Open Access Books

This book offers a new approach to longstanding philosophical puzzles about what colors are and how they fit into the natural world. The author argues for a role-functionalist treatment of color — a view according to which colors are identical to certain functional roles involving perceptual effects on subjects. The author first argues (on broadly empirical grounds) for the more general relationalist view that colors are constituted in terms of relations between objects, perceivers, and viewing conditions. He responds to semantic, ontological, and phenomenological objections against this thesis, and argues that relationalism offers the best hope of respecting both empirical results and ordinary belief about color. He then defends the more specific role-functionalist account by contending that the latter is the most plausible form of color relationalism.

This book centres on the transformation of landscapes, focusing on the Western Mediterranean during the end of the Roman Republic and the Early Roman Empire. This volume brings together diverse contributions that utilise both theoretical and practical approaches from landscape studies and archaeology to examine the transitions to the Empire in the provincial landscapes of the western Roman Empire. Focusing on wider processes of change and continuity, identified through diverse approaches (e.g., settlement patterns, mobility and communication, and military expansion) and methods (e.g., spatial analysis, remote sensing, and GIS), the contributions highlight the profound socio-economic, political, and environmental factors whose interplay shaped the region. In doing so, the book underscores the agency of local communities in shaping their landscapes and their varied responses to Imperial policies, thus generating new insights into the processes of social and political change brought about by Augustan reforms and how these were implemented and experienced at the local level. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of archaeology and ancient history, particularly those focused on Roman and landscape archaeology.

Die Wanderausstellung Das Schweizer Plakat zirkulierte zwischen 1949 bis 1952 durch Europa und Amerika. Als kulturdiplomatische Manifestation erfüllte die Plakatausstellung von Pro Helvetia eine strategische Funktion, indem sie nationale Werte durch Gestaltung vermitteln sollte, in einer Zeit, in der sich die politische Weltordnung neu formierte. Gleichzeitig trug die Ausstellung entscheidend dazu bei, das mittlerweile UNESCO-anerkannte Label Schweizer Grafikdesign zu stilisieren und etablieren, was in der Historiographie der Fachdisziplin bisher außer Acht gelassen wurde. Sara Zeller zeigt, inwiefern die Plakatausstellungen ein maßgebliches Instrument der weltweiten Etablierung, Verbreitung und Vermittlung jenes der Schweiz zugeschriebenen Gestaltungsstils war und hinterfragt dessen Bedeutung für die Designgeschichtsschreibung kritisch. Neben der Analyse der Kanonisierung einer nationalen „Schule“, ihrer spezifischen Ästhetik und Rhetorik, deren kunstlerischen Leistungen und Perspektiven sowie Rezeption im Ausland, zeigt Zeller auf, wie einem signifikanten Wandel unterworfene politische Dimensionen und ökonomische Interessen diese Distributionsformate bestimmten.

Der Band versteht Kunst als Ort der Evokation und Transformation von Affekten. Der Affekt ist das, was mich (be)trifft. Wie gelingt es der Kunst, Gefühle hervorzurufen? Worin unterscheiden sich Emotionen und Affekte? Mit welchen Strategien führen uns Kunstwerke in das Spiel um Ergriffenheit und Distanz, um Anziehung und Abstoßung? Die hier versammelten »Affektanalysen« behandeln künstlerische Produktionsprozesse, materielle und temporale Vorgänge medialer (Re)Präsentation sowie affektive Wirkungen auf Rezipienten. Im Fokus stehen Werke u.a. von Einar Schleef, Auguste Rodin, William Henry Fox Talbot, Charles Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Emir Kusturica, Tsai Ming-Liang, Bruce Naumann und Eija-Liisa Ahtila. Mit einer Einleitung von Mieke Bal.

Remote Sensing is collecting and interpreting information on targets without being in physical contact with the objects. Aircraft, satellites ...etc are the major platforms for remote sensing observations. Unlike electrical, magnetic and gravity surveys that measure force fields, remote sensing technology is commonly referred to methods that employ electromagnetic energy as radio waves, light and heat as the means of detecting and measuring target characteristics. Geoscience is a study of nature world from the core of the earth, to the depths of oceans and to the outer space. This branch of study can help mitigate volcanic eruptions, floods, landslides ... etc terrible human life disaster and help develop ground water, mineral ores, fossil fuels and construction materials. Also, it studies physical, chemical reactions to understand the distribution of the nature resources. Therefore, the geoscience encompass earth, atmospheric, oceanography, pedology, petrology, mineralogy, hydrology and geology. This book covers latest and futuristic developments in remote sensing novel theory and applications by numerous scholars, researchers and experts. It is organized into 26 excellent chapters which include optical and infrared modeling, microwave scattering propagation, forests and vegetation, soils, ocean temperature, geographic information , object classification, data mining, image processing, passive optical sensor, multispectral and hyperspectral sensing, lidar, radiometer instruments, calibration, active microwave and SAR processing. Last but not the least, this book presented chapters that highlight frontier works in remote sensing information processing. I am very pleased to have leaders in the field to prepare and contribute their most current research and development work. Although no attempt is made to cover every topic in remote sensing and geoscience, these entire 26 remote sensing technology chapters shall give readers a good insight. All topics listed are equal important and significant.

Electrophoresis is a widely used method in the field of life sciences, having multiple practical applications in physical, chemical, biochemical, and molecular biology domains. This book contains 8 chapters depicting various applications of this technique in biochemistry, molecular biology, and physical chemistry. This book presents the link between the exposed method and its applications in a very explicit manner and offers a wide range of practical examples. The book provides not only a vision of actual methods but also their necessary further improvements and suggested developments. Therefore, a particular attention was given to the described techniques as true guidelines in the fields where electrophoresis is recommended, being useful for not only the scientists but also the laboratory clinicians.

Drugs of abuse induce a host of alterations in brain structure and function, ranging from changes in gene expression and epigenetic processes to aberrant synaptic plasticity to volumetric changes in discrete brain regions. These alterations can be drug class-specific, and are not confined to neurons, as drugs of abuse also induce molecular and cellular alterations in various glial cell types such as astrocytes and microglia. The phenomenon of drug-induced plasticity includes changes in dendritic branching and architecture, dendritic spine density and morphology, astrocyte-neuronal interactions, dysregulation of glutamatergic and GABAergic signaling, and alterations in myelination or microglial phenotype. This drug-induced "rewiring" of the brain at numerous levels can contribute to the development, maintenance, and persistence of the addicted state, as well as associated deficits in normal cognitive functioning. The aim of this Research Topic is to collect recent and important findings related to the structural alterations produced by drug of abuse in neurons, glial, and other cell types of the central nervous system.

Theatre and Internationalization examines how internationalization affects the processes and aesthetics of theatre, and how this art form responds dramatically and thematically to internationalization beyond the stage. With central examples drawn from Australia and Germany from the 1930s to the present day, the book considers theatre and internationalization through a range of theoretical lenses and methodological practices, including archival research, aviation history, theatre historiography, arts policy, organizational theory, language analysis, academic-practitioner insights, and literary-textual studies. While drawing attention to the ways in which theatre and internationalization might be contributing productively to each other and to the communities in which they operate, it also acknowledges the limits and problematic aspects of internationalization. Taking an unusually wide approach to theatre, the book includes chapters by specialists in popular commercial theatre, disability theatre, Indigenous performance, theatre by and for refugees and other migrants, young people as performers, opera and operetta, and spoken art theatre. An excellent resource for academics and students of theatre and performance studies, especially in the fields of spoken theatre, opera and operetta studies, and migrant theatre, Theatre and Internationalization explores how theatre shapes and is shaped by international flows of people, funds, practices, and works.

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 paper deals with the Upper Sorbian aspect categories. While the traditional inflectional opposition imperfect vs. aorist is still widely used in the standard variety, it has almost disappeared from the colloquial variety used in the Catholic area of Upper Lusatia in Eastern Germany. By contrast, the derivational opposition of perfectivity formally persists in this area but has undergone some changes which are very specific to this variety. In particular, this aspect opposition, expressed by means of prefixes and suffixes has been radically restructured, such that its functional domain has shifted from grammatical aspect to grammatical telicity. It is argued that the starting point of this change is to be sought in an identification of the Sorbian aspect-sensitive grammatical prefixes with the German prefixes which mainly express telicity in processes of word formation. Special usages dealt with in this study are, on the one hand, the expression of habituality through (formally) imperfective verbs and, surprisingly, the expression of ongoing telic processes, but also of the analytical future, by means of their perfective correlates, on the other.

