Open Access Books

Stormy times are looming just around the corner during the next ten years. People all around the world are increasingly feeling that a major shake-up of our living conditions is in the air. The three most visible global dangers are an environmental collapse, a third world war, and an accelerating inequality of welfare between different parts of the human population. It is evident that these threatening developments are highly interdependent symptoms of the same social process: the dynamics of global political economy. We are in acute need of a theory that explores our options for a surviving human species. The major social entities involved in this change have to be identified: Classes.

Ferromagnetic inhomogeneities along the track serve as landmarks. With these, each track section in the track network can be uniquely identified. In addition to non-contact speed determination, this also provides a track-selective method for determining the absolute position of the rail vehicle.

This gathering brings together leading minds from academia, clinical sites, and research institutions across Central Europe to address shared challenges in rare diseases and advanced therapies. The European Union estimates that between 6,000 and 8,000 rare diseases affect approximately 30 million people across the region, representing around 6-8% of the population. These conditions are often chronic, progressive, and life-threatening, significantly impacting patients' quality of life. On a local level, over half a million people in the Czech R. alone are affected by rare diseases. Despite these numbers, many patients are still waiting for an accurate diagnosis. The number of newly identified rare diseases continues to rise, alongside well-known challenges such as delays in diagnosis. The leading experts in Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs) from the European Union (EU) are significantly contributing to research across the entire ATMP life-cycle. These contributions span multiple stages, from initial discovery and development to clinical trials, manufacturing, regulation, and post-market surveillance. Their research addresses key challenges in the field, such as improving the efficacy, safety, and scalability of gene therapies, cell therapies, and tissue-engineered products.

Much has been written about the ever-growing demands on university leadership worldwide in the face of increasingly complex changes and challenges from within the academy and beyond. However, as we are reminded by Johan Muller in the Introduction to this book, “there are particular features of time and place that also throw up unique problems”. It is precisely ‘time and place’ that make this set of reflections by university leaders quite remarkable and distinguishes it from the many biographies to be found in the literature on higher education leadership. … In the main, this collection spans two decades, the 1990s and 2000s, of unprecedented levels of change in South African higher education. Leaders in universities, as well as those responsible for higher education policy in the government and associated statutory bodies, had no neat script to work off, nor ‘manuals’ or prescripts of ‘good’ leadership or practice. Instead, there was palpable excitement about collectively imagining and nurturing a new post-apartheid higher education system, which would contribute to the social and economic development needs of the country, the deepening of democracy and which would also be globally relevant. Most reflections touch on the coalface of leadership, which is the face-to-face interactional dimension, dealing with staff, with students, with council chairs. What comes through clearly, is the importance of what are sometimes called ‘people skills’. In these accounts this is not simply presented as a human relations aptitude, for a number of reasons, first of which is the special nature of universities and their occupants. More than one points out the special challenge of managing the talented people that are academics, and their inbuilt distaste for bureaucracy, their reluctance to be managed or told what to do. The message here is consistently one of needing to be completely open with academics, the importance of maintaining the distinction between ‘collegial’ and ‘executive’ management (avoiding ‘managerialism’), and the critical importance of winning and holding their trust.

This book examines applied studies contributing to the issues of financial markets and sustainable economy in conditions of COVID-19 pandemic. All studies in this book applied complex models with quantitative data in the areas of finance, macro and sustainable economy, as well as business and management, to express the main issues of the financial–economic universe during the pandemic crisis. Some of the studies offer possible solutions in the sustainable post-COVID era. This book is also of particular interest in relation to the green economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Interdisciplinary development approaches for system-efficient lightweight design unite a comprehensive understanding of materials, processes and methods. This applies particularly to continuous fibre-reinforced plastics (CoFRPs), which offer high weight-specific material properties and enable load path-optimised designs. This thesis is dedicated to understanding and modelling Wet Compression Moulding (WCM) to facilitate large-volume production of CoFRP structural components.

Este livro traz um compositor-percussionista na condição de autor-escritor que realiza um ensaio teórico a partir de um fazer expressivo-artístico. O autor, especializado em instrumentos de percussão, traz reflexões a partir de seus experimentos com o instrumento denominado reco-reco, que não tem reconhecimento na música erudita. A partir de suas realizações criadoras envolvendo esse e outros instrumentos sem “nobreza”, o músico iniciou um processo reflexivo que inclui atividades como músico e compositor, suas experiências com a sonoridade daquele instrumento, seu uso, e sua posição no contexto da música. Outros aspectos foram se ampliando e se entrecruzando com diversidade de enfoques e por meio de metáforas. Os pensamentos, assim, atingem dimensões da política, filosofia, sociologia, antropologia a estética. São questionados valores estabelecidos, relações de poder na música e no cotidiano e experiências humanas. O pesquisador surpreende, portanto, pela capacidade de expandir sempre as possibilidades de pensamento sobre temas diversos, mesmo partindo, por exemplo, de uma experiência aparentemente restrita em torno de um instrumento de percussão tido como inexpressivo.

