Open Access Books

The Troodos Mountain range in central Cyprus is a region of great physical and cultural diversity. The landscapes range from fertile, cultivated plains to narrow, dry valleys and forested mountain regions and this physical topography is overlain by a rich human cultural landscape of farming, mining, industry, settlement, burial and ritual behaviour. Over six field seasons, a team of specialists and fieldwalkers from the Troodos Archaeological and Environmental Survey Project (TAESP) investigated the northern edge of this region and explored the complex and dynamic relationship between landscape and people over 12,000 years. The results of their integrated and interpretative approach are presented here, in the first of two volumes. Beginning with a considered overview of the context, research aims and methodology of the project, Volume 1 provides detailed accounts of the archaeology, material culture, geography and environmental record of the entire survey area. This wealth of information is then bought together to produce a series of chronological and thematic analyses of the interaction between people and landscape in this region of Cyprus from the Prehistoric through to the Modern period.

La valutazione della performance di un'impresa, pubblica o privata, basata sui concetti di produttività ed efficienza, deve essere condotta utilizzando strumenti metodologici adeguati, specificatamente individuati nell'ambito di una teoria della produzione. Il volume offre una panoramica dell'evoluzione del concetto di efficienza - ed in particolare dell'efficienza tecnica rispetto alle possibilità produttive - e delle metodologie con cui si affrontano i problemi della sua misurazione, attraverso un'esposizione che esamina sia gli aspetti teorici, sia quelli pratici, con particolare riferimento soprattutto all'ambito universitario.

Island studies have seen an upswing in recent years. Whereas in the past, research was largely oriented at external perspectives and perceptions, at present we witness an increasing interest in viewpoints internal to the island societies examined (with an ‘inside-out’ approach). This volume contributes to such efforts with transdisciplinary and methodological reflections from the fields of archaeology, ethnology, geography, history, philology, and literary studies. Focused on the interplay between geographic isolation and commercial as well as cultural connection, the studies here assembled investigate the role of the knowledge, resources, and practices of islanders in processes of crisis management, identity formation and transformation.

This chapter describes and discusses the roles of media tools and technologies in the facilitation of violent extremism and terrorism. Rather than focusing on how media report on terrorism, we investigate how extremist and terrorist groups and movements themselves have exploited various “traditional” and “new” media tools, from print to digital, outlining the significance that they have had on extremists’ ability to mark territory, intimidate some audiences, connect with other (sympathetic) audiences, radicalize, and even recruit. Underlined is that violent extremists and terrorists of all stripes have, over time, used every means at their disposal to forward their communicative goals. Also worth noting is that ‘old’ media tools are not extinct and while ‘new’ media play a prominent role in contemporary violent extremism and terrorism, ‘old’ tools—everything from murals to magazines—continue to be utilized in tandem with the former.

This report describes a new method for detecting development of commercial interest in technology areas (referred to as technology emergence) by analyzing the network of connections among different technology areas, using the definitions set forth by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Technology emergence is observed through quantitative analysis of the cumulative number of filings in a specific technology area.

The Book of the Pomegranate is a Hebrew edition of an important work by the Spanish kabbalist Moses de Leon (ca. 1240-1305). Sefer Ha-Rimmon, which was written in 1287, is particularly significant for study of the Zohar and the development of a theory of the commandment (mitzvot) and why one should do them.

This book, Cataract - An Update on Clinical and Surgical Management, is a collection of review chapters from international experts that discuss recent innovations in cataract surgery. The book comprises single chapters authored by various researchers and edited by an expert active in the Ophthalmology research area. All chapters are complete in themselves but united under a common research study topic. This publication aims at providing a thorough overview of the latest research efforts by international authors on cataract surgery, and open new possible research paths for further novel developments.

The limitation of the radio spectrum and the rapid growth of communication applications make optimal usage of radio resources essential. Cognitive radio (CR) is an attractive research area for 4G/5G wireless communication systems, which enables unlicensed users to access the spectrum. Delivering higher spectral efficiency, supporting the higher number of users, and achieving higher coverage and throughput are the main advantages of CR-based networks compared to conventional ones. The main goal of this book is to provide highlights of current research topics in the field of CR-based systems. The book consists of six chapters in three sections focusing on primary and secondary users, spectrum sensing, spectrum sharing, CR-based IoT, emulation attack, and interference alignment.

This book presents a collection of studies devoted to the Polish national identity coming into being in the nineteenth century, and two of its important components: Slavic utopia and the national idea. A return to the roots, that is the discovery of proto-Slavic heritage which proved the antiquity of the Polish nation, sanctioned the right to the territory it occupied. Historic heritage received, as part of the Slavic utopia, a moral warranty in the shape of the best national qualities. These were benevolence, resourcefulness and hospitality in peacetime, and valour, as well as devotion to the family, clan or community in wartime. Most of all, however, Slavicness determined the shape of the future. This is because, in connection with messianism, it guaranteed an extraordinary role for the Polish nation, whose destiny was to lead the World and to redeem the ‘spoilt and demoralised Europe’, as it was then said. After all, Slavicness was treated not only as a repository of myths and legends, but also as a reservoir of enormous might, which was to revive the nation, weakened as a result of the downfall of the virtues of the nobility and elective rulers, who were responsible for the national catastrophe.

