Open Access Books

In 17th century Iberian musical practices, the boundary between the sacred and secular spheres is often elusive. Despite the instructions of the Counter-Reformation, which advised against references to secular melodies in liturgical music, an extraordinary example of this permeability between liturgical and secular repertoires is an unpublished Parody Mass preserved solely in a cartapácio from Coimbra (P-Cug MM234) and based upon the music of the tono humano “La zagala más hermosa” for the day of the Nativity of the Virgin on 8 September 1646. Tiago Simas Freire, centred on the Mass for three choirs La zagala más hermosa, devises a musical programme of Marian praise. Accompanied by the musical interpretation of the ensemble Capella Sanctae Crucis (dir. Tiago Simas Freire), we offer an overview of the music destined for these Offices of Darkness - Ad Tenebras – found in manuscripts from the Monastery of Santa Cruz de Coimbra, today preserved in the General Library of the University of Coimbra (BGUC).

Since the introduction of the first industrial robot Unimate in a General Motors automobile factory in New Jersey in 1961, robots have gained stronger and stronger foothold in the industry. In the meantime, robotics research has been expanding from fix based robots to mobile robots at a stunning pace. There have been significant milestones that are worth noting in recent decades. Examples are the octopus-like Tentacle Arm developed by Marvin Minsky in 1968, the Stanford Cart crossing a chair-filled room without human assistance in 1979, and most recently, humanoid robots developed by Honda. Despite rapid technological developments and extensive research efforts in mobility, perception, navigation and control, mobile robots still fare badly in comparison with human abilities. For example, in physical interactions with subjects and objects in an operational environment, a human being can easily relies on his/her intuitively force-based servoing to accomplish contact tasks, handling and processing materials and interacting with people safely and precisely. The intuitiveness, learning ability and contextual knowledge, which are natural part of human instincts, are hard to come by for robots. The above observations simply highlight the monumental works and challenges ahead when researchers aspire to turn mobile robots to greater benefits to humankinds. This book is by no means to address all the issues associated mobile robots, but reports current states of some challenging research projects in mobile robotics ranging from land, humanoid, underwater, aerial robots, to rehabilitation.

Through case studies of émigré literary translators and editors, t his open access book traces how Russian literature kindled the American imagination in the 20th century. In the 19th century, American literature was invaded by great Russian novels, including the works of Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gorky, and others, all mediated, translated, and sometimes even discovered by devoted freelance translators like Isabel Hapgood, Leo Wiener, and Nathan Haskell Dole. Throughout the 1900s these translators made Russian literature, from Nobel prizewinners like Solzhenitsyn to obscure émigrés like Mark Aldanov, accessible to American readers. Some literary translators were also publishers, like Nicholas Wreden (1901-55), at different times a bookseller at Scribner’s, an editor at E.P. Dutton and a publishing executive at Little, Brown. His style was so well-regarded that Hemingway wished he wrote in Russian so that Wreden could translate him. He was also a lumberjack, a trainee naval officer and an émigré who fled Russia in 1920 to become a naturalized American citizen. Uniquely, as a translator and as a publisher, Wreden helped determine which Russian novels the American public would read. This book tells Wreden’s story. It also reconstructs, using archival sources, the lives of other extraordinary translator-publishers like Thomas Seltzer, Bernard Guilbert Guerney, and Carl Proffer, who, with his wife Ellendea, ran Ardis Publishers, the firm that brought Soviet writing to the US. Invading the American Canon tells the history of the translation of Russian literature in America and its changing critical reception over a hundred turbulent years. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by a European Research Council Horizon 2020 Starting Grant (grant agreement no. 802437)

Bacterial biofilms are colonies of bacterial cells embedded in their self-produced matrix composed of polysaccharides, DNA, and proteins. They protect bacterial cells against antibiotics, antibacterial agents, soaps and detergents, and shear stress. Some of the most common biofilm-associated infections in humans include urinary tract infections, infection of wounds and surgical sites, diabetic foot ulcers, dental caries (tooth decay) and gingivitis (gum inflammation), ventilator-associated infections, sinusitis, microbial keratitis, secondary infection related to Covid-19 and other viral infections, and so on. Bacterial resistance to common antibiotics (e.g., penicillin, gentamycin, erythromycin, ciprofloxacin, etc.) is driving us to a catastrophic failure of our health systems. Strategies to develop novel antibacterial agents and technology must be prioritized to combat and eradicate biofilms and their associated challenges. This book provides a comprehensive overview of biofilms with chapters on bacterial virulence factors, quorum sensing in bacteria, antimicrobial resistance in bacteria, strategies to develop new antibacterial agents, and much more.

