Open Access Books

This open access book deals with imaging of the abdomen and pelvis, an area that has seen considerable advances over the past several years, driven by clinical as well as technological developments. The respective chapters, written by internationally respected experts in their fields, focus on imaging diagnosis and interventional therapies in abdominal and pelvic disease; they cover all relevant imaging modalities, including magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, ultrasound, and positron emission tomography. As such, the book offers a comprehensive review of the state of the art in imaging of the abdomen and pelvis. IDKD books are extensively re-written every four years. As a result, they offer a comprehensive review of the state of the art in imaging. The book is clearly structured with learning objectives, abstracts, subheadings, tables and take-home points, supported by design elements to help readers easily navigate through the text. As an IDKD book, it is particularly valuable for general radiologists, radiology residents, and interventional radiologists who want to update their diagnostic knowledge, and for clinicians interested in imaging as it relates to their speciality.

In recent decades, Hispanic corpus linguistics has seen both an increase in corpus size (corpus linguistics as Big Data) and great improvement in document selection and data annotation (corpus linguistics as High Quality Data). The contributions gathered in this volume combine both methods in order to exploit their advantages and overcome their limitations. This methodology attempts to provide answers to various questions of Hispanic linguistics.

Helping students to develop a sense of responsibility for their learning is widely recognized as a key goal of higher education. OECD identifies 'taking responsibility' as one of the three critical transformative competencies that every student should develop to navigate the unpredictable societal, economic, and environmental challenges of the future. Yet, taking responsibility, particularly in the context of learning, is a complex construct as it carries multiple meanings, interpretations, and implications. TU Delft's IDEE (Innovation in Delft Engineering Education) Initiative aims to address these complexities within the Students Taking Responsibility for Their Own Learning Process theme. This book, which is one of the early outputs of this initiative, presents our initial findings and lays the foundation for future research.

Child-molesting priests, embezzled church treasures, philandering ministers and rabbis, even church-endorsed pyramid schemes that defraud gullible parishioners of millions of dollars: for the past decade, clergy misconduct has seemed continually to be in the news. Is there something about religious organizations that fosters such misbehavior? Bad Pastors presents a range of new perspectives and solidly grounded data on pastoral abuse, investigating sexual misconduct, financial improprieties, and political and personal abuse of authority. Rather than focusing on individuals who misbehave, the volume investigates whether the foundation for clergy malfeasance is inherent in religious organizations themselves, stemming from hierarchies of power in which trusted leaders have the ability to define reality, control behavior, and even offer or withhold the promise of immortality. Arguing that such phenomena arise out of organizational structures, the contributors do not focus on one particular religion, but rather treat these incidents from an interfaith perspective. Bad Pastors moves beyond individual case studies to consider a broad range of issues surrounding clergy misconduct, from violence against women to the role of charisma and abuse of power in new religious movements. Highlighting similarities between other forms of abuse, such as domestic violence, the volume helps us to conceptualize and understand clergy misconduct in new ways.

Control mobility and confinement measures were the main mechanisms used to contain the pandemic in Ecuador. The impact varied due to income level, access to services, resources, job stability, the possibility of working from home, location of housing, and migratory status. They had a particularly negative impact on migrant populations in Ecuador, as migrants were initially excluded from emergency food assistance programs during lockdown periods and were also the last to be allocated vaccinations within the country. This chapter examines how the pandemic disproportionately impacted migrants in urban centers in Ecuador, with a focus on the cities of Quito, Manta, and Machala. The chapter considers how the pandemic was particularly severe in sectors already affected by fiscal austerity measures and social budget cuts. The chapter also examines the positive impact of the second wave of the Ecuadorian COVID-19 vaccination program and its high level of uptake among urban migrant populations.

En los últimos años, nuevos datos históricos sobre los africanos y afrodescendientes en México y países de América Central han aparecido en las investigaciones del periodo virreinal. Ello ha dado lugar a diversos debates y formas de interpretación sobre el papel que desempeñó la población de origen africano en la construcción de las sociedades americanas. Este libro, coordinado por María Elisa Velázquez, reúne artículos de investigadores de varios países y de distintas corrientes historiográf...

