woody plants. Most of the conducted studies in this Special Issue were focused on the identification and characterization of candidate genes for salt tolerance in higher plants. This identification would provide valuable information about the molecular and genetic mechanisms involved in the salt tolerance response, and it also supplies important resources to breeding programs for salt tolerance in plants.

Journalism ethics have long relied on a conceptual distinction between professional communicators and their audience in the process of ascribing responsibility. In a time of participation and produsage, however, this distinction has become obsolete. This chapter presents results from three waves of problem-centered interviews with online journalists, media users, and experts from the field of media self-regulation in order to identify and structure the ethical problems of user participation in journalism. The results of the empirical study provide evidence of a participatory turn in journalism ethics, which is, however, by no means complete. Although participants describe similar challenges they encounter in the process of participatory content production, they refer to different sets of norms and values to justify quality judgments about their media products. The analysis shows that the principles of reciprocity and mutuality, as discussed in communitarian ethics and the ethics of care, could serve as new leitmotifs in the future process of shaping a timely ethic of produsage.

Recidivism belongs to the main categories of criminology, crime policy and criminal justice. If the target of preventing offenders from reoffending is taken seriously crime policy should be measured by success of certain penal sanctions in terms of relapses. Also institutions that deal directly with crime and offenders need to get basic information on the consequences of their actions; particularly general knowledge about offender groups at risk of reoffending. All these are reasons why representative recidivism studies are needed. Meanwhile a lot of European countries gather systematic and comprehensive information on recidivism, periodically and on a national level. This volume presents an exemplary collection of such endeavors: Austria, Estonia, France, Germany, Switzerland and a comparative study of England and Wales, the Netherlands and Scotland.

The story opens at a time when Cabinda – a small African enclave surrounded by the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and separated from Angola by the Congo River – is plunged into bloody war. Deep in the heart of Cabinda is the Mayombe rainforest, home to a group of guerrilla fighters whose very existence is to liberate their land from the terrors perpetrated by the Angolan army. Against that backdrop of massacres and deforestation and written with crusading fervour, this novel is much more than a political tract. It is a powerful story of impossible love: the poignant love of the principled, young doctor Albino for the country lass Maria; the redemptory love which his ailing, ruthless grandfather Santos is surprised to feel as death approaches; and the love of a dispossessed people for the land of their birth. Recommended reading, then, for lovers of African literature, as well as for scholars and adepts of colonial and postcolonial literature.

Over the past decade, coastal and freshwater systems in the U.S. and worldwide have experienced an apparent increase in the frequency and geographic distribution of harmful algal blooms (HABs). These blooms can adversely affect both public health and ecosystem health. Toxin-producing HABs can accumulate in drinking and recreational waters and in foods of aquatic origin such as fish and seafood. Human and animal health risks include exposure to the toxins through eating contaminated food or drinking or swimming in contaminated water. Because of these potential public health risks, several countries and U.S. states have developed monitoring programs and guidelines for drinking and recreational water quality to protect public health. This special issue will present research papers and reviews on various aspects of public health and environmental responses to harmful algal blooms. [...]

This book is a Printed Edition of the Special Issue that covers research on symmetric and asymmetric data that occur in real-life problems. We invited authors to submit their theoretical or experimental research to present engineering and economic problem solution models that deal with symmetry or asymmetry of different data types. The Special Issue gained interest in the research community and received many submissions. After rigorous scientific evaluation by editors and reviewers, seventeen papers were accepted and published. The authors proposed different solution models, mainly covering uncertain data in multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) problems as complex tools to balance the symmetry between goals, risks, and constraints to cope with the complicated problems in engineering or management. Therefore, we invite researchers interested in the topics to read the papers provided in the book.

Nostalgie boomt – als kulturelles Phänomen wie als Forschungsgegenstand. Was aber ist und wie wirkt Nostalgie? Dieses Buch zeigt auf, wie Nostalgie die Zeit anzuhalten sucht und unsere Wahrnehmung steuert. Eng verknüpft mit dem Aufkommen neuer Medientechnologien und Prozessen des Konsums schaffen Nostalgie und Retro imaginierte Zeit-Räume, die Vergangenes neu erfinden und sich Zukünftigem öffnen. Nostalgia booms – both as cultural phenomenon and as research object. Yet what is nostalgia, and how does it work? This book shows how nostalgia aims at arresting time and channels our perception. Inextricably entwined with the rise of new media technologies and processes of consumption, nostalgia and retro create imagined time-spaces which reinvent the past and face the future.

When speaking of narrativity, a widely held idea in various disciplinary fields that identity is essentially narrative is often called into question. Numerous linguistic, literary, neuroscientific, and evolutionary studies corroborate this idea. In reality, narrativity in these different fields of study often means different objects of inquiry, which have different definitions and describe different processes and, therefore, different cognitive capacities. In this paper, we will consider the notion of narrativity as a cognitive process, that is, as a component of the human mode of knowledge construction. As such, narrativity would constitute a cognitive universal. From this definition, we will show how narrativity is an eminently linguistic process made possible by the body technology of language and voice in particular. Finally, we will argue for the constitutive and bodily role of language for narrativity in ontogenetic development and inner speech.

Substantial Relations examines global reproductive medicine in India, focusing on in vitro fertilization. Since the 1970s, India has played a central but shifting role in shaping global reproductive medicine—from a provider of raw material, to a producer of knowledge and technology, to a creator of a thriving medical market that attracts patients from all over the world. Relying on archival material and oral history, Substantial Relations traces the path of this transnational historical trajectory. This book also examines the contemporary making of IVF in Delhi. Drawing on ethnographic research in homes, hospitals, and laboratories, Sandra Bärnreuther provides deep insights into the intricacies of clinical life and everyday experience by depicting IVF users' quest for offspring and their fears of establishing unwanted ties, as well as the minute engagements of clinicians and laboratory staff with reproductive substances. Thinking through substances—metaphorically and materially—Sandra Bärnreuther provides a novel and rich analysis of the various relations that the burgeoning IVF sector in India has relied on and generated. Substantial Relations contributes to a broader understanding of reproductive medicine as a global phenomenon constantly in the making, situating India in the midst of, rather than peripheral to, this process.