The present study addresses the combination of low-temperature Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) and hydrocarbon modification reactions (hydroprocessing) in one reactor. The objective of the present investigation was to study the influence of CO during hydroprocessing reactions of hydrocarbon model compounds on two different bifunctional catalysts. In addition, the influence of the catalyst-bed configuration for the combination FTS and hydrocarbon reactions was investigated.

Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) is a sacred tree and noble resource from South America. The Mayans and other early civilizations in Central America used cacao beans as tokens, which were subsequently transported to Europe to nurture monarchies and elites. Based on the discovery of cacao’s commercial potential and attributes, new cocoa plantations were established in other parts of the world, including Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. Thus, cocoa has become an important cash crop in Africa, Central and South America, and Asia, where it is a major foreign exchange earner, industrial raw material, support for livelihood, and ecosystem services provision. Based on its global importance, there has been an increased need for the expansion of cultivation to meet the rising demand for cacao beans. Global environmental change, including climate change, variability, and weather extremes, has established new environmental boundaries with implications for area suitability for cocoa production and sustainability. Efforts to unlock the potentials of the established environmental boundaries may be built on the development and adoption of agrotechnological practices and integration of climate resilience for harnessing opportunities and potentials of the new environment, and thus, extension of the frontiers of cacao cultivation to meet the increasing global demand for cocoa beans. This book, “Shifting Frontiers of Theobroma Cacao - Opportunities and Challenges for Production” presents a comprehensive perspective of the interactions of changing environmental conditions, cocoa production, and sustainability. The book illuminates the challenges climate change presents for cocoa production and sustainability. It provides insights into the need for cocoa actors within the cocoa sector to strengthen climate mitigation and resilience building and to come to grips with the realities, magnitude, and inevitable persistence of climate challenges to cocoa production and sustainability.

Terrorism, global pandemics, climate change, wars and all the major threats of our age have been targets of online extremism. The same social media occupying the heartland of our social world leaves us vulnerable to cybercrime, electoral fraud and the 'fake news' fuelling the rise of far-right violence and hate speech. In the face of widespread calls for action, governments struggle to reform legal and regulatory frameworks designed for an analogue age. And what of our rights as citizens? As politicians and lawyers run to catch up to the future as it disappears over the horizon, who guarantees our right to free speech, to free and fair elections, to play video games, to surf the Net, to believe ‘fake news’? Rethinking Social Media and Extremism offers a broad range of perspectives on violent extremism online and how to stop it. As one major crisis follows another and a global pandemic accelerates our turn to digital technologies, attending to the issues raised in this book becomes ever more urgent.

The article contains general characteristics of the Gallery “Pod Moną Lisą” in relation to the person and pioneering assumptions of Jerzy Ludwiński. I present the most important facts about the creation, program and functioning of the Gallery; the reactions and a general calendar of exhibition activities. I assume that the fact of the existence and success of the Gallery, in addition to Ludwiński’s titular contribution, largely determined the specificity of then Wrocław. I’m also trying to determine the importance and importance of the novel variant of Ludwiński’s artistic critique successfully implemented by the Gallery, both during its period of operation and after its closure.

The range of human neurodegenerative diseases continues to pose significant unmet medical needs for societies around the world. The progressive and terminal nature of these conditions places a considerable personal burden on the individual affected but also on public health systems and health services. Tens of millions of people are indiscriminately affected by various dementias, which are rising at an alarming rate. There are no cures for many conditions, and it is clear that treatments applied as early as possible could greatly improve outcomes for patients. Therefore, new disease classification and diagnostic tools should be a key priority. Metabolomics represents a relatively new field of analytical science, which can be extremely useful in the early diagnosis of disease. The relatively unique feature of metabolites is that they sit at the intersection between the genetic background of an organism and its environment. Because many neurodegenerative diseases are not genetically inherited (instead having a range of known genetic risk factors and also a large number of unknown environmental triggers) the field of metabolomics offers great promise for the discovery of new, biologically, and clinically relevant biomarkers for neurodegenerative disorders. It is already bringing forward new knowledge in terms of the mechanisms of neurodegenerative disease.

This book aims to provide information about Fourier transform to those needing to use infrared spectroscopy, by explaining the fundamental aspects of the Fourier transform, and techniques for analyzing infrared data obtained for a wide number of materials. It summarizes the theory, instrumentation, methodology, techniques and application of FTIR spectroscopy, and improves the performance and quality of FTIR spectrophotometers.

