Open Access Books

This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

This Element delves into the data in the Energy Policy Tracker to assess the extent to which energy policies adopted during the pandemic will expedite decarbonization and explores whether governments address inequities through policies targeted to disadvantaged individuals. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Seen through the distilling lens of the architectural model, Architecture’s Model Environments is a novel and far-reaching exploration of the many dialogues buildings have with their environmental surroundings. Expanding on histories of building technology, the book sheds new light on how physical models conventionally understood as engineering experimentation devices enable architectural design speculation. The book begins with a catalogue of ten original model prototypes – of wind tunnels, water tables and filling boxes – and is the first of its kind to establish an architectural approach to fabricating such environmental models. Subsequent chapters feature three precedent models that have been largely overlooked within the wider oeuvres of their authors: French polymath Étienne-Jules Marey’s 1900-2 wind tunnels, Hungarian-American architects Victor and Aladár Olgyay’s 1955-63 thermoheliodon, and Scottish chemist and building ventilation expert David Boswell ‘The Ventilator’ Reid’s 1844 test tube convection experiments. Moving between historic moments and the present day, between case studies and original prototypes, the book reveals the potent ability for models, as both physical artefacts and mental ideals, to reflect prevailing cultural views about the world and to even reshape those views. Fundamentally, Architecture’s Model Environments illustrates how environmental models reveal design insights across scales from the seam (that leaks) to the body (that feels) to the building (that mediates) to the world (that immerses).

This is a study of the material life of information and its devices; of electronic waste in its physical and electronic incarnations; a cultural and material mapping of the spaces where electronics in the form of both hardware and information accumulate, break down, or are stowed away. Electronic waste occurs not just in the form of discarded computers but also as a scatter of information devices, software, and systems that are rendered obsolete and fail. Where other studies have addressed ""digital"" technology through a focus on its immateriality or virtual qualities, Gabrys traces the material, spatial, cultural, and political infrastructures that enable the emergence and dissolution of these technologies. In the course of her book, she explores five interrelated ""spaces"" where electronics fall apart: from Silicon Valley to Nasdaq, from containers bound for China to museums and archives that preserve obsolete electronics as cultural artifacts, to the landfill as material repository. All together, these sites stack up into a sedimentary record that forms the ""natural history"" of this study. Digital Rubbish: A Natural History of Electronics describes the materiality of electronics from a unique perspective, examining the multiple forms of waste that electronics create as evidence of the resources, labor, and imaginaries that are bundled into these machines. By drawing on the material analysis developed by Walter Benjamin, this natural history method allows for an inquiry into electronics that focuses neither on technological progression nor on great inventors but rather considers the ways in which electronic technologies fail and decay. Ranging across studies of media and technology, as well as environments, geography, and design, Jennifer Gabrys pulls together the far-reaching material and cultural processes that enable the making and breaking of these technologies.

The Yaqui of Mexico were early converts to Christianity in New Spain. Yet they came to be regarded with hostility by the newly emerging Mexican government. Many Yaquis fled Mexico in the early twentieth century and established a settlement in Arizona where they resumed a peaceful existence centered around their ceremonial calendar. Edward Spicer devoted most of his professional career to the study of the Yaquis and came to be regarded as a leading authority on that tribe. At the inception of his forty years of research stands Pascua, a firsthand description of daily village life.