A forgotten century marks the years between the Ming dynasty's (1368–1644) turbulent founding and its sixteenth-century age of exploration and economic transformation. In this period of social stability, retired scholar-official Lu Rong chronicled his observations of Chinese society in Miscellaneous Records from the Bean Garden (Shuyuan zaji). Openly expressing his admirations and frustrations, Lu provides a window into the quotidian that sets Bean Garden apart from other works of the biji genre of "informal notes." Mark Halperin organizes a translated selection of Lu's records to create a panorama of Ming life. A man of unusual curiosity, Lu describes multiple social classes, ethnicities, and locales in his accounts of political intrigues, farming techniques, religious practices, etiquette, crime, and family life. Centuries after their composition, Lu's words continue to provide a richly textured portrait of China on the cusp of the early modern era. The open access publication of this book was made possible by a grant from the James P. Geiss and Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation.

Au premier regard, il semblerait que nos sociétés occidentales soient désormais dépourvues de messianisme et d'utopie, que ce « constat » soit interprété comme l'installation dans une société enfin libérée de toute altérité historique ou comme l'entrée dans une « crise sans précédent, et pour la première fois dans l'histoire, non pas transitoire, mais permanente, définitive » (P. Ricoeur). Ces positions appellent cependant réserves et perplexi­tés. Ne s'établissent-elles pas sur un oubli massif des représentations propres aux parties du monde et aux groupes humains marginalisés ? Au prix de quelles prétentions des ressources d'imaginaire et d'action acquièrent-elles leur légitimité ? Avec le statut de la modernité comme rupture, c'est l'identité chrétienne, selon la matrice apocalyptique, qui est, au plus vif et comme à nu, questionnée. Les textes ici rassemblés reprennent les interventions de la session théologique 1993 qui s'était donné pour objectif de « penser l'espérance chrétienne », comme mémoire d'une promesse ouvrant l'avenir, au gré de relectures bibliques et de relèves philosophiques, face aux incertitudes actuelles sur le temps et l'histoire.

Musil présente la particularité d'être reconnu comme un grand auteur de la littérature autrichienne par les spécialistes et d'avoir connu un large succès avec L’Homme sans qualités et surtout Les désarrois de l’élève Toerless, son premier roman, dont Volker Schlöndorff a tiré un film récompensé au Festival de Cannes en 1966. L’Homme sans qualités est considéré comme une œuvre pionnière du nouveau roman, à l’égal de l’Ulysse de Joyce. Traduit en français par un traducteur éminent, Philippe Jacottet, Musil eut son heure de gloire dans les années 1970 à 1990. Évoluant délibérément sur la frontière entre les sens et la rationalité, l’écriture et le monde romanesque de Musil ont fait de lui un auteur dont le monde des lettres francophone s’est emparé avec prédilection. Du côté allemand et autrichien l’effet de mode n’a jamais été aussi marqué, après la redécouverte de Musil suscitée par la première édition de L’Homme sans qualités par Adolf Frisé dans les années 1950 ; mais l’intérêt des spécialistes pour Musil n’a jamais faibli non plus. Musil, dans la période du regain d’intérêt pour la « modernité viennoise » et le débat « modernité/post-modernité », a retenu en France l’attention d’auteurs importants : outre le travail éditorial de Jean-Pierre Cometti sur le roman inachevé L’Homme sans qualités, il faut mentionner le philosophe Jacques Bouveresse (Robert Musil. L’homme probable, le hasard, la moyenne et l’escargot de l'histoire, Éditions de l’Eclat, 1993), le germaniste Jacques Le Rider ou le comparatiste Jacques Dugast (Musil. L’Homme sans qualités, PUF, 1992). L’ouvrage de Walter Moser, par sa profonde connaissance des deux mondes scientifiques, jette non seulement un pont mais il approfondit un aspect que l’approche d’histoire culturelle évoquait toujours sans le prendre à bras le corps : l’écriture de Musil. Sur ce terrain, on en restait en gros au jugement de Thomas Mann, selon lequel Musil était le Proust (ou le Joyce) autrichien. Mais on n’apprenait pas grand-chose de plus sur cette écriture. Walter Moser comble cette lacune.

