Open Access Books

What can learning mean? Different approaches to learning theory represent a "relational view". The ontological premises, however, remain implicit. Thus, these approaches leave their conceptualizations of the human being and of sociality to an intuitive understanding of the background. The obvious conceptualization of the human being as an "open personality" or as a "homines aperti" (N. Elias) and of sociality as an inherent sociality of the learner or "primary sociality" (H. Joas) thus receives insufficient "ontological support".

Macular degeneration is a blinding disease with huge socioeconomic costs. This book presents a comprehensive overview of macular degeneration, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Chapters address such topics as the disease state of macular degeneration, diagnosis and management of AMD, treatment considerations, and vision rehabilitation. It is a useful resource for both novice readers and experts in the field.

Panepiphanal World is the first in-depth study of the forty short texts James Joyce called “epiphanies.” Composed between 1901 and 1904, at the beginning of Joyce’s writing career, these texts are often dismissed as juvenilia. Sangam MacDuff argues that the epiphanies are an important point of origin for Joyce’s entire body of work, showing how they shaped the structure, style, and language of his later writings. Tracing the ways Joyce incorporates the epiphanies into Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake, MacDuff describes the defining characteristics of the epiphanies—silence and repetition, materiality and reflexivity—as a set of recurrent and inter-related tensions in the development of Joyce’s oeuvre. MacDuff uses fresh archival evidence, including a new typescript of the epiphanies that he discovered, to show the importance of the epiphanies throughout Joyce’s career. MacDuff compares Joyce’s concept of epiphany to Classical, Biblical, and Romantic revelations, showing that instead of pointing to divine transcendence or the awakening of the sublime, Joyce’s epiphanies are rooted in and focused on language. MacDuff argues that the Joycean epiphany is an apt characterization of modernist literature, and that the linguistic forces at play in these early texts are also central to the work of Joyce’s contemporaries including Woolf, Beckett, and Eliot.

In what ways can analytic reection be of avail when engaging in music as a musician? What restrictions of the interpreter’s freedom do musical scores impose? Which licences do musicians in fact allow themselves? Can hierarchical tonal analysis really guide musicians towards artistically rewarding interpretations? Or is perhaps a painstaking and sensitive study of the musical details, revealing continuous processes, a more productive path to telling performances? roughout the book, the views and discussions are amplied by music examples.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reorganized existing methods of exchange, turning comparatively marginal technologies into the new normal. Multipoint videoconferencing in particular has become a favored means for web-based forms of remote communication and collaboration without physical copresence. Taking the recent mainstreaming of videoconferencing as its point of departure, this anthology examines the complex mediality of this new form of social interaction. Connecting theoretical reflection with material case studies, the contributors question practices, politics and aesthetics of videoconferencing and the specific meanings it acquires in different historical, cultural and social contexts.

Molecular magnets show many properties not met in conventional metallic magnetic materials, i.e. low density, transparency to electromagnetic radiation, sensitivity to external stimuli such as light, pressure, temperature, chemical modification or magnetic/electric fields, and others. They can serve as “functional” materials in sensors of different types or be applied in high-density magnetic storage or nanoscale devices. Research into molecule-based materials became more intense at the end of the 20th century and is now an important branch of modern science. The articles in this Special Issue, written by physicists and chemists, reflect the current work on molecular magnets being carried out in several research centers. Theoretical papers in the issue concern the influence of spin anisotropy in the low dimensional lattice of the resulting type of magnet, as well as thermodynamics and magnetic excitations in spin trimers. The impact of external pressure on structural and magnetic properties and its underlying mechanisms is described using the example of Prussian blue analogue data. The other functionality discussed is the magnetocaloric effect, investigated in coordination polymers and high spin clusters. In this issue, new molecular magnets are presented: (i) ferromagnetic high-spin [Mn6] single-molecule magnets, (ii) solvatomagnetic compounds changing their structure and magnetism dependent on water content, and (iii) a family of purely organic magnetic materials. Finally, an advanced calorimetric study of anisotropy in magnetic molecular superconductors is reviewed.

Entropy is publishing a Special Issue to celebrate the 180th anniversary of Ludwig Boltzmann’s birth, commemorating his foundational contributions to statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. Boltzmann revolutionized physics by introducing statistical methods to describe molecular behavior, formulating the H-theorem, and establishing the profound link between entropy and probability. His work laid the groundwork for modern kinetic theory, transport phenomena, and equilibrium statistical mechanics, with far-reaching implications across physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, and social sciences. This collection features high-quality research and review articles exploring Boltzmann’s enduring influence, including advances in statistical physics, complex systems, and machine learning, as well as critical perspectives on the historical and theoretical evolution of the field. Contributions address fundamental theories and applied interdisciplinary topics, reflecting the broad impact of Boltzmann’s ideas.

In this book, Jeffrey Merrick brings together a rich array of primary-source documents—many of which are published or translated here for the first time—that depict in detail the policing of same-sex populations in eighteenth-century France and the ways in which Parisians regarded what they called sodomy or pederasty and tribadism. Taken together, these documents suggest that male and female same-sex relations played a more visible public role in Enlightenment-era society than was previously believed. The translated and annotated sources included here show how robust the same-sex subculture was in eighteenth-century Paris, as well as how widespread the policing of sodomy was at the time. Part 1 includes archival police records from the 1720s to the 1780s that show how the police attempted to manage sodomitical activity through surveillance and repression; part 2 includes excerpts from treatises and encyclopedias, published nouvelles (collections of news) and libelles (libelous writings), fictive portrayals, and Enlightenment treatments of the topic that include calls for legal reform. Together these sources show how contemporaries understood same-sex relations in multiple contexts and cultures, including their own. The resulting volume is an unprecedented look at the role of same-sex relations in the culture and society of the era. The product of years of archival research curated, translated, and annotated by a premier expert in the field, Sodomites, Pederasts, and Tribades in Eighteenth-Century France provides a foundational primary text for the study and teaching of the history of sexuality.

Este libro tiene como problemática central la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de la Historia en Argentina. El estado de situación del tema se construyó a partir de los datos obtenidos de encuestas realizadas a alumnos y docentes de escuelas secundarias de Argentina y países del Mercosur entre agosto de 2012 y mayo de 2013, en el marco del proyecto de investigación “Los Jóvenes y la Historia en el Mercosur”.

Štúdia sa zrodila v rámci výskumného projektu NKFI-OTKA No. 134962. (A nemzetiség és etnicitás jogi operacionalizálása).

This interdisciplinary study focuses on the eventful collection history of the Chamber of Mathematics and Physics of the former Jesuit College in Cologne from the 17th century to the present day. The collection for teaching and research provides material evidence of the scientific-historical development towards modern natural science. This volume thus offers a fascinating insight into the history of science and education in Cologne and beyond.

Latin America has been hit by countless social, political and economic conflicts throughout its history, which have unleashed problems related to violence and social inequality, job creation, and attractiveness to investors. When these aspects manage to be regulated and transformed in favor of the economic and social development of a territory, society can approach a State that favors welfare conditions. However, the high challenges that a national government may encounter on this path are almost impossible to overcome. Even so, an alternative way that some communities and cities have opted for has been to turn their gaze inward, that is, based on their territory, their local culture and effective citizen participation, routes can be identified that dynamize productivity and competitiveness in a sustainable manner. Each of the actors involved in these practices must recognize the potential and real resources of the territory and the community in order to be used to strengthen it. The last few years, more specifically since the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic contingency, brought high threats to the growth, development and welfare of countries, which resulted in major economic and social challenges that each government is still trying to overcome.

Helmuth Plessner (1892-1985) was one of the founders of philosophical anthropology, and his book The Stages of the Organic and Man, first published in 1928, has inspired generations of philosophers, biologists, social scientists, and humanities scholars. This volume offers the first substantial introduction to Plessner’s philosophical anthropology in English, not only setting it in context with such familiar figures as Bergson, Cassirer, and Merleau-Ponty, but also showing Plessner’s relevance to contemporary discussions in a wide variety of fields in the humanities and sciences.