The coordinated action of the different cytoskeletal polymers--microtubules, actin filaments and neurofilaments-- is essential for the establishment, remodeling and maintenance of neuronal architecture throughout the neuron lifetime. Neurons are among the most polarized cells, with a long thin axon and multiple thicker and shorter dendrites. Achieving this complex morphology, and the precise and accurate formation of an intricate network of synaptic contacts is critical for the proper transmission and reception of signals in the brain. Neuronal polarization precedes axon outgrowth and the subsequent differentiation of short neurites into dendrites, as part of the neuronal differentiation program that involves both intrinsic and extrinsic signals that converge at the cytoskeletal level. Growth cones, which are sensory and locomotor structures located at the tip of growing axons, are key elements in the transduction of extracellular cues into cytoskeletal changes, guiding axons to their right destinations. Neuronal migration, another crucial process during brain development, occurs in close coordination with neuronal differentiation. Migration involves as well an extensive rearrangement of neuronal cell shape that relies on cytoskeleton reorganization. Further processes, such as dendritic spine formation and growth, establishment of synaptic contacts or synaptic plasticity in mature neurons also depend on cytoskeletal dynamics. Fine-tune regulation of neuronal cytoskeleton is therefore crucial for the maintenance of neuronal integrity and functionality. Mutations in genes that code for cytoskeletal proteins often have deleterious effects in neurons, such as abnormal migration or differentiation, deficient axonal transport of organelles and synaptic vesicles, or impaired synaptic signaling. Several human Nervous System disorders, including neurodevelopmental, psychiatric, and neurodegenerative diseases, have been linked to cytoskeletal dysfunction. Cytoskeletal reorganization is also crucial to regulate nerve cell repair following Nervous System injury. Many of the pathways that control cell-intrinsic axon regeneration lead to axon cytoskeletal remodeling. Moreover, most extracellular cues that inhibit regeneration of damaged axons in Central Nervous System following traumatic injury or neurodegeneration, are known to modulate cytoskeletal dynamics and organization. Based on these findings, regulators of cytoskeleton dynamics have emerged as promising therapeutic targets in several brain disorders and in the context of regeneration of injured axons. Hence, remodeling of neuronal cytoskeleton underlies all the dramatic morphological changes that occur in developing and adult neurons. Understanding the specific molecular mechanisms that control cytoskeleton rearrangements in neurons is far from complete. This Frontiers Research Topic gathers a selection of articles focused on the diverse and key roles of cytoskeleton in neuronal biology.

Les polices européennes vouées à « l’art de gouverner les hommes » sous l’Ancien Régime, deviennent à la fin du xviiie siècle des institutions sécuritaires. Leur domaine d’intervention se resserre autour de la préservation de l’ordre public. Elles détiennent le monopole de l’exercice de la violence légitime. Mais lorsque les épisodes révolutionnaires enflamment le corps social, quel que soit le périmètre de la police, la légitimité des pouvoirs et des forces censées défendre l’ordre public est brutalement remise en question.Les polices ont alors à affronter la concurrence des projets politiques et sont ébranlées par des situations de double pouvoir qui multiplient les instances d’un ordre nouveau en devenir. Comment résistent-elles et défendent-elles l’ordre établi dont elles sont garantes ? Comment parviennent-elles, au contraire, à s’adapter ou à se révolutionner dans une nouvelle configuration politique qu’il importe de protéger et policer à son tour ?Situé au carrefour de deux chantiers historiographiques profondément renouvelés – l’histoire des révolutions, l’histoire des polices –, l’ouvrage explore de manière comparatiste, par-delà les frontières et la multiplicité des relations entre polices et mouvements révolutionnaires, les révolutions atlantiques des années 1780 jusqu’à la fin du xxe siècle.

Desde distintas miradas, este libro escudriña las muchas facetas que tiene la diversidad y los retos que enfrentamos al tratar de entenderlas y aceptarlas. Incentivados por la lingüística, los procesos educativos, el contacto lingüístico, el translingüísmo, y la creciente vulnerabilidad lingüística, analizamos múltiples situaciones de lenguas en desplazamiento, reflexionamos sobre algunas de las respuestas que se han ido generando y que apuntan a la revitalización lingüístico-cultural a largo plazo, y ponemos en la mesa de discusión teorías, conceptos y metodologías que consideramos aportarán a la investigación y a la acción, desde nuestras propias realidades. Esperamos que este libro nos lleve a reflexionar y a posicionarnos frente a las innumerables inequidades sociales, lingüísticas y culturales que nos rodean y sobre todo, que nos incentive a vivir en la diversidad con todos y cada uno de nuestros sentidos.