This book demonstrates how the largely neglected and multifaceted concept of distance can be used as a primary lens to expand and enrich our understandings of what older people say about their lives, needs and wishes in diverse surroundings in the Northern periphery and beyond. It asks how physical, social and emotional distances shape older people’s everyday lives and practices. Contributions from leading experts provides interdisciplinary investigations into the experiences and stories of older people in the Northern periphery. These insights demonstrate the utility of the concept, distance, when reflecting on the central aspects of contemporary ageing societies. The book explores key themes such as care, age politics, technology, intergenerational relations and migration, providing perspectives that are applicable across a variety of international geographical contexts. This innovative book offers a valuable theoretical and methodological contribution with critical new perspectives on ageing in relation to distances. It will be of interest to students and scholars interested in sociology, human geography, health and social care, ageing and gerontological studies, gender studies and Arctic studies.

Les nombreux travaux réalisés en collaboration avec des artistes, peintres, plasticiens ou musiciens constituent désormais la majeure partie de l’œuvre de Michel Butor. Ils demeurent cependant peu connus, et sont rarement envisagés par une critique qui s’en tient toujours aux romans de l’écrivain. Or ces réalisations visent à promouvoir un « dialogue avec les arts » où s’affirme la radicalité d’une démarche résolument moderne. Ce « dialogue » permet de mieux comprendre, rétrospectivement, le véritable projet des premiers livres (de L’Emploi du temps, à Description de San Marco…) en les situant enfin dans une entreprise d’envergure. Surtout il manifeste l’émergence d’une réflexion critique originale sur le statut de la création artistique dans le monde contemporain, saisi à travers ses enjeux poétique, politique, esthétique et philosophique.

Title in English: Andrej Melicherčík – personality in time, time in personality. The publication is dedicated to one of the founding personalities of modern professional ethnography and folklore studies – prof. PhDr. A. Melicherčík, CSc. (1917-1966). The author has collected and interpreted numerous factual data about Melicherčík´s university studies at the Faculty of Arts of the Slovak University, but especially about his work at Matica slovenská, at the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Arts and at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University. She characterizes his numerous activities in the field of organization of scientific life and pedagogical work. The author pays special attention to the methodological approaches that A. Melicherčík applied in his scientific work – functional structuralism and historical materialism. In both approaches, he was the initiator of their application in ethnography and folklore studies in Slovakia. The author analyses his work chronologically – studies, monographs and synthetic publications in terms of concepts, research topics and the organizational grasp of their research and publication. She points out the possible influences of scientific personalities (P. G. Bogatyriov, B. Schier et al.), as well as the non-scientific circumstances that influenced Melicherčík’s understanding of the subject, methods and instrumentalization of ethnography and folklore studies.

Redefining how we understand diplomacy, Figures of Buddhist Diplomacy in Modern Asia reveals Buddhism as a dynamic force in shaping international relations . This groundbreaking open access book highlights individuals—including monastics, laity, political leaders, and royalty—who have strategically employed Buddhist objects, teachings, and networks to forge transregional ties and influence global politics. Introducing the concept of Buddhist diplomacy, the book traces how Buddhism has been mobilized for soft power, cultural exchange, peacebuilding, and even geopolitical manoeuvring. From spiritual ambassadors like Taixu, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Hsing Yun to world leaders such as the Dalai Lama, Narendra Modi, and Xi Jinping, the twenty-two essays illuminate the surprising ways Buddhism has intersected with modern statecraft. Blending historical depth with contemporary insight, this volume invites readers to rethink diplomacy not only as negotiation and policy but also as a terrain where religion, culture, and global power converge. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Fellowship, Social Science Research Council (Singapore).

Updated knowledge about innate immunity and viral infections, including but not limited to interferon (IFN)-stimulated genes (ISGs), IFN signaling pathways, antiviral immunity, inflammation, immunometabolism, vaccine-related innate immunity, and broadly antiviral drugs.