Open Access Books

Das Verstehen legt Wittgenstein einem Ich bei: Einer versteht, indem er Zeichen anwendet. Anwendbare Zeichen sind Symbole: Sie werden bedeutsam, wenn sie in Zusammenhang mit anderen Zeichen gebracht werden und eine Funktion in der kognitiven oder praktischen Aneignung der Welt erfüllen. Symbole gehören zu Symbolsystemen und können als Vorschriften für symbolische, d.h. semiotische und insbesondere logische, Operationen mit Zeichen aufgefasst werden. Die Veränderung der Wittgensteinschen Auffassung des Verstehens besteht vor allem im Anerkennen der Erfahrung der Sozialisation als einer der wichtigsten Voraussetzungen der sinnvollen Anwendung von Zeichen. Diese Veränderung, ihre Quellen und Wirkungen sind das Thema dieses Buches.

Ecklonia radiata is one of the most widespread kelps globally, dominating temperate reefs throughout much of Australasia and southeastern Africa. Throughout much of its range, it is the only laminarian kelp and hence plays a key role in facilitating biodiversity and driving food webs, and it underpins immense ecological and socioeconomic values. This review synthesises the growing literature on E. radiata from its phylogeny and distribution through to its biology, ecology and recent changes. It provides an assessment of the state of knowledge and identifies gaps in our understanding of this important species. Despite being tolerant of a wide range of abiotic conditions, recent environmental change has caused direct and indirect loss of E. radiata forests, with extensive areas transitioning to turf and urchin barrens. Ongoing climate change may require application of multifaceted and novel strategies to increase its resistance and resilience to future conditions. By integrating variation across space, time and environmental change, this review provides a description of the current status and possible future trajectories of E. radiata forests.

The construction industry makes a significant contribution to the global economy. Effective management of construction projects is essential to ensuring timely completion that meets quality standards within a project’s prescribed scope and budget. Furthermore, assuring sustainability is crucial to reducing the impact of construction on the environment. The construction industry is also affected by globalization and increasing susceptibility to disasters highlighting the need for health and safety and resilience in the industry, especially after global pandemics and natural disasters. Digitalization and industrialization pave the way to the solution or mitigation of numerous issues in the construction industry by transforming business operations, improving productivity and safety, ensuring quality and compliance to standards, increasing sustainability, among other measures. It is imperative for project managers and other construction stakeholders to be digitally oriented. This reprint comprises of a collection of cutting-edge research articles in construction and project management that explores advances in digital, sustainable, and industrialized construction solutions for prevalent issues in construction and project management and investigates the needs of health and safety and resilience in the construction industry.

Many factors contribute to imbalances between needed agile combat support (ACS) resources and those available at any given time to simultaneously meet all requirements for contingency and training operations. This report describes ACS process gaps and recommends implementation strategies to facilitate changes needed to improve Air Force command and control through enhanced ACS planning, execution, monitoring, and control processes.

Extreme sports, those activities that lie on the outermost edges of independent adventurous leisure activities, where a mismanaged mistake or accident would most likely result in death, have developed into a significant worldwide phenomenon (Brymer& Schweitzer, 2017a). Extreme sport activities are continually evolving, typical examples include BASE (an acronym for Buildings, Antennae, Span, Earth) jumping and related activities such as proximity flying, extreme skiing, big wave surfing, waterfall kayaking, rope free solo climbing and high-level mountaineering. While participant numbers in many traditional team and individual sports such as golf, basketball and racket sports have declined over the last decade or so, participant numbers in so called extreme sports have surged. Although extreme sports are still assumed to be a Western pastime, there has been considerable Global uptake. Equally, the idea that adventure sports are only for the young is also changing as participation rates across the generations are growing. For example, baby boomers are enthusiastic participants of adventure sports more generally (Brymer & Schweitzer, 2017b; Patterson, 2002) and Generation Z turn to extreme sports because hey are popular and linked to escapism (Giannoulakis & Pursglove, 2017) . Arguably, extreme sports now support a multi-billion dollar industry and the momentum seems to be intensifying. Traditional explanations for why extreme sports have become so popular are varied. For some, the popularity is explained as the desire to rebel against a society that is becoming too risk averse, for others it is about the spectacle and the merchandise that is associated with organised activities and athletes. For others it is just that there are a lot of people attracted by risk and danger or just want to show off. For others still it is about the desire to belong to sub-cultures and the glamour that goes with extreme sports. Some seek mastery in their chosen activity and in situations of significant challenges. This confusion is unfortunate as despite their popularity there is still a negative perception about extreme sports participation. There is a pressing need for clarity. The dominant research perspective has focused on positivist theory-driven perspectives that attempt to match extreme sports against predetermined characteristics. For the most part empirical research has conformed to predetermined societal perspectives. Other ways of knowing might reveal more nuanced perspectives of the human dimension of extreme sport participation. This special edition brings together cutting-edge research and thought examining psychology and extreme sports, with particular attention payed to the examination of motivations for initial participation, continue participation, effective performance, and outcomes from participation.

