Open Access Books

This important book offers an original perspective on the rule of law, development, and democracy in Latin America, establishing a new approach in recognizing the realities of political economy as opposed to merely structural and institutional factors. With contributions from an international team of experts, the book outlines the main challenges that have arisen in the pursuit of a developmental agenda in the region, including subnational variations, state capture by local elites, variations in state capacity, border divergence from centrally designed perspectives, environmental conflicts, uneven access to justice and the role of international organizations. In doing so, the book explores the democratic and developmental implications of conflicts over the rule of law and its application, uneven enforcement, and state capture. Whether a reference tool for the seasoned scholar, a guide aiding practitioner's individual expertise or an introduction to students interested in the complex intersections between the rule of law, development and democracy, this book is a must-have for any library.

This reprint brings together cutting-edge research and reviews that address the complex interactions between viruses and their hosts, providing new insights into the mechanisms of viral infection, host immune responses, and pathogen evasion strategies. The selected papers highlight recent innovations in diagnostic approaches, molecular pathogenesis, and antiviral therapeutics across a range of infectious diseases. From uncovering intracellular signaling events and viral replication strategies to exploring novel biomarkers and vaccine candidates, this collection serves as a timely resource for virologists, immunologists, and clinicians. Emphasizing both basic discoveries and translational applications, this volume reflects the dynamic advances in understanding and combating viral infections in the modern biomedical landscape.

Technicians of Human Dignity traces the extraordinary rise of human dignity as a defining concern of religious, political, and bioethical institutions over the last half century and offers original insight into how human dignity has become threatened by its own success. The global expansion of dignitarian politics has left dignity without a stable set of meanings or referents, unsettling contemporary economies of life and power. Engaging anthropology, theology, and bioethics, Bennett grapples with contemporary efforts to mobilize human dignity as a counter-response to the biopolitics of the human body, and the breakdowns this has generated. To do this, he investigates how actors in pivotal institutions —the Vatican, the United Nations, U.S. Federal Bioethics—reconceived human dignity as the bearer of intrinsic worth, only to become frustrated by the Sisyphean struggle of turning its conceptions into practice.

Fishing for Fairness develops an explicitly cultural perspective on environmental politics in the Philippines by analysing the responses of fishers to marine resource regulations. In the resource frontier of the Calamianes Islands, fishing, conservation and tourism provide the context where competing visions of how to engage with marine resources are played out. The book draws on data from ethnographic fieldwork with fishers, government and NGO officials, fish traders and tourism operators to show how the strategic responses of fishers to management initiatives are couched within particular cultural idioms. Tapping into broader notions of morality in the Philippines, fishers express a discourse that emphasises their poverty and the obligations of the wealthy to treat them with fairness. By deploying this discourse, fishers are able to reframe what are—on the surface—questions of environmental management into issues about poverty within particular social relationships. By using a cultural political ecology framework to analyse fishers’ responses to regulation, the book emphasises the distinctive ways in which marginalised people in the Philippines resist and reframe resource management initiatives. Fishing for Fairness will appeal to both academics and policy makers interested in marine resource management, political ecology, anthropology and development studies particularly throughout the Asia-Pacific.

The book analyzes the environmental regulation of upstream marine exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons, at the international, regional MERCOSUR and Argentine national level. It uses the concept of normative integration as a methodological approach, critically assessing the interaction between the law of the sea, maritime law, environmental law and human rights law in the field of study. The book analyses the legal framework in a timeline, giving context to the evolution of the different branches of international law with sparkles of history. In this sense, the book also analyses international conventions’ bills on the subject that have not entered into force. The manuscript focuses on the reports from two marine pollution events (Deepwater Horizon and Montara oil spills) to analyse the lessons learnt and the normative and institutional framework needed to ensure environmental safety in the marine exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons. The book critically analyses marine platform accidents’ official reports comprehensively in order to assess existing normative and institutional frameworks and to give a way forward regarding policies. The manuscript contributes to rethinking the governance of the ocean at the time of environmental challenges. In that context, it refers to the concept of normative integration and effectiveness. It takes the existing scholarship further by introducing the notion of “marine platforms” instead of “offshore platforms” to rethink the relationship between land and sea and to develop a functional approach to enhance existing regulations. This is an open access book.

