Open Access Books

This book is a collection of contributions on the synthesis, characterization, and applications of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOF) and Coordination Polymers (CP). Coordination Polymers (CP) and Metal–Organic Frameworks (MOF) are at the core of contemporary research on inorganic materials. The virtually infinite combination of their building blocks—inorganic metallic nodes (single ions or clusters) and organic polytopic linkers (polycarboxylates, bridging N-/S-/O-containing heterocycles)—generates solid air- and water-stable compounds. Interesting features from an applicative point of view are porosity, large surface area, and lattice flexibility (the “breathing” effect). These properties make them ubiquitous in several fields of materials science: gas storage and separation, luminescent sensing, heterogeneous catalysis, and magnetism.

Digital libraries are transforming the contemporary knowledge ecosystem, reshaping how information is created, shared, accessed, and preserved. Advances in digital technologies, networked infrastructures, and data-driven tools have expanded libraries beyond physical spaces and institutional boundaries, enabling new forms of scholarly communication, learning, and public engagement, while also introducing complex conceptual, technical, organizational, and ethical challenges. Digital Library – Concepts, Challenges, and Future Directions explores these transformations through contributions from diverse perspectives and global contexts. The volumes offer a balanced overview of foundational concepts, current challenges, emerging technologies, and the productive synergies shaping digital library development and use worldwide, reflecting the field’s interdisciplinary and evolving nature. Covering topics such as digital library models and architectures, metadata and interoperability, digital preservation, user experience and accessibility, intellectual property and ethics, and the growing influence of artificial intelligence and data analytics, the book integrates theoretical insights with practical experiences drawn from a wide range of institutional and cultural settings. Authored by researchers and practitioners across disciplines, including library and information science and the digital humanities, this open-access volume underscores the global relevance of digital libraries and the importance of context-sensitive approaches. Its publication aligns with the principles of knowledge sharing and inclusivity central to digital libraries and IntechOpen’s mission. Organized thematically from conceptual foundations to applied challenges and future-oriented perspectives, this book is also an essential resource for researchers, graduate students, librarians, and information professionals engaged in digital library research and practice.

This Special Issue, titled “Security and Privacy for Modern Wireless Communication Systems, 2nd Edition”, aims to address urgent challenges by highlighting the latest innovations in protocols, architectures, and software and hardware solutions designed to enhance the security and privacy of contemporary wireless networks. Unlike traditional systems, modern wireless environments must accommodate a diverse array of resource-constrained devices, ultra-low-latency applications, and emerging vulnerabilities introduced by technologies such as intelligent reflective surfaces, blockchain, edge/fog/cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (AI). As wireless technologies advance toward 6G and beyond, and as the integration of AI, IoT, and edge computing deepens, ensuring secure and trustworthy communication infrastructures remains a critical priority. Through this collection, we not only hope to platform current research but also inspire further innovation in this vital field.

Published

Los sistemas de andenería en los Andes centrales contribuyeron a la seguridad alimentaria y al desarrollo de las civilizaciones andinas prehispánicas. Actualmente el tejido socioeconómico andino está empobrecido, con escasa cohesión y falta de políticas coherentes que promuevan un desarrollo sustentable. El presente libro describe el origen de los sistemas de andenería en el contexto de cambio climático, geográfico, agroecológico y de ingeniería, así como su papel en la cultura y el patrimoni...

Following the Milan Universal Exposition, the scientific debate about food and nutrition has gained particular attention in 2015. As a result, this volume focuses on issues related to food safety, consumption, research and technology. Within the Hórisma project, funded by the University of Milano-Bicocca and the University of Milan, four young scholars investigated the possible developments of food production and consumption from different perspectives through a critical analysis on food trends in the international scenario. The main theme that links all the essays collected in this book is the belief that stimulating dialogue among different disciplines, as well as promoting an integrated and multidisciplinary approach, is crucial to face all the issues concerning food and its connections to law, technology, society, and science.

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This open access anthology takes a holistic approach to how Russia carries out hybrid warfare against its neighbouring countries - states at the intersection between the East and West. The book addresses the vulnerabilities of these countries to Russian influence and hybrid warfare tactics, as well as their responses to this security challenge. It includes a close examination of local developments in states such as Ukraine, Belarus, Finland, Armenia, Serbia and many others, analysing specific scenarios and practices, and draws on these observations to develop the current conceptual understanding of hybrid warfare as a phenomenon. Scholarship frequently focuses only on Russia and treats countries subjected to Russian hybrid measures as passive victims, thus providing an overly schematic picture of Russian behaviour. This book instead treats these states as actors in their own right, assessing their potential to address and counter the specific security problems arising from their geographic and political position. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.

Wie lesen und deuten wir die Welt, in der wir leben? Wer ist der Mensch in Relation zu Natur und Technik? Welche Pointe liegt in den Selbstzuschreibungen »religiös« oder »gläubig«? Mit der Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie und einer Auflösung der klassischen Gegenüberstellung von Natur und Kultur ist das Denken Bruno Latours zu einer gefragten Ressource in gegenwärtigen Debatten geworden. Die Beiträger*innen des Bandes gehen seinem Anspruch nach, eine »symmetrische« Anthropologie zu entwerfen, in der Materiellem ein mitentscheidender Platz für die Theorie-, Wert- und Urteilsbildung zukommt — denn dieses Denken gibt auch der Theologie wertvolle Impulse für ihre intellektuelle Zeitgenossenschaft.

Abuses by international corporations, withdrawal of social services and implementation of regressive legislation continue to impoverish women and reduce the quality of their everyday lives: women have reason to be demoralized. Recognizing this challenging and difficult situation, this volume reviews women's successes at feminizing Canadian institutions. It is intended to hearten the women's movement, and show the potential for feminist change and suggest ways to realize this potential.

Someone has taken a trip and taken photographs of that trip and someone else has been invited to watch a slideshow of the trip taken. There is a road, there is an abstract painting, there is a viewer who wishes he could live in a televised loop of a sunset and another who wonders why people are fat. Tribulations of a Westerner in the Western World is a stunning first book by Vincent Dachy, a narrated slideshow of inner and outer geographies complete with 52 black and white photographs taken by the author.

The agri-food sector has faced several challenges in recent years. The increase in the global population, and thus, growing food demand has led to the over-exploitation of numerous agricultural systems by farmers and agri-food entrepreneurs. However, in most cases, producers prioritize increasing their incomes, neglecting to consider the environmental and social impacts of their production processes. The search for ever greater yields and revenues has degraded agro-ecosystems, forcing both farmers and agri-food firms leave rural areas. Moreover, as global warming requires us to rethink existing production processes from economic, environmental and social points of view to reduce GHGs emissions, it is necessary to adopt sustainable agri-food production. This reprint contains empirical studies and systematic reviews regarding the achievement of a sustainable agri-food sector by assessing entrepreneurs’ choices, consumer behavior and policy interventions.

Kurstädte standen lange im Schatten der Stadtgeschichtsforschung: zu klein, zu idyllisch und in ihrer Bedeutsamkeit oszillierend. Eine vergleichende Perspektive auf Kurstädte enthüllt rasch, dass sie äußerst vielschichtige, ja sogar widersprüchliche Orte des entstehenden Tourismus waren. Kurstädte siedelten sich im Spannungsfeld von ländlicher Idylle und städtischer Moderne bzw. von Entsagung und Überfluss an: Kneippkuren standen neben rauschenden Theaterabenden, reiche Industrielle neben Armenbadbesuchern. Dieser Stadttypus galt als Experimentierfeld der urbanen Moderne, wo man bald zentralisierte Schlachthöfe, Fotografen und Telegrafen antraf. Kurstädte waren auch Orte der politischen Auseinandersetzung, des entstehenden Rassismus und der Fremdenfeindlichkeit.

In dieser Arbeit wird eine Methodik für die optimale Führung von einzelnen Fertigungsprozessen in einer Prozesskette entwickelt. Zur Regelung eines Prozesses anhand seines nicht zugänglichen Zustands werden echtzeitfähige und robuste Beobachtermodelle mittels statistischer Modellierung erstellt, um den Prozesszustand aus wenigen observablen Messgrößen zu rekonstruieren. Die Zustandsverfolgung und die optimale Prozessführung werden mit einem generischen Prozessmodell zur allgemeinen Beschreibung der Prozessbeziehungen, die bei der Anwendung auf einen Prozess durch Anpassung auf konkrete Daten ausgeprägt werden, umgesetzt. Die Machbarkeit der generischen Prozessmodellierung wird durch Anwendung auf mehrere Prozesse des Tiefziehens unterschiedlicher Komplexität und einen Prozess des Widerstandspunktschweißens demonstriert.

The role of parents in shaping the characters of their children, the causes of violence and crime, and the roots of personal unhappiness are central to humanity. Like so many fundamental questions about human existence, these issues all relate to behavioural development. In this lucid and accessible book, eminent biologist Professor Sir Patrick Bateson suggests that the nature/nurture dichotomy we oft en use to think about questions of development in both humans and animals is misleading. Instead, he argues that we should pay attention to whole systems, rather than to simple causes, when trying to understand the complexity of development. In his wide-ranging approach Bateson discusses why so much behaviour appears to be well-designed. He explores issues such as ‘imprinting' and its importance to the attachment of off spring to their parents; the mutual benefits that characterise communication between parent and off spring; the importance of play in learning how to choose and control the optimal conditions in which to thrive; and the vital function of adaptability in the interplay between development and evolution. Bateson disputes the idea that a simple link can be found between genetics and behaviour. What an individual human or animal does in its life depends on the reciprocal nature of its relationships with the world about it. This knowledge also points to ways in which an animal's own behaviour can provide the variation that influences the subsequent course of evolution. This has relevance not only for our scientific approaches to the systems of development and evolution, but also on how humans change institutional rules that have become dysfunctional, or design public health measures when mismatches occur between themselves and their environments. It affects how we think about ourselves and our own capacity for change.