Open Access Books

This study explores the impact of digital platforms on the development and sustainability of small enterprises in the canton of La Concordia, Ecuador. The research is based on a literature review covering recent studies on the digitization of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), focusing on how these technologies drive economic growth, improve competitiveness and promote financial inclusion in rural areas. The analysis reveals that while the adoption of digital platforms has enabled businesses to overcome geographic barriers and improve their market access, there are significant challenges related to the lack of technological infrastructure and digital education of local entrepreneurs. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation process, highlighting the need for advanced resources and continuous training in technological skills to maximize the benefits of digitization. This study concludes that while digital platforms are a key tool for the sustainability and competitiveness of SMEs, it is essential to implement support policies that address technological inequalities and promote digital empowerment to ensure a lasting impact on regional development.

At the crossroads of the republican idea and socialism, the work and career of Constantin Pecqueur (1801-1888) left a discreet mark on early nineteenth-century France. This collection of contributions introduces us to this little-known political and economic thinker. The essays published here review the main phases of his life and work, identify his major influences and analyse his dominant economic, political, social and moral ideas. They also examine the many links with his contemporaries - from Louis Blanc to Martin Nadaud - and the subsequent reception of his work.

The 43rd UID conference, held in Genova, takes up the theme of ‘Dialogues’ as practice and debate on many fundamental topics in our social life, especially in these complex and not yet resolved times. The city of Genova offers the opportunity to ponder on the value of comparison and on the possibilities for the community, naturally focused on the aspects that concern us, as professors, researchers, disseminators of knowledge, or on all the possibile meanings of the discipline of representation and its dialogue with ‘others’, which we have broadly catalogued in three macro areas: History, Semiotics, Science / Technology. Therefore, “dialogue” as a profitable exchange based on a common language, without which it is impossible to comprehend and understand one another; and the graphic sign that connotes the conference is the precise transcription of this concept: the title ‘translated’ into signs, derived from the visual alphabet designed for the visual identity of the UID since 2017. There are many topics which refer to three macro sessions: - Witnessing (signs and history) - Communicating (signs and semiotics) - Experimenting (signs and sciences) Thanks to the different points of view, an exceptional resource of our disciplinary area, we want to try to outline the prevailing theoretical-operational synergies, the collaborative lines of an instrumental nature, the recent updates of the repertoires of images that attest and nourish the relations among representation, history, semiotics, sciences.

This volume is a comprehensive analysis of the Atlas of the Principality of Polatsk (1580), one of the oldest cartographic representations of the military conflict between Russia (Muscovy) and the Western world. Its author, the Polish royal cartographer Stanisław Pachołowiecki, drew the maps at the beginning of the Livonian War (1579–1582) when the Polish-Lithuanian army liberated the Lithuanian and Livonian lands from Muscovian occupation. The Mapping of a Russian War focuses on the military aspects of the maps, their political and propaganda use, and the Early Modern construction of the past through maps. The authors present an innovative approach to these maps, rarely examined by the international research community.

Der Arzneimittel-Kompass 2022, der sowohl als Open-Access-Publikation als auch als gedrucktes Buch erscheint, widmet sich dem Schwerpunktthema „Qualität der Arzneimittelversorgung“. Dabei stehen die Qualitätssicherung und das Qualitätsmanagement in der zweiten Ausgabe des Arzneimittel-Kompass im Fokus. Namhafte Autorinnen und Autoren analysieren Stärken und Schwächen in der Arzneimittelversorgung und beschreiben die Umsetzungsherausforderungen, die der komplexe Prozess einer optimalen Versorgung der Bevölkerung mit Arzneimitteln mit sich bringt. Der Arzneimittel-Kompass 2022 geht unter anderem den folgenden Fragen nach: Was wird unter Qualität in der Arzneimittelversorgung verstanden? Wie ist die Qualität in der Arzneimittelversorgung spezifischer Gruppen von Patientinnen und Patienten wie beispielsweise von Kindern, älteren Menschen oder MS-Erkrankten zu bewerten? Sind Defizite bei der Verordnung von Kontrazeptiva, bei der Hormonersatztherapie, an der Schnittstelle von ambulanter und stationärer Versorgung oder von Patientinnen und Patienten mit Covid-19 erkennbar? Welche Hürden und Hindernisse gilt es zu bewältigen, um diese Defizite auszugleichen? Wie kann das Wissen über eine qualitativ hochwertige Arzneimittelversorgung auch in der Praxis umgesetzt werden? Zentrale Entwicklungen im Arzneimittelmarkt werden analysiert und beschrieben Die Ausgaben für Arzneimittel und Impfstoffe, die im Jahr 2021 mit 52,0 Mrd. € einen neuen Höchststand erreicht haben, werden differenziert in den Blick genommen. Die Auswertungen basieren auf 810 Millionen Verordnungen von mehr als 210.000 Ärztinnen und Ärzten für 73,3 Mio. GKV-Versicherte. Besondere Beachtung gilt den Trends in den Marktsegmenten Generika, Biosimilars, Patentarzneimittel und Orphan Drugs. Die Wirksamkeit der gesetzlichen Regulierungsinstrumente wird gleichfalls betrachtet. Ein Blick auf die Arzneimittelversorgung in Deutschland im Vergleich zu anderen europäischen Ländern rundet diesen Teil ab. Die Herausgeberinnen und Herausgeber Der Arzneimittel-Kompass 2022 wird von Helmut Schröder, Dr. Carsten Telschow und Dr. Melanie Schröder vom Wissenschaftlichen Institut der AOK (WIdO), Prof. Dr. med. Petra Thürmann von der Universität Witten-Herdecke und Prof. Dr. med. Reinhard Busse von der Technischen Universität Berlin herausgegeben.

