Open Access Books

Land use change has had a fundamental impact on the livelihoods of people throughout the world. This Special Issue will focus on the research being conducted at the intersection of this land use change and the importance of maintaining landscapes that enrich humanity and our engagement with nature. In this Special Issue, we explore the value of landscapes that heighten the senses. Visual Resource Stewardship is an area of research that closely aligns with understanding how changes in the environment may be perceived and experienced. Understanding the tools, processes, and theories involved helps us to better understand how land use change impacts humanity, which is a critical endeavor in landscape planning. The goal of this Special Issue is to catalyze ideas and innovations between academia, practice, NGOs and government agencies working to address the analysis, planning, valuation, design and management of visual resources. Enclosed are articles that investigate, exemplify or theorize on the protection of visual resources in an era of major landscape changes on a regional, national and global scale and address multi-sensory topics at the intersection of people and the environment.

It presents the centenary essay of Simmel The Ruin, in a version of 1919 although the text originally appeared in 1911, and discusses the author's approach to aesthetics and the meaning of classical ruin. At the same time, the (post)industrial ruins are disallowed, which allows questions about the current hypotheses of the German philosopher. The ruin of Simmel argues about the conflict of nature with the spirit and the way the "revolt" of nature that generates the ruin, also produces peace and temperance. The treatment of Simmel presents general traces of the romantic assessment of ruin and is not immediate its approximation to the context of contemporary ruin resulting from human action (Incuria, degradation and wars). It is this industrial (post) ruin that is brought to the comparison and that by marking two consecrated cases of contemporary urban ruin – Aleppo and Detroit – makes highlighting the aesthetic order of decay in which the contrast with the ruin of Simmel gains sense and actuality.

Glucose is an essential metabolic substrate of all mammalian cells being the major carbohydrate presented to the cell for energy production and also many other anabolic requirements. Hypoglycemia is a disorder where the glucose serum concentration is usually low. The organism usually keeps the glucose serum concentration in a range of 70 to 110 mL/dL of blood. In hypoglycemia the glucose concentration normally remains lower than 50 mL/dL of blood. This book provides an abundance of information for all who need them in order to help many people worldwide.

« Dans l'ensemble des publications portant sur la laïcité dans son histoire et son actualité, les ouvrages consacrés à la morale laïque se comptent sur les doigts d'une main. Dans ce paysage, École, morale laïque et citoyenneté aujourd'hui vient combler un manque. La morale laïque a laissé dans la mémoire collective la trace d'une morale simplette et conservatrice. L'investigation historique montre au contraire que l'ambition éducative portée par la morale laïque à la fin du xixe siècle a été...

Para comprender lo sucedido en la región de Atacama con los aluviones del 2015, se requiere ir más allá del mes de marzo y del contexto regional. Los estudios que se presentan en este libro articulan la situación actual con la precedente, para configurar la complejidad del fenómeno y sus impactos a partir de las señales entregadas por la historia. Tanto la sociedad como la naturaleza han manifestado sus desacoples y sus ajustes, por lo que el conocimiento científico que hemos generado busca también en ellos las explicaciones de lo ocurrido en la actualidad. Así, el análisis de las antiguas y nuevas amenazas se propone en este libro como la llave del conocimiento del riesgo al que se enfrenta la región, con la intención de retratar en el presente también el registro del pasado que lo conforma. Es esta profundidad la que nos permite pensar la experiencia del desastre como una oportunidad de reconocernos colectivamente en sus características, evitando repetir los mismos errores y reinventar las mismas soluciones.

What is poverty and how do we measure it? What is the link between inequality and poverty? What can governments do to alleviate poverty and inequality? Does economic growth reduce poverty in the long run? These are some important research questions that are addressed in this book. It brings together important researchers and university professors to offer some analytical insights into the field of poverty, inequality, and public policies. Using quantitative and qualitative research methods, the authors examine issues relating to (a) contextual, academic, and cognitive differences between rural and urban poverty; (b) the impact of inequality on poverty; (c) theoretical considerations and empirical findings about poverty and inequality with a special reference to Croatia and Pakistan; (d) the role of trade facilitation in reducing poverty in South Asia; and (e) the impact of trade liberalization on economic growth and poverty implications with a special reference to Sri Lanka. The reader of this book will find it concise, with a clearly defined research methodology and findings, and easy to understand. Benefiting of recent statistical data and practical experience from various countries around the world, the findings and conclusions might be helpful to academia and policy makers to find better answers to poverty and inequality in the future.

