Open Access Books

Ensuring the sustainability of early stage companies and increasing awareness of the need for balancing targets against different stakeholder groups among young companies are not well developed. Young companies, in the first place, want to achieve financial success very often without regard for aspects such as the environment, positive relationships with employees, suppliers or other stakeholder groups, fulfilling requirements of labor law, etc. Another issue is that of companies whose business models are based on actuarially-preferred concepts, such as sharing economy, sustainable development, e-comers, e-commerce, renewable energy, social media, and others. A key issue is the resignation of companies from an approach to business, based on the foundations of classical economics to the sharing economy. Theory and practice seek new solutions in the sphere of value sharing in these new areas of sharing, and innovative forms of its implementation. Intriguing is the relationship of these business models with sustainability issues, as well as wondering how technology can influence sustainability. A contemporary approach to consumer value fits in with the assumption of a shared economy. It is interesting how it affects the assumptions of sustainability of business. The ongoing changes in the value system of potential consumers create new conditions for the design of sustainability business models and creation of innovation.

This reprint covers different aspects of the West Nile virus (WNV), a mosquito-borne pathogen that belongs to the Flavivirus genus (family Flaviviridae). The virus is maintained in nature in a rural cycle between mosquito vectors, mainly Culex species, and avian hosts. Spillover from this cycle occasionally results in outbreaks in horses and humans. In severe cases, the infection can induce neurological signs, such as meningitis and encephalitis, and in some cases, it can lead to death. The virus has spread across the world in this century, including its expansion in the Americas since 1999, and an increase in the number of outbreaks and its severity has been observed in Europe in recent years. Considering all these aspects, an approach including public, animal and environmental health is the best option to increase the knowledge of this problem, making this disease an excellent example of a “One Health” issue. Bearing in mind this multidisciplinary aspect, the volume includes contributions related to the pathogenesis, vaccines, diagnosis and epidemiology of the virus both in humans and animals.

The study of both unicellular and multicellular living beings and the diseases they produce from a biological point of view requires constant review of their relationship with their host and environment, given their indisputable sanitary importance. In this sense, in parasitology and microbiology, updated and concise information on life cycle, taxonomic classification, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, treatment, epidemiological behavior, and control measures is of vital importance. This is what we pursue with this book. The approach to parasitology and microbiology and the research that is carried out on it is unquestionable because the associations between life forms have been present from the very beginning of life.Research in parasitology and microbiology is necessary and indispensable for controlling diseases that affect much of the world with serious economic and social consequences. The challenge is to promote research to keep these diseases at bay. This book shows what has been done up to now and what can be done in the future to combat infectious diseases.

Emphasising the social, critical and situated dimensions of the urban, this comprehensive Research Handbook presents a unique collection of theoretical and empirical perspectives on urban sociology. Bringing together expert contributors from across the world, it provides a rich overview and research agenda for contemporary urban sociological scholarship.

In this monograph, the attention is focused on the role of interest rate in monetary policy. Interest rate policy is important both for the context of the national policy and from the point of view of international finance. The internationalisation of financial markets has led to the stronger impact of Fed’s monetary policy, not only on the U.S. economy, but also on the global economy. However, the scale and the strength of this impact are still the subject of many studies. The aim of the monograph is to investigate the mechanism and effectiveness of the interest rate as the Federal Reserve System’s monetary impulses transmission channel in the years 1984-2015. It also attempt to synthesize theoretical views of the role and importance of interest rate influence on economic processes and present the Fed’s monetary policy objectives and strategies in the last thirty years. The detailed study on the monetary policy transmission mechanism indicates in the one hand a reduced effectiveness of Fed’s monetary policy since the mid-90s of the twentieth century and in the other hand the relatively high efficiency of the Fed’s anti-crisis monetary policy. Between 2008-2015 forward guidance policy and quantitative easing policy have provided additional economic incentives, which have had favourable effect on economic activity of the U.S. economy. // Publikacja dotyczy współczesnych finansów międzynarodowych, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem polityki stóp procentowych i mechanizmu transmisji impulsów polityki pieniężnej. Ma charakter unikatowy, stanowi wartościowe, kompleksowe, a zarazem oryginalne opracowanie naukowe podejmujące istotny i aktualny problem oddziaływania stopy procentowej Systemu Rezerwy Federalnej na poziom cen oraz przebieg realnych procesów gospodarczych w Stanach Zjednoczonych. Jest adresowana do studentów kierunków ekonomicznych, a także do czytelników chcących pogłębić wiedzę z zakresu finansów międzynarodowych, zainteresowanych zmianami zachodzącymi w sposobie prowadzenia i realizacji polityki pieniężnej w gospodarce globalnej. Może stanowić cenną lekturę dla specjalistów w dziedzinie finansów, bankowości oraz osób zajmujących się zawodowo polityką makroekonomiczną.

Most leaders of developed nations recognize the importance of following policies and strategies to achieve a low-carbon economy based on new and innovative technologies that are able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create new employment and growth. In the broad spectrum of the feasible decarbonisation pathways, the challenge for political and economic decision-makers is to weigh uncertain impact from different technologies and to build a comprehensive evidence-based framework for research, business, investment and policy decision-making. This book aims to provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of the current state-of-the-art technology in the Low Carbon Technology and Economy field, discussing a set of new technology approaches and environmental and economic implications.

The invasion of Ukraine is the latest in a series of upheavals that have made eastern Europe a telling point from which to consider the place of area studies in the construction of knowledge about the world. The politics of academic knowledge about ‘areas’ now feels more urgent than ever. Anti-Atlas plays with the politics of the conventional atlas, with its assumptions about knowledge and power, its hierarchies of value, and its simplifications. It presents a collection of essays written by an eclectic mix of authors from Europe, both east and west, the UK and North America. These entries analyse a necessarily incomplete selection of topics, but they all engage with the question of how an approach to area can be ‘critical’ – and each entry demonstrates different aspects of criticality. The editors develop a manifesto for such criticality, calling attention to positions that are heterodox, area-informed or vernacular, ‘undisciplined’, and collaborative. Through a variety of genres, including the scholarly article, the travel guide, autobiographical reflections and data visualisations, Anti-Atlas provides readers with a diverse series of intellectual resources, asking them to think critically about the ways in which we construct the world by dividing it into pieces. Praise for Anti-Atlas ‘Anti-Atlas is an imaginative, brave attempt to reframe area studies, simultaneously rebuilding “our images and cartographies of the world”. Assembling dozens of authors from broad swaths of Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the East of the East, the volume is an essential antidote to knowledge produced in the service of empires, past or present.’ Aida A. Hozić, University of Florida

The emerald ash borer (EAB) is rapidly spreading throughout Eastern North America and devastating ecosystems where ash is a component tree. This rapid and sustained loss of ash trees has already resulted in ecological impacts on both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and is projected to be even more severe as EAB invades ash dominated wetlands of the western Great Lakes region. We propose a Special Issue that will address current research documenting ecological impacts of EAB in forest ecosystems, as well as management approaches to mitigate those impacts. Prospective authors are invited to contribute original researches to this Special Issue of Forests. Topics may include, but are not limited to: Managements of ash forests and potential replacements, nutrient and vegetation dynamics, greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration and cycling, hydrologic impacts, and pre or post-infestation silvicultural approaches or management strategies.

The book is part of the multidisciplinary research project Languages ​​of notarial mediation from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age (LIMEN) of the University of Milan. It collects the point of view of jurists: it is a journey through time, which ranges from the origins of the notarial function to the exercise of it in our time. The book highlights the evolution of the role of the notary in different ages and cultural contexts, a role which has always guaranteed trust and impartiality in the drafting and conservation of legal documents. The collection offers a 'evolving' representation of the tasks of notaries, starting from the assumption that the recovery of historical, legal and cultural roots can provide a key for the understanding of today's profession as well as some points of reflection for the future.

This Special Issue is entitled “Environmental Sustainability in Maritime Infrastructures”. Oceans and coastal areas are essential in our lives from several different points of view: social, economic, and health. Given the importance of these areas for human life, not only for the present but also for the future, it is necessary to plan future infrastructures, and maintain and adapt to the changes the existing ones. All of this taking into account the sustainability of our planet. A very significant percentage of the world's population lives permanently or enjoys their vacation periods in coastal zones, which makes them very sensitive areas, with a very high economic value and as a focus of adverse effects on public health and ecosystems. Therefore, it is considered very relevant and of great interest to launch this Special Issue to cover any aspects related to the vulnerability of coastal systems and their inhabitants (water pollution, coastal flooding, climate change, overpopulation, urban planning, waste water, plastics at sea, effects on ecosystems, etc.), as well as the use of ocean resources (fisheries, energy, tourism areas, etc.).

