Open Access Books

Pain Management - Current Issues and Opinions is written by international experts who cover a number of topics about current pain management problems, and gives the reader a glimpse into the future of pain treatment. Several chapters report original research, while others summarize clinical information with specific treatment options. The international mix of authors reflects the "casting of a broad net" to recruit authors on the cutting edge of their area of interest. Pain Management - Current Issues and Opinions is a must read for the up-to-date pain clinician.

This book is a collection of scientific papers on earthquake preparedness, vulnerability, resilience, and risk assessment. Using case studies from various countries, chapters cover topics ranging from early warning systems and risk perception to long-term effects of earthquakes on vulnerable communities and the science of seismology, among others. This volume is a valuable resource for researchers, students, non-governmental organizations, and key decision-makers involved in earthquake disaster management systems at national, regional, and local levels.

In strömungsführenden Kanälen werden zur Schalldämpfung unter anderem mikroperforierte Absorber (MPA) verwendet. Diese bestehen in der Regel aus einem mikroperforierten Paneel (MPP) in Kombination mit einem Rückvolumen. Die Dämpfungsmaxima treten dabei im Bereich der Resonanzfrequenzen auf, die mit zunehmendem Rückvolumen sinken. Das ist insbesondere bei Anwendungen mit begrenztem Bauraum eine Herausforderung, wenn tiefe Frequenzen gedämpft werden sollen. In der Literatur wird die Kombination aus MPP und porösen oder faserigen Absorbern als Möglichkeit genannt, den erforderlichen Bauraum zu reduzieren. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit war deshalb die Auslegung von schalldämpfenden Wandauskleidungen als Double‐Layer MPA bestehend aus einem geschlitzten MPP, einem passiven Absorber unterhalb des MPP und einem mit Luft gefüllten Rückvolumen. In vergleichbaren Untersuchungen in der Literatur werden faserige oder poröse Absorber verwendet, deren akustische Eigenschaften nicht oder nur bedingt beeinflusst werden können. Dies reduziert die Freiheitsgrade bei der Auslegung. Deshalb wurden in dieser Arbeit additiv gefertigte Absorber in Form periodischer Gitterstrukturen verwendet, deren akustische Eigenschaften in Abhängigkeit der Gitterkonstante gezielt angepasst werden können. Ein zentraler Bestandteil dieser Arbeit war deshalb die akustische Modellierung der additiv gefertigten porösen Absorber als Funktion der Gitterkonstante. Darauf aufbauend erfolgte die Auslegung und Gestaltung der Wandauskleidungen als Double-Layer MPA. Gegenüber vergleichbarer Wandauskleidungen ohne additiv gefertigte poröse Absorber gelingt es den erforderlichen Bauraum um über zehn Prozent zu reduzieren. Validierende Messungen bestätigen die Modellbildung und Auslegung der Wandauskleidungen.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden analytische Modelle zum Kraft- und Formschluss sowie zur Schnee-Schnee-Reibung vorgestellt, die den Reifen- und Fahrbahneinfluss auf die Kraftübertragung auf Schnee und Eis beschreiben. Mit Hilfe der entwickelten Modelle werden Versuchsergebnisse zum Einfluss wichtiger Betriebsgrößen und zum Einfluss von Reifen- und Fahrbahneigenschaften eingehender analysiert und so die wesentlichen Mechanismen des Kraftübertragungsprozesses auf Winterfahrbahnen identifiziert.

Albert Hoffstädt, a classicist by training and polylingual humanist by disposition, has for 25 years been the editor chiefly responsible for the development and acquisition of manuscripts in Asian Studies for Brill. During that time he has shepherded over 700 books into print and has distinguished himself as a figure of exceptional discernment and insight in academic publishing. He has also become a personal friend to many of his authors. A subset of these authors here offers to him in tribute and gratitude 22 essays on various topics in Asian Studies. These include studies on premodern Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Korean literature, history, and religion, extending also into the modern and contemporary periods. They display the broad range of Mr. Hoffstädt's interests while presenting some of the most outstanding scholarship in Asian Studies today.

Fréquemment assimilé aux politiques publiques qui ont accompagné la reconstruction postérieure à la Seconde Guerre mondiale, l'aménagement du territoire tel qu'on le concevait alors visait la modernisation du pays. Il était pensé comme facteur de progrès a priori et reposait sur une conception techniciste qui voyait dans des ingénieurs les seules autorités compétentes, excluant l'expérience des populations. Les nuisances et les bouleversements de tous ordres induits par les aménagements étaient considérés comme négligeables, le prix à payer dans l'intérêt général. Leur contestation ne pouvait être motivée que par l'ignorance ou l'égoïsme. Les dix-neuf contributions réunies dans ce livre proposent une vision nouvelle des aménagements territoriaux. Pensant les territoires comme des champs de négociation où s'affrontent des forces variées, elles cherchent à inclure dans l'étude de leur aménagement la façon dont l'environnement, que les sociétés cherchent à maîtriser et à mettre au service de leurs desseins, réagit à son tour à la transformation imposée. Considérant des aménagements effectués à toutes les périodes de l'histoire, elles cherchent à identifier leur impact économique, social, environnemental ou même culturel, y compris sur le long terme. Une tentative ambitieuse, tant il est vrai que même lorsque les aménagements passés sont identifiés comme des échecs, voire comme des réalisations néfastes, par leurs auteurs eux-mêmes, il est bien rare que cela soit exprimé publiquement.