A rigorous primer in movement studies for designers, engineers, and scientists that draws on the fields of dance and robotics.How should a gestural interface react to a “flick” versus a “dab”? Versus a “punch”? Should robots reach out to a human counterpart with a direct, telescoping action or through a circuitous arc in space? Just as different movements express the different internal states of human movers, so too can the engineered systems behind robots. In Making Meaning with Machines, Amy LaViers and Catherine Maguire offer a refreshingly embodied approach to machine design that supports the growing need to make meaning with machines by using the field of movement studies, including choreography, somatics, and notation, to engage in the process of designing expressive robots. Drawing upon the Laban/Bartenieff tradition, LaViers and Maguire sharpen the movement analysis methodology, expanding the material through their work with machines and putting forward new conventions, such as capitalization, naming, and notation schemes, that make the embodied work more legible for academic contexts. The book includes an overview of movement studies, exercises that define the presented taxonomy and principles of movement, case studies in movement analysis of both humans and robots, and state-of-the-art research at the intersection of robotics and dance. Making Meaning with Machines is a much-needed primer for observing, describing, and creating a wide array of movement patterns, which ultimately can help facilitate broader and better design choices for roboticists, technologists, and designers.

Le présent ouvrage est consacré à l'élucidation de la dimension épistémique de l'œuvre littéraire. Il pose une triple question : l'œuvre littéraire peut-elle prétendre à la connaissance ? Si tel est le cas, comment se définit l'originalité du savoir littéraire ? Enfin, quelle relation le savoir littéraire peut-il entretenir avec les autres formes de connaissance, notamment les discours théoriques des sciences humaines ? Ni impuissance mimétique, ni hyperproduction autotélique, l'œuvre littéraire apparaît comme un foyer de notre monde vécu, dont la reconnaissance réarticule le réel qui nous est si bien connu en de nouveaux horizons. Littérature et savoir(s) dit à la fois une conjonction - une différence - et une identité. C'est entre cette mêmeté et cette altérité que naît l'irréductible originalité du savoir littéraire en des formes dont les contributions ici rassemblées cherchent la racine commune sans ignorer, cependant, l'importance de ses variations historiques et génériques.

The reprint “Energy-efficient communication networks and systems” gives insights into the range of problems in the field of obtaining more energy-efficient communication networks and systems. The reprint contains the outcomes of the “Special Issue on energy-efficient communication networks and systems” organized for the Sensors journal published by the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI). The 12 high-quality papers published in the frame of the Sensors journal Special Issue have been collected and reproduced in this book, demonstrating significant achievements in the field to which this reprint is dedicated.Published papers consolidated in this reprint are self-contained peer-reviewed scientific works. Among published papers, one paper is editorial, one paper is a review type of paper, and the remaining ten articles are research articles. The papers are authored by 40 authors coming from academia and industry. The published articles target the improvement of energy efficiency in the fields of fiber-wireless, vehicle-to-vehicle/infrastructure, sensors, satellites, 5G, virtual elements, and cognitive radio networks. The contributions of published papers provide valuable insights into the latest research and technologies for improving the energy efficiency of communication networks and systems.This reprint can serve the readers as a source of information when needed in their industrial, teaching and/or research and development activities since it presents the recent advances in different fields related to improving the energy efficiency of communication networks and systems.

Lithium-ion batteries are an indispensable component of the global transition to zero-carbon energy and are instrumental in achieving COP26's objective of attaining global net-zero emissions by the mid-century. However, their rapid expansion comes with significant challenges. The continuous demand for lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles (EVs) is expected to raise global environmental and supply chain concerns, given that the critical materials required for their production are finite and predominantly mined in limited regions worldwide. Consequently, significant battery waste management will eventually become necessary. By implementing appropriate and enhanced battery management techniques in electric vehicles, the performance of batteries can be improved, their lifespan extended, secondary uses enabled, and the recycling and reuse of EV batteries promoted, thereby mitigating global environmental and supply chain concerns. Therefore, this reprint was crafted to update the scientific community on recent advancements and future trajectories in battery management for electric vehicles. The content of this reprint spans a spectrum of EV battery advancements, ranging from fundamental battery studies to the utilization of neural network modeling and machine learning to optimize battery performance, enhance efficiency, and ensure prolonged lifespan.

Should pregnant women be sent to prison? Is prison a place for the birth and care of babies? Can it ever be? This book is the first extensive historical examination of how the modern prison system sought to answer these perennial questions. The book takes the reader through the prison gates to demonstrate that, although a common feature of everyday life in women’s prisons, pregnancy, birth and motherhood were rarely fully considered at policy level. Instead, the experiences of mothers and children were shaped by a myriad of factors including debates about reconciling the management of institutional discipline with the maintenance of health and issues of gender and class. Lamented as an inalienable heritage of woe but also as an opportunity for the closer supervision of mothers, prison births evoked intense debate and required the negotiation of obdurate regimes. The book reveals how oscillating debates about the purpose of prisons shaped the punitive, reformatory and medical treatment of confined mothers. It also challenges scholarly debates about institutional discipline by delving further into the role of prisoners and prison staff in shaping the terms of their incarceration.