Listening, experiencing, drawing or interpreting spaces: narratives, experiences, visualizations and discourses can be helpful for the empirical investigation of spaces. This interdisciplinary handbook presents a broad spectrum of established methods and innovative method development to capture and understand different facets of spaces. Instructive explanations and concrete examples make the varied qualitative methods of spatial research understandable and applicable across disciplines. The theoretical and methodological aspects of qualitative spatial research form the framework of this handbook.

Este trabajo intenta avanzar en la elaboración de políticas públicas a partir del análisis empírico de la dinámica de inclusión/exclusión digital en los sectores más pobres de la población, teniendo como base una amplia investigación cuantitativa y cualitativa en los barrios de bajos ingresos del municipio de Rio de Janeiro.

Ocean color measured by satellite-mounted optical sensors is an essential climate variable that is routinely used as a central element for assessing the health and productivity of marine ecosystems and the role of oceans in the global carbon cycle. For satellite ocean color to be reliable and used in these and other important environmental applications, the data must be trustworthy and high quality. Pre-flight and on-board calibration of satellite ocean color sensors is conducted; however, once in orbit, the data quality can only be fully assessed via independent calibration and validation activities using surface measurements. These measurements therefore need to be at least as high quality as the satellite data, which necessitates SI traceability and a full uncertainty budget. This is the basis for fiducial reference measurements (FRMs) and the FRM4SOC project, which was an European Space Agency (ESA) initiative to establish and maintain SI-traceable ground-based FRM for satellite ocean color, thus providing a fundamental contribution to the European system for monitoring the Earth (Copernicus). This Special Issue of MDPI Remote Sensing is designed to showcase this essential Earth observation work through the publication of the project’s main achievements and results accompanied by other select relevant articles.

During the 1960s, a group of artists challenged the status quo in Japan through interventionist art. William Mariotti situates the artists in relation to postwar Japan and the international activism of the 1960s.

Surface and Interface Modification of Graphite and Graphene-Based Materials for Energy and Sensor Applications delves into the latest advancements in carbon-based materials, focusing on how their surface and interface modifications enhance performance in critical applications. This comprehensive collection covers topics such as energy storage, fuel cells, hydrogen storage, biosensors, and environmental monitoring devices. Featuring cutting-edge research on the synthesis and functionalization of graphite and graphene composites, the Special Issue highlights the importance of optimizing these materials for use in supercapacitors, gas sensors, liquid sensors, and more. Written by leading experts in the field, this Reprint serves as an essential reference for researchers, engineers, and professionals working in materials science, nanotechnology, and renewable energy. It is particularly relevant for those seeking to harness the unique properties of graphite and graphene for innovative solutions in energy and sensing technologies. Whether you are developing next-generation batteries or creating ultra-sensitive biosensors, this volume offers valuable insights into the future of carbon-based materials.

Le matérialisme, à strictement parler, est la thèse selon laquelle il n’y a que la matière qui suffit pour tout expliquer, sans avoir recours à toute autre substance immatérielle, comme Dieu ou l’âme. Une telle position implique-t-elle des conceptions morales et politiques particulières ? Rien n’est moins sûr. Pourtant, dès les lendemains de la Révolution, les penseurs réactionnaires ont vu dans les Lumières et leur versant matérialiste la source d’un renversement moral et politique qu’ils réprouvaient. Au point que Barbey d’Aurevilly s’exclamera : « Diderot, lui, eût été ardemment révolutionnaire » - ce qui n’était certes pas un éloge ! Qu’en est-il en réalité de ce nouage entre les positions des Lumières, relatives à l’explication de la nature et de l’homme, et une philosophie morale et politique ? Les études ici réunies explorent différentes facettes de cette question, chez les penseurs matérialistes eux-mêmes comme dans le regard que la postérité a jeté sur eux. Ces études sont suivies par un essai inédit de Jean-Claude Bourdin : « Diderot, la morale et les limites de la philosophie ».