Bis zum Zweiten Weltkrieg beherbergte Halberstadt eine der bedeutendsten jüdischen Gemeinden Mitteldeutschlands. Dies drückte sich in der Einwohnerschaft aus und auch darin, dass die kleine Stadt im Vorharz eines der Zentren der Neo-Orthodoxie in Deutschland war. 1942 wurden die letzten verbliebenen Jüdinnen und Juden deportiert und Halberstadt 1945 durch alliierte Bombenangriffe stark zerstört. Die jüdische Stadtgeschichte fiel daraufhin der Vergessenheit anheim, bis Ende der 1970er Jahre kirchliche Kreise die Erinnerung aufleben ließen. Philipp Graf betrachtet in seinem Essay den staatlichen, städtischen und zivilgesellschaftlichen Umgang mit der jüdischen Vergangenheit in vier Jahrzehnten DDR. Vor dem Hintergrund bis in die Gegenwart zu vernehmender antisemitischer Vorbehalte in der Stadt fragt der Autor, inwieweit sich der „verordnete Antifaschismus“ und die politische Kultur der DDR hierin Ausdruck verschaffen und beeinflussen, wie in Halberstadt und in den neuen Bundesländern insgesamt über Juden, Judentum und jüdisches Leben gesprochen wird.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on bloomsburycollections.com. The global economic crisis of 2008-2009 exposed systemic failings at the core of economic policy making worldwide. The crisis came on top of several other crises, including skyrocketing and highly volatile world food and energy prices and climate change. This book argues that new policy approaches are needed to address such devastating global development challenges and to avoid the potentially catastrophic consequences to livelihoods worldwide that would result from present approaches. The contributors to the book are independent development experts, brought together by the UN to identify a development strategy capable of promoting a broad-based economic recovery and at the same time guaranteeing social equity and environmental sustainability both within countries and internationally. This new development approach seeks to promote the reforms needed to improve global governance, providing a more equitable distribution of global public goods. The contributors offer a critical evaluation of past development experiences and report on their creative search for new and well-thought out answers for the future. They suggest that economic progress, fairer societies and environmental sustainability can be compatible objectives, but only when pursued simultaneously by all.

L’Enciclopedia Sociologica dei Luoghi (ESL) si pone come occasione di ricerca e riflessione sul ruolo che i luoghi hanno avuto in passato e hanno tutt’ora nel dare forma alle città e segnare i destini dei suoi abitanti e fruitori. Il volume offre chiavi di lettura e coordinate teoriche, nonché presentazioni di casi utili a sviluppare ricerche situate, riducendo il livello di indifferenza nei confronti dei contesti spaziali che spesso caratterizza le ricerche sociologiche. Il termine enciclopedia sembra il più adatto a trasmettere l’idea di un lavoro in grado di toccare tanti luoghi: da quelli riguardanti i trasporti a quelli relativi il tempo libero, da quelli riferiti alla sicurezza pubblica a quelli inerenti il consumo, e via dicendo.

Diese Studie untersucht einen zentralen Begriff der antiken Ethik, der als Vorläufer des modernen Pflichtbegriffs Ideengeschichte geschrieben hat: das kathekon (lat. officium). Die Untersuchung zeigt, wie die frühen Stoiker, die diesen Begriff in die ethische Terminologie einführten, das kathekon philosophisch begründeten. Demzufolge ist ein kathekon eine Handlung, die es aus guten Gründen auszuführen gilt. Aber unter welchen Umständen ist eine solche Handlung gut begründet? Die Analyse kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass als Massstab nicht in erster Linie die menschliche Vernunft gilt. Vielmehr ist der primäre Bezugspunkt für die Begründung die Natur, die alle Prozesse im Kosmos zweckmässig organisiert. Ein kathekon ist demnach eine Aktivität, mit der ein Lebewesen – ob Pflanze, Tier oder Mensch – dem teleologisch gedachten Willen der Natur Folge leistet.

Biomedical Engineering is an exciting and emerging interdisciplinary field that combines engineering with life sciences. The relevance of this area can be perceived in our everyday lives every time we go to hospital, receive medical treatment or even when we buy health products such as an automatic blood pressure monitor device. Over the past years we have experienced a great technological development in health care and this is due to the joint work of engineers, mathematicians, physicians, computer scientists and many other professionals. This book introduces a collection of papers organized into three sections that provide state of the art examples of practical applications in Biomedical Engineering in the area of Biomedical Signal Processing and Modelling, Biomaterials and Prosthetic Devices, and Biomedical Image Processing.