Open Access Books

Out of Placeoffers an in-depth exploration of Nuraan Davids’ experience as a Muslim ‘coloured’ woman, traversing a post-apartheid space. It centres on and explores a number of themes, which include her challenges not only as a South African citizen, and within her faith community, but as an academic citizen at a historically white university. The book is her story, an autoethnography, her reparation. By embarking on an auto-ethnography, she not only tries to change the way her story has been told by others, transforms her ‘sense of what it means to live’ (Bhabha, 1994). She is driven by a postcolonial appeal, which insists that if she seeks to imprint her own way of life into the discourses which pervade the world around her, then she can no longer allow herself to be spoken on behalf of or to be subjugated into the hegemonies of others. The main argument of Out of Placeis that Muslim, ‘coloured’ women are subjected to layers of scrutiny and prejudices, which have yet to be confronted. What we know about Muslim ‘coloured’ women has been shaped by preconceived notions of ‘otherness’, and attached to a meta-narrative of ‘oppression and backwardness’. By centring and using her lived experiences, the author takes readers on a journey of what it is like to be seen in terms of race, gender and religion – not only within the public sphere of her professional identities, but within the private sphere of her faith community

The norms and uses of gender language are not mere practical rules, but imply a radical (even revolutionary) change in the philosophy of society and of language, and can constitute - if applied in a flexible and reasoned way - a fundamental stimulus for language juridical reaches what should be its essential character, according to the idea of ​​the greatest jurists: clarity.

This work examines the potential of Learning Analytics as a strategy for personalizing learning in virtual higher education, moving beyond a purely technocentric approach. Through a theoretical and methodological articulation, it analyzes how the digital traces generated by students in virtual learning environments can be transformed into interpretable pedagogical evidence to optimize learning pathways, strengthen student retention, and mitigate dropout risks. The text establishes important conceptual distinctions among Learning Analytics, Educational Data Mining (EDM), and Academic Analytics, defining the operational scope of each discipline within the context of university management. It also provides an in-depth examination of the dimensions that underpin the data lifecycle, ranging from data collection sources and technological interoperability to the development of valid indicators of student engagement, regularity, and academic performance. Through a comprehensive approach, the book describes the implementation of descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive models, detailing the operation of adaptive recommendation systems, automated academic tutoring, and evidence-based instructional design. Beyond computational and algorithmic components, the authors place strong emphasis on ethical considerations, transparency, institutional governance, and algorithmic fairness, warning against the risks of excessive surveillance, automated bias, and the stigmatizing labeling of students. In conclusion, the work is proposed as a reference framework for educators, researchers, and university administrators committed to digital transformation. It demonstrates that Learning Analytics achieves its true value only when it is placed at the service of human development, socio-educational equity, and the continuous improvement of academic quality in virtual learning environments.

La Guyane française, avec sa grande richesse culturelle et linguistique, offre un observatoire privilégié pour l'étude des relations entre langue et société. On y parle en effet une trentaine de langues d'origines multiples : langues créoles, amérindiennes, asiatiques, européennes. Des populations aux histoires diverses participent aux processus de migrations et d'urbanisation, se trouvant ainsi confrontées aux langues et cultures dominantes de la région. Tant dans le domaine de l'éducation que dans celui de la santé ou de la justice, la promotion quasi-unique du français conduit à des difficultés d'ordre linguistique et culturel à l'origine d'importants problèmes sociaux. Linguistes, anthropologues, sociologues, historiens, dicacticiens, psychologues croisent ici leurs analyses pour susciter des politiques prenant en compte la spécifié des langues et cultures guyanaises. Cet ouvrage s'adresse à la communauté universitaire, aux pouvoirs publics, aux enseignants, aux acteurs sociaux, mais également à tout lecteur concerné par les questions sociolinguistiques et anthropologiques telles que le contact des langues et des cultures, le rôle des représentations culturelles dans l'apprentissage des langues, la construction de l'identité et la place des langues dans cette construction.

"Innovation offers potential: to cure diseases, to better connect people, and to make the way we live and work more efficient and enjoyable. At the same time, innovation can fuel inequality, decimate livelihoods, and harm mental health. This book contends that inclusive innovation – innovation motivated by environmental and social aims – is able to uplift the benefits of innovation while reducing its harms. The book provides accessible engagement with inclusive innovation happening at the grassroots level through to policy arenas, with a focus on the South-East Asian region. Focusing on fundamental questions underpinning innovation, in terms of how, what and where, it argues that inclusive innovation has social processes and low-tech solutions as essential means of driving innovation, and that environmental concerns must be considered alongside societal aims. The book's understanding of inclusive innovation posits that marginalized or underrepresented innovators are empowered to include themselves by solving a problem that they are experiencing. The first in-depth exploration of efforts underway to assuage inequality from policy, private sector, and grassroots perspectives, this book will interest researchers in the areas of innovation studies, political economy, and development studies. "

ca. 200 words; this text will present the book in all promotional forms (e.g. flyers). Please describe the book in straightforward and consumer-friendly terms. [enter Summary/Description] Based on information theory, a number of entropy measures have been proposed since the 1990s to assess systems’ irregularity, such as approximate entropy, sample entropy, permutation entropy, intrinsic mode entropy, and dispersion entropy, to cite only a few. Among them, sample entropy has been used in a very large variety of disciplines for both univariate and multivariate data. However, improvements to the sample entropy algorithm are still being proposed because sample entropy is unstable for short time series, may be sensitive to parameter values, and can be too time-consuming for long data. At the same time, it is worth noting that sample entropy does not take into account the multiple temporal scales inherent in complex systems. It is maximized for completely random processes and is used only to quantify the irregularity of signals on a single scale. This is why analyses of irregularity—with sample entropy or its derivatives—at multiple time scales have been proposed to assess systems’ complexity. This Book presents contributions related to new and original research based on the use of sample entropy or its derivatives.