This Reprint focuses on recent advances in the understanding, monitoring, and remediation of groundwater contamination, a persistent global challenge with significant environmental and public health implications. It highlights research dedicated to identifying contamination sources and pathways, evaluating the behavior and transport of contaminants, and developing sustainable treatment and management strategies. The Special Issue, “Research Progress in Groundwater Contamination and Treatment”, contains one editorial and eight research articles that collectively explore groundwater quality and treatment across diverse regions worldwide. The studies investigate the occurrence and environmental fate of contaminants, including Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs), Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs), and benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX). They also address advanced monitoring through geo-environmental indices, classical and multivariate statistical techniques (e.g., Principal Component Analysis and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis), and innovative remediation, such as the synthesis of titanium dioxide/tungsten trioxide (TiO2/WO3) photocatalysts for pharmaceutical contaminants. By presenting current findings and technological innovations, this Reprint underscores the importance of safeguarding groundwater resources through effective remediation and management practices.

Aquest volum reuneix les aportacions a les Terceres Jornades de la Càtedra Josep Anton Baixeras, celebrades la tardor de 2016, en què van participar els professors Antoni Jordà Fernández, Pompeu Casanovas i Joan Cuscó Clarasó. El títol «Identitat, Literatura i Dret» resumeix els interessos intel·lectuals de Josep Anton Baixeras, tal com es fa palès en un discurs seu contra la pena de mort, pronunciat al senat espanyol, del qual Isabel Baixeras Delclòs fa una anàlisi que clou el llibre.

Le fait urbain en Sicile hellénistique s’insère entre les grandes cités siciliennes d’époque classique, elles-mêmes héritières des expériences coloniales archaïques, et la mainmise de Rome, avènement d’un gouvernement centralisé de l’île. Son étude a souvent été l’objet de vives polémiques dans la communauté scientifique à propos de la chronologie et des implications socioculturelles de certains éléments marquants du paysage urbain : édifices, plans d’urbanisme et aménagements privés. Le but de ce livre est d’en proposer une synthèse en le considérant dans son ensemble et en versant au débat des données inédites provenant de la Mégara Hyblaea hellénistique. L’enquête montre notamment comment les populations de Sicile hellénistique ont amélioré leur confort et leur bien-être domestiques, au regard d’autres endroits de la Méditerranée. Cette tendance de fond se perçoit avec l’apparition dans les habitations siciliennes des premières latrines et salles de bains ainsi que par une ornementation croissante des salles dites « de réception ». Les plans des habitations ont évolué de pair avec ces nouveaux aménagements : ainsi voit-on apparaître à côté des habitats traditionnels « à cour centrale » de nouvelles planimétries telles que les cours à péristyle et les plans « à deux cours ». L’urbanisme des villes de Sicile hellénistique, c’est-à-dire l’organisation planifiée de l’espace urbain, a moins connu ces innovations et présente le plus souvent une nette continuité avec des principes édictés à l’époque classique, voire archaïque. L’ensemble des données archéologiques ainsi revues et remises en perspectives permet de réfléchir à une nouvelle approche de la Sicile aux IVe et IIIe siècles av. J.-C. C’est par cet état des connaissances et ces réflexions que le présent livre entend proposer sa contribution à l’étude du fait urbain en Sicile hellénistique.

This book explores the complex relationship between production, trade, and connectivity in pre-Roman Italy, confronting established ideas about the connections between people, objects, and ideas, and highlighting how social change and community formation are rooted in individual interactions. The volume engages with, and builds upon, recent paradigm shifts in the archaeology and history of the ancient Mediterranean which have centred the social and economic processes that produce communities. It utilises a series of case studies, encompassing the production, trade, and movement of objects and people, to explore new models for how production is organised and the recursive relationship which exists between the cultural and economic spheres of human society. The contributions address issues of agency and production at multiple scales of analysis, from larger theoretical discussions of trade and identity across different regions to context-specific explorations of production techniques and the distribution of material culture across the Italian peninsula. Production, Trade, and Connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy is intended for students and scholars interested in the archaeology and history of pre-Roman and early Republican Italy, but especially production, trade, community formation, and identity. Those interested in issues of cultural interaction and material change in the ancient Mediterranean world will find useful comparative examples and methodological approaches throughout. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

First published in 1987, Elections in America focuses upon different substantive aspects of elections in America. The essays in the volume orient themselves differentially with respect to these alternative perspectives on the role of elections in democratic governance. Although varied in substantive focus, methodological approach, and theoretical orientation, these essays critically examine what we think we know about elections in America and bring together both past and present to bear on the investigation of the continuing evolution of the role played by elections in American democracy. Divided into five parts—the elections as a democratic institution; party reform and the nomination process; the electronic campaign; money and politics; and the 1984 elections, this book is a must read for students and researchers of political science, particularly of American politics.

Human activities cause the degradation of innumerable ecosystems, including forests. The degradation of forests leads to far-reaching nutrient cycle changes throughout all environments. Reversible or irreversible degradation processes cause declines in an ecosystem’s ability to self-regulate. Reversible processes decrease native forest biodiversity while preserving the ecosystem’s abiotic components, whereas irreversible processes alter the character of the potential natural vegetation. This book discusses forest degradation in three sections on general, climatic, and land-use degradative effects.

La masa se agita, los llamados a participar en las marchas están en la agenda del día. El bullir de nervios frente a la desigualdad y el cinismo de los dirigentes colma la paciencia del pueblo. El inconformismo crece. Sucumbir a las provocaciones del sistema en silenciosas obediencias no es más una opción. Hay que levantar la voz, el puño, soportar el sol en los rostros durante los largos y agotadores días de marcha, convivir con la lluvia y llevar los cuerpos al límite del cansancio.