Open Access Books

Africa is embarking upon a period in which its political, economic and social outlook will transform. The European Investment Bank is a key part of the EU toolbox that for decades has helped make the partnership between Africa and Europe stronger. We aim to maximise our potential as the EU bank, so that we can join our African partners in addressing today’s critical challenges together and embrace our opportunities. This publication lays out our track record in Africa and our vision for our future partnership with the continent.

The volume, dedicated to the 44th International Conference of the Italian Union for Drawing, investigates the theme of ‘Transitions’, which particularly effectively represents our time and the current condition of the discipline of Drawing. The term, beyond its generic meaning of an intermediate stage in a process in which a condition changes from one state to another, has always been used in various fields, from music to geophysics. In fact, the disciplines of drawing have always been confronted with themes and issues relating to transitions from one condition to another. The history of representation tells us of transformations, even epochal ones, relating to ‘drawing’, with all that such transitions entail: suffice it to think of the evolution of forms of representation, of instrumental apparatuses, of the mutability of supports, of the analogical-digital transition underway, of the new modes of communication on platforms, of the hypertrophic offer of images also on the net that confirms Guy Debord’s intuitions relating to the new spectacularisation of society. Similarly, representation triggers transitions in the prefiguration and communication of design, the anticipation and foreshadowing of future events.The challenges posed by the digital pose open questions whose scope can only be glimpsed, such as the relationship between drawing and the act of modelling, and the construction of new paradigms of visual language and communication. ‘Transitions’, almost implicitly, points to possible futures, the evolution of technique and the search for new modes of expression; at the same time, however, it can suggest silences and reflections in a process of connection between history, theory, criticism and construction.

This open access book is a practical introduction to multilevel modelling or multilevel analysis (MLA) – a statistical technique being increasingly used in public health and health services research. The authors begin with a compelling argument for the importance of researchers in these fields having an understanding of MLA to be able to judge not only the growing body of research that uses it, but also to recognise the limitations of research that did not use it. The volume also guides the analysis of real-life data sets by introducing and discussing the use of the multilevel modelling software MLwiN, the statistical package that is used with the example data sets. Importantly, the book also makes the training material accessible for download – not only the datasets analysed within the book, but also a freeware version of MLwiN to allow readers to work with these datasets. The book’s practical review of MLA comprises: Theoretical, conceptual, and methodological background Statistical background The modelling process and presentation of research Tutorials with example datasets Multilevel Modelling for Public Health and Health Services Research: Health in Context is a practical and timely resource for public health and health services researchers, statisticians interested in the relationships between contexts and behaviour, graduate students across these disciplines, and anyone interested in utilising multilevel modelling or multilevel analysis. “Leyland and Groenewegen’s wealth of teaching experience makes this book and its accompanying tutorials especially useful for a practical introduction to multilevel analysis.” ̶ Juan Merlo, Professor of Social Epidemiology, Lund University “Comprehensive and insightful. A must for anyone interested in the applications of multilevel modelling to population health”. ̶ S. (Subu) V. Subramanian, Professor of Population Health and Geography, Harvard University ; For researchers and students with a basic mastery of ordinary least squares and logistic regression Discusses multilevel analysis in context of public health, health services research, and epidemiology Includes an online component where users can download the datasets analyzed in the book, and also a freeware version of the multilevel modelling software MLwiN ​​​​​​​Can be used as part of a course on multilevel modelling, or as a self-training text

In this chapter, I review recent work on neuroscientifi c threats to free will. What is it for something to threaten free will? Consider, fi rst, an apparent threat. You are walking in the dark, and a shadow looms in the distance. It certainly appears threatening, but you are not sure. What do you do? You consider the source of the threat (the thing casting the shadow, and you attempt to discover whether the threat is actual (an attacker) or merely apparent (a tree). And if the threat is actual, you attempt to discern what epistemic and behavioral changes are required of you.

This volume strengthens the dialogue between conceptual perspectives, approaches and fields on deliberative and participatory forms of democratic innovation and offers novel insights, focusing on the Southeast European space. Traditional forms of participation seem insufficient in satisfying the growing complexity of the democratic processes, especially in the context of autocratizing societies. It is crucial to examine the possibilities of democratic innovation in political research and practice, trying to establish a connection between the possibilities and limits of representative democracy and social movements as possible carriers of the process of democratic innovation. This book offers novel insights into practices of civil society and social movements and their pathways carved to initiate a deep change in political thinking and practice and compelling insights for scholars and students of Southeast Europe, social movements and democracy.

