Open Access Books

Hypothyroidism is an endocrine disorder commonly caused by Hashimoto’s disease. Nowadays, autoimmune diseases appear to be on the rise. As such, there is renewed interest in hypothyroidism. This book presents a comprehensive overview of the disorder with chapters on etiology and pathogenesis, precision medicine tools for detection, diagnosis and treatment, the morphology of the thyroid gland, the effect of hypothyroidism on various organ systems, and much more.

Sensor data fusion is the process of combining error-prone, heterogeneous, incomplete, and ambiguous data to gather a higher level of situational awareness. In principle, all living creatures are fusing information from their complementary senses to coordinate their actions and to detect and localize danger. In sensor data fusion, this process is transferred to electronic systems, which rely on some "awareness" of what is happening in certain areas of interest. By means of probability theory and statistics, it is possible to model the relationship between the state space and the sensor data. The number of ingredients of the resulting Kalman filter is limited, but its applications are not.

This multi-disciplinary Handbook examines human health research and its regulation. It uses real world examples - research using patient data, tissue and other human materials - to explore current challenges in delivering good medical research for the public good. Practical recommendations for real-world situations are a key feature of the book.

L’ouvrage explore les différents types de structures paysagères, naturelles ou artificielles, passées et présentes, dans une approche à la fois historique et pluridisciplinaire, du sillon de Romulus à la skyline. Il repose sur deux principes.D’une part, il fait le choix d’appréhender les paysages – naturels, anthropisés et artistiques – à partir des lignes et des figures géométriques simples qui les structurent ou qui les rythment : une ligne d’horizon, un cercle de mégalithes, un chemin de crêtes, une rocade, le sommet d’un volcan, une ligne d’éoliennes, un parcellaire agricole ou un gratte-ciel s’imposent à la perception et définissent immédiatement une configuration signifiante. D’autre part, il revendique la possibilité de faire dialoguer des conceptions du paysage trop souvent séparées : le point de vue anthropologique et archéologique sur les sociétés anciennes, le geste des land-artistes, le regard de l’urbaniste et celui du philosophe, les exigences de l’architecte et celles du géographe, les perspectives de l’historien d’art, du littéraire comme celles des théoriciens de la perception. Comme nous vivons dans un seul et même monde et que nous sommes spontanément capables de reconnaître un paysage lorsqu’il s’offre à nous – qu’il soit naturel, rural, urbain ou artistique –, l’ambition et l’originalité des analyses ici rassemblées sont de parvenir à esquisser, non seulement la possibilité d’une théorie commune, mais celle d’une théorie unitaire du paysage.

New analytical strategies and techniques are necessary to meet requirements of modern technologies and new materials. In this sense, this book provides a thorough review of current analytical approaches, industrial practices, and strategies in Fourier transform application.

Slavic languages

As contemporary and emerging engineering applications demand increasingly high performance from metallic materials, research into their degradation in a variety of environments is a hot topic in the scientific community. This reprint is dedicated to providing the readership with an up-to-date overview of current corrosion research on different metallic materials (steels, aluminum alloys, magnesium alloys, and copper alloys), exploring fundamental and practical aspects related to corrosion mechanisms and protection methods to advance the current knowledge in this field. The content of this reprint provides new and insightful concepts to promote the development of optimized surfaces with high corrosion protection ability.

No obstante la precaria difusión que en nuestro medio han tenido y todavía tienen los clásicos libros de Alcide d'Orbigny sobre sus viajes a la América meridional, en Bolivia podemos aseverar, con grata sorpresa, que los escritos del sabio naturalista francés dedicados a nuestro país, han sido y son leídos, estudiados y analizados en diversos ensayos publicados, desde el siglo XIX hasta la fecha, por un selecto grupo de científicos, intelectuales y artistas bolivianos. Este estrecho contacto ...

