Open Access Books

Les Baronnies s'étendent aujourd'hui sur les départements de la Drôme, des Hautes-Alpes et du Vaucluse. Cette vaste région n'est pas que le pays du tilleul, de la lavande et de l'olivier. Historiquement, il s'agit d'un vaste territoire compris entre la moyenne vallée du Rhône et la moyenne vallée de la Durance et enclavé entre de grandes entités politiques comme le Dauphiné, la maison des Baux et le comté de Provence. Son relief accidenté est ponctué de châteaux de pierre construits par les m...

The European Investment Bank is helping African, Caribbean and Pacific countries in parts of society that are sometimes forgotten — young people, women and girls, small companies, rural villages. We are creating opportunities for everyone. In this report, you can meet the people who are making a difference for themselves and for others. There are stories on the COVID-19 pandemic as well as a wider range of healthcare challenges. We speak to the head of the United Nations Development Programme about the Sustainable Development Goals. There are stories about female entrepreneurs in the Dominican Republic and the financing of farmers in Malawi. What all the people and places have in common is the need for good advice and investment. Please read this annual report in conjunction with the financial statements.

Adaptive filtering is useful in any application where the signals or the modeled system vary over time. The configuration of the system and, in particular, the position where the adaptive processor is placed generate different areas or application fields such as prediction, system identification and modeling, equalization, cancellation of interference, etc., which are very important in many disciplines such as control systems, communications, signal processing, acoustics, voice, sound and image, etc. The book consists of noise and echo cancellation, medical applications, communications systems and others hardly joined by their heterogeneity. Each application is a case study with rigor that shows weakness/strength of the method used, assesses its suitability and suggests new forms and areas of use. The problems are becoming increasingly complex and applications must be adapted to solve them. The adaptive filters have proven to be useful in these environments of multiple input/output, variant-time behaviors, and long and complex transfer functions effectively, but fundamentally they still have to evolve. This book is a demonstration of this and a small illustration of everything that is to come.

Academic and theoretical foundations of Slovenian emigration research were set at the University of Ljubljana in the 1930s. In the 1960s, more systematic, complex and multi-disciplinary Slovenian emigration research began to develop. As part of this process, Slovenian Migration Institute was established in 1982. The book was conceived upon the 30th anniversary of the Institute's affiliation to ZRC SAZU. Besides the Institute's researchers, some other scholars were invited to contribute chapters, especially members of younger generations who tend to test most up-to-date research approaches and treat their themes from new or under-researched angles.The central part of the book is thus thematically divided into three sections: “Selected aspects of Slovenian emigration research”, “Approaches, methods, categorisation”, and “Topical issues”. With such thematic structure and contents, the book is primarily aimed at touching upon some new questions concerning the present state and future development of Slovenian emigration research, taking into account contemporary international trends in migration studies as well as some specificities pertaining to Slovenian emigration.

Wie können Kommunen und Wohnprojekte im Sinne einer gemeinwohlorientierten Wohnungspolitik kooperieren? Larisa Tsvetkova beleuchtet am Beispiel von Tübingen, Leipzig und Hamburg kooperative Quartiersentwicklungen und Verfahren mit gemeinschaftlichen, vielfältigen und nichtspekulativen Wohnprojekten. Dabei zeigt sie die große Bandbreite der kommunalen Handlungsfelder und Instrumente im Kontext unterschiedlicher städtebaulicher Rahmenbedingungen und wohnungspolitischer Zielsetzungen. Vor dem Hintergrund der zunehmenden Finanzialisierung von Wohnraum und der marktbedingten Nachteile gemeinwohlorientierter Wohnformen wird deutlich: Eine kommunale Unterstützung von Wohnprojekten ist dringend notwendig.

