Open Access Books

RNA therapies evolved as economical and widely applicable individualized treatment solutions. Novel RNA-based therapeutic vaccines (e.g., against SARS-CoV-2 infection) have been proven to be safe and effective, and many of them are approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This book presents distinct classes of RNA therapeutics, ranging from single-stranded antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) and subclasses of RNA interferences (miRNAs and other RNAi) to in vitro transcribed and in vivo translated mRNAs drugs and RNA vaccines. The book also discusses some of the challenges in RNA drug engineering, delivery, and specificity, as well as highlights the improvement of pharmacological effectiveness in a wide range of diseases.

This is an open access book. Sustainable development is so important that humanity must do its utmost to achieve these goals for the well-being of the present and future generations. WTO members have started to reform WTO rules since the WTO’s Buenos Aires Ministerial Conference in 2017. The book describes a possible bright future for readers: WTO members can integrate the UN SDGs into WTO law (i.e., create sustainable trade rules) by establishing a sustainable development club and constitutionalising the WTO.

This open access book presents the steps necessary for the application of rotorcraft flight modelling and simulation and analysis in support of certification for compliance with EASA CS-27 and CS-29, SUBPART B—FLIGHT and other flight-related rules (e.g. CS-27/9, Appendix B, Airworthiness Criteria for Helicopter Instrument Flight). The material is presented in the form of a structured ‘Rotorcraft Certification by Simulation’ process, starting from the relevant paragraphs in the Certification Specifications, through a comprehensive description of the assembly of flight simulation requirements, informed by judgements on Influence, Predictability and Credibility, and on into the detailed building of the three major elements of the process; the Flight Simulation Model, the Flight Simulator, and the associated Flight Test Measurement System. The latter feeds both the flight model and simulator development with real-world test data to support validation and fidelity assessment. The book is intended to provide support to early adopters of simulation and analysis in the certification process, including those who have considerable experience and expertise in the use of Modelling and Simulation in support of design and development. It is acknowledged that there exists much good practice in the rotorcraft industry in this regard. However, what is presented herein is considered a significant step forward in the development of this practice, particularly in terms of the importance of a structured, requirements-based, process using adaptable-fidelity, descriptive and predictive simulation tools, and associated pre-certification flight testing, to reach the goal of a credible flight simulation.

This book explores the concepts and practices of participation and community engagement in cultural heritage, examining the impact of the participatory turn in the heritage sector and the key opportunities and challenges it presents. Participation has become a widely used umbrella term in the discourses of heritage institutions, practitioners, and scholars alike. This participatory turn represents a shift towards the active involvement of communities, stakeholders, and the public in decision-making processes, moving away from traditional top-down approaches towards more inclusive and collaborative models in which diverse voices contribute to cultural heritage. While the pluralisation of heritage narratives, meanings, and practices can sometimes give rise to societal tensions, this book argues that broader participation is essential for unlocking heritage’s transformative potential and future-oriented impetus. The book explores these issues through 15 case studies drawn from across the globe and organised into three thematic sections: social inclusion in heritage practices, the role of digital tools in heritage participation, and participatory heritage management and governance. These case studies contribute to emerging debates on expanding the spaces where heritage participation and community engagement take place. Interdisciplinary in nature, this book is intended for scholars and professionals working on cultural heritage, participation, social inclusion, digitisation, management, and community and audience engagement. It is also well-suited for undergraduate and graduate courses that critically examine heritage participation and community engagement in today’s pluralistic societies.

The number of bilingual and multilingual speakers around the world is steadily growing, leading to the questions: How do bilinguals manage two or more language systems in their daily interactions, and how does being bilingual/multilingual affect brain functioning and vice versa? Previous research has shown that cognitive control plays a key role in bilingual language management. This hypothesis is further supported by the fact that foreign languages have been found to affect not only the expected linguistic domains, but surprisingly, other non-linguistic domains such as cognitive control, attention, inhibition, and working memory. Somehow, learning languages seems to affect executive/brain functioning. In the literature, this is referred to as the bilingual advantage, meaning that people who learn two or more languages seem to outperform monolinguals in executive functioning skills. In this Special Issue, we first present studies that investigate the bilingual advantage. We also go one step further, by focusing on factors that modulate the effect of bilingualism on cognitive control. In the second, smaller part of our Special Issue, we focus on the cognitive reserve hypothesis with the aim of addressing the following questions: Does the daily use of two or more languages protect the aging individual against cognitive decline? Does lifelong bilingualism protect against brain diseases, such as dementia, later in life?

In this book, I narrate my story, my experience facing one of the greatest battles in my life: the diagnosis which gives an account of a deadly disease. I had to stop, cease any plans, ask for help, and let myself be embraced; in other words, open up to the hope of getting better and recuperating what I had up to now. I didn’t do it alone, I achieved it with the support of my family, of my friends, and of a community around me that I didn’t know. The presence of modern medicine did its part, but I did mine, with faith and the certainty that everything would pass in a positive manner. This is how I faced an illness that left me, above all and in spite of everything, great lessons: breast cancer.

Published

We call “virtual history” a history that goes beyond past events to include possible yet unrealized courses of events. Some are eventually perceived as illusions, while others are revived when the conditions of their former emergence are recognized in the present again. Unlike counterfactual historiography, virtual historiography does not take its starting point from the present but from the expectations of contemporaries who designed a future for themselves. A chronological virtual history would consist of several parallel histories that are sometimes recognized as realistic representations of the past and sometimes rejected as unrealistic. However, other possible representations are also conceivable. To expand its representation of past realities, virtual historiography draws on new sources and disciplines. It interprets historical dates and time intervals as bridges between events and documents the time figures in which events align to form historical processes.

In January 2007, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly asked the RAND Corporation to examine the quality and completeness of the New York City Police Department's firearm-training program and identify potential improvements in it and in the police department's firearm-discharge review process. This monograph reports the observations, findings, and recommendations of that study.

In Catholic doctrine, the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary is the belief that Mary, the mother of Christ, was exempt from original sin from the moment of her conception, and thereby a co-redeemer alongside her son. Praise for this complicated devotion took place in Europe throughout the medieval period and resounded in the Americas with the founding of the first convent in Mexico City under the Order of the Immaculate Conception in 1540. All other orders of nuns in New Spain branched out from this convent, spreading the Marian devotion throughout the region. In this book, author Cesar D. Favila argues that the sonification of virginity and the Virgin Mary was fundamental to the promotion of the Immaculate Conception doctrine, and that this was part of a complex network of sonified practices in the lives of New Spanish nuns. These ""immaculate sounds,"" a term Favila uses for the cloistered nuns' idealized vocalizations as well as the expression of doctrinal rhetoric through musical metaphors, echoed the highly regulated realm of the convent and played a pivotal role in mediating between the lives of New Spanish nuns and the expectation that they would save the secular world with their vocalized prayers. In addition to the sonification of discipline, Favila shows that immaculate sounds also enhanced the nuns' engagement with their religious practices and facilitated embodied and spiritual engagement with Catholic doctrines. Throughout his study, he delves into rarely studied music sources from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century New Spain alongside the rulebooks, devotional literature, and nuns' biographies that regulated convent life and inspired nuns' hymns. In doing so, Favila brings together a narrative of salvation that shines a light on the musical lives of nuns and locates women's agency within a hierarchical society that silenced some women and required others to sing.

This article is focused on Professor Buikema’s intellectual oeuvre and the relation between art and politics as it materialised in MOED (Museum of Equality and Difference). Astrid Kerchman and Rosa Wevers, MOED’s former project coordinators, reflect on their collaboration with Buikema through an interview with artist Iris Kensmil on the important role of art in complex social issues relating to emancipation, representation, and resistance. Drawing on the interview with Kensmil and Buikema’s Revolts in Cultural Critique (2020), Alessandra Benedicty-Kokken reflects on the meaning of feminist leadership within an institutional context.

This reprint focuses on artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) all over the world, as well as its impact on the economy, environment, and health, providing sustainable solutions to severe ASGM problems. This book presents a total of 20 published articles of regions including Southeast Asia, South America, and South Africa, as well as a general overview of ASGM issues. Studies included in this book posit that (1) ASGM activity is still widely practiced as an alternative livelihood in rural areas in many countries around the world, using toxic elements such as Hg and cyanide due to a lack of legal enforcement on the ASGM sector; (2) ASGM has a negative impact on environmental ecosystems, causes occupational health problems for miners, and causes chronic health disorders in both ASGM communities and those living far from ASGM areas. However, some studies propose that specific potential bioindicators could be used to monitor the environment and health of those living in ASGM communities, providing sustainable solutions to severe ASGM problems.

In Recent Years, The Analysis of Floods Has Changed its Focus from A Pure Hydraulic Study to a Complex Analysis of the Relationship Between The River Or Or Stream and The Territory, Whatre Each Region Has Its ITS GEOGRAPHICAL PARTY Based on This Initial Idea, What This Text Suggest is to analyze the Behaviour of Peri-Urban Areas of the Spanish Mediterranean Coast in Relation to Flood Risk, with A Holistic Approach.Focusing on Peri-urban Areas (The Diffusion City) is not only a need for the problems and characteristics, but also an Opportunity Because of the possibility they present to act this territorial planning and preventive measures. However, We Find Ourselves at A Time of Legislative Change and Lively Interest in Natural Risks, Given The Increasing Intensity and Recurrence of these Risks Due to Climate Change and Global Change. European Union is stressing the significant impact of natural hazards in Mediterranean Regions, Highlighting The Need to Reinforce Knowledge of How Floods Work in This particular context.For AllSe Reasons, This Book Provides A Morphological and Functional Characterisation of This Geographical Area, Identifying its Main Problems and Weaknesses in Front of Flooding, Working on Both at Regional and Local Scale, Taking Different Study Areas in The Province of Malaga That Reflect Reflect VariousPatterns territorial peri-urban.