The paper illustrates the similarities and differences in the strategies applied by the Orthodox Slavs to keep a connection with their basic code of (auto)-identification (i.e. Orthodoxy), as well as with the cultural tradition which was related to it. Particularly, the author focuses on the Serbs of the Habsburg Empire and the Protestant minorities who lived within the Hungarian borders during the 18th century, who were forced to develop some specific cultural strategies in order to offset the unifying tendencies and proselyting policy of the local Catholic Church.

Despite automatic enrolment in work pension schemes, private saving for pensions in the UK is relatively low, with most people under-pensioned in later life and reliant on the state pension. In this book, Hayley James shows that equally significant is that women save far less for old age than men. Indeed, her detailed research reveals the ways in which pension saving, as an everyday practice of finance, is shaped by gender and how this evolves over the lifecourse. The book challenges the hetero-patriarchal assumptions in pension systems by demonstrating the ways in which they are not gender-neutral since they assume behaviours that marginalize the lived experiences of women. The book makes a compelling case to resolve gendered inequalities in pensions by changing pension provision to better suit the realities of lived experience.

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A medical measure influences the physical and mental integrity of the affected people. The right of determination is also part of a person’s personality. The individual can exercise his right of self determination only when its decision conditions and justifies medical practice. Is an adolescent due to an illness or disability not able to excersise decisions, these have to be made by a representative of legal transactions - an agent - or taken by a legal representative - a supervisor. In this study, the different representation schemes on health matters are presented.

Mit Blick auf den Vereinigungs- und Transformationsprozess der 1990er-Jahre stellt sich dabei die Frage, ob es Alternativen zu den eingeschlagenen Wegen gab. Bei der Suche nach Antworten führt der Weg auf eine Ebene, die für die einstmalige Arbeitsgesellschaft DDR von identitätsstiftender Bedeutung war: die Ebene der Betriebe, der dort Beschäftigten und ihrer Erfahrungen aus der Zeit, in der die wirtschaftliche und soziale Struktur in den neuen Ländern radikal umgestaltet wurde. Wie verliefen diese Prozesse? Welche Rolle spielten dabei Gewerkschaften und betriebliche Interessenvertretungen? Wie erfolgreich waren die vielfältigen Protestaktionen zum Erhalt von Betrieben und Arbeitsplätzen? Und welche Bedeutung nimmt dieses Engagement in den Erfahrungen der Betroffenen und in der medialen Öffentlichkeit ein? Dies sind die Kernfragen, die in dem vorliegenden Band thematisiert werden.

Junge Menschen sind einerseits Objekt und Gegenstand von Politisierung, treten aber zugleich auch selbst auf vielfältige Weise als politische Akteur:innen auf. Der interdisziplinär ausgerichtete Band greift anhand empirischer und theoretischer Beiträge die Frage nach der Politisierung der Jugend auf. Er versammelt ausgewählte Beiträge, welche sowohl grundlagentheoretische Verhältnisbestimmungen zu Jugend, Politik und Politisierung vornehmen wie auch empirische Einblicke in verschiedene Politisierungserfahrungen und -kontexte geben. Der Band bündelt vielfältige thematische Zugänge, bildet unterschiedliche theoretische und methodische Perspektiven ab und zielt auf einen umfänglichen Beitrag zur wissenschaftlichen Auseinandersetzung mit dem Verhältnis von Politisierung und Jugend.

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Monografia Aspekty ekonomiczne zarządzania firmą odzieżową stanowi kompendium wiedzy na temat światowego, europejskiego oraz polskiego przemysłu odzieżowego. Jest to oryginalny materiał zawierający analizy oraz zestawienia informacji dotyczące potencjału, historii i oceny firm odzieżowych. Obserwacje poparto doskonale udokumentowanym i umiejętnie zaprezentowanym materiałem badawczym z wykorzystaniem programu SPSS IBM IMAGO PRO. Analiza ukierunkowana jest nie tylko na wyniki ekonomiczno-finansowe poszczególnych firm, ale dotyczy również szeroko rozumianego zarządzania w branży mody. Prezentowane wyniki i treść poszczególnych rozdziałów mieści się w dziedzinie nauk ekonomiczno-społecznych, a zastosowane metody statystyczne pozwalają na uogólnianie wiedzy na populację generalną polskich przedsiębiorstw odzieżowych i ocenę potencjału całej branży. Duży nacisk położony został na aspekty ekonomiczne oraz problematykę jakości wyrobów i usług. Dużo uwagi poświęcono zagadnieniu spełniania wymagań Unii Europejskiej przez firmy odzieżowe. Przemysł odzieżowy opisany jest w aspektach sytuacji makroekonomicznej, potencjału i zmian związanych z asortymentem oraz wolumenem produkcji, preferencjami zakupowymi klientów firm odzieżowych, działalnością innowacyjną, a także różnymi sposobami podejścia do zarządzania.

Aluminum alloys and aluminum matrix composites have great potential for applications in aerospace and transportation. This reprint includes 11 papers from several countries with diverse backgrounds about the latest progress in additive manufacturing of aluminum alloys and aluminum matrix composites.