In an increasingly interconnected world, where distances dwindle and cultures interweave, the role of communication gains renewed significance. Language, our primary form of expression and comprehension, acts both as a border and a bridge for ideas, knowledge, and experiences. Amidst this complex linguistic interplay, this volume finds its purpose. Chapters herein delve into communication surpassing geographic and linguistic boundaries. As language professionals, educators, and researchers, we navigate the challenges of this landscape where languages blend and merge. These chapters analyse and inspire queries that arise whenever linguistic borders are crossed. From exploring the functions of intercomprehension to examining the impact of digital tools on borderless language education, each chapter reveals a facet of the theme. Topics span language methodologies, language acquisition, linguistic landscapes, and the growing importance of technology in teaching, to name but a few. Readers are invited to join us in exploring how communication shapes and is shaped by diverse linguistic environments. Together, we illuminate the threads that determine global interaction, delivering insight into the functioning of language in our interconnected world.

Parmi les femmes aimées par Flaubert, la plus mystérieuse de toutes est Juliet Herbert, dont il ne subsiste aucun portrait ni aucune lettre. Hermia Oliver raconte ici sa quête de cette Anglaise, qui fut la gouvernante de Caroline, la nièce de Flaubert, puis pendant vingt ans une des proches du romancier. En recourant aux recensements, aux testaments, aux registres paroissiaux et aux lettres échangées entre divers correspondants, l'auteur revient sur les années que Juliet a passées à Croisset, ainsi que sur les voyages de Flaubert en Angleterre et les séjours de Juliet à Paris. Au fil des indices qui permettent de suivre l'histoire de Juliet, c'est aussi un nouveau portrait de Flaubert qui se dessine, très différent du misanthrope peint par certains de ses biographes. L'ouvrage aide à comprendre comment il intégrait des souvenirs de voyage à ses écrits, et pourquoi il ne subsiste aucune lettre échangée entre lui et Juliet.

The article describes some relations between the central nervous system and language usage by a multiple system atrophy patient. It shows some complex sources of speech processes found in multiple system atrophy in reference to speaking without any disorders. It characterises some speech disorders and term them. This article emphasises a great importance of diagnosis of speech defects and shows some steps made by the author in a complex diagnostic process. The article doesn’t ignore some theoretical issues based on the results presented by speech therapists, podiatrists, neurologists, otolaryngologists over the years.

Der Finanzwissenschaftliche Ausschuß hat sich in den Jahren 1992 bis 1995 mit den Finanzierungsproblemen der deutschen Einheit beschäftigt, die eng mit Finanzausgleichsvorgängen verbunden sind. Auf seiner Tagung 1996 in Hamburg hat er daran anknüpfend Fragen des Finanzausgleichs in Europa diskutiert, die mit fortschreitender europäischer Integration an Bedeutung gewinnen dürften. Der vorliegende Band enthält drei Beiträge zu diesem Themenkreis. In einem ersten Aufsatz behandelt Hans-Werner Sinn das Verhältnis von »Selektionsprinzip und Systemwettbewerb«. Sein Ziel ist es zu zeigen, daß die gedankliche Gleichsetzung von staatlichem und privatem Wettbewerb, die sich in der Literatur findet, nicht gerechtfertigt werden kann, da das staatliche Handeln auf Aktivitäten gerichtet ist, die ungeeignet für Wettbewerbsprozesse sind. Stefan Homburg geht auf »Ursachen und Wirkungen eines zwischenstaatlichen Finanzausgleichs« ein. Vor allem will er zeigen, wie Entscheidungen innerhalb der Europäischen Union voraussichtlich zustande kommen, wenn zunehmend das Mehrheitsprinzip angewendet wird, und welche Folgerungen sich daraus für die Gestaltung der europäischen Finanzbeziehungen ergeben. Ewald Nowotny beschreibt in seinem Beitrag die föderalen Aspekte der gegenwärtigen Finanzverfassung der EU, wobei er auf die allokativen, stabilitäts- und distributiven Wirkungen eingeht. Hieraus leitet er dann wirtschaftspolitische Schlußfolgerungen für die zukünftige Haushaltspolitik ab.

L'élevage occupait une place importante dans l'agriculture et la vie économique du monde grec. Les sources littéraires ont depuis longtemps été exploitées pour le montrer, mais elles laissent subsister dans notre compréhension du phénomène de larges zones d'ombre qu'un examen attentif des autres sources peut en partie réduire. Il s'agit d'abord de faire l'inventaire de la documentation épigraphique en reproduisant les textes, accompagnés de traductions et de commentaires. Ils permettent d'aborder certaines questions dans une seconde partie servant de synthèse. On voit par exemple que le bétail était largement pris en compte dans la fiscalité grecque ou que certains sanctuaires avaient constitué des élevages sacrés à caractère spéculatif. Surtout, une géographie de l'élevage grec se dessine montrant que le degré d'intégration du bétail à l'agriculture était différent selon les régions du monde grec. Dans certaines, on peut constater la mise en place d'un système agro-pastoral cohérent, alors qu'ailleurs, les troupeaux sont rejetés une partie de l'année au moins en marge de la zone vouée aux cultures.