Open Access Books

This Special Issue presents recent developments in the field of structures on manifolds and their submanifolds. This volume covers a vast range of topics, including twister product Hermitian manifold, Legendrian warped product submanifold, Bertrand curve pair, CR-slant warped product, RW spacetime, Li–Yao-type gradient, Ricci–Yamabe solutions, etc., thus stimulating further research in this area.

Medical Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine introduces non-experts to the world of nanomedicine and its evolving organizational infrastructure. Considering the fluid nature of nano breakthroughs and the delicate balance between benefits and consequences as they apply to medicine, readers at all levels will gain a practical, understandable base of information on these developments so that they may take the greatest advantage of them. This practical reference investigates the impact of nanotechnology on applications in medicine and biomedical sciences, and the broader societal and economic effects. Eschewing technological details, it focuses on enhancing awareness of the business, regulatory, and administrative aspects of medical applications. It gives readers a critical, balanced, and realistic evaluation of existing nanomedicine developments and future prospects and provides an ideal foundation upon which to plan and make decisions.

If research is necessary and relevant to the educational field at the level of primary education, it is no less all the experiences of teaching innovation that are being developed in them. When an innovation experience is developed properly and they are collected and articulated and articulatedAs if an interesting result is obtained from an investigation, such as those presented here in a synthetic way. We announce the reader to contact those responsible for these experiences of innovation so that they can develop the contents and provide more evidence that they arecontributing to improve the quality of teaching and learning processes in this area.

¿Cuál es la función del testigo frente a las políticas del estado? ¿Cuáles son las instancias que definen la producción y recepción de su palabra? ¿Cómo visibilizar las huellas del testimonio en una realidad amnésica, cada vez más condicionada por el mercado? En la encrucijada entre el territorio jurídico-político y literario, los textos aquí reunidos se proponen desvelar el ‘secreto’ de la praxis testimonial, iluminando una serie de obras narrativas que describen los contextos chilenos entre el 1973, año tristemente célebre por el comienzo de la dictadura, y el 2015. La vozde los testigos (Hernán Valdés, Jorge Montealegre, Rolando Carrasco), la reparación autobiográfica del dolor (Guillermo Núñez) y la traducción en palabra poética de la resistencia al horror y la violencia (Raúl Zurita, Diamela Eltit) se suman a la mediación de la memoria por parte de actores secundarios que, en el proceso de ‘narrativización’, exponen el pasado a nuevas instancias discursivas, reposicionando y redefiniendo sus contornos (Carlos Franz, Fátima Sime, Lucía Guerra). El conjunto de ensayos refleja una aproximación a lo testimonial como ejercicio de búsqueda siempre inacabado, que se realiza en la apertura hacia el otro, en la asunción de sus instancias, en la inclusión, siempre inacabada, en su universo.

Global Perspectives on Leadership in Early Childhood Education aims to improve leadership and management in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings through research evidence. Written for a wide audience, including the academic community, policymakers, practitioners, teachers, directors, and professionals, the book provides knowledge and tools to enhance the ECEC sector. Divided into three thematic sections, the book examines the theory of leadership in ECEC, strategies for improving professional development, and the governance and policies related to ECEC leadership worldwide. In its 16 chapters that blend theoretical and practical perspectives, the book addresses diverse topics, such as pedagogical leadership in different countries, peer mentoring, and the utilization of digital technology in early childhood education. The volume draws upon collaboration through the International Leadership Research Forum in Early Childhood (ILRF–EC) and encompasses contributions from across the world, from South Africa to Norway, Australia, Finland, and beyond. By incorporating different contexts and viewpoints, Global Perspectives on Leadership in Early Childhood Education makes a significant and timely contribution to the field of education.

Institution séculaire s'il en est, l'université est aujourd'hui dans la tourmente au sein de la plupart des pays européens. Doit-elle s'incliner devant les impératifs du marché et, comme d'aucuns le souhaitent, souscrire aux seules valeurs de l'utilité, de la rentabilité, de l'efficacité, de la performance et de la compétitivité ou bien peut-elle encore s'intéresser à la faculté de l'inutile propre à l'humain et la développer ? Déjà soulevée à la fin du XVIIIe siècle avec la création d'Écoles professionnelles supérieures en France et en Allemagne, cette question relative à l'orientation fondamentale de l'université est loin d'être tranchée aujourd'hui. On peut même dire, en n'élargissant nullement le débat, que plus de deux siècles après la révolution industrielle, nos sociétés vivant quasiment au lendemain de la révolution électronique se déchirent toujours sur la priorité des valeurs et sur les rapports à établir entre l'économique, le culturel, le politique et le social.