La connaissance à partir d’indices peut-elle fournir un modèle consistant pour interpréter, voire guider le travail en sciences humaines ? À partir de la conjonction à la fin du xixe siècle entre la lecture des symptômes psychiques indirects chez Freud, de la technique d’attribution des œuvres d’art à partir de détails inventée par Morelli et de la naissance du roman d’enquêtes policières, Carlo Ginzburg a suggéré que le « paradigme indiciaire » constituait un modèle des « sciences humaines » dont le procédé consiste à « inférer à partir des effets ». Ce « paradigme » hériterait de la riche tradition de la sémiotique médicale et de la mantique, et aurait été en partie préservé par certaines disciplines partant de signes, trouvés ou suscités, pour parvenir, au moyen de leur « lecture », à la connaissance de leur « cause » : les symptômes du médecin, les indices de l’enquêteur, le détail pictural, l’écriture manuscrite, les traces relevées par le chasseur. Les études réunies ici interrogent la pertinence et les limites de la connaissance indiciaire depuis des perspectives croisées : philosophie, histoire, anthropologie, linguistique, histoire des sciences, préhistoire, médecine ancienne, philologie, sémantique, sémiotique, littérature.

The motivation to dedicate a volume of the Conservation 360° series to education and pedagogy arose during the COVID years 2020 and 2021, when conservation-restoration teachers were forced to suddenly change the format of their lessons. In Europe, an informal and international group called AcCESS (Academic Conservation Education Sharing Site) was formed to share and support each other on how to teach online. It was soon realized that the challenges associated with the curriculum were larger and deeper than the shift from face-to-face to online format. It was also realized that the literature available both at the level of curriculum structure and at the level of classroom didactics was sparse, and that teachers mostly relied on their experience as students, personal contacts with other teachers, or general didactic publications not related to the field of conservation-restoration. The present volume aims to fill this gap by collecting reflections and experiences on the evolution of the curriculum and its role in defining the profession, and by tracing important changes in the education of conservators-restorers, both in terms of the decolonization of the discipline and the role of curricula in addressing societal and environmental challenges such as climate change. This monograph has obtained the CEA/APQ Seal of Quality in Academic Publishing in 2024

This book contains six chapters dealing with the investigation of seismic and sequence stratigraphy and integrated stratigraphy, including the stratigraphic unconformities, in different geological settings and using several techniques and methods, including the seismostratigraphic and the sequence stratigraphic analysis, the field geological survey, the well log stratigraphic interpretation, and the lithologic and paleobotanical data. Book chapters are separated into two main sections: (i) seismic and sequence stratigraphy and (ii) integrated stratigraphy. There are three chapters in the first section, including the application of sequence and seismic stratigraphy to the fine-grained shales, to the fluvial facies and depositional environments, and to the Late Miocene geological structures offshore of Taiwan. In the second section, there are three chapters dealing with the integrated stratigraphic investigation of Jurassic deposits of the southern Siberian platform, with the stratigraphic unconformities, reviewing the related geological concepts and studying examples from Middle-Upper Paleozoic successions; and, finally, with the integrated stratigraphy of the Cenozoic deposits of the Andean foreland basin (northwestern Argentina).

Os ambientes litorâneos foram os primeiros ocupados pelo homem europeu no Brasil e apresentam, nos dias atuais, elevados índices de urbanização.Tais ambientes possuem elevado grau de suscetibilidade ambiental devido as suas características intrínsecas, tais como propriedades litológicas, hidrológicas, geomorfológicas, climáticas e biogeográficas. É neste contexto que se insere a região litorânea do estado de São Paulo, na qual a intensa atividade turística, os portos, as indústrias e o desenvolvimento urbano, associados a sua fragilidade, geram um alto grau de alteração. Na Baixada Santista, localizada no setor central do litoral do estado, a problemática principal relaciona-se à urbanização sobre os terrenos planos e inconsistentes da planície quaternária e sobre as vertentes íngremes dos Morros Isolados. Assim, têm-se problemas relacionados a enchentes, movimentos de massa nas encostas e instabilidade das fundações das construções. Diante desse cenário, os projetos de planejamento devem considerar que a qualidade de vida de moradores e turistas depende de ações adequadas, fundamentadas em bases sólidas de conhecimento, visando à conservação e manutenção das características ambientais. Os estudos que integram esta obra investigam as interações entre as características físicas da Baixada Santista e a ocupação desses terrenos. Ao analisar tais interações, busca-se realizar um diagnóstico das condições ambientais da Baixada Santista, apontando problemáticas ambientais municipais a serem gerenciadas pelo poder público nos processos de planejamento.

The modern hospital is at once the site of healing, the locus of medical learning and a cornerstone of the welfare state. Its technological and infrastructural costs have transformed health services into one of today's fastest growing sectors, absorbing substantial proportions of national income in both developed and emerging economies. The aim of this book is to examine this growth in different countries, with a main focus on the twentieth century, and also with a backward glance to earlier shaping forces. It will explore the hospital's economic history, the relationship between public and private forms of provision, and the political context in which health systems were constructed. The collection advances the historical world map of different hospital models, ranging across Spain, Brazil, Germany, East and Central Europe, Britain, the United States and China. Collectively, these comparative cases illuminate the complexities involved in each country and bring new historical evidence to current debates on health care organisation, financing and reform.

Aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, les relations entre la France et la Nouvelle-France se sont avant tout concentrées sur quelques espaces privilégiés. Les ports de La Rochelle, Rochefort, Les Sables d’Olonne, Bordeaux ou Nantes, du côté français, Québec, Plaisance ou Louisbourg, du côté canadien, occupent une place centrale dans l’animation de ces échanges (économiques, culturels, migratoires, diplomatiques) : la pêche à Terre-Neuve, la guerre et le commerce y soutiennent une intense activité, qui contribue au dynamisme de tout un ensemble de ports secondaires et à la formation de sociétés littorales originales. Profondément distendues après la conquête anglaise et le traité de Paris (1763), ces relations reprennent au XIXe siècle, la France et ses anciennes colonies jouant désormais de leur histoire commune pour se projeter, ensemble, vers l’avenir. C’est à l’étude de ces liens riches et complexes que s’attache la vingtaine de textes rassemblés ici. La redéfinition actuelle du concept d’histoire atlantique en légitime la relecture, tout en favorisant les approches comparatives. Encore trop souvent oubliée, l’identité maritime de la Nouvelle-France – Acadie incluse –, avec ses héritages contemporains, s’impose elle-même comme un front pionnier de l’historiographie franco-canadienne.

Biosignal processing is an important tool in medicine. As such, this book presents a comprehensive overview of novel methods in biosignal theory, biosignal processing algorithms and applications, and biosignal sensors. Chapters examine biosignal processing for glucose detection, tissue engineering, electrocardiogram processing, soft tissue tomography, and much more. The book also discusses applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning for biosignal processing.

Biological invasions are one of the main causes of biodiversity decline worldwide. While Japanese knotweed and tiger mosquito are invasive species that are well known to the public, the same could not be said for the American blue crab and the green Algae Caulerpa in the Mediterranean seaside. Marine biological invasions receive little media coverage, even though their effects on biodiversity and human activities are just as worrying as terrestrial invasions. Which marine species are considered invasive? How are they introduced? What impact do they have on local marine biodiversity? And, above all, what management methods can be used to contain them, or even to take advantage of them? Philippe Goulletquer reviews the latest advances in research into the detection, prevention, control and management of marine invasive species, in light of the new regulations in effect. He highlights various international, European and national strategies and presents specific case studies of concerned species. This book is intended for people who are concerned about current environmental imbalances and interested in ways of combating them.

This book is based on the documentary research carried out in 1999 by Marco Alexis Salcedo and Blanca Argenis Trujillo, as a requirement to obtain the degree of psychologists at the Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia, research that was directed by Anthony Sampson, professor of the Institute of Psychology of the mentioned university. Some fragments of this research addressing specific aspects were published in the following journals: Psicoanálisis y el hospital, Vol. 38, Argentina; Revista Gepu, Cali; A parte rei, Revista de filosofía, Spain; Perspectiva, Universidad del Valle, Palmira, and Revista Ces de Psicología, Medellín, Colombia. In this work, the whole question of moral responsibility that was dealt with in the psychology degree work, with the extensions and corrections that the years that have passed since its initial presentation have provided, is dealt with extensively and in detail.

El segle XX va ser, sens dubte, el de les revolucions, i en especial el de la revolució russa. A partir del 1917, els esdeveniments que van tenir lloc a l’antic imperi tsarista van traspassar fronteres i van sacsejar els fonaments de tota mena de societats, independentment de la identitat nacional, el credo religiós, l’estructura econòmica i la forma política. Els fets d’octubre van servir tant de model com de fantasma per combatre, inspirant i encoratjant els conflictes, les reformes, les revolucions i les contrarevolucions del curt segle XX. Amb motiu de la commemoració del centenari de l’inici de la revolució el 2017, el Centre d’Estudis Històrics Internacionals de la Universitat de Barcelona va recopilar aportacions historiogràfiques que posen de manifest com la revolució russa va contribuir a configurar el món tal com el coneixem.