Chapters 1, 3 and 5 are available Open Access under CC-BY licence. Safeguarding adults at risk of abuse or neglect is a core area of social work practice but knowledge of how social workers make adult safeguarding decisions is limited. Applying recent sociological and ethnographic research to this area for the first time, this book considers how adult safeguarding practice is developing, with a focus on risk management. The author explores how social workers conduct safeguarding adults assessments, work with multiple agencies and involve service users in risk decisions. The book is essential reading for those wishing to understand how risk and uncertainty are managed within frontline adult social work and how current practice can be improved.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made evident that the field of global health – its practices, norms, and failures – has the power to shape the lives of billions. Global health perspectives on the role of religion, however, are strikingly limited. Uncovering the points where religion and global health have connected across the twentieth century, focusing on Ghana, provides an opportunity to challenge narrow approaches. In Religion in Global Health and Development Benjamin Walker shows that the religious features of colonial state architecture were still operating by the turn of the twenty-first century. Walker surveys the establishment of colonial development projects in the twentieth century, with a focus on the period between 1940 and 1990. Crossing the colonial-postcolonial divide, analyzing local contexts in conjunction with the many layers of international organizations, and identifying surprisingly neglected streams of personnel and funding (particularly from Dutch and West German Catholics), this in-depth history offers new ways of conceptualizing global health. Patchworks of international humanitarian intervention, fragmented government services, local communities, and the actions of many foreign powers combined to create health services and the state in Ghana. Religion in Global Health and Development shows that religion and religious actors were critical to this process – socially, culturally, and politically.

Vingt ans après sa naissance, où en est le Centre Georges Pompidou ? Après l'euphorie des premières années, ayant dû traverser les eaux peu navigables de la postmodernité des années 1980, il semble avoir peu à peu dérivé loin de sa route initiale. Cette étude dégage les différentes strates qui constituent l'utopie d'origine et définissent la vocation du Centre. Elle analyse son histoire et son devenir, se penche sur l'impensé de sa conception et sur les logiques de son évolution. Ce faisant, ...

There is a national emergency, and it has become more pronounced as South Africa faces challenges of Ethical leadership in both the private and public sector. Recently the Zondo Commission, Public Investment Corporation (PIC) Commission and Courts of Law released reports that cast light on the conduct of public officials. There have also been several reports by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) dealing with the same matter. This phenomenon is not only unique to South Africa. Reports of multinational companies that have been implicated in unethical and corrupt abound. These include corporate scandals such as those of Enron, WorldCom, Nortel, and AIG. These malfeasances have demonstrated abundantly that corporate leaders are not immune to unethical behaviour (Bedi, Alpasla & Green, 2015; Naidoo, 2012a). What this showed is that the issue of ethics is important in the public sector.

‘Geotechnical Engineering Challenges to Meet Current and Emerging Needs of Society’ includes the papers presented at the XVIII European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (Lisbon, Portugal, August 26 to 30th, 2024). The papers aim to contribute to a better understanding of problems and solutions of geotechnical nature, as well as to a more adequate management of natural resources. Case studies are included to better disseminate the success and failure of Geotechnical Engineering practice. The peer-reviewed articles of these proceedings address the six main topics: New developments on structural design Geohazards Risk analysis and safety evaluation Current and new construction methods Environment, water, and energy Future city world vision With contributions from academic researchers and industry practitioners from Europe and abroad, this collection of conference articles features an interesting and wide-ranging combination of innovation, emerging technologies and case histories, and will be of interest to academics and professionals in Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering.

In bildungswissenschaftlichen Disziplinen galt die Anwendung quantitativer Forschungsmethoden bislang nicht unbedingt als disziplinärer Standardzugang in der Datensuche, -erhebung und -analyse. Gleichzeitig gewinnt im Zuge besserer Datenverfügbarkeit, u.a. auch infolge zunehmender Digitalisierung, die Arbeit mit quantitativen Daten ebenso wie die individuelle Kompetenz zu ihrer Erhebung und Analyse an Bedeutung. Diese forschungsmethodische „Soft Skill“-Lücke greift dieser Sammelband auf und schließt sie: Die Handreichung des multiprofessionellen Autor:innenteams beleuchtet und diskutiert die Möglichkeiten der Nutzung quantitativer Daten in bildungswissenschaftlichen Disziplinen kritisch und vermittelt hilfreiche Kompetenzen im Bereich des Findens geeigneter (Sekundär-)Daten, der Umsetzung eigener Datenerhebungen, sowie weiterer forschungspraktischer Datenkompetenzen (bspw. Datenschutz).

Li and his contributors explore how Taiwanese poets conceptualize their identities, employing multiple voices to challenge political hegemony and re-evaluate Taiwan’s colonial legacy and nationalism. Poetry in Taiwan exists at the intersection of Taiwanese, Mandarin, and Japanese languages and traditions. The rise of China has contributed to the shrinking of Taiwan’s international space, leading to Taiwanese cultures often being viewed as tributaries or by-products of China on the global stage. They focus on Taiwanese poetry to highlight a history of local resistance in gender, identity, cultural, and linguistic contexts. They deconstruct the hegemony and homogeneity of “Chineseness,” exploring multiple ways to reposition Taiwan on the map of world literature. Essential reading for scholars of Sinophone literature, as well as those interested in the history and culture of Taiwan.