Open Access Books

The 10th International Symposium Monitoring of Mediterranean Coastal Areas: problems and measurements techniques was organized by CNR-IBE in collaboration with Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology , and Natural History Museum of the Mediterranean and under the patronage of University of Florence, University of Catania, Accademia dei Lincei, Accademia dei Geogofili, Italian Association of Physical Geography and Geomorphology, Tuscany Region, The North Tyrrhenian Sea Ports System Authority, Livorno Municipality and Livorno Province. This edition confirmed the Symposium as the international occasion to present the research carried out in recent years on the monitoring of the Mediterranean Coastal Areas and therefore as a space to present new proposals and promote actions for the protection of the marine and coastal environment. In the Symposium, Scholars had illustrated their activities and exchanged innovative proposals, with common aims to promote actions to preserve coastal marine environment. In this 10th edition, in fact, we had more than 130 participants from 16 countries; this is a sign of great success and willingness to be presence in Livorno to discuss problems and propose solutions for the Mediterranean coastal areas.

Prometheus was punished by the supreme god Zeus for giving to mankind the Olympic fire with which they learned to think and feel. He was chained to a cliff in the Caucasus, where, to make matters worse, he was visited daily by an eagle who ate part of his liver. At night, however, his liver grew back. We now know that the liver can regenerate, but were the ancient Greeks aware of this quality? The myth of Prometheus has been a source of inspiration for many visual artists over the centuries. In this book, the medical history of the liver is traced through the ages through an examination of historical texts on the organ’s functions and properties, parallel to the art movements in which the fascinating iconography of Prometheus is reviewed. The book offers a surprising interplay of art and medicine, placing emphasis on the unique morphology of the liver.

In the technological tide of the 21st century, acoustics—a discipline steeped in history yet bursting with vitality—is advancing at an unprecedented clip, showcasing the immense potential for application across various fields. The book Acoustical Engineering - The Intricate World of Sound Technology reviews and offers an in-depth analysis of the latest research breakthroughs and technological advancements in acoustic engineering over the past few years. It paints a vibrant and diverse picture of acoustic technologies, highlighting acoustics' role in modern technology. This book thoroughly explores the applications of acoustics in fields such as acoustic monitoring, mineral resource exploration, target recognition, metamaterials, and manufacturing. The book has clear concepts and rigorous logic, allowing readers to quickly grasp the key points and establish systematic knowledge even when facing complex acoustic theories. Its distinctive feature lies in focusing on the depth and breadth of theoretical knowledge and emphasizing the combination of theory and practice. By analyzing practical cases, readers can understand how acoustic technology can play a role in practical engineering and solve practical problems. The book is for researchers, engineers, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates in fields intertwined with acoustic engineering, physics, geophysics, and mechanical engineering. It is an invaluable guide for related courses, providing a wealth of information and providing inspiration for research and academic pursuits in acoustic engineering.

First published in 1857 by the notable Pennsylvania German writer Henry Harbaugh, this volume presents the biography of Michael Schlatter, the organizer of the German Reformed Church in Pennsylvania. Schlatter arrived in Philadelphia in 1746 on an appointment from the German Reformed Church to set up churches among the growing German population in Pennsylvania and the mid-Atlantic. In addition to detailed biographical information, this book includes an English translation of his 1751 journal and a report on his time in America entitled “True History of the Real Conditions of the Destitute Congregations in Pennsylvania,” which remains an important source in the study of the early German church in America and early German settlements in Philadelphia. Documenting Schlatter’s extensive travels and his work in establishing churches across Pennsylvania, Harbaugh provides an intriguing account of the formation of the early German church and the American nation during critical moments of war and political turmoil.

In der bundesdeutschen Debatte über ein wünschenswertes Finanzausgleichssystem werden Effizienzaspekte weitgehend vernachlässigt. Es läßt sich jedoch zeigen, daß Finanzausgleichsregelungen Allokationsstörungen hervorrufen. Dies wird in dieser Arbeit anhand einer theoretischen Analyse demonstriert. In einer Second-best-Welt können First-best-Betrachtungen jedoch zu Fehleinschätzungen führen. Deshalb werden die Wohlfahrtseffekte des bundesdeutschen Finanzausgleichssystems und einiger Reformvorschläge mit Hilfe einer Empirischen Allgemeinen Gleichgewichtsanalyse ermittelt. Unter anderem wird dabei der Einbezug der Neuen Bundesländer in den Finanzausgleich und der Vorschlag eines Einkommensteuerzuschlages der Bundesländer untersucht.