This publication gathers contributions to understand better and further develop the European Citizens’ Initiative. This participatory and agenda-setting tool introduced into the Treaty of Lisbon has not yet reached its full potential of citizen engagement, nor has it driven the significant policy changes initially expected. Bearing this in mind, the project ECI: From A to Z aimed to promote the knowledge and use of the European Citizens’ Initiative within the higher education arena by engaging investigators and students from four different Universities (University of Coimbra; Georg-August University of Göttingen; Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi and the University of Vigo) to work together to share their concerns and common views on the European Union role and policies. This publication describes the methodology followed and results reached under the project, but more than that, it is a practical toolkit for all who wish to know more about the European Citizens’ Initiative and how to put it in motion.

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The Sociophonetics of Dublin English shows how social inequalities and language are connected by the stances speakers take in interaction. It is based on an instrumental phonetic analysis of recorded interviews and broadcasting data and a detailed qualitative account of the same data as well as the socio-cultural context in Ireland. The analysis not only considers macro-social categories but also pragmatic norms and situational, more fluid aspects of communication. Contemporary social meanings and associated phonetic realisations are described and explained as the result of diachronic developments. Since the independence of Ireland local pronunciations have been re-evaluated and realisations connected with the former coloniser have fallen out of use even in formal and powerful domains. This investigation thus highlights the importance of diachronic data to understand contemporary sociolinguistic variation.

Future Frontiers in Operations Management – Navigating the 21st Century is a unique and forward-looking exploration of how today's organizations have adapted to the evolving challenges of technological transformation, customer demand, and social disruption. This book is a timely and essential resource in the field of operations management. It drives the meaningful change within the organization. In an era where volatility has become the norm, this book positions operations management as central to business success. It traces the evolution of operations management to identify the potential challenges and opportunities across industries. The book is a valuable guide, and we hope it will attract scholarly attention for its impressive body of knowledge. The book follows an easily readable format that is expressed efficiently. The book consists of 9 chapters. These chapters help readers understand the real-world application of operations management principles. This book is beneficial for every individual as it provides a practical understanding of operations management across diverse industries. These examples provide valuable lessons to organizations and equip readers to apply these concepts in the real world.

Living healthy is all one wants, but the genetics behind creation of every human is different. As a curse or human agony, some are born with congenital defects in their menu of the genome. Just one has to live with that! The complexity of cystic fibrosis condition, which is rather a slow-killer, affects various organ systems of the human body complicating further with secondary infections. That's what makes the disease so puzzling for which scientists around the world are trying to understand better and to find a cure. Though they narrowed down to a single target gene, the tentacles of the disease reach many unknown corners of the human body. Decades of scientific research in the field of chronic illnesses like this one surely increased the level of life expectancy. This book is the compilation of interesting chapters contributed by eminent interdisciplinary scientists around the world trying to make the life of cystic fibrosis patients better.

The stunning portrayals of the Canadian landscape in the documentaries produced by the National Film Board of Canada, not only influenced cinematic language but shaped our perception of the environment. In the early days of the organization, nature films produced by the NFB supported the Canadian government’s nation-building project and show the state as an active participant in the cultural construction of the land. By the mid-1960s however, films like Cree Hunters of Mistassini and Death of a Legend were asking provocative questions about the state’s vision of nature. Filmmakers like Boyce Richardson and Bill Mason began to centre the experiences of First Nations people, contest the notion that nature should be transformed for economic gain, and challenge the idea that the North is a wild and empty landscape bereft of civilization. Author Michael Clemens describes how films produced by the NFB broadened the ecological imagination of Canadians over time and ultimately inspired an environmental movement.

At a time when states are increasingly hostile to the international rights regime, human rights activists have turned to non-state and sub-state actors to begin the implementation of human rights law. This complicates the conventional analysis of relationships between local actors, global norms, and cosmopolitanism. The contributions in this open access collection examine the “lived realities of human rights” and critically engage with debates on gender, sexuality, localism and cosmopolitanism, weaving insights from multiple disciplines into a broader call for interdisciplinary scholarship informed by practice. Overall, the contributors argue that the power of human rights depends on their ability to be continuously broadened and re-imagined in locales around the world. It is only on this basis that human rights can remain relevant and be effectively used to push local, national and international institutions to put in place structural reforms that advance equity and pluralism in these perilous times. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.