Open Access Books

The role of the Congress is essential to any study of American government and politics. It would be impossible to gain a complete understanding of the American system of government without an appreciation of the nature and workings of this essential body. This is an introductory text aimed at undergraduates studying American politics and American society. It looks at the workings of the United States Congress, and uses the Republican period of ascendancy, which lasted from 1994 until 2000, as an example of how the Congress works in practice. The book illustrates the basic principles of Congress using contemporary and recent examples, while also drawing attention to the changes that took place in the 1990s. The period of Republican control is absent from many of the standard texts and is of considerable academic interest for a number of reasons, not least the 1994 election, the budget deadlock in 1995 and the Clinton impeachment scandal of 1999. The book traces the origin and development of the United States Congress, before looking in depth at the role of representatives and senators, the committee system, parties in Congress, and the relationship between Congress and the President, the media and interest groups. This will be the first textbook on the market that enables students to incorporate these developments into their work and into their thinking about contemporary American politics and society.

This reprint, entitled “Management of Acute and Chronic Complications of Lysosomal Storage Diseases in Children and Adults: Current Practice and Future Opportunities”, covers broad aspects of this group of rare diseases. The first theme includes articles on the management of pain, corneal clouding, gastrointestinal and airway diseases in Mucopolysaccharidoses and Mucolipidoses, and the evaluation of dysphonia in Pompe disease. Additionally, attention deficit and ADHD and the management of atherosclerosis in Fabry disease are considered here. The second theme includes diagnostic conundrums in lysosomal storage diseases, e.g., the prenatal diagnosis of Gaucher disease during pregnancy, the diagnosis of secondary hyperparathyroidism in Mucolipidoses, and the application of the new biomarker “plasma neurofilament light” in Niemann Pick C disease, as well as the correlation of enzyme activity with molecular diagnosis in Pompe disease. The articles in the third theme describe the impact of therapies on clinical outcomes. For example, a systematic review of the impact of enzyme replacement therapy on late-onset Pompe disease and trehalose use on Niemann Pick A and B is included. The remaining articles describe the NHS processes for overcoming challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and the differences in the transition from paediatric to adult services between different countries.

In his controversial poem “I Sing the Body Electric”, Walt Whitman glorified the human body in all its forms. The world according to Whitman is physical and sensual. Bodies are our fundamental way of being – being in the here and now, being in time and space. Bodies we have and bodies we are are as much sensed, felt, experienced, seen, or heard as they are material objects.2 As bodies, we are in space, and through our bodies, their processes, their practices, their skills, we leave traces in space and time and extend ourselves in space. Bodies that extend and reach out and communicate through voice, as well as how voice materialises the immaterial, was the topic of a colloquium, “I Sing the Body Electric”, held at the University of Hull, United Kingdom, in 2014, which in turn inspired the following special issue of the Journal for Religion, Film and Media (JRFM). Following on from the colloquium’s inspiration, this JRFM issue is dedicated to the interrelation between religion, body, technology, and voice and its analysis from an interdisciplinary perspective using approaches from musicology, philosophy, and religious studies.

Le langage nous importe en philosophie parce que la réalité nous importe. Si, comme il est dit dans les Recherches philosophiques, on doit se garder en philosophie contre la tentation constante de prédiquer de la chose ce qui réside dans le mode de représentation, c’est bien parce que ce qui nous intéresse est la réalité elle-même, et non ce que le langage nous oblige apparemment à supposer ou à croire à son sujet. J’entends ici par « réalisme » la conviction qu’entre la pensée ou le langage,...

Published

This book presents information about composite materials, which have a variety of applications in engineering and aeronautics, transportation, construction, sports, and recreational activities, and so on. The first section evaluates the thermal and mechanical properties of thermoplastic and thermoset polymers reinforced with particles and fibers. The second section discusses new 2D composites such as thin films for their conductivity and shielding properties. In discussing the different materials, Composite Materials include information on the design of the materials, their structure, and their preparation methods.

This book contributes to the ongoing research into the emergence of rabbinic Judaism in the synagogue setting through a study of one constellation of rabbinic and synagogue literature, the sequence of prophetic lectionary texts designated for the Sabbaths surrounding Tisha b' Av, and the midrashirn, piyyutim and targumic texts that interpret them. An analysis of this literary constellation allows us to better understand two dynamics that are relevant to the discussion of the development of rabbinic Judaism in the late antique synagogue: a) the relationship between the rabbinic Judaism that was propagated in the synagogue and the non-rabbinic synagogue culture that the rabbis encountered and interacted with there; b) the relationship between rabbinic literature that was composed by sages for their rabbinic colleagues and students, and rabbinic literature that was directed toward a wider Jewish lay audience as it was imagined by the rabbis.

»Event« und »Edutainment« spielen eine zunehmend wichtige Rolle bei der Vermittlungsarbeit in Museen. Diese ist heute mehr denn je in Veranstaltungsprogramme eingebunden, die das Publikum unterhaltsam bilden und zugleich neue Besucherschichten für das Museum interessieren sollen. Damit stellt sich auch die Frage, was Museumsprogramme von den Angeboten der Freizeitparks unterscheidet und welche Wünsche Besucherinnen und Besucher heute an die Museen richten. Fachleute aus Museen, Freizeiteinrichtungen sowie aus Forschung und Kulturpolitik, die sich im Herbst 2003 im Haus der Geschichte in Bonn trafen, nehmen zu diesen grundlegenden Fragen nach neuen Aufgaben für das Museum der Gegenwart Stellung. Eine Dokumentation der Arbeitsgruppen in Bonner Museen und der Praxisbeiträge eines Ideenmarktes zum Thema runden den Band ab.

A number of curious communities sprang up across the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century: simulated cities, states, and nations in which children played the roles of legislators, police officers, bankers, journalists, shopkeepers, and other adults. They performed real work—passing laws, growing food, and constructing buildings, among other tasks—inside virtual worlds. In this book, Jennifer Light examines the phenomena of “junior republics” and argues that they marked the transition to a new kind of “sheltered” childhood for American youth. Banished from the labor force and public life, children inhabited worlds that mirrored the one they had left. Light describes the invention of junior republics as independent institutions and how they were later established at schools, on playgrounds, in housing projects, and on city streets, as public officials discovered children's role playing helped their bottom line. The junior republic movement aligned with cutting-edge developmental psychology and educational philosophy, and complemented the era's fascination with models and miniatures, shaping educational and recreational programs across the nation. Light's account of how earlier generations distinguished "real life" from role playing reveals a hidden history of child labor in America and offers insights into the deep roots of such contemporary concepts as gamification, play labor, and virtuality.

Thin film processes are significantly incorporated in manufacturing display panels, secondary batteries, fuel/solar cells, catalytic films, membranes, adhesives, and other commodity films. This Special Issue on “Thin Film Processes” of Processes listed recent progress on thin-film processes, covering theoretical considerations, experimental observations, and computational techniques. Articles in this Issue consider comprehensive studies on thin film processes and related materials.

This MDPI Special Issue contains the conference proceedings of MOBILLE. Hosted by the iconic Lycée Français de New York, MOBILLE was an unprecedented international conference that gathered scholars and practitioners from all over the world in a forum about the impact of new technologies on the learning and teaching of languages. MOBILLE stands for Mobile Language Learning Experience. Language learning occurs in various environments, in dedicated regular classes as well as in those integrating language and subject matter. This Special Issue focuses on how technology—ubiquitous, pervasive and forever changing, shapes the experiences of learners, as well as teachers in primary school, secondary school and beyond. What is mobile is not just the technology, but ultimately the language learning itself.

The goal of this book is to present an overview of applications and ideas toward sample preparation methods and techniques used in analysis of foods and beverages. This text is a compilation of selected research articles and reviews dealing with current efforts in the application of various methods and techniques of sample preparation to analysis of a variety of foods and beverages. The chapters in this book are divided into two broad sections. Section 1 deals with some ideas for methods and techniques that are applicable to problems that impact the analysis of foods and beverages and the food and beverage industries overall. Section 2 provides applications of sample preparation methods and techniques toward determination of specific analytes or classes of analytes in various foods and beverages. Overall, this book should serve as a source of scientific information for anyone involved in any aspect of analysis of foods and beverages.

In an attempt to standardize elements of the station routine, the book describes the procedures used in passerine and wader ringing stations. It offers a comparative analysis of versatile evaluation techniques such as measurements, orientation experiments and monitoring. The authors meticulously analyze different methods used to track birds, including catching passerines with mist-nets in land and wetland habitat, as well as the use of the Heligoland trap. The monograph, as a successful bid to establish a bird station routine that is favourable to both birds and ringers, will benefit all professional and amateur ringers.

Originally published in 1974. This book on comparative literature represents the first extended attempt to relate Dante's major allegorical mode to classical and medieval interpretations of epic poetry rather than to patristic biblical exegesis. Dante's Epic Journeys is also the first comprehensive explanation of Dante's enigmatic Ulysses. Thompson strives to shed new light not only on Dante's allegory—and thus upon the whole troubled question of exactly what an allegory was thought to be—but also on the intricate relationship between poet and poem and between Dante's spiritual journeys and his written representation of those itineraries.

This essay examines Augustine’s critique of a hermeneutic of agonism in relation to his consideration of the Manichaean notion of the two souls, as well as his discussion of the two wills in the Confessions. The essay treats these dimensions as found in his early works De Genesi contra Manichaeos and De vera religione, as well as his work De duabus animabus, and lastly the Confessions. Augustine’s recurring treatment of the two souls is bound with his critique of agonism. It is also linked with his own deepening understanding of the hermeneutical consequence of the luminous self and the weight of consuetudo. In this context Augustine’s articulation of peace as an openness to God and others comes to fruition. Peace, for Augustine, is not the assertion of one’s distinctive luminosity or even the resolve of a secure self at odds with the world in which it finds itself. Rather, peace is found in the realization that one is made open to difference, to a concord that does not require struggle and agony, and in fact precludes the consumption or erasure of this difference