The book is a critical examination of affirmative action, a form of preferential development often used to address the situation of disadvantaged groups. It uses a trans-global approach, as opposed to the comparative approach, to examine the relationship between affirmative action, ethnic conflict and the role of the state in Fiji, Malaysia and South Africa. While affirmative action has noble goals, there are often intervening political and ideological factors in the form of ethno-nationalism and elite interests, amongst others, which potentially undermine fair distribution of affirmative action resources. The book examines the affirmative action philosophies and programs of the three countries and raises pertinent questions about whether affirmative action has led to equality, social justice, harmony and political stability and explores future possibilities. “Steven Ratuva provides a brilliant critical study, not just of affirmative action policy and practice in three very different postcolonial contexts, but of the very complex matters of principle, justification and ideology that are involved more generally. It is an invaluable contribution to the literature on this important topic.” - Dr Stephanie Lawson, Professor of Politics and International Relations, Macquarie University. “Scholarly and provocative, Steven Ratuva’s Politics of Preferential Development is an original and insightful comparative contribution to the growing literature on affirmative action around the world.” - Dr Ralph Premdas, Professor of Public Policy, University of West Indies; Former Professor, University of California Berkeley and University of Toronto.

Reúne ensaios sobre a literatura destinada à infância e ao jovem e sobre as práticas de leitura no âmbito da escola e da vida social. Os autores transitam por diversos recortes temporais da relação entre leitura e educação, oferecendo também análise das reflexões de Cecília Meirelles e de Leonardo Arroyo acerca do tema. Os capítulos contribuem para o debate sobre a função da leitura literária na escola e a formação dos professores na condição de mediadores fundamentais do processo educativo.

Die Südosteuropa-Jahrbücher werden von der in München ansässigen Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft, der wichtigsten Wissenschaftsorganisation der Südosteuropa-Forschung im deutschsprachigen Raum, herausgegeben. Sie geben die Tagungsergebnisse der jährlich in Kooperation mit der Akademie für Politische Bildung in Tutzing stattfindenden Internationalen Hochschulwoche der Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft wieder. Die Bände bieten umfassende analytische Grundlagen aus interdisziplinärer Perspektive. Herausgeber der Einzelbände sind renommierte Repräsentanten der deutschen und internationalen Südosteuropa-Forschung.

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Plankton is a group of small organisms that are passively displaced by water, that is, they are dragged by marine tides and currents. Marine plankton, which includes organisms such as protozoa, microalgae, small crustaceans, and jellyfish, play an important role in maintaining the health and balance of the ocean and its complex food chains. Over three sections and eight chapters, this book provides a comprehensive overview of zooplankton and phytoplankton as well as their environmental and economic importance.

In this edited book, the authors seek answers to the question “What is the future of working life?” with research-based approaches. The state of working life and its changes and development are affected by many factors starting from global phenomena to workplace level events, actions and procedures. The book examines working life trends on multiple levels covering structural development paths, the role of labor policy, organizational practices and subjective experiences of individuals. Working life research produces valuable information which is beneficial both at workplace level and at the use of decision-makers who regulate working life matters.

This work makes a reading of the processes of renewal of the high quality accreditation of higher education institutions (HEI) in Colombia, taking as a reference the new sociological institutionalism, from its concepts of myths, logics and isomorphisms of organizations. From a comprehensive exercise, we seek to contribute to the resignification of such processes from the epistemological assumptions of organizational studies, through the configuration of emerging scenarios and orientations of management and quality assurance, when HEIs are assumed as complex organizations that are socially constructed.In terms of units of analysis, 24 HEIs were taken, through the content analysis of an equal number of institutional accreditation renewal resolutions and 24 self-evaluation reports. Likewise, an instrumental case study was implemented to make in-depth readings of the realities of the accreditation processes, and questionnaires and interviews were applied to members of the National Accreditation Council (CNA), peer evaluators and leaders of quality offices in HEIs.The central argument of this book is that the processes of renewal of institutional accreditation for high quality have been recurrently approached from explanatory and technical-instrumental rationalities; displacing the critical and transformative reading of the social complexities of HEIs as pedagogical organizations of a social, historical and complex nature. Therefore, it is necessary to redefine the processes of self-evaluation, accreditation and self-regulation of HEIs with a view to the renewal of institutional accreditation.