This spirited volume explores the history and diversity of improvisation in the cinema, including works by Jean Renoir, Jean-Luc Godard, and Nobuhiro Suwa. Gilles Mouëllic examines improvisational practices that can be specifically attributed to the cinema and argues in favors of their powers as instigators of unprecedented forms of expression. Improvising Cinema reflects both on the permanence of attempting improvisation and the relationship between technology and aesthetics. Mouëllic concludes preservation becomes even more invaluable in the case of improvisation, as the creative act exists only within the brief time span of the performance.

Our major research interest in the village under study was originally in the area of socialization practices, social change and variables related to fertility behavior. We had not planned a study of the diffusion of news events and villagers’ reactions to them. However, the Indian Government was considering the use of media for a major mass communication program, to propagate the idea of having small families through the use of family planning methods, and we believed it would be of value to examine any data that might be helpful in getting at least some feeling about what villagers read in the papers and what they heard on the radio, as well as their understanding of the information and their attitudes toward it. We subsequently asked questions about the use of mass media. [1]

When spirits guard forests, conservation becomes revolution—and liberation grows from the soil In 2011 Myanmar emerged from what was by some counts the longest ongoing war in the world. Amid the flurry of ceasefires and constitutional reforms, Indigenous communities moved to reterritorialize land that was fiercely contested in the preceding decades of conflict. In southeast Myanmar, the Indigenous people of Karen State, activists, and revolutionaries transformed their war-torn land into the Salween Peace Park—a conservation area that is home not only to endangered species like tigers and gibbons but also to territorial spirits and ancestors. Set in the highlands of the Myanmar-Thai border, Possessed Landscapes introduces a world where land is understood as both spiritually inhabited and politically claimed. Pwakanyaw cosmologies blur boundaries between human and more-than-human ownership, presence, and possession. Anthropologist Tomas Cole’s concept of more-than-human political ecology captures the nuanced, playful, and often deeply strategic ways in which local communities negotiate power, land, and identity amid civil war and state violence. Through vibrant ethnography and grounded political analysis, Cole illuminates how Indigenous Karen communities and their allies are defining conservation, autonomy, and peace building on their own terms. A case study in reimagining sovereignty through ecological stewardship, Possessed Landscapes is essential reading for scholars and practitioners in anthropology, environmental humanities, and peace and conflict studies, as well as anyone seeking to understand how revolutionary politics and conservation can be inseparably entwined. Open access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295754215

Valuing diversity is one of the main goals of language education. This is both related to the education of learners of different nationalities and to the reasons for which languages are learned today, often determined by the need for social integration and to find employment. Language competences gain value through multilingualism, together with opportunities for intercultural communication. At the same time, language policies should be evaluated and renewed constantly. These issues are discussed in this volume, through contributions which take different languages into consideration and which are based on varied theoretical and conceptual frameworks, while pertaining to the fields of Applied Linguistics and Language Education.

This book explores the everyday lives of irregular migrants from Central and Western Africa ‘stuck’ in Morocco and navigating hostile politics of containment with abuse, suffering, and violence. It sheds light on young, male migrants’ own experiences and understandings of their entrapped mobility in two peripheral neighbourhoods of Rabat in Morocco. Departing from reductionist public discourses centred around the trope of crisis, this ethnographic study seeks to deepen, nuance, and humanise understandings of ‘sub-Saharan migration’. Based on long-standing ethnographic engagements with illegality and migration, the book foregrounds the emic notion of ‘l’aventure’ (the adventure) as an existential yearning for a better life and future, an individual quest for emancipation and opportunities amidst a collective endeavour that defies transnational efforts to govern people’s ability to settle and circulate. The adventure entails a mode of being in (and moving through) the world for migrants facing violent, racialised migration regimes marked by abjection and inequities. To explore migrants’ fraught but hopeful journeys, the book examines how adventurers cultivate fragile but necessary dispositions, skills, and relationships to navigate deadly bordering measures stretching across and beyond the Mediterranean region. Steering away from ubiquitous aesthetics of despair, victimhood, and criminality, the book focuses on young men’s efforts to challenge bordering practices to retain control over their lives and mobility. Relevant beyond the Moroccan context, this book’s theorisation of the adventure provides analytical insights to analyse violent migration regimes which target illegalised and racialised migrants.