This open access book is the outcome of a unique multinational effort organized by the Hamburg-based Defense AI Observatory (DAIO) to portray the current state of affairs regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by armed forces around the world. The contributions span a diverse range of geostrategic contexts by providing in-depth case studies on Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, the UK, and the United States. The book does not speculate about the future implications of AI on armed forces, but rather discusses how armed forces are currently exploring the potential of this emerging technology. By adopting a uniform analytical framework, each case study discusses how armed forces view defense AI; how they are developing AI-enhanced solutions, adapting existing structures and processes, and funding their defense AI endeavors; to what extent defense AI is already fielded and operated; and how soldiers and officers are being trained to work with AI.

In Deutschland sind die Bundesländer nach Art. 106 Abs. 7 GG verpflichtet, ihre Gemeinden und Gemeindeverbände im Rahmen eines kommunalen Finanzausgleichs an den eigenen Steuereinnahmen zu beteiligen. Da im Grundgesetz und den jeweiligen Landesverfassungen ausschließlich allgemeine Ausführungen zu diesem Themenkomplex zu finden sind, kommt es häufig zum Verteilungsstreit zwischen Land und Kommunen einerseits und Kommunen andererseits. Der Verfasser beschreibt und analysiert die Bestimmungen des hessischen kommunalen Finanzausgleichs bezüglich ihrer ökonomischen Zielführung und vergleicht diese mit Regelungen anderer Bundesländer. Anschließend legt er eigene Reformvorschläge dar, mit deren Hilfe die angesprochenen Probleme gelöst werden können.

Sand, clay and rock have to be excavated for a variety of purposes, such as dredging, trenching, mining (including deep sea mining), drilling, tunnel boring and many other applications. Many excavations take place on dry land, but they are also frequently required in completely saturated conditions, and the methods necessary to accomplish them consequently vary widely. This book provides an overview of cutting theories. It begins with a generic model, valid for all types of soil (sand, clay and rock), and continues with the specifics of dry sand, water-saturated sand, clay, atmospheric rock and hyperbaric rock. Small blade angles and large blade angles are discussed for each soil type, and for each case considered the equations/model for cutting forces, power and specific energy are given. With models verified by laboratory research, principally from the Delft University of Technology, and data from other recognized sources, this book will prove an invaluable reference for anybody whose work involves major excavations of any kind.

Um den Herausforderungen vor denen die Automobilindustrie in der Prozesskette Karosserieaufbauteile steht zu begegnen, wird deshalb ein neues, durchgängiges Vorgehen benötigt. Anspruch der Arbeit ist es, eine integrierte Methodik zur Presswerkneutypplanung (IMPRESS) zu entwickeln, die durchgängig digital die frühe Phase des Planungs- und Entwicklungsprozesses abdeckt. Dabei soll insbesondere die Integration einer technischen, prinzipiellen Machbarkeitsanalyse mit einer wirtschaftlichen Herleitung von Kosten erreicht werden.

This edited volume consolidates research from 32 countries in order to address the implications of the recent global wave of migration on educational opportunity and assess links between migration and bullying in Europe and further afield. Using data gathered from the European Commission-funded TRIBES project (Transnational Collaboration on Bullying, Migration, and Integration at School Level), chapters cover first-hand accounts, policy document analysis, and lived experience through comparative themes such as school climate, governmental policy, diversity and inclusion, technology, student voice, and school design to demonstrate how bullying can be understood as a threat to developing inclusive and diverse schools and societies globally. Rooted in a bio-ecological model that recognizes the intersectionality of migrant lives, ultimately this book will advance collaboration between stakeholders to ensure better integration, a reduction in bullying, and better safety and well-being for refugee and migrant students. Reflecting the truly cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural, and intersectional nature of the volume, this book will be of interest to researchers, scholars, and postgraduate students in migration and education studies, bullying and cyberbullying, and the sociology of education. Policymakers and practitioners in psychology, technology, and youth studies more broadly will also benefit from this book.

Promoting and preserving social cohesion has become a central challenge for European societies. Based on contributions from the first trinational conference of DGSA, OGSA and SGSA, this book addresses both the meaning of social cohesion for individuals and societies and the question of how social work can contribute to promoting and preserving social cohesion as the basis of liberal democratic societies.

National governments hardly identify their ecological networks or make an effort to integrate them into their spatial policies and plans. Under this perspective, an important scientific and technical issue is to focus on preserving corridors for enabling species mobility and on achieving connectivity between natural protected areas. This Special Issue takes a step forward insofar as it aims at proposing a theoretical and methodological discussion on the definition and implementation of ecological networks that provide a wide range of ecosystem services.

Researchers have always been fascinated with creating new materials and composites with novel structures and specialized functional capabilities. In the drug discovery process, approximately 90% of the new chemical entities are water-insoluble or low permeable, and about 40% of the market-approved drugs are poorly water-soluble. Limitations related to solubility, stability, drug resistance, and adverse effects of the developed drugs have dug out the opportunity and encouraged focused research on drug delivery systems at the molecular level as targeted drug delivery systems. Scientific advancements and techniques have developed several drug delivery systems. This book comprises chapters authored by various researchers and edited by experts active in the pharmaceutical research area. All the chapters are complete and united under a common research study. This publication aims to provide a thorough overview of the latest research in drug delivery systems and related issues. It also cracked new possible research paths in drug delivery systems for further novel developments.

Pour analyser la guerre d'Indochine, à la fois réputée « trop chère » et pervertie par le trafic des piastres, Hugues Tertrais a privilégié le point de vue financier. Il ouvre ainsi une fenêtre à la fois nécessaire et originale qui éclaire différemment le conflit et permet d'en repenser le déroulement. Car si l'argent est le « nerf de la guerre », l'occasion des profits indirects. En s'appuyant sur les archives économiques et financières, l'auteur montre comment le conflit, au départ de natur...

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is portrayed as cognitive and social disorders. Undoubtedly, impairments in communication and restricted-repetitive behaviors that now define the disorders have a profound impact on social interactions. But can we go beyond the descriptive, observational nature of this definition and objectively measure that amalgamate of motions and sensations that we call behavior?In this Research Topic we bring movement and its sensation to the forefront of autism research, diagnosis, and treatment. We gather researchers across disciplines with the unifying goal of recognizing movement and sensory disturbances as core symptoms of the disorder. We also hear confirmation from the perspective of autism self-advocates and parents. Those important sources of evidence along with the research presented in this topic demonstrate without a doubt that profound movement and sensory differences do exist in ASD and that they are quantifiable.The work presented in this Research Topic shows us that quantifiable differences in movements have a better chance than current observational techniques to help us uncover subtle solutions that the nervous system with autism has already spontaneously self-discovered and utilized in daily living. Where the naked eye would miss the unique subtleties that help each individual cope, instrumentation and fine kinematic analyses of motions help us uncover inherent capacities and predispositions of the person with autism. The work presented in this topic helps us better articulate through the voices of parents and self-advocates those sensory motor differences that current inventories could not possibly uncover. These differences are seldom perceived as they take place at timescales and frequencies that fall largely beneath our conscious awareness. To the person in the spectrum living with this disorder and to the caregiver creating accommodations to help the affected loved one, these subtleties are very familiar though. Indeed they are often used in clever ways to facilitate daily routines. We have waited much too long in science to listen to the very people that we are trying to define, understand and help.Being autism a social problem by definition, it is remarkable that not a single diagnosis inventory measures the dyadic social interaction that takes place between the examiner and the examinees. Indeed we have conceived the autistic person within a social context where we are incapable - by definition - of accepting those differences. The burden is rather placed on the affected person to whom much too often we refer to in the third person as “non-verbal, without intentionality, without empathy or emotions, without a theory of mind”, among other purely psychological guesses. It is then too easy and shockingly allowed to “reshape” that person, to mold that person to better conform to our social expectations and to extinguish “behaviors” that are socially unacceptable, even through the use of aversive punishing reinforcement techniques if need be. And yet none of those techniques have had a single shred of objective scientific evidence of their effectiveness. We have not objectively measured once, nor have we physiologically characterized once any of those perceived features that we so often use to observationally define what we may think the autistic phenotype may be. We have not properly quantified, beyond paper-and-pencil methods, the effectiveness of interventions in autism.