Open Access Books

The book is concerned with the harmonisation of maritime safety legal systems in Europe. It describes maritime safety legal systems in selected European countries as well as maritime safety issues from the perspective of the International Maritime Organisation, European Union, and European Free Trade Association. Distinguished scholars from Europe's leading maritime law academic centres present national perspectives of maritime safety systems, questioning whether the adopted national solutions guarantee the compatibility with IMO and EU legal regime, as well as assessing the global and EU system. Moreover, the book seeks to provide some answers as to whether the IMO goals on maritime safety are adequate in light of current safety challenges and how to achieve higher level of enforcement of internationally-recognised maritime safety standards. It will be of great assistance to those readers who need to familiarize themselves with current problems inherent in maritime safety, whether that be lawyers, scholars, professional mariners, or national institutions.

Numerous archaeological projects have found substantial evidence of the military nature of Maya society, and warfare is a frequent theme of Maya art. Maya Gods of War investigates the Classic period Maya gods who were associated with weapons of war and the flint and obsidian from which those weapons were made. Author Karen Bassie-Sweet traces the semantic markers used to distinguish flint from other types of stone, surveys various types of Chahk thunderbolt deities and their relationship to flint weapons, and explores the connection between lightning and the ruling elite. Additional chapters review these fire and solar deities and their roles in Maya warfare and examine the nature and manifestations of the Central Mexican thunderbolt god Tlaloc, his incorporation into the Maya pantheon, and his identification with meteors and obsidian weapons. Finally, Bassie-Sweet addresses the characteristics of the deity God L, his role as an obsidian merchant god, and his close association with the ancient land route between the highland Guatemalan obsidian sources and the lowlands. Through analysis of the nature of the Teotihuacán deities and exploration of the ways in which these gods were introduced into the Maya region and incorporated into the Maya worldview, Maya Gods of War offers new insights into the relationship between warfare and religious beliefs in Mesoamerica. This significant work will be of interest to scholars of Maya religion and iconography.

Wie beeinflussen Peer-Gruppen die sportlichen Aktivitäten während der sensiblen Übergangsphase vom Kindes- zum Jugendalter (12–14 Jahre)? Basierend auf einer von der DFG geförderten Längsschnittstudie zeigt dieses Buch, wie Peer-Gruppen die Teilnahme von Jugendlichen am Sport sowohl in der Schule als auch in der Freizeit beeinflussen. Der Autor identifiziert fünf wichtige kollektive Orientierungen und diskutiert deren Auswirkungen auf die Sportpädagogik und -praxis.

In Landscape Architecture and Design – Sustainability and Management , a creative and multidisciplinary approach is taken to rethink how we design and construct outdoor areas in order to address sustainability. This book offers a thorough examination of how landscape architecture can promote ecological resilience, boost human well-being, and establish environments that are in balance. It examines how innovative and sustainable methods can direct responsible development in both urban and rural environments, including topics like integrated land management, green infrastructure, and climate-responsive design. In order to inspire professionals, students, and decision-makers to adopt new design paradigms, this book emphasizes the advantages of ecological thinking, teamwork, and long-term planning. Learn how landscape architecture may be an effective tool for handling the difficulties of a world that is changing quickly and accomplishing environmental goals.

Cet ouvrage contribue, à partir d’études de cas empruntées au passé de la France et de l’Allemagne, à une réflexion sur les problèmes que pose la transition de la guerre à la paix. Il aborde la question : comment construire la paix ? à partir d’un angle d'attaque qui fait la part belle à la dimension confessionnelle, dont on sait l’importance - et l’ambivalence - pour la représentation des conflits comme pour la construction de la paix dans l’espace germanique et, dans une moindre mesure, dans l’histoire de la nation française. Il retrace l’évolution qu’ont connue, au fil de quatre siècles, les réflexions sur la guerre et la paix en France et en Allemagne, et il analyse les causes intérieures et extérieures de la fragilité des paix. Un accent est d’abord mis sur les traités de paix de Westphalie qui ont comblé les lacunes de 1555 et offert des garanties juridiques fondamentales. Puis les auteurs montrent comment l’inadéquation s’est creusée, au xviiie et au xixe siècle, entre les théoriciens de la paix et les chantres des conflits, l’adversaire devenant, d’hérétique ou rebelle, l’ennemi de la nation. Les divergences entre chrétiens pacifistes et adeptes d’une forte présence militaire ont alors incité certains protestants à distinguer de plus en plus la sphère privée de la sphère publique. Cette distinction se retrouvera même chez des résistants au Troisième Reich et sera également, pendant la Guerre froide, au cœur des débats entre adeptes ou détracteurs du réarmement.

The present volume “New Trends in Lithium Niobate: From Bulk to Nanocrystals” contains the materials of a Special Issue of the MDPI journal Crystals dedicated to the memory of Prof. Dr. Ortwin F. Schirmer and provides a new synopsis of his research focusing on LiNbO3. It also includes recent developments, exemplifying the continued interest in this outstanding ferroelectric, non-linear optical and holographic crystal as a workhorse for testing and realizing new ideas and applications.This book starts with reviews on intrinsic and extrinsic crystal defects in LiNbO3 of single-crystal, thin-film or nano-powder forms, studied by various optical, magnetic resonance and nuclear methods, clarifying in particular the reasons for the suppression of anion vacancy formation upon thermal reduction, mechano-chemical processing or irradiations of various types. The reviews are followed by research papers on the experimental and theoretical investigation of small polarons, together with recent results on the properties of Li(Nb,Ta)O3 mixed crystals. Among the various contributions dealing with nonlinear optical applications, papers on device development, entangled photon pair generation and thin films on the Lithium Niobate On Insulator (LNOI) platform can also be found.

Este libro está dirigido principalmente a estudiantes y profesores de Antropología y Ciencias Sociales. Su objetivo es contribuir a estimular una agenda de investigaciones sobre la historia de la Antropología y las Ciencias Sociales en el Perú, que permita una visión comparada sobre la disciplina en el Perú y América Latina, que tome en cuenta tanto su historia institucional e intelectual, así como sus vaivenes teóricos y políticos. Esta tarea es más urgente que nunca, pues desde al menos dos...

This chapter discusses the representation of West and Central African cities in Francophone African narratives of diasporic return. Using as case studies Camara Laye’s Dramouss (A Dream of Africa; 1966), Aïssatou Cissokho’s Dakar, la touriste autochtone (“Dakar, the Native Tourist”; 1986), and Daniel Biyaoula’s L’Impasse (“The Impasse”; 1996), the chapter focuses on the texts’ portrayals of urban mobility practices and transport to explore the role of mobility in the construction of the postcolonial African city as experienced by the diasporic returnee, typical a displaced postcolonial mobile subject. In the discussed novels, various modes of mobility move the protagonists around in their former hometowns, permitting encounters with city dwellers and formerly familial urban landscapes. The texts’ portrayals of the returnees’ urban mobilities highlight the tensions between memory and the present and underline the protagonists’ sense of unbelonging and disillusionment. By focusing on African cities from the perspective of urban mobilities, the chapter contributes to the on-going postcolonialization of literary urban studies and enhances the field’s dialogue with mobilities research.

Perennial woody plants usually face multifactorial adverse conditions during their long lifespan, which impairs their growth and productivity. To cope with these adverse conditions, trees deploy morphyological, physiological and molecular responses to adapt to the environmental constraints. By using high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatic approaches, many hub genes that are involved in stress response were identified. In recent years, with the advantages of transgenic technology in woody plants, many candidate genes participating in stress responses were functionally characterized and showed great potential for tree improvement under different stresses. On the other hand, cultivation strategies (including beneficial microorganism investigation, beneficial microorganism inoculation, mixed forest and so on) also play crucial roles in tree improvement under abiotic and biotic stress.

This book focuses on three disaster-related categories: major disaster declarations, emergency declarations, and fire management assistance declarations. The authors utilize these official definitions to draw inferences about the frequency, geographic patterns, trends, and financial costs related to disasters.

Immune response and metabolic regulation are highly integrated and this interface maintains a central homeostatic system, dysfunction of which can cause obesity-associated metabolic disorder such as type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and cardiovascular disease. Insulin resistance is an underlying basis for the pathogenesis of these metabolic diseases. Overnutrition or obesity activates the innate immune system with subsequent recruitment of immune cells such as macrophages and T cells, which contributes to the development of insulin resistance. In particular, a significant advance in our understanding of obesity-associated inflammation and insulin resistance has been recognition of the critical role of adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs). ATMs are a prominent source of proinflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-a and IL-6, that can block insulin action in adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, and liver autocrine/paracrine signaling and cause systemic insulin resistance via endocrine signaling, providing a potential link between inflammation and insulin resistance. All articles in this topic highlight the interconnection between obesity, inflammation, and insulin resistance in all its diversity to the mechanisms of obesity-induced inflammation and role of immune system in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and diabetes.

The standard approach to cognitive development most frequently consists of cross-sectional studies comparing different ages and groups while restricted to a single task. The necessity to focus on the individual in an idiographic perspective, rather than on the task or the variable, has been repeatedly emphasized, most recently in several very important papers by Nesselroade and Molenaar. Variability has also emerged as a crucial characteristic. Moreover, understanding the developmental construction of a given cognitive achievement is imperative to understanding cognitive functioning in adulthood. The general objective of this book is to focus on the individual by studying intraindividual and interindividual variability in various cognitive tasks, that is, intraindividual variability across items of a given task (inconsistency), across various cognitive tasks (dispersion), and/or across years (intraindividual change), and of course, on interindividual differences in intraindividual variability. This book presents empirical studies that have been conducted by research groups in Europe and in North America, prominent in the field of variability and development or methodology. The 26 authors/co-authors include senior authors such as Lautrey, Schmiedek, Dauvier, van der Maas, Ghisletta, Stawski, MacDonald, and de Ribaupierre.

The aim of the study is to examine the applicable legal regulations on mobbing in relation to the evolving forms provision of work and other pathological phenomena not classified as mobbing. The starting point for the considerations is the definition of mobbing contained in the applicable provisions of labor law. Personal rights were also subjected to a detailed analysis, the violation of which may be the basis for pathological behavior not classified as mobbing.

Vodnik po Bolgariji v uvodnih poglavjih predstavlja naravnogeografske značilnosti, zgodovinski pregled, prebivalstvo in poselitev ter gospodarstvo te prehodne dežele med Evropo in Azijo. V drugem delu je opisana priporočena pot, ki popotnika iz Sofije prek Stare planine popelje proti črnomorski turistični prestolnici Varni, nato sledi obali Črnega morja do Burgasa, potem pa ga znova usmeri v notranjost države ter prek Plovdiva, Rodopov in znamenitega Rilskega samostana nazaj v Sofijo. V knjigi je podrobno prikazano tudi makedonsko narodno vprašanje.

Effective safety management has always been a key objective for the broader airworthiness sector. This book is focused on safety themes with implications on airworthiness management. It offers a diverse set of analyses on aircraft maintenance accidents, empirical and systematic investigations on important continuing airworthiness matters and research studies on methodologies for the risk and safety assessment in continuing and initial airworthiness. Overall, this collection of research and review papers is a valuable addition to the published literature, useful for the community of aviation professionals and researchers.