Open Access Books

The special issue of Romani Studies entitled “Romani people as object and subject of scientific inquiry: Scientification of Roma or RomaNization of science?” brings forward innovative approaches to critically revise the most disseminated epistemic platforms for studying the past and the presence of Romani people. This collection should be accepted as a step to overcoming the contemporary epistemic crisis in studying minorities which stems from opposition of two extremes, namely, relegating the specifics of social groups on the margins of research interest in order to avoid the risk of essentialization and privileging the voices of those on “periphery” as the exclusively endowed with the right to produce knowledge. Instead struggling with this clearly false dilemma, we offer the range of highly contextualized cases of epistemic neglect or injustice that Romani people expose and the strategies to reestablish justice in producing knowledge regarding this group.

In the post-genomic era, many efforts have been devoted to better understanding the biological information encoded by the cell “glycome” in normal and pathologic conditions. The glycan signature of human cells plays a pivotal role in regulating fundamental biological processes, which are critical for cell physiology and for cancer as well. Galectins (also worded S-type lectins) are an evolutionarily conserved family of endogenous lectins, which bind carbohydrates with high specificity. These molecules, which can be found both intracellularly and in the extracellular milieu, are functionally active in converting glycan-containing information into cell biological programs. This fashionable mechanism of signal transduction plays a relevant role in regulating several biological functions, including RNA splicing, gene transcription, cell migration and differentiation, apoptosis, immune response, and tumor growth and progression. It is not surprising, indeed, that a large number of studies on galectin–glycan interactions and galectins expression and function in human diseases have been published in the recent literature, spanning from immunology to cardiovascular medicine, from diagnostic Pathology to nuclear medicine. The aim of this Special Issue of IJMS is to collect selected contributions in the field reporting data, concepts, and new ideas, which have the potential to be translated in a clinical setting in the near future, in order to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other relevant human diseases.

Published

Esta publicação é fruto da confluência de vários fatores que passaram a contar com o porto seguro oferecido pela Lei n° 10.639, de 2003, que institucionalizou o estudo integral da História do Brasil e o reconhecimento do papel primordial dos africanos e de seus descendentes na construção da civilização brasileira. Os trabalhos aqui apresentados são norteados pela vontade de trabalhar a História da África como objeto direto de conhecimento e pela luta pela verdade histórica e contra os preconceitos eurocêntricos. Neste sentido, o livro busca para proporcionar uma visão ampla e íntegra da África e de sua diversidade, ressaltando a contribuição inalienável das suas populações para a história da humanidade, do Brasil e para nossa formação como seres humanos.

This work examines the history of Quranic Arabic. Using manuscript and medieval literary evidence, it uncovers the earliest Hijazi Arabic layer of the text, and describes its evolution into the Classical Arabic canonical reading traditions.; Readership: Everyone interested in the history of Arabic and the Quranic text and the early history of Classical Arabic and the Quranic reading traditions.

Le mot « démocratie » est aujourd’hui de tous les débats. Tous s’en revendiquent. Il a pourtant longtemps évoqué l’idée d’une populace soumise aux diktats de puissants démagogues. Comment, d’un sens aussi péjoratif, le terme est-il devenu synonyme du meilleur régime politique possible ?À travers une vaste étude des traités philosophiques, des discours politiques et de la presse, le livre retrace les différentes trajectoires du terme « democracy » en Grande-Bretagne entre 1770 et 1920. Premier régime parlementaire moderne, empire à l’influence globale, ce pays a joué un rôle déterminant dans l’évolution du gouvernement représentatif. Or, cette étude démontre que l’adéquation du parlementarisme à la démocratie résulte d’un processus de domestication de cette dernière, réduisant son champ conceptuel à celui de régime électif libéral. Alliant philosophie politique et histoire intellectuelle, l’enquête offre une fresque critique et audacieuse qui souligne les fondements élitistes du parlementarisme.Écrite dans une langue accessible, elle remet en question les mythologies démocratiques contemporaines et permet de voir d’un nouvel œil, l’actuelle crise de la représentation politique.

Explains the justice implications for the society and economy of a global climate hotspot. It synthesizes the historical, social, economic, and political roots of climate vulnerability in India and articulates a research and policy agenda for collective democratic deliberations and action. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

The first taxonomic treatment of the smut fungi in Greenland is provided. A total of 43 species in 11 genera are treated and illustrated by photographs of sori, microphotographs of spores in LM and SEM, and distribution maps. Two species, Anthracoidea pseudofoetidae and Urocystis tothii, are recorded as new from North America. Thirteen species, Anthracoidea altera, A. capillaris, A. limosa, A. liroi, A. pseudofoetidae, A. scirpoideae, A. turfosa, Microbotryum lagerheimii, M. stellariae, Schizonella elynae, Stegocintractia luzulae, Urocystis fischeri, and U. tothii, are reported for the first time from Greenland. The most numerous distribution groups are the following: circumpolar–alpine and Arctic–alpine species – 14; circumboreal–polar species – 10; and circumpolar and Arctic species – 6. The most widely distributed smut fungi in Greenland are Anthracoidea bigelowii, A. elynae, Microbotryum bistortarum, and M. vinosum. Most species were found in the High Arctic zone (29 species), while from the Low Arctic zone and the Subarctic zone, 26 and 19 species were known, respectively. Ten species, Anthracoidea bigelowii, A. capillaris, A. elynae, Microbotryum bistortarum, M. koenigiae, M. pustulatum, M. silenes-acaulis, M. vinosum, Schizonella elynae, and Urocystis sorosporioides, were recorded from all three zones. Only plants belonging to six families, Cyperaceae, Poaceae, Juncaceae, Ranunculaceae, Caryophyllaceae, and Polygonaceae, out of a total of 55 in the flora of Greenland, hosted smut fungi. Carex was the genus with the highest number of host species (22). The total number of the host plants (45 species) was 8.5 % out of a total of 532 vascular plants in the flora of Greenland.