Leonardo da Vinci war kein gläubiger Christ. Er schrieb um 1500: »Seele und Leben sind unglaubwürdige Dinge… Gegen das Wesen Gottes und der Seele sträuben sich die Sinne«. Die Seele ist bei Leonardo eine visuell dominante Wahrnehmungsseele, eng verbunden mit dem Gemeinsinn, dem sensus communis, und mit der mittelalterlichen Lehre von den Hirnkammern. Sein Konzept geht von physiologischen Funktionen der Seele aus und verzichtet auf jegliche Metaphysik. Für seine eigene Seele lässt Leonardo die Frage nach ihrem Wesen (che cosa è anima? ) unbeantwortet. Erstmals befasst sich eine Monographie mit Leonardos Konzept der Seele. In klarer und ansprechender Sprache geschrieben, mit zahlreichen Abbildungen, einer ausführlichen Bibliographie und einem Personen- und Sachregister versehen, bereichert das vorliegende Buch die Leonardo-Forschung um substantielle neue Erkenntnisse.

Pynchon and Philosophy radically reworks our readings of Thomas Pynchon alongside the theoretical perspectives of Wittgenstein, Foucault and Adorno. Rigorous yet readable, Pynchon and Philosophy seeks to recover philosophical readings of Pynchon that work harmoniously, rather than antagonistically, resulting in a wholly fresh approach. Dr. Martin Paul Eve is a lecturer in literature at the University of Lincoln, UK. In addition to editing the open access journal of Pynchon Studies, Orbit, he has work published or forthcoming in Textual Practise, Neo-Victorian Studies, C21, Pynchon Notes and several edited collections. This book was originally published with exclusive rights reserved by the Publisher in (2014) and was licensed as an open access publication in [SEPTEMBER 2021] under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license if changes were made. This is an open access book.

Negli ultimi anni il settore logistico è stato attraversato da un lato da una significativa serie di scioperi, mobilitazioni e vertenze che hanno portato in luce i soggetti e i luoghi attraverso i quali quotidianamente vengono fatte circolare le merci; dall’altro, è emerso un importante corpus di studi che attraverso numerose discipline ha adottato la logistica come lente analitica cruciale per comprendere i processi di globalizzazione e le trasformazioni dei territori, i rapporti geopolitici e geoeconomici, le trasformazioni dei modi di produzione e le nuove frontiere del lavoro e del consumo. Il presente volume adotta la prospettiva logistica evidenziando il suo carattere prismatico, cercando di spingere l’analisi verso direzioni ancora parzialmente inesplorate.

La valeur esthétique et éthique reconnue au trait d’esprit dans l’Espagne du Siècle d’or modifia en profondeur les formes de la facétie littéraire ainsi que son statut artistique. Poésie savante et souvent érudite, poésie où l’on rencontre les personnages les plus ridicules mais aussi les héros de la mythologie, poésie où la facétie paraît parfois le disputer à la réflexion contenue, le burlesque doit surprendre un lecteur invité à relever le défi interprétatif lancé par le poète. Les mille détours empruntés pour formuler le bon mot sont autant d’énigmes offertes à la sagacité du lecteur et à sa complicité. Laisser entendre sans tout à fait dire, laisser entrevoir sans montrer directement, surprendre par l’obscénité du trait ou sa profondeur constituent autant d’objectifs assignés aux poètes burlesques du xviie siècle. Il existe dans leurs oeuvres un ensemble cohérent de procédés qui constituent une véritable poétique, que cet ouvrage entreprend d’établir et d’interpréter.

This Special Issue will include papers related to the planning, protection, and control of smart grids and microgrids, and their applications in the industry, transportation, water, waste, and urban and residential infrastructures. Authors are encouraged to present their latest research; reviews on topics including methods, approaches, systems, and technology; and interfaces to other domains such as big data, cybersecurity, human–machine, sustainability, and smart cities. The planning side of microgrids might include technology selection, scheduling, interconnected microgrids, and their integration with regional energy infrastructures. The protection side of microgrids might include topics related to protection strategies, risk management, protection technologies, abnormal scenario assessments, equipment and system protection layers, fault diagnosis, validation and verification, and intelligent safety systems. The control side of smart grids and microgrids might include control strategies, intelligent control algorithms and systems, control architectures, technologies, embedded systems, monitoring, and deployment and implementation.

Vom Deklamationstheater in Alexandrinern zum Lesedrama in Blankversen: die Verdeutschung von Racines Tragödien. Jean Racine (1639-1699) ist der französische Tragödienautor schlechthin. Insbesondere der hohe Stil seiner Figurenrede war für die Tragödie beispielgebend. Es lassen sich zwei Phasen der Übertragung von Racines Trauerspielen ins Deutsche unterscheiden: Bis ca. 1770 wurde er in klassizistisch-französischer Tradition übersetzt, so unter anderem von Johann Christoph Gottsched. Ab ca. 1800 entdeckten ihn die Autoren der klassisch-romantischen Epoche für sich, darunter Friedrich Schiller, und die Art und Weise, die Emphase der tragischen Rede zu übertragen, änderte sich völlig. Die von Nebrig zusammengestellten Übersetzungskorpora bezeugen diesen Wandel. Die Übersetzungen werden gattungsgeschichtlich und bühnengeschichtlich eingeordnet, die Diskussion um den »hohen Stil«, die auch anhand der Stücke Racines entbrennt, dokumentiert und analysiert. Anhand der Tragödien Athalie, Iphigénie und Phèdre sind beide Übersetzungsstile abschließend noch einmal im Vergleich zu betrachten. Neben einem Verzeichnis von über 200 Racine-Aufführungen im deutschsprachigen Raum ist eine annotierte Bibliographie sämtlicher Übersetzungsdrucke in deutscher Sprache bis 1830 beigefügt.