This paper describes and explains the evolution of gendarmerie-type forces, i.e. police forces with a military status, over the past three decades. It focuses on their institutional features and functions, including material and human resources, and uses case studies from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa to illustrate these characteristics in different contexts. The overall development of gendarmeries has been a somewhat paradoxical one. On the one hand, most of these forces have witnessed a considerable expansion, and come to assume an increasingly prominent role in addressing many of the currently most important security challenges, ranging from border control and counterterrorism to public order tasks in international peace operations. On the other hand, there has also been a trend towards the demilitarization of gendarmeries, which in some European countries has ultimately led to their dissolution and integration into the civilian police. The paper suggests an explanation of these seemingly contradictory developments with reference to two broad â and at least partly opposing â trends: the convergence of internal and external security agendas, which to a large extent is a post-Cold War phenomenon; and the demilitarization of internal security, which is a more long-term historical trend and part of the more general democratization process. Based on this analysis, the paper predicts that in the long run gendarmeries are likely to be further demilitarized, eventually losing their formal military status, although in the context of international peace operations militarized gendarmerie forces are expected to play an increasingly significant part.

When rock star Bono told Oprah Winfrey that America is an ideal that is supposed to be contagious, the talk show host was moved to tears. Such an imagined America, rather than the nation-state USA, is the topic of Fabricating the Absolute Fake. Pop and politics become intertwined, as Hollywood, television, and celebrities spread the American Dream around the world. Using concepts such as the absolute fake and karaoke Americanism, the book examines this global mediation as well as the way America is appropriated in pop culture produced outside of the USA, as demonstrated by such diverse cultural icons as the Elvis-inspired crooner Lee Towers and the Moroccan-Dutch rapper Ali B. This revised and extended edition includes a new chapter on Barack Obama and Michael Jackson as global celebrities and a new afterword on teaching American pop culture.

May Swenson Poetry Award Volume 3, with foreward by Mary Oliver. ""I think the two attributes that will most impress readers are, first, the almost shimmering gladness with which Ms. Fargnoli replies to the gifts of beauty and of human love; and, second, the compassion with which she addresses whatever is beyond her own intimate surroundings. Whatever it costs her, whatever it takes, there seems to be for Ms. Fargnoli only one world and only one way to live within it: with a ferocity of attention, care, and response."" Mary Oliver

Digital transformation is an unavoidable force that is redefining society. However, beneath a surface of technological optimism, deep inequalities can be observed. How can we ensure that all share the benefits of digitisation? The book Digital Equity and Literacy is a valuable contribution that addresses these critical questions, serving as a reference for navigating the complex intersection between technology, society, and justice. This work presents a compilation of global perspectives from international experts who study the concept of digital divide. Based on an in-depth analysis, frameworks are proposed that consider digital literacy a human right, expanding its definition to include artificial intelligence. This work explores the experienced dimensions of digital inclusion and pedagogical strategies for empowering citizens with critical thinking and ethical skills. The analysis of high-level challenges, including governance and ethical dilemmas in sectors such as health, as well as the risks associated with financial transformation, is complemented by the presentation of concrete case studies on policies and strategies implemented in diverse countries and contexts. This work provides conceptual tools and practical evidence, offering policymakers, educators, researchers, and citizens a roadmap for fostering a more equitable, fair, and inclusive digital future.

Memory matters. It matters because memory brings the past into the present, and opens it up to the future. But it also matters literally, because memory is mediated materially. Materiality is the stuff of memory. Meaningful objects that we love (or hate) function not only as aide-mémoire but are integral to memory. Drawing on previous scholarship on the interrelation of memory and materiality, this book applies recent theories of new materialism to explore the material dimension of memory in art and popular culture. The book’s underlying premise is twofold: on the one hand, memory is performed, mediated, and stored through the material world that surrounds us; on the other hand, inanimate objects and things also have agency on their own, which affects practices of memory, as well as forgetting. Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/tandfbis/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9781138203235_oachapter1.pdf Chapter 4 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/tandfbis/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9781138203235_oachapter4.pdf Chapter 5 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/tandfbis/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9781138203235_oachapter5.pdf