The publication is a contribution to the discussion of institutional and personnel tools of ideological use of ethnography and related scientific disciplines by Nazi Germany in the 1940s in the intentions of its foreign policy plans. It focuses on the efforts of the Third Reich and German researchers to influence the homeland and ethnographic research in Slovakia and follows it on the example of the activities of the Institute for homeland Research (Institut für Heimatforschung) in Kežmarok and those associated with its activities (Franz. J. Beranek and his wife Hertha Wolf-Beranek, Bruno Schier and others). The authors try to clarify the issues concerning the ideological contexts of ethnographic research of the German minority in Slovakia during the Second World War. They draw on period sources that have been preserved in the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and in other archival collections in Slovakia and abroad. The obtained archival data are also analysed with regard to the current research of the monitored issues in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. At the same time, the researched examples of the influence of Nazi ideology on the activity of specific personalities and institutions during the Second World War inspire a broader discussion on the relationship between political ideologies and science.

Bei der Entwicklung formularbasierter Benutzerschnittstellen werden Spezialfälle einzelner Benutzer häufig nicht berücksichtigt. Besonders verursachen mehrere Varianten der Benutzerschnittstelle für ein einziges Programm einen hohen Entwicklungsaufwand. Benutzerschnittstellen werden in der Praxis von Programmierern und wenigen Benutzern definiert. Eine so entwickelte Benutzerschnittstelle stellt eine universelle Lösung dar. Benutzer können die Schnittstelle zwar verwenden, jedoch wären in vielen Fällen Vereinfachungen wünschenswert. Die häufige Unzufriedenheit der Benutzer ist daher gut nachvollziehbar. Diese Arbeit beschreibt ein Verfahren zur Erweiterung von Komponententechnologien, die eine selbständige Vereinfachung von Formularen ohne Programmierung durch den Benutzer ermöglicht.

The early second millennium was a pivotal moment in the history of Theravāda Buddhism. Religious reforms carried out at Poḷonnaruva, then-capital of Sri Lanka, shaped the latter course of Buddhism across South and Southeast Asia. However, our understanding of these reforms has been over-determined by retrospective accounts written by male monastics, who focused on the heroic deeds of male monarchs. This book offers a radical revision of this narrative. Drawing on textual, inscriptional, numismatic, and material evidence from within the period itself, it reveals how the intellectual and social histories of Buddhism, politics, and gender were inextricably intertwined in Poḷonnaruva. In particular, it argues that debates over what it meant to be a “good Buddhist king” were intrinsically debates about Buddhist masculinity and about the proper relationship of gender to power.

In the 20th century, Germany experienced two dictatorships, the Third Reich and the GDR, which continue to shape the Federal Republic to this day. Nevertheless, the post-war perspective of the leading actors in both regimes, in contrast to that of the victims, generals, writers or scientists, has received little attention in historical research. For the first time, Hans-Ulrich Danner evaluates all the autobiographies of the most important party officials of the NSDAP and SED in a comparative study. The processing strategies, the criticism of the system and ideology, the explanations for the failure and the classification of the authors' own role are examined. The summary analyzes of each memoirist and the cross-system typology are the main result of the work. Both similarities and differences in how the Nazi and SED authors came to terms with the past are shown. The book is important for science precisely because of the historical and political relevance of the previously unexplored topic. The interested reader in particular is offered a new perspective on the German experience of dictatorship through the focus on the regime's officials.

Angesichts des zunehmenden Bedarfs an multifunktionalen mechatronischen Systemen bietet die MID-Technologie vielversprechende Potenziale zur Herstellung hochintegrierter mechatronischer Baugruppen in funktionsoptimalem Design. Unsicherheiten hinsichtlich der Qualität und Zuverlässigkeit hemmen jedoch insbesondere in rauen und sicherheitsrelevanten Bereichen den Einsatz individueller MID-Lösungen. Vor diesem Hintergrund werden einleitend die wesentlichen qualitätsbeeinflussenden Faktoren entlang des mehrstufigen, multidisziplinären Herstellungsprozesses von LDS-MID aufgezeigt und erforderliche Maßnahmen zur Qualitätssicherung in der Fertigung erläutert. Die weiteren Schwerpunkte der vorliegenden Arbeit ergeben sich aus den charakteristischen Ausfallursachen und Einschränkungen, die eine weitere Verbreitung von LDS-MID beeinträchtigen. Als diese sind die Delamination der Metallisierung, die Entstehung von Leiterbahnrissen und das thermische Versagen von Leiterbahnen zu nennen. Systematische Untersuchungen verfolgen davon abgeleitet die Zielstellungen, die Metallisierungshaftfestigkeit von LDS-MID zu bestimmen und zu steigern, Leiterbahnrisse bei thermischer Belastung zu vermeiden sowie durch den Einsatz von Metallkern-MID die Stromtragfähigkeit signifikant zu erhöhen. Auf Grundlage der erarbeiteten Methoden und Erkenntnisse werden bestehende Unsicherheiten in Bezug auf die Eignung von LDS-Anwendungen für ihren Einsatz in anspruchsvollen Applikationsfeldern abgebaut und wertvolle Anhaltspunkte zur effektiven Steigerung der Robustheit von LDS-MID aufgezeigt.

Epdf and ePUB available Open Access under CC BY NC ND licence. This book presents the collaborative process of 14 research projects working together during the COVID-19 pandemic. It documents their findings and explains how researchers in the voluntary sector and academia responded methodologically, practically, and ethically to researching poverty and everyday life for families on low incomes during the pandemic.