Conflict, including the threat or fear of potential violence, or being witness to or a victim of physical violence, constantly surrounds gangs and their communities and is the principal driver sustaining gang life. This Special Issue examines the diverse nature of gang-related violence with the goal of better understanding the growing complexities of gang violence over the last two decades to better inform public policy solutions. The contributions included in this Special Issue highlight the complex nature of gang-related violence in the 21st Century. As much as policy makers, the media, and even scholars like to simplify gang-related violence, all of the studies included in this Special Issue highlight the nuance and variation that exists.

The present volume aims at outlining a new field of research with regard to the history of diplomacy: the material culture of diplomatic interaction in early modern and modern times. The material culture of diplomacy includes all practices in foreign policy communication in which single artifacts, samples of artifacts, or else the whole material setting of diplomatic interaction is supposed to be constitutive for creating an intended effect in terms of diplomatic objectives. The chapters of this volume focus on intercultural diplomacy in different regions of the world wherein diplomatic actors of various kinds might have been confronted by a whole universe of unfamiliar artifacts and artifact-related practices. Most of them concentrate on gift giving as a diplomatic practice that offers multiple insights in the complex dynamics of diplomatic relations between representatives of culturally highly diverse political entities. In doing so, they gainfully apply different theoretical approaches of material culture as an interdisciplinary field of study to the investigation of diplomatic cultures across the globe. As a result, it becomes obvious that future research into the history of diplomacy should take into account material practices much more thoroughly than has been done before.

"No processo de construção do SUS, a temática da formação dos trabalhadores técnicos da saúde tornou-se uma preocupação crescente, alvo de ações públicas em face da escassez e má distribuição entre os estados brasileiros, mas principalmente por causa do grande contingente de trabalhadores com precária ou nenhuma formação profissional”, informam os organizadores na apresentação da obra que discute temas que abrangem desde a expropriação da classe operária à seguridade social, da globalização neoliberal à Reforma Sanitária até chegar à política educacional brasileira na sociedade do conhecimento e a educação dos trabalhadores da saúde, sob a égide da produtividade. Há uma necessidade inadiável de ‘renascer das cinzas’ e disputar os rumos e sentidos da sociedade e dos direitos do trabalho, da saúde e da educação como dimensões humanas fundamentais, opina o filósofo e educador Gaudêncio Frigotto na contracapa da publicação, que reflete avanços e dificuldades da política pública do país e indica caminhos para a superação de seus impasses. Assim, em dez capítulos, cada qual escrito por especialistas das mais variadas áreas do conhecimento, constrói-se no livro uma multiplicidade de olhares acerca do tema principal.

This book is freely available in an open-access edition thanks to the generous support of The Ohio State University Libraries. In Cities Beyond Crisis, Catalina Iannone studies the rapid evolution of Iberian urban centers in the years following the 2008 financial crisis, identifying how this event catalyzed a protracted period of unraveling and reorganization in the region. Arguing that the affects and effects of the crisis are best understood when embedded within local environments, Cities Beyond Crisis focuses on how textual, visual, and spatial interventions both drove and contested change in two racially diverse, historically marginalized neighborhoods in the capital cities of Spain and Portugal—Madrid’s Lavapiés and Lisbon’s Mouraria. Through a critical examination of the narratives shaping public perception of these spaces, whether promoting their development and consumption or challenging market-oriented trends, Iannone demonstrates how the stories that stakeholders across the ideological spectrum told about these districts illuminate enduring attachments and aspirations in each nation’s relationship to race. By approaching the study of space as a contested and contingent social product, this book takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from both humanistic and social science theories and practices to show how cultural production shapes and is shaped by the built environment.

This paper aims to use game theory to analyze the decision-making process associated with Japanese prime ministers’ visits to the Yasukuni shrine. The central thesis of the research is that it is possible to construct a model that enables the analysis of past visits to the shrine and assess the probability of such visits in the future. The presented research is a case study based on Jun’ichirō Koizumi’s visits during his term as Prime Minister of Japan. The model used for the analysis is based on the ‘chicken dilemma’ and is an example of a non-cooperative and repeated game. Relying on the model also allows us to juxtapose foreign pressures with those exerted by domestic interest groups, as preliminary findings suggest that using game theory to analyze visits to Yasukuni provides a better understanding of the rationality underlying the decisions to visit the shrine. Overall, the research presented here is preliminary and should be continued to deepen the analysis and develop a more accurate model.