'In Religion and the Making of Nigeria', Olufemi Vaughan examines how Christian, Muslim, and indigenous religious structures have provided the essential social and ideological frameworks for the construction of contemporary Nigeria. Using a wealth of archival sources and extensive Africanist scholarship, Vaughan traces Nigeria’s social, religious, and political history from the early nineteenth century to the present. During the nineteenth century, the historic Sokoto Jihad in today’s northern Nigeria and the Christian missionary movement in what is now southwestern Nigeria provided the frameworks for ethno-religious divisions in colonial society. Following Nigeria’s independence from Britain in 1960, Christian-Muslim tensions became manifest in regional and religious conflicts over the expansion of sharia, in fierce competition among political elites for state power, and in the rise of Boko Haram.

Primo volume di una collana del Dottorato di Ricerca in Progettazione Paesistica dell'Università di Firenze - settore disciplinare innovativo per il suo coinvolgimento politico e sociale - illustra le potenzialità di tale ambito di studio con il frutto di un ampio laboratorio didattico-creativo. Le varie esperienze progettuali vengono raggruppate in sei sezioni tematiche: Parchi e paesaggio; Parchi metropolitani; Spazi urbani; Sistemi fortificati; Luoghi per l'arte; Paesaggi storici; Idee e progetti (quest'ultima dedicata a temi centrali nella ricerca italiana, come il paesaggio agrario e quello fluviale).

This collection engages with translation and interpreting from a diverse but complementary range of perspectives, in dialogue with the seminal work of Theo Hermans. A foundational figure in the field, Hermans’s scholarly engagement with translation spans several key areas, including history of translation, metaphor, norms, ethics, ideology, methodology, and the critical reconceptualization of the positioning of the translator and of translation itself as a social and hermeneutic practice. Those he has mentored or inspired through his lectures and pioneering publications over the years are now household names in the field, with many represented in this volume. They come together here both to critically re-examine translation as a social, political and conceptual site of negotiation and to celebrate his contributions to the field. The volume opens with an extended introduction and personal tribute by the editor, which situates Hermans’s work within the broader development of critical thinking about translation from the 1970s onward. This is followed by five parts, each addressing a theme that has been broadly taken up by Theo Hermans in his own work: translational epistemologies; historicizing translation; performing translation; centres and peripheries; and digital encounters. This is important reading for translation scholars, researchers and advanced students on courses covering key trends and theories in translation studies, and those engaging with the history of the discipline.

“Machines, Mechanisms and Robots: Theory and Applications (MMR-T&A)” is an interdisciplinary collection, published in MDPI's journal Machines, that is focused on Mechanical Systems analyzed from both the theoretical and the applicative points of view. It aims to report scientific advancements in all fields concerning mechanical system design. This reprint marks the beginning of the MMR-T&A series, which compiles articles from the MMR-T&A collection. This first volume includes the first ten published papers from the collection. It starts with one review on contact models. Then, it continues with two papers addressing obstacle avoidance in different contexts, one more paper on geometric constraint programming, and three papers presenting novel mechanisms. Finally, it closes with one paper on mechanism performances and two papers addressing manufacturing issues. Going forward, a new volume in the MMR-T&A series will be released for every ten papers published. This reprint is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Ettore Pennestrì (Reggio Calabria, Italy, May 16, 1957 – Rome, Italy, August 29, 2024).