This is an Open Access book. Amid the growing debate about models of judicial governance and their relationship to democratic quality, this book offers a systematic and empirical study of this relationship. The book thereby contributes to filling in this gap for the European continent. Taking an interdisciplinary politics and law perspective, and combining empirical and theoretical considerations, the book addresses the important link between democracy and judicial governance. In particular, it provides for three interconnected contributions. First, the book provides for a comprehensive classification of European countries into different models of judicial governance. Second, the book analyses empirically the relationship between the design of judicial governance and the quality of democracy. Third, building on those findings, the book presents policy reflections for the reform and improvement of mechanisms for judicial governance in European countries. The book seeks to refine our knowledge about the relationship between judicial governance and democracy, making an important academic and social contribution. In an era in which many democracies backslide and deconsolidate, it assesses to what extent existing mechanisms for judicial governance have contributed to the stability and quality of democratic systems in which they are implemented. Furthermore, the book puts forward reflections to improve the role of organs for judicial governance in fostering the quality of democracy. Since the book introduces in an accessible form key concepts of Judicial Governance, it will be of interest for the general public as well as academics and students in the fields of Law and Political Science. The book also addresses policy makers, as based on our empirical knowledge about the interaction judicial governance and democracy it puts forward ideas for a design of judicial governance that is more capable of protecting democratic systems of government.

Workers and public employees reporting unlawful or harmful conduct in Slovenia are granted special protection only by specific acts, whereas they also enjoy general labour-law protection as employees. The paper addresses the state of their protection as provided by the applicable sectoral legislation relating to the prevention of corruption and to reporting of irregularities in banking and financial sectors, as well as by general labour legislation. Based on the analysis of the material and personal scope of the existing protection, the regulation of reporting channels, the possibility of public disclosure, the legally defined protective measures, and the institutional framework, the author adopts a position on the possibility to update this protection by proper implementation of the EU Directive 2019/1937.

The Phoebe A. Hearst Expedition to Naga ed-Deir, Cemeteries N 2000 and N 2500 presents the results of excavations directed by George A. Reisner and led by Arthur C. Mace. The site of Naga ed-Deir, Egypt, is unusual for its continued use over a long period of time (c. 3500 BCE–650 CE). Burials in N 2000 and N 2500 date to the First Intermediate Period/Middle Kingdom and the Coptic era. In keeping with Reisner’s earlier publications of Naga ed-Deir, this volume presents artifacts in chapter-length studies devoted to a particular object type and includes a burial-by-burial description. The excavators’ original drawings, notes, and photographs are complemented by a contemporary analysis of the objects by experts in their subfields. Readership: Egyptologists and archaeologists.

The Halophiles 2013 meeting is a multidisciplinary international congress, with a strong history of regular triennial meetings since 1978. Our mission is to bring researchers from a wide diversity of investigation interests (e.g., protein and species evolution; niche adaptation, ecology, taxonomy, genomics, metagenomics, horizontal gene transfer, gene regulation; DNA replication, repair and recombination; signal transduction; community assembly and species distribution; astrobiology; biotechnological applications; adaptation to radiation, desiccation, osmotic stress) into a single forum for the integration and synthesis of ideas and data from all three domains of life, and their viruses, yet from a single environment; salt concentrations greater than seawater. This cross-section of research informs our understanding of the microbiological world in many ways. The halophilic environment is extreme, especially above 10% NaCl, restricting life solely to microbes. The microorganisms that live there are adapted to extreme conditions, and are notable for their ability to survive high doses of radiation and desiccation. Therefore, the hypersaline environment is a model system (both the abiotic, and biologic factors) for insightful understanding regarding conditions and life in the absence of plant and animals (e.g., life on the early earth, and other solar system bodies like Mars and Europa). Lower salinity conditions (e.g., 6-10% NaCl) form luxuriant microbial mats considered modern analogues of fossilized stromatolites, which are enormous microbially produced structures fashioned during the Precambrian (and still seen today in places like Shark’s Bay, Australia). Hypersaline systems are island-like habitats spread patchily across the earth’s surface, and similar to the Galapagos Islands represent unique systems excellent for studying the evolutionary pressures that shape microbial community assembly, adaptation, and speciation. The unique adaptations to this extreme environment produce valuable proteins, enzymes and other molecules capable of remediating harsh human instigated environments, and are useful for the production of biofuels, vitamins, and retinal implants, for example. This research topic is intended to capture the breadth and depth of these topics.