Rosa Luxemburg lived a revolutionary life which determined her theoretical reflections about revolution and the role of the masses within it. The present study provides an analysis of Luxemburg’s thoughts about and experiences with revolutionary processes and shows how she further developed Marxist ideas about the path and methods to achieve a democratic socialism as the result of a successful revolution. Next to the theoretical debate with Eduard Bernstein and her experiences during the Russian Revolution of 1905, the book also takes a closer look at Luxemburg’s theoretical reflections about revolution in the years before and during the First World War, the Russian Revolution of 1917 as well as the German Revolution of 1918/19. The book therefore offers a concise analysis of Luxemburg’s life as well as her combination of revolution theory and revolutionary practice.

Der Sammelband regt an, über den Tellerrand der Linguistik hinauszuschauen, dorthin zu gehen, wo sich die (Sub)Disziplinen nicht mehr zuständig fühlen, und dabei die Gegenstände, Zugänge sowie Handlungsräume neu zu betrachten. Die Beiträge leuchten die Schnittstellen zwischen den institutionell verfestigten Disziplinen aus und diskutieren, wo sinnvolle Grenzüberschreitungen und Brückenschläge nötig sind, um starre "Denkstile" (Ludwik Fleck) aufzubrechen, disziplinäre Gewissheiten zu hinterfragen und mögliche neue Gegenstandsbestimmungen vorzunehmen.

Culturally powerful ideas of normalcy and deviation, individual responsibility, and what is medically feasible shape the ways in which we live with illness and disability. The essays in this volume show how illness narratives expressed in a variety of forms—biographical essays, fictional texts, cartoons, graphic novels, and comics—reflect on and grapple with the fact that these human experiences are socially embedded and culturally shaped. Works of fiction addressing the impact of an illness or disability; autobiographies and memoirs exploring an experience of medical treatment; and comics that portray illness or disability from the perspective of patient, family member, or caregiver: all of these narratives forge a specific aesthetic in order to communicate their understanding of the human condition. This collection demonstrates what can emerge when scholars and artists interested in fiction, life-writing, and comics collaborate to explore how various media portray illness, medical treatment, and disability. Rather than stopping at the limits of genre or medium, the essays talk across fields, exploring together how works in these different forms craft narratives and aesthetics to negotiate contention and build community around those experiences and to discover how the knowledge and experiences of illness and disability circulate within the realms of medicine, art, the personal, and the cultural. Ultimately, they demonstrate a common purpose: to examine the ways comics and literary texts build an audience and galvanize not just empathy but also action. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include Einat Avrahami, Maureen Burdock, Elizabeth J. Donaldson, Ariela Freedman, Rieke Jordan, stef lenk, Leah Misemer, Tahneer Oksman, Nina Schmidt, and Helen Spandler.

Poisoning has always been a part of human life. For years, poisoning was considered a clinical entity that could be treated and/or prevented. However, in a practical sense, the same method was used for detoxifying or treating all causative agents. Understanding the salient features of different types of poisonings is necessary to develop efficient approaches to early diagnosis, prevention, and treatment, and even for the repurposing of fatal toxic substances for use as therapeutic agents. This book presents the chemical and biological nature as well as the mechanisms of environmental toxins, snake venoms, heavy metals, and bacterial toxins in poisoning and highlights the most recent approaches and theories for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. It also examines the possible repositioning of highly toxic glycoalkaloids found in potatoes to life-saving anticancer drugs. This book presents a balance between advanced scientific research and the premises that researchers must be able to absorb and apply, as well as links scientific advances with clinical practice so that the management of poisons can be based on sound academic and clinical concepts.