Trail of Story examines the meaning of landscape, drawn from Leslie Main Johnson’s rich experience with diverse environments and peoples, including the Gitksan and Witsuwit’en of northwestern British Columbia, the Kaska Dene of the southern Yukon, and the Gwich’in of the Mackenzie Delta. With passion and conviction, Johnson maintains that our response to our environment shapes our culture, determines our lifestyle, defines our identity, and sets the tone for our relationships and economies. With photos, she documents the landscape and contrasts the ecological relationships with land of First Nations peoples to those of non-indigenous scientists. The result is an absorbing study of local knowledge of place and a broad exploration of the meaning of landscape.

During the 1970s, renewed interest in plant mechanical signaling led to the discovery that plants subjected to mechanical stimulation develop shorter and thicker axes than undisturbed plants, a syndrome called thigmomorphogenesis. Currently, mechanosensing is being intensively studied because of its involvement in many physiological processes in plants and particularly in the control of plant morphogenesis. From an ecological point of view, the shaping of plant architecture has to be precisely organized in space to ensure light capture as well as mechanical stability. In natural environments terrestrial plants are subjected to mechanical stimulation mainly due to wind, but also due to precipitation, while aquatic and marine plants are subjected to current and wave energy. Plants acclimate to mechanically challenging environments by sensing mechanical stimulations and modifying their growth in length and diameter and their tissue properties to reduce potential for buckling or breakage. From a morphogenetic point of view, both external and internal mechanical cues play an important role in the control of cell division and meristem development likely by modulating microtubule orientation. How mechanical stimulations are being sensed by plants is an area of intense research. Different types of mechanosensors have been discovered or proposed, including ion channels gated by membrane tension (stretch activation) and plasma membrane receptor-like kinases that monitor the cell wall deformations. Electrophysiologists have measured the conductances of some stretch-activated channels and have showed that SAC of different structures can exhibit different conductances. The role of these differences in conductance has not yet been established. Once a mechanical stimulus has been perceived, it must be converted into a biological signal that can lead to variations of plant phenotype. Calcium has been shown to function as an early second messenger, tightly linked with changes in cytosolic and apoplastic pH. Transcriptional analyses of the effect of mechanical stimulation have revealed a considerable number of differentially expressed genes, some of which appear to be specific to mechanical signal transduction. These genes can thus serve as markers of mechanosensing, for example, in studies attempting to define signalling threshold, or variations of mechanosensitivity (accommodation). Quantitative biomechanical studies have lead to a model of mechanoperception which links mechanical state and plant responses, and provides an integrative tool to study the regulation of mechanosensing. This model includes parameters (sensitivity and threshold) that can be estimated experimentally. It has also been shown that plants are desensitized when exposed to multiple mechanical signals as a function of their mechanical history. Finally, mechanosensing is also involved in osmoregulation or cell expansion. The links between these different processes involving mechanical signalling need further investigation. This frontier research topic provides an overview of the different aspects of mechanical signaling in plants, spanning perception, effects on plant growth and morphogenesis, and broad ecological significance.During the 1970s, renewed interest in plant mechanical signaling led to the discovery that plants subjected to mechanical stimulation develop shorter and thicker axes than undisturbed plants, a syndrome called thigmomorphogenesis. Currently, mechanosensing is being intensively studied because of its involvement in many physiological processes in plants and particularly in the control of plant morphogenesis. From an ecological point of view, the shaping of plant architecture has to be precisely organized in space to ensure light capture as well as mechanical stability. In natural environments terrestrial plants are subjected to mechanical stimulation mainly due to wind, but also due to precipitation, while aquatic and marine plants are subjected to current and wave energy. Plants acclimate to mechanically challenging environments by sensing mechanical stimulations and modifying their growth in length and diameter and their tissue properties to reduce potential for buckling or breakage. From a morphogenetic point of view, both external and internal mechanical cues play an important role in the control of cell division and meristem development likely by modulating microtubule orientation. How mechanical stimulations are being sensed by plants is an area of intense research. Different types of mechanosensors have been discovered or proposed, including ion channels gated by membrane tension (stretch activation) and plasma membrane receptor-like kinases that monitor the cell wall deformations. Electrophysiologists have measured the conductances of some stretch-activated channels and have showed that SAC of different structures can exhibit different conductances. The role of these differences in conductance has not yet been established. Once a mechanical stimulus has been perceived, it must be converted into a biological signal that can lead to variations of plant phenotype. Calcium has been shown to function as an early second messenger, tightly linked with changes in cytosolic and apoplastic pH. Transcriptional analyses of the effect of mechanical stimulation have revealed a considerable number of differentially expressed genes, some of which appear to be specific to mechanical signal transduction. These genes can thus serve as markers of mechanosensing, for example, in studies attempting to define signalling threshold, or variations of mechanosensitivity (accommodation). Quantitative biomechanical studies have lead to a model of mechanoperception which links mechanical state and plant responses, and provides an integrative tool to study the regulation of mechanosensing. This model includes parameters (sensitivity and threshold) that can be estimated experimentally. It has also been shown that plants are desensitized when exposed to multiple mechanical signals as a function of their mechanical history. Finally, mechanosensing is also involved in osmoregulation or cell expansion. The links between these different processes involving mechanical signalling need further investigation. This frontier research topic provides an overview of the different aspects of mechanical signaling in plants, spanning perception, effects on plant growth and morphogenesis, and broad ecological significance.