The world has never been richer than today. The distribution of our global wealth, however, is hugely biased. Since 1980, the gains havemainly been accumulated by the rich: The top 1% obtained twice as much of the income growth compared to the bottom 50%. Nevertheless, within economics, debates about inequality have remained rather marginal, despite long-term research by renowned scholars such as Tony Atkinson. Within the public arena, concerns about inequality emerged as a result of a number of developments: First, the global financial crisis in 2008 exposed the risks of the financing of the economy; secondly, in 2013, Thomas Picketty’s book “Capital in the 21st century” demonstrated that, against the trend of the overall 20th century, capital returns outstrip the gains through economic growth in recent decades, thus threatening social coherence and democratic institutions; and thirdly, the Millennium Campaign presented impressive achievements regarding poverty but stirred doubts as to whether the most deprived were left even further behind. Since 2015, the stated aim of SDG 10 is to “reduce inequality within and among countries”. There is growing consensus that economic growth is not sufficient to reduce poverty, and that our efforts to make it more inclusive have so far been insufficient. The first step in reducing inequality is to adopt a systemic perspective, allow for an integrative analysis covering both ends of the ladder. Policies should be universal in principle and pay attention to the needs of disadvantaged and marginalized populations. Predicated on comparison, inequality reminds us that it’s not enough to study lower earners and the poor. Instead, the term demands that we expand our perspective, scrutinizing how economic value is generated, accumulated, at whose cost, and, last but not least, how the overall system could be made fairer. “Transitioning to Reduced Inequalities”, therefore, explores inequality trends worldwide, offers a debate on different measures and comparative perspectives, highlights key actors who either benefited or suffered from recent economic trends, and explores policy options to reduce inequality and thus contribute to SDG 10. The volume considers particularly: conceptual frameworks with regards to the inequality debate; the relationship between poverty reduction, economic growth and inequality; measures of inequality; overlooked/bypassed groups in developing countries; analysis on income/wealth growth for different groups in the global north; discussion about policies to reduce inequality; and further research in the realm of inequality. Transitioning to Reduced Inequalities is part of MDPI's new Open Access book series Transitioning to Sustainability. With this series, MDPI pursues environmentally and socially relevant research which contributes to efforts toward a sustainable world. Transitioning to Sustainability aims to add to the conversation about regional and global sustainable development according to the 17 SDGs. The book series is intended to reach beyond disciplinary, even academic boundaries. Preliminary Content and Working Titles Kofi Takyi Asante, Alexander Nii Adjei Sowah and Prince Selorm Kodzo TettehInequality and Inclusive Development in Ghana Emily Ghosh, Eric Kemp-Benedict, Sivan Kartha and Anisha NazarethEnvironmental Inequalities Antonia Kupfer Liason of Climate Change and Social Inequality Narimah Samat and Yasin ElhadaryEquitable Access to Higher Education in Malaysia: Challenges and Opportunities Tim DiMuzioCapitalism, Money and Inequality in the World Vojislava Filipcevic CordesRight to the City, Right to Sanctuary Nicole Palan, Nuno Crespo and Nadia SimoesInequalities in TradeWesley F. PetersonWould Open Borders Lead to Reduced Global and Within-Country Inequality? Jordan Ayala and Clara Irazábal-ZuritaUrban Planning and Heterodox Economics: Progressive Partners to Reduce Inequalities

Cyclodextrins (CDs) have attracted great interest from the research community as well as industries in an array of sectors because of their unique structural features. This book provides a comprehensive overview of CDs, beginning with their historical background. Chapters address such topics as the structure and physiochemical properties of CDs, advancements in the field, and potential applications of these materials in fields such as drug delivery and sensing. This book reveals new frontiers in the CD world and is a useful resource for organic, analytical, and supramolecular chemists as well as scientists engaged in biological and material sciences.

"Der Sammelband erweitert die bisherigen Diskurse zur Modernisierung personenbezogener Dienstleistungsberufe aus Sicht der Berufsbildungswissenschaft und der berufspädagogischen Praxis. Die Beiträge geben Impulse für die Gestaltung struktureller, fachlicher und didaktischer Herausforderungen, unterbreiten Gestaltungsvorschläge für Ausbildung und Lehre und benennen Forschungs- und Entwicklungsdesiderate. Neben theoretischen Fundierungen zeigen Umsetzungsbeispiele aus den Bereichen Pflege, Soziale Arbeit und Hauswirtschaft, wie der Transformationsprozess gelingen kann und bereichern so die gegenwärtige sozial- und berufsbildungswissenschaftliche Fachdebatte."

Candidiasis is a major fungal infection with increasing clinical and therapeutic challenges worldwide. The emergence of drug-resistant Candida species and limitations of current antifungal therapies demand new perspectives in diagnosis and treatment. This book, comprising 10 chapters, presents recent advances in understanding candidiasis, highlighting emerging clinical challenges and novel therapeutic approaches. It serves as a valuable resource for clinicians, researchers, and healthcare professionals involved in the management of fungal infections.