Extrêmement difficile d'accès pour sa plus grande partie, située aux confins de la Guyane française et du Brésil, la région du Jari a fasciné les colonisateurs et les a aimantés pendant plusieurs siècles. On y a cherché l'Eldorado, le lac Manoa ou plus prosaïquement (mais cela revient au même) de fabuleuses mines d'or. Une rude compétition entre la France et le Brésil a rendu un verdict amer pour la première, vainqueur de la bataille de la connaissance avec des explorateurs comme Jules Crevaux et Henri Coudreau, mais défaite dans la bataille diplomatique, qui donna au Brésil le bassin du Jari il y a un peu plus d'un siècle. L'histoire et la configuration actuelle de ce territoire en font à la fois un symbole et un condensé de l'histoire de toute l'Amazonie brésilienne. Le Jari a tout connu, et dans la plupart des cas en excès : des dizaines d'explorateurs, allant de nobles français à des scientifiques de l'Allemagne nazie, croisant en tous sens des régions supposées impénétrables et entrant en contact avec des ethnies jusque-là inconnues ; un baron du caoutchouc qui construira l'un des plus grands latifundios du monde ; un projet industriel majeur, commandé par un milliardaire américain qui y perdra partiellement son combat contre la nature amazonienne ; des forêts immenses et intactes contrastant avec des bidonvilles sur pilotis ; des orpailleurs, des ruées vers l'or et, aujourd'hui, la plus vaste mosaïque continue d'aires protégées du monde... Fruit d'une abondante documentation historique restituée par de très nombreuses illustrations, cet ouvrage cherche à retracer l'histoire de ce territoire fascinant, et à en montrer les dynamiques actuelles, y compris les plus récentes explorations, comme l'expédition géographique menée en 2011 qui a permis de remonter le Jari et son affluent le Mapaoni jusqu'à la borne de trijonction Brésil/Surinam/ Guyane française.

UnDocumented Saints follows the migration of popular saints from Mexico into the United States and the evolution in their meaning. The book explores how Latinx battles for survival are also performed in the worlds of faith, religiosity, and the imaginary and how the sociopolitical realities of exploitation and racial segregation frame popular religious expressions. It analyzes the emergence of interreligious states, transnational ethnic and cultural enclaves unified by faith/religiosity. Following a chronological approach, this book analyzes five vernacular saints who have emerged in Mexico and whose devotions have migrated into the United States in the last one hundred years: Jesús Malverde, a popular bandito turned saint caudillo; Santa Olguita, an emerging feminist saint linked to border women’s experiences of sexual violence and assault; Juan Soldado, a soldier who was a murderer and rapist, who was the main suspect in the death of an eight-year-old victim known now as Santa Olguita, and who is now a patron for undocumented immigrants; Toribio Romo, a Catholic priest whose ghost/spirit has been helping people cross the border into the United States since the 1990s; and La Santa Muerte, a controversial personification of the dead who is particularly popular among some LGBTQ migrants. Each chapter contextualizes a particularly popular saint with broader discourses about the construction of masculinity and the state, the long history of violence against Latina and migrant women, female erasure from history, discrimination against non-normative sexualities, and the United States and Mexico’s investment in the control of religiosity within the discourses of immigration in the United States.

Proteins are indispensable players in virtually all biological events. The functions of proteins are coordinated through intricate regulatory networks of transient protein-protein interactions (PPIs). To predict and/or study PPIs, a wide variety of techniques have been developed over the last several decades. Many in vitro and in vivo assays have been implemented to explore the mechanism of these ubiquitous interactions. However, despite significant advances in these experimental approaches, many limitations exist such as false-positives/false-negatives, difficulty in obtaining crystal structures of proteins, challenges in the detection of transient PPI, among others. To overcome these limitations, many computational approaches have been developed which are becoming increasingly widely used to facilitate the investigation of PPIs. This book has gathered an ensemble of experts in the field, in 22 chapters, which have been broadly categorized into Computational Approaches, Experimental Approaches, and Others.

Wonder, Horror, Mystery is a dialogue between two friends, both notable arts critics, that takes the form of a series of letters about movies and religion. One of the friends, J.M. Tyree, is a film critic, creative writer, and agnostic, while the other, Morgan Meis, is a philosophy PhD, art critic, and practicing Catholic. The question of cinema is raised here in a spirit of friendly friction that binds the personal with the critical and the spiritual. What is film? What’s it for? What does it do? Why do we so intensely love or hate films that dare to broach the subjects of the divine and the diabolical? These questions stimulate further thoughts about life, meaning, philosophy, absurdity, friendship, tragedy, humor, death, and God. The letters focus on three filmmakers who challenged secular assumptions in the late 20th century and early 21st century through various modes of cinematic re-enchantment: Terrence Malick, Lars von Trier, and Krzysztof Kieślowski. The book works backwards in time, giving intensive analysis to Malick’s To The Wonder (2012), Von Trier’s Antichrist (2009), and Kieślowski’s Dekalog (1988), respectively, in each of the book’s three sections. Meis and Tyree discuss the filmmakers and films as well as related ideas about philosophy, theology, and film theory in an accessible but illuminating way. The discussion ranges from the shamelessly intellectual to the embarrassingly personal. Spoiler alert: No conclusions are reached either about God or the movies. Nonetheless, it is a fun ride.