Even in the 21st century, history textbooks are full of historical myths. This volume draws on cultural studies and history didactics to illuminate some of the myths contained in German Speking History Textbooks. The volume also reflects in depth upon the concept of ‘myth’ and proposes a definition that ties in to academic discourse on historical learning without denying the concept’s roots in cultural studies.

Wie schafften es Aktiengesellschaften zwischen 1871 und 1945, ihre Wirtschafts- und Machtstrukturen auszubauen? Welche Mittel nutzten sie? Sybille A. Rompe untersucht die wichtigsten Stationen der aktienrechtlichen Entwicklungen von der Kaiserzeit über die Weimarer Zeit bis hin zum Nationalsozialismus. Ihre interdisziplinäre Analyse beschränkt sich nicht auf die Normengeschichte, sondern beleuchtet auch umfassend gesellschaftliche Machtverhältnisse. So bezieht sie wirtschaftsorganisatorische, ordnungspolitische und zivilrechtliche Abläufe ein. How did aktiengesellschaften manage to foster their economic structures and power between the years 1871 and 1945? What kind of instruments did they use? Sybille A. Rompe analyses the most important aspects of share developments from the German Empire, to the Weimar Republic up to the Nazi era. Her interdisciplinary analysis not only concentrates on the history of standards but also highlights the social power relations in a comprehensive manner. Thus, she also refers to economic, political and civil processes.

This edition, containing approx. 6,000 letters written to and by Johann Christoph Gottsched (and his wife Luise Adelgune Viktoria Gottsched), documents for the first time the correspondence of one of the most significant supporters of the Early German Enlightenment. This volume presents the complete 25-volume historic-critical edition of letters by the Saxonian Academy of Sciences in Leipzig. Each letter has been meticulously edited and includes detailed commentary about the writer, the occasion of the correspondence, as well as information about names and realities. The historical and biographical “venue” of each letter is described in detail.

"The Handbook of Computational Social Science is a comprehensive reference source for scholars across multiple disciplines. It outlines key debates in the field, showcasing novel statistical modeling and machine learning methods, and draws from specific case studies to demonstrate the opportunities and challenges in CSS approaches. The Handbook is divided into two volumes written by outstanding, internationally renowned scholars in the field. This first volume focuses on the scope of computational social science, ethics, and case studies. It covers a range of key issues, including open science, formal modeling, and the social and behavioral sciences. This volume explores major debates, introduces digital trace data, reviews the changing survey landscape, and presents novel examples of computational social science research on sensing social interaction, social robots, bots, sentiment, manipulation, and extremism in social media. The volume not only makes major contributions to the consolidation of this growing research field, but also encourages growth into new directions. With its broad coverage of perspectives (theoretical, methodological, computational), international scope, and interdisciplinary approach, this important resource is integral reading for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers engaging with computational methods across the social sciences, as well as those within the scientific and engineering sectors."