Published

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) represent a large and physiologically important class of cell surface receptors. There are approximately 750 known GPCRs present in the human genome that can be subdivided into general classes based upon sequence homology within their transmembrane domains. Therapeutically, GPCRs represent a fertile source for the development of therapies as they are a significant percentage of our current pharmacopeia. Among the three subclasses of GPCRs, the Class A (rhodopsin-like) receptors are by far the most prevalent and extensively studied. However, within the Class A receptors, sub-families of receptors can be distinguished based upon common sequence motifs within the transmembrane domains as well as extracellular and intracellular domains. One such family of Class A receptors is characterized by multiple leucine- rich repeats within their amino- terminal domains (the Leucine-rich Repeat family (LRR)). This family of GPCRs are best represented by the glycoprotein hormone receptors (LHR, FSHR and TSHR) which have been studied extensively but also includes receptors for the peptide hormone relaxin (RXFP1 and RXFP2 (RXFP2 also binds insulin-like peptide 3)) and three other receptors (LGR4, LGR5 and LGR6). LGR4-6 were, until recently, considered orphan receptors. However, emerging data have revealed that these proteins are the receptors for a family of growth factors called R-spondins. Over the last 20 years much has been learned about LRR receptors, including the development of synthetic agonists and antagonists, new insights into signaling (including signaling bias) and the physiological role these receptors play in regulating the function of many tissues. This topic will focus on what is known concerning the regulation of these receptors, their signaling pathways, functional consequences of activation and pharmacology.

This volume includes 12 chapters of pilgrim studies on European pilgrimages in the Catholic tradition in multidisciplinary perspectives. The contributions’ methodological perspectives range from quantitative approaches of social science to qualitative approaches of the humanities, from religious studies to political science, and from philosophy to geography. The themes of this contribution reflect on the Italian landscape of pilgrimage, on the Oberammergau passion play, on the pilgrim aspect of the 1989 revolution in Romania, and two types of pilgrimage in the Catholic tradition and how they present themselves on the internet. Three social science chapters provide new data and analysis to the most popular pilgrim destination in Europe: The Ways of St. James to Santiago de Compostela. Five studies discuss papal pilgrims and pilgrim popes. The chapters range from a historical analysis of the pilgrimage from Mexico to Rome in the 19th century and a quantitative analysis of all papal addresses in Fatima in the 20th and 21st centuries, from two chapters on the most influential pilgrim pope, John Paul II, to his homeland Poland, and to an analysis of the Vatican’s virtual approach to pilgrimage.

This book explores the role of religion in discussions about climate change and, particularly, the development of responses to climate change on global, state, institutional, and local levels. It considers examples of the ways that different religious traditions, including Indigenous, Muslim, Buddhist, and Christian communities, have responded to the different effects of climate change by using different methodological approaches, including political science and international relations (e.g. public opinion polls and constructivism); religious studies scholarship on climate change, including an overview of religion and ecology as a subdiscipline in religious studies; and environmental humanities approaches. This volume interrogates the diverse ways religion both acts and is acted upon by different actors, including institutions and nation states, in response to climate change. Within single traditions, different actors advocate for planetary care and concern, while their co-religionists may remain passive or deny climate change as a phenomenon. This book hopes to complicate and unravel the complexities of how different religions approach climate change and recommends that religions are taken seriously in the development of climate change mitigation strategies at different scales.

In the medieval manuscript, called the Pantheon of Sandomierz, together with Godfred’s work from Viterbo, there is an apocryphal letter from Alexander the Great to Aristotle. In it, the Macedonian king describes the adventures he experienced with his army during his expedition to India. A large part of them are the battles he had to fight together with his people with the dangerous animals he met there, attacking them during this journey. These included hippos, lions, snakes, boars, big mice, bats, scorpions, crayfish, elephants, and monstrous creatures, one of which had two heads, the other had three horns on its head, and the other had sharp, toothed bones protruding from its forehead. To resist their attacks, they required different ways and the use of weapons that Macedonian soldiers were equipped with. The descriptions of these struggles are illustrated by colored drawings in the manuscript. The king and his subordinates were depicted on them in accordance with the fourteenth century realities, while the appearance of the animals is an effect of the draftsman’s imagination. The ideal content of this work is consistent with the principles of the medieval knightly ethos, which preached the need to face the forces of evil, symbolically embodied also by dangerous animals.

Ce livre est une galerie de portraits : on y entre au seuil du xixe siècle pour arriver jusqu’à nos jours, ayant déambulé dans l’histoire des savoirs d’islam et des oulémas du Maghreb. Au fil des chapitres, on y découvre des figures et des paroles de savants, au sein des communautés qu’ils ont guidées, dans le monde qui les a façonnés et qu’ils ont, en retour, pensé et transformé. L’ambition de cet ouvrage est de faire ainsi connaître la contribution souvent mésestimée des sociétés du Maghreb à l’islam contemporain. Les travaux des spécialistes se sont en effet longtemps répartis entre un islam d’Orient, perçu comme savant, celui des textes et des doctrines, et un islam du Maghreb, vu comme populaire, une religion de marabouts et de pratiques plus ou moins superstitieuses. Chaque chapitre a une coloration particulière qui se dégage tant de la trajectoire retracée que de la thématique particulière dont il traite. La visite commence avec un fondateur qui exerça son magistère au xixe siècle, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Sanusi dit « le grand Sanusi » et s’achève par le portrait d’Aïcha El Hajjami, seule personnalité à incarner ici les figures féminines de l’islam, comme un pari sur l’avenir.