In his reconstruction of the process and motivation of Constantine`s adoption of Christianity, the author proposes a number of new individual aspects. He commences with an analysis of theearliest testimonials bythe Emperor himself after his conversion, his massive moral and material support for the Christian clergy and ecclesiastic communities, andConstantine`srole as the first ruler of all Christendom up to his death in 337. Finally, it is shown that the Emperor wanted to suppress non-Christian religions and make Christianity the sole religion of the Empire and all humanity.

The study is concerned with the self-understanding of Protestant secondary school principals about their school leadership in the context of Cameroon where education is rooted in missionary and colonial times. The debate at international level on whether or not none-state schools are widening inequality gaps and whether school leadership is contributing to enlightenment or to fundamentalism matter in researching about the Protestant school profile and leadership. The study therefore seeks to answer the research question, “What are the perceptions of secondary school principals of Protestant schools about their school leadership?” The research was conceptualized as exploratory and hypothesis-generating within the qualitative approach. It used semi-structured interviews to collect data from 26 theoretically sampled secondary school principals. The data was analyzed by qualitative content analysis using the grounded theory in an iterative deductive-inductive way. Through the generalization process of abduction and by a deep analysis of the empirical data, the criteria which constitute the categories of quality first emerged. Thereafter, six ideal types of leading understanding were generated and consists of (1) call for superiority leadership, (2) state-conformational leadership, (3) ecclesiastical leadership, (4) community-participatory leadership, (5) vocation to serve leadership and (6) diaconal leadership. Further analysis revealed a multi-dimensional self-understanding by principals on the Protestant ethos of schools and their leadership function. Thus, not all the six ideal leadership types are contributing to quality education. On the one hand, there are fundamentalist leaders focusing on normative aspects of discipline while on the other hand, there are leaders promoting democratic values or working in a diaconal way, promoting social justice. Furthermore, principals show little awareness of belonging to the church as a global institution.

This deeply researched collection offers a comprehensive introduction to the eighteenth-century trade in street literature – ballads, chapbooks, and popular prints – in England and Scotland. Offering detailed studies of a selection of the printers, types of publication, and places of publication that constituted the cheap and popular print trade during the period, these essays delve into ballads, slip songs, story books, pictures, and more to push back against neat divisions between low and high culture, or popular and high literature. The breadth and depth of the contributions give a much fuller and more nuanced picture of what was being widely published and read during this period than has previously been available. It will be of great value to scholars and students of eighteenth-century popular culture and literature, print history and the book trade, ballad and folk studies, children’s literature, and social history.

In this magisterial book, William St Clair unfolds the history of the Parthenon throughout the modern era to the present day, with special emphasis on the period before, during, and after the Greek War of Independence of 1821–32. Focusing particularly on the question of who saved the Parthenon from destruction during this conflict, with the help of documents that shed a new light on this enduring question, he explores the contributions made by the Philhellenes, Ancient Athenians, Ottomans and the Great Powers. Marshalling a vast amount of primary evidence, much of it previously unexamined and published here for the first time, St Clair rigorously explores the multiple ways in which the Parthenon has served both as a cultural icon onto which meanings are projected and as a symbol of particular national, religious and racial identities, as well as how it illuminates larger questions about the uses of built heritage. This book has a companion volume with the classical Parthenon as its main focus, which offers new ways of recovering the monument and its meanings in ancient times. St Clair builds on the success of his classic text, The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period, to present this rich and authoritative account of the Parthenon’s presentation and reception throughout history. With weighty implications for the present life of the Parthenon, it is itself a monumental contribution to accounts of the Greek Revolution, to classical studies, and to intellectual history.

House of Cards, Borgen und Co. – seit einiger Zeit boomen Fernsehserien, die explizit den politischen Betrieb fokussieren. Diese erreichen nicht nur ein akademisches Nischenpublikum, sondern erzielen insgesamt hohe Zuschauerquoten. Die Beiträge des Bandes analysieren, wie der Gegenstand Politik in den Serien aufgegriffen und als Material für ihre auf Unterhaltung ausgerichteten Erzählungen aufgearbeitet wird. Über die Auseinandersetzung mit popkulturellen Produkten zeigen sie, wie politische Bilder in populären Filmen und Serien konstruiert und reproduziert werden und wie diese sich auf Wahrnehmungen und Vorstellungen von Politik auswirken. Das Interesse gilt dabei den konstruierten Bildern von Politik im Allgemeinen, aber auch den sich darin äußernden nationalen Besonderheiten.