Open Access Books

From Conflict to Cooperation - Strategic Approaches to Instrumentalizing Global Peace uses a constructivist approach to examine and define the concept of global peace, offering innovative methods and perspectives to tackle the ongoing challenge of achieving peaceful international relations. The book is organized into three sections, each focusing on a key aspect of global peace: sociocultural dynamics, theoretical perspectives, and practical analysis. Through a comprehensive exploration of these areas, this volume lays the groundwork for new strategies and solutions in the quest for lasting global peace.

Façade design is a challenging task, in which multidisciplinary issues and aspects should be optimally considered and addressed. This is especially the case of building façades exposed to seismic events, impacts, or fire. Special attention and major efforts are required for the detection and application of new technologies in the generation of modern, adaptive façade systems. This book presents a selection of research contributions to provide a comprehensive overview of façade design. It discusses the experimental analysis and numerical investigation of existing or traditional façades, as well as the development and optimal application of new technologies for modern adaptive façades and building envelopes.

This book is a collection of chapters, concerning the developments within the Fuzzy Logic field of study. The book includes scholarly contributions by various authors pertinent to Fuzzy Logic. Each contribution comes as a separate chapter complete in itself but directly related to the books topics and objectives. The target audience comprises scholars and specialists in the field.

Vernetzte Computer sind das wichtigste Kommunikationsmedium unserer Zeit. Die Verschmelzung von Datenverarbeitung und Telekommunikation war allerdings kein gradliniger Prozess. Das neuartige »Medium Computer« entwickelte sich vielmehr in einem komplexen Wechselverhältnis von technologischen Innovationen, dem Wandel von Wirtschafts- und Wettbewerbspolitik sowie gegenkulturellen Strömungen. In seiner zeithistorischen Studie analysiert Matthias Röhr diesen durchwachsenen Verlauf und zeigt auf, wie die Bundespost in den 1970er und 1980er Jahren mit Bildschirmtext und ISDN auf diese Entwicklung reagierte, und warum Hackerkulturen als Reaktion hierauf für ein »Menschenrecht auf freien Datenaustausch« eintraten.

This book offers readers a pitch-side view of the ethics of fandom. Its accessible six chapters are aimed both at true sports fans whose conscience may be occasionally piqued by their pastime, and at those who are more certain of the moral hazards involved in following a team or sport. Why It’s OK to Be a Sports Fan wrestles with a range of arguments against fandom and counters with its own arguments on why being a fan is very often a good thing. It looks at the ethical issues fans face, from the violent or racist behavior of those in the stands, to players’ infamous misdeeds, to owners debasing their own clubs. In response to these moral risks, the book argues that by being critical fans, followers of a team or individual can reap the benefits of fandom while avoiding many of the ethical pitfalls. The authors show the value in deeply loving a team but also how a condition of this value is recognizing that the love of a fan comes with real limits and responsibilities. Key Features Provides an accessible introduction to a key area of the philosophy of sport Closely looks at some of the salient ethical concerns around sports fandom Proposes that the value of community in partisan fandom should not be underestimated as a key feature of the good life Examines how the same emotions and environments that can lead to violence are identical to those that lead to virtuous loyalty Argues for a fan’s responsibility in calling out violence or racist behavior from their fellow fans The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)] 4.0 license.

En s’appuyant sur la totalité de l’œuvre austénienne, cette étude analytique se propose de mettre en évidence l’écriture serrée d’Austen ainsi que ses ambivalences. Plaçant le lien à Autrui, la sociabilité, les notions de bienveillance et de civilité au cœur de ses préoccupations, la romancière de l’union, conservatrice, offre dans ses écrits une éthique de l’attachement aux échos shaftesburiens. Adepte du maillage et de la médiation, voire de la remédiation – la maladie occupant une place à la fois centrale et originale dans sa réflexion – Austen tisse un textus étroitement ficelé, faisant refluer sous sa surface ordonnée une fascination qu’elle cherche à masquer (car elle la juge inconvenante ou anxiogène) mais qui va l’établir en romancière de l’Ego et de la déchirure, travaillée par le désir, le moi et son « immense nappe d’ombre ». Une écriture serrée, tendue par-dessus une fêlure et aiguillonnée par ses ambivalences, qui inscrit Austen, dès ses premiers romans, dans la mouvance romantique. Pour l’auteur, c’est dans cet entrelacs complexe de mailles tiraillées, dans ces tensions du tissu et ces tentatives – parfois désespérées – de rapiècements, dans ces inter-dits, ces fils et cette trame du dessous, que résident la richesse, la beauté et le plaisir du texte.

A new vision of the brain as a fully integrated, networked organ. Popular neuroscience accounts often focus on specific mind-brain aspects like addiction, cognition, or memory, but The Entangled Brain tackles a much bigger question: What kind of object is the brain? Neuroscientist Luiz Pessoa describes the brain as a highly networked, interconnected system that cannot be neatly decomposed into a set of independent parts. One can't point to the brain and say, “This is where emotion happens” (or any other mental faculty). Pessoa argues that only by understanding how large-scale neural circuits combine multiple and diverse signals can we truly appreciate how the brain supports the mind. Presenting the brain as an integrated organ and drawing on neuroscience, computation, mathematics, systems theory, and evolution, The Entangled Brain explains how brain functions result from cross-cutting brain processing, not the function of segregated areas. Parts of the brain work in a coordinated fashion across large-scale distributed networks in which disparate parts of the cortex and the subcortex work simultaneously to bring about behaviors. Pessoa intuitively explains the concepts needed to formalize this idea of the brain as a complex system and how to unleash powerful understandings built with “collective computations.”

This volume is a collective attempt on the part of a community of academics, film festival curators, and archivists to come to terms with practical and intellectual challenges of the pandemic and post-pandemic realities affecting cultures of film festivals. The collection draws contours of critical inquiry orienting current film festival research and practice to explore new directions in archiving and decolonizing practices and big data analysis in the post-Covid-19 context and beyond. The four-part study gathers the voices of academics and practitioners who engage in a dialogue to articulate critical areas for both study and practice of film festivals, and identifies conceptual tools to address them: “Archival Turn,” “Decolonizing Film Festival Studies,” “Post-Covid-19 and Film Festival Studies” and “Data Visualization and Film Festival Research and Practice.”

Le travail fait bien souvent partie des non-dits de la société indienne. Est-ce parce que — en concordance avec l’idéologie de caste — les liens qui associent les multiples sujets de l’ensemble social paraissent aux intéressés eux-mêmes plus importants que leurs actes ? Est-ce parce que les producteurs de discours autorisés (et de valeurs) ne portent à la question qu’un intérêt médiocre et sectoriel ? Craint-on, du côté des dominants et aussi des médiateurs, de faire surgir des contradictions et des revendications ? Serait-ce, enfin, que les travailleurs, à la maison, aux champs ou à l’usine, ont longtemps cumulé pauvreté, humilité et bas statut ? Au-delà de discours structurants et spécifiques (tels ceux des syndicalistes et des hommes politiques) qui tentent d’homogénéiser la scène, l’univers des pratiques indiennes en matière de travail apparaît pourtant d’une variété rare et d’une ambiguïté particulière. L’irruption du salariat et l’affirmation de tâches explicitement conçues comme un affrontement avec la nature n’ont souvent fait qu’ajouter de nouvelles dimensions à l’antique complexité. C’est ce que permet d’apprécier la pluralité des angles de vue des quatorze contributions de spécialistes réunies dans ce volume.

At the heart of a geographically ill-defined Phrygian space during Antiquity, the installation of military settlers, former soldiers and troupiers still in operation, met perfectly identified strategic objectives fromthe Achaemenids, the Hellenistic monarchs or the Romans. It was to control a space essential for terrestrial communications between the interior of the Anatolian plateau on the one hand and the Aegean on the other, but also between this same coast and Cilicia, and then beyond Syria. On a tactical level, this military presence was to protect Phrygian plateau and valleys from the lust of poorly controlled neighboring populations like Pisidians. Basedon numerous archaeological, numismatic and epigraphic sources, examining each community on a case-by-case basis, this work studies the consequences of the installation of these soldiers on the local reality, whether at the economic level, cultural, religious or social. Covering a long period from the 4th century BC to the end of the Severan Dynasty, he endeavours to weigh the evolutions related to the presence of these alien soldiers. Between the Achemenid Phrygia and the Hellenistic and then Roman one, the aspect of the region, essentially rural at the outset, has gradually evolved: from the Hellenistic era, we observe an important phenomenon of poliadization, making the communication network more dense and the control of local populations more complex.

Hypertension and its resultant complications do occur in childhood and track into adulthood. It’s estimated that > 3% of all children have hypertension, with an even greater prevalence among obese children (20-47%). The etiology of hypertension is generally described as primary (essential) or secondary with most secondary causes related to cardio-renