Open Access Books

This book covers the current trends in clinical deep brain stimulation (DBS) research. This collection of papers from experts in the field provides state of the art knowledge and future perspectives in clinical DBS research. A range of topics involved in DBS is presented, ranging from high resolution imaging, electrophysiology and personalized medicine, in a broad range of brain disorders.

Buddhist texts on the path to liberation The Gandhāran birch-bark scrolls preserve the earliest remains of Buddhist literature known today and provide unprecedented insights into the history of Buddhism. This volume presents three manuscripts from the Bajaur Collection (BC), a group of nineteen scrolls discovered at the end of the twentieth century and named after their findspot in northwestern Pakistan. The manuscripts, written in the Gāndhārī language and Kharoṣṭhī script, date to the second century CE. The three scrolls—BC 4, BC 6, and BC 11—contain treatises that focus on the Buddhist concept of non-attachment. This volume is the first in the Gandhāran Buddhist Texts series that is devoted to texts belonging to the Mahāyāna tradition. There are no known versions of these texts in other Buddhist traditions, and it is assumed that they are autographs. Andrea Schlosser provides an overview of the contents of the manuscripts and discusses their context, genre, possible authorship, physical layout, paleography, orthography, phonology, and morphology. Transliteration and translation of the texts are accompanied by notes on difficult terminology, photographs of the reconstructed scrolls, an index of Gāndhārī words with Sanskrit and Pali equivalents, and a preliminary transliteration of the scroll BC 19.

Welche Methoden der personalen Vermittlung gibt es im Museum? Wie können in Museen Gespräche initiiert und neue Perspektiven geschaffen werden, um mit Besucher*innen in Themen einzutauchen? Die Autorinnen versammeln unterschiedliche Ansätze aus Praxisbereichen wie Kunst, Geschichte und Technik und machen sie gemeinsam produktiv. Der Praxisguide dient als Nachschlagewerk und regt zum Weiterdenken sowie zur Entwicklung von Vermittlungsangeboten an. Darüber hinaus enthält er einen Überblick über die Literatur zur Methodik im deutschsprachigen Raum.

What is it like to go blind? 350 million people around the world live with severe vision impairment, ranging from those who can see a couple of letters on a sight chart to those who perceive no light at all. In this book we meet some of them, including artists, poets, scientists, architects, politicians, broadcasters and musicians. Together, we discuss every stage of life with vision impairment – from childhood and education to dating, employment and ageing – as well as the portrayal of blind people in literature and film, the use of technology by people with vision impairment, and the psychological effects of losing vision. Vision Impairment also reviews the major causes of sight loss today and shows the effect of these diseases on visual function. It surveys new and emerging treatments for serious eye diseases and explores what it is like to have vision restored after decades of being blind. Based on Michael Crossland’s extensive work in children’s and adults’ low vision clinics, and his 20 years of research into vision impairment, the book blends individual stories, key research findings and the most recent scientific discoveries to present an informative yet optimistic overview of living with sight loss. Praise for Vision Impairment ‘The key strength of this book is how scientific concepts around ophthalmology, vision science and sight loss are brought to life by letting patients explain what these concepts mean to them. This is not a book that has been written “about” patients; it has been written “with” them. In this sense, it is very much original, and I enjoyed reading it tremendously.’ Keziah Latham, Anglia Ruskin University

This book provides a comprehensive overview of labor management. It provides the most up-to-date evidence to guide obstetric practice and management. The chapter topics include general management of labor, fetal heart rate monitoring, and more specific issues such as multiple pregnancies or pregnancies associated with pregnancy pathology.

Volumen II de la compilación Je trabajos reunidos por el Grupo de Estudios del Trabajo desde el Sur (GETSURJ, de la Universidad Católica de Temuco Espacio territorio y trabajo es la temática general que engloba tus artículos reunidos. El propósito del volumen es demostrar, por medio de investigaciones empíricas, diferentes problemáticas, luchas y repertorios que se revelan en las condiciones actuales del trabajo al interior de uno o más territorios específicos.

Die freie Verfügbarkeit dieser E-Book-Ausgabe auf Basis einer CC BY 4.0-Lizenz wurde ermöglicht durch die ZBW – Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft.

Zinc, the second most prevalent trace element in the human body, is crucial for numerous physiological processes. It acts as a signaling molecule, modulating cellular pathways, gene expression, and enzyme activity. Zinc plays a vital role in immune function, wound healing, DNA synthesis, and antioxidant defense. In the brain, it regulates neuronal excitation and inhibition by modulating receptors like the glutamate receptor, which is essential for cognitive and motor function. However, zinc's role is complex, as both deficiency and excess can lead to pathological conditions. In neurological disorders, for example, zinc dysregulation contributes to seizures by disrupting the balance between excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission. Excessive intracellular zinc can lead to neurotoxicity, mitochondrial dysfunction, and cell death, while low zinc levels impair immune responses and promote inflammation. In cancer, metabolic diseases, and neurodegenerative conditions, altered zinc homeostasis can exacerbate disease progression. Thus, zinc’s physiological functions are intricately tied to health and disease. Its dual nature—as both protective and potentially harmful—makes it a critical target for research looking to develop therapeutic strategies aimed at restoring the zinc balance in various pathological conditions. Understanding the fine regulation of zinc is key to harnessing its potential for disease prevention and treatment.

Published

Der Krankenhaus-Report, der jährlich als Buch und als Open-Access-Publikation erscheint, greift 2023 das Schwerpunktthema „Personal“ auf. Nicht erst seit der Covid-19-Pandemie sind die Probleme der personellen Ausstattung und Personalverfügbarkeit im Krankenhaus, insbesondere in der Pflege, im Fokus der Diskussion. Der aktuelle Report analysiert die Ausgangslage und erörtert diverse Handlungsansätze mit Blick auf die Verbesserung der Personalsituation. Weiter diskutiert werden aber auch Fragen eines grundlegenden Reformbedarfs des Systems und der Finanzierung der stationären Versorgung, die auf der Agenda der aktuellen Gesundheitspolitik stehen. Der Krankenhaus-Report 2023 thematisiert mit Blick auf die Situation des Personals im Krankenhaus unter anderem:  Personalentwicklung im Zeitverlauf und in der internationalen Perspektive  Arbeitsmarktsituation beim Gesundheitspersonal  Image der Pflege  Aus- und Weiterbildung von Ärzten und Pflegekräften  Handlungsoptionen im Personalmanagement  Veränderungen der Personalsituation durch Digitalisierung und Robotik  Pflegepersonalvorgaben und Pflegekostenfinanzierung  Personalallokation und Strukturwandel Zusätzlich werden folgende Themen zur Diskussion gestellt: Reformkonzept der Regierungskommission zur Krankenhausvergütung Optionen zur Ausgestaltung einer Vorhaltefinanzierung Auswirkungen der Covid-19-Pandemie auf die Krankenhausleistungen Daneben stellt das Statistische Bundesamt Grund- und Diagnosedaten der Krankenhäuser bereit und die „Krankenhauspolitische Chronik“ bietet wie in den Vorjahren eine differenzierte Sicht auf die Ereignisse.

This is an open access book. This volume critically examines challenges in the field of current and future military technology from a transdisciplinary lens. It helps objectify the debate around the development of Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS). The volume offers a differentiated, informed and open approach to military artificial intelligence (AI) applications in the public realm, in politics and in the military itself. The contributions weigh the risks that artificially intelligent automation, like any new technology, brings, against technological innovation and progress. They address the issues of testing new technologies, implementing them socially and reflecting on their use, along with questions of unintended consequences of such technologies. The volume is divided into three parts. The first discusses perspectives on AI; how AI systems are understood by the public, by soldiers, and in cultural discourses. The focus is on (but not limited to) military applications. The second part focuses on the challenges and changes posed by the use of AI in military conflicts and addresses issues of how to deal with them. The third part examines the communication challenges posed by the implementation of AI in the military and the associated opportunities and risks. This highly topical and timely volume is for researchers and students across disciplines who have an interest in military technology and those interested in AI and new technology.

Over the last few decades, nanomedicine has become a hot topic in formulation science regarding selectively delivering drugs to target tissues. Nanomedicines can modify drug release and encapsulate poorly soluble drugs, allowing for a selective targeting and minimizing adverse effects. This is of key importance in antitumoral and anti-infectious therapies, in which undesired drug release can lead to severe damage to healthy tissues. Moreover, they protect drugs from degradation, allowing for the the delivery of RNA. This reprint encompasses works describing the design, development and characterization of lipid nanomedicines, dendrimers and virus nanoparticles among others, as well as the evaluation of their toxicity and their anticancer and antifungal efficacy. Moreover, it analyzes the quality assessment of nanomedicines under clinical investigation.

A Time to Sow offers a glimpse into the unofficial Jewish life in 1980s Leningrad, shaped by numerous long-term refusals from authorities to grant exit visas to Jews seeking to migrate to Israel. The book reveals how the lives of the “refuseniks” were marked by a continuous struggle for the right to emigrate, as well as by the formation of an informal community. It traces how the community provided mutual assistance in times of distress, particularly offering support to imprisoned activists and their families. The community also maintained contacts with co-religionist supporters visiting from abroad, engaged in Hebrew teaching, facilitated religious revival, celebrated Jewish holidays as a group, disseminated samizdat publications, conducted popular lectures on Jewish history and culture, and pursued Jewish studies. The book divulges how all these activities took place in private, despite the ban and persecution by the authorities. Drawing from analyses of historical sources, rare archival materials, as well as personal experiences including interviews with activists, the book provides a rich and nuanced understanding of this unique period. Ultimately, A Time to Sow presents a critical, non-apologetic perspective to uncover a distinctive, little-known chapter of Russian Jewish history in Leningrad, one of Russia’s most important cities.

Understanding the origins of the Universe and how it works and evolves is the present mission of a large community of physicists. It calls for a large scale vision, involving general relativity, astrophysics, and cosmology. Theoretical physics is presently at an important moment in its history. As predicted by Einstein, gravitational waves have been experimentally proven to exist. With the discovery of the Higgs boson, the set of interactions and elementary particles that is called the ""standard model"" (SM), is complete. Yet the Higgs boson itself, and how it breaks the electroweak symmetry, remains a fascinating subject requiring further studies and verification. Furthermore, several experimental facts are not accounted for by the SM: (i) the baryon asymmetry of the Universe, (ii) the nature and origin of dark matter, and (iii) the origin of neutrino masses; these have no unique, if any, explanation in the SM and yet will require answers from particle physics. We need to explore further both SM and its extensions. This is a subject of papers included in this book, which gives representation to the topics discussed during the Matter to the Deepest conference in 2019 in Poland (http://indico.if.us.edu.pl/event/5).