Open Access Books

ICICS-2020 is the third conference initiated by the School of Electronics and Electrical Engineering at Lovely Professional University that explored recent innovations of researchers working for the development of smart and green technologies in the fields of Energy, Electronics, Communications, Computers, and Control. ICICS provides innovators to identify new opportunities for the social and economic benefits of society. This conference bridges the gap between academics and R&D institutions, social visionaries, and experts from all strata of society to present their ongoing research activities and foster research relations between them. It provides opportunities for the exchange of new ideas, applications, and experiences in the field of smart technologies and finding global partners for future collaboration. The ICICS-2020 was conducted in two broad categories, Intelligent Circuits & Intelligent Systems and Emerging Technologies in Electrical Engineering.

Rising sea levels, increasing air temperatures, and recurring extreme weather events make coastal freshwater more susceptible to salination. This study investigates the relationship between salinity in the Dobrica, Dobra, and Perilo springs in the Bay of Bakar (Croatia) and extreme weather events from June 2005 to June 2020. Panel analysis, including water temperature (°C), electrical conductivity (µS/cm), hardness (mg/L CaCO₃), and chloride (mg/L), showed significant positive correlations between water temperature and chloride content, as well as direct relationships between electrical conductivity and chloride concentration. The study emphasizes the influence of weather on spring salinity and underscores the need for climate change adaptation strategies and sustainable water resource management. The findings hold significant implications for policymakers and stakeholders in water resource management.

This book adds a wealth of new data on the political significance of inter-American migration, through case studies of the policies of population flows from Cuba, Central America, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico. This theme has received only preliminary attention fully ten years after the Mariel boat-lift from Cuba. The contributing scholars bolster an emerging trend in the broad study of international population movements, emphasizing the effect government policies on migration is a social process quire insulated form the effects of public policy.

Nicht nur durch die technischen Veränderungen in allen Berufsfeldern sind Volkshochschulen – bezogen auf alle Qualifikationsniveaus – verstärkt gefordert. Bisher fehlen jedoch grundlegende Erkenntnisse, wie auf diese Entwicklungen durch Volkshochschulen in ihren beruflichen Weiterbildungsangeboten reagiert wird. Die Ergebnisse der Studie sind gebündelt und feingliedrig aufbereitet, um eine theoretisch-empirische Auslegung beruflicher Weiterbildung anzubieten. Es werden die thematischen und strukturellen Verschiebungen und Schwerpunkte ebenso sichtbar wie die vorhandenen Handlungsspielräume der Programmplanenden an Volkshochschulen.

This open access textbook aims at providing detailed explanations on how to design and construct image analysis workflows to successfully conduct bioimage analysis. Addressing the main challenges in image data analysis, where acquisition by powerful imaging devices results in very large amounts of collected image data, the book discusses techniques relying on batch and GPU programming, as well as on powerful deep learning-based algorithms. In addition, downstream data processing techniques are introduced, such as Python libraries for data organization, plotting, and visualizations. Finally, by studying the way individual unique ideas are implemented in the workflows, readers are carefully guided through how the parameters driving biological systems are revealed by analyzing image data. These studies include segmentation of plant tissue epidermis, analysis of the spatial pattern of the eye development in fruit flies, and the analysis of collective cell migration dynamics. The presented content extends the Bioimage Data Analysis Workflows textbook (Miura, Sladoje, 2020), published in this same series, with new contributions and advanced material, while preserving the well-appreciated pedagogical approach adopted and promoted during the training schools for bioimage analysis organized within NEUBIAS – the Network of European Bioimage Analysts. This textbook is intended for advanced students in various fields of the life sciences and biomedicine, as well as staff scientists and faculty members who conduct regular quantitative analyses of microscopy images.

12-й том «Архива» открывается исследованием Ефима Меламеда (Киев) об истории надзора сталинских спецслужб за еврейскими писателями в конце 1930-х — начале 1950-х годов, имевшего последствиями репрессии и физическое уничтожение многих из них. В приложении к его статье публикуется уникальный материал — донесения тайного агента, «освещавшего» деятельность «братьев-писателей». Григорий Кан (Москва) вносит очередную лепту в изучение «вечной» темы: евреи

Many sermon manuscripts were created around 800 CE over the course of the Carolingian reform movement, but until now, historical researchers have largely overlooked them. The presentation analyzes selected sermon collections to reveal their importance as a medium for implementing reforms at the local level, thereby making them an important instrument of Carolingian rule.

Governance and Public Administration in Switzerland Transformations before the Neoliberal Turn How did the state, its administration and its tasks change within the second half of the 20th century? To answer this question the articles in this book ana-lyze administrative practices as a crucial manifestation of statehood from the 1960s to the 1990s. Although the multilevel political system served as a stabi-lizing factor, a social and cultural readiness to reform also took shape, which has had a lasting impact on the management process. A neoliberal turn did not result immediately but a discussion in that direction was opened up. The book deals with the structure-building effect of subsidies, the commercializa-tion and privatization of state tasks, as well as with effects of scientific exper-tise on administration and politics. Transformations in education, youth, eco-nomic, migration and health policy are highlighted. Three different disciplinari-an viewpoints - history, history of education and political science are synthe-sized in the conclusion, which also outlines a relevant research program for contemporary history.

Tony Lawson is among the most influential economists of his generation. He has reclaimed a place for explicit, sustained, ontological analysis in economics demonstrating how its decades‑long neglect has hampered the discipline. Regarding social theorising more generally, Lawson has been centrally involved in developing a compelling account of the very nature of social reality (systematised as social positioning theory), showing how it can sponsor powerful new treatments of the nature of money, corporations and gender. He has also engaged in ethical theorising to explore possibilities for emancipatory change. For those seeking a relevant approach to economics specifically, or indeed social theorising in general, his work has been agenda‑setting. The chapters in this volume have been written in Tony Lawson’s honour. Leading heterodox economists, social theorists and legal scholars engage constructively and critically with Lawson’s landmark contributions. The chapters explore cutting‑edge developments in social ontology; issues at the interface between ontology, economics and ethics; and topics concerning the state and history of economics. Collectively, the chapters demonstrate that the perspectives Lawson outlines have critical purchase upon an extraordinary range of vital contemporary issues. This book will interest those searching for new relevant directions in social theory and philosophy and all concerned with the future (and history) of economics.

Loci communes oder „Gemeinplätze" waren laut Erasmus von Rotterdam im 16. Jahrhundert zentrale Werkzeuge des kognitiven Denkens sowie unverzichtbare Lern- und Lehrhilfe in allen Bereichen des Lebens, also auch in der Musik. Dieser Band gibt einen tiefen Einblick in die Tabulatursammlungen des 16. Jahrhunderts. Die untersuchten Tabulaturen beinhalten zwecks moralischer Erziehung verschiedenste miteinander verwobene Musik- und Texteinträge zu allen möglichen Themen wie Tugend, Gott, Sünde, Frauen, Narrheit oder Vergänglichkeit. Kateryna Schöning zeigt, wie die Instrumentalmusik in die ästhetisch-sinnliche Erfassung der Welt und die frühe Enzyklopädik eingebettet war, wie die Instrumental-Praxis beim Sammeln, Bearbeiten und Kompilieren der Text-Praxis nahestand, wie die Text-Praxis ihrerseits die Improvisation und das Intavolieren beeinflusste und welche Auswirkung sie auf die musikalische Didaktik sowie außermusikalische Medien mit Musik wie libri amicorum hatte. Loci communes (also ‘common places’, or quotations and text excerpts on all topics), according to Erasmus of Rotterdam, were a central instrument of cognitive thinking in the 16th century and an indispensable learning and teaching tool in all areas of life, including music. The book provides an innovative insight into 16th-century tablature collections. Just like diaries, the tablatures examined here contain a wide variety of interwoven musical and textual entries on all kinds of topics such as virtue, God, sin, women, folly and vanitas for the purpose of moral education. Kateryna Schöning shows how instrumental music was embedded in the aesthetic and sensual perception of the world and the early encyclopaedistics, how instrumental technique in collecting, editing and compiling was technically close to textual practice, and how textual practice in turn affected improvisation and intabulation, what effect it had on musical didactics and how it influenced other media with music, such as libri amicorum.

The scientific and public discussions over the last 200 years were shaped by findings from the field of evolutionary biology. Back in 1877, when Ernst Haeckel asked for the inclusion of evolutionary biology into class, he was met with fierce resistance (see Hoßfeld, 2010, p. 56). As Lässig (2010, p. 199) argues, knowledge is socially shaped. The aim of this study is to reveal the development of the significance as well as presentation of evolutionary biological contents in biology class within the SOZ/GDR and to embed it into the context of the respective prevailing political and social developments. Relevant curricula and schoolbooks as the most precise codification of the curricula fixed contents (see Neuner, 1989, p. 411) were used as raw material. For most subjects the history of schoolbooks is barely studied (see Pöggeler, 2003, p. 37). Therefore, as basis for this study, only one primary descriptive thesis about evolutionary biology in class (Rommel, 2006) could be used. Based thereupon an analytical framework will be introduced which follows a multidimensional approach of research by containing aspects of the three reference systems design, subject didactics and subject discipline. Product oriented separate and group analyses were used to evaluate the sources. This was carried out under the primacy of interdisciplinarity via analysis by content. The feedback of sociocultural changes on school books will be clarified in the concluding discussion. It will be shown that evolutionary contents occupied a significant position in biology classes within the SOZ/GDR and that the expression of those contents followed divergent approaches and preferences. The classification of teaching and learning material as an informational, pedagogical and political issue (see Stein, 1991) is taking place in the same context.

Starting with the hypothesis that not only human intelligence but also its antithesis 'intellectual disability' are nothing more than historical contingencies, C.F. Goodey's paradigm-shifting study traces the rich interplay between labelled human types and the radically changing characteristics attributed to them. From the twelfth-century beginnings of European social administration to the onset of formal human science disciplines in the modern era, A History of Intelligence and 'Intellectual Disability' reconstructs the socio-political and religious contexts of intellectual ability and disability, and demonstrates how these concepts became part of psychology, medicine and biology. Goodey examines a wide array of classical, late medieval and Renaissance texts, from popular guides on conduct and behavior to medical treatises and from religious and philosophical works to poetry and drama. Focusing especially on the period between the Protestant Reformation and 1700, Goodey challenges the accepted wisdom that would have us believe that 'intelligence' and 'disability' describe natural, trans-historical realities. Instead, Goodey argues for a model that views intellectual disability and indeed the intellectually disabled person as recent cultural creations. His book is destined to become a standard resource for scholars interested in the history of psychology and medicine, the social origins of human self-representation, and current ethical debates about the genetics of intelligence.

Literary history is typically written from the standpoint of preserved and canonised works, while many lesser-known authors, texts and forms of writing remain overlooked or lost in the margins. This volume takes a multidisciplinary view of literary loss and oblivion, providing methodological and analytical frameworks for their research from the perspective of literary studies, history and philosophy. Giving prominence to rare and forgotten texts, manuscripts, writers and genres across Europe from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, it explores the multifaceted nature of their loss by applying various methodological tools and considering relevant contextual factors. Through its case studies, the book illuminates the memory and vulnerability of literature as well as the blind spots and forgotten corners of literary history.

Information theory deals with mathematical laws that govern the flow, representation and transmission of information. The most significant achievement of the field is the invention of digital communication which forms the basis of our daily-life digital products such as smart phones, laptops and any IoT devices. Recently it has also found important roles in a spotlight field that has been revolutionized during the past decades: data science. This book aims at demonstrating modern roles of information theory in a widening array of data science applications. The first and second parts of the book covers the core concepts of information theory: basic concepts on several key notions; and celebrated source and channel coding theorems which concern the fundamental limits of communication. The last part focuses on applications that arise in data science, including social networks, ranking, and machine learning. The book is written as a text for senior undergraduate and graduate students working on Information Theory and Communications, and it should also prove to be a valuable reference for professionals and engineers from these fields.

This open access book is based on a unique body of data on a hitherto understudied field of Pentecostal prayer camps and mental health in Ghana . The book investigates and presents empirically grounded cases of persons with mental illness and how they deploy religious resources at prayer camps in Ghana in dealing with their illness. Particularly, the book explores perceived causes of mental illness and how such perceptions influence health seeking behaviours. The book illustrates how the perceived causes of mental illness and the healing practices found at prayer camps in Ghana that are meant to deal with the illness appeal very much to Ghanaians because they resonate with indigenous worldviews. Through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of in-depth-interviews with persons afflicted with mental illness and practitioners, this book points out the varied ways in which prayer camps have become a source of authoritative knowledge in Ghana’s medical pluralistic society, serving as an “informal” health sector in the provision of health care to persons with mental illnesses. It further highlights the network of relationships between prayer camps and hospitals as new ground of training in “cultural competence” for clinicians in their field of practice in psychiatry. The book proposes the intermediate continuum approach as a new framework or lens for examining the broader role of religion and culture in mental health care. The approach aims at providing a common ground to merge the differences in previous approaches in the studies of culture and mental health and thereby undo the tensions, conflicts, and controversies inherent in such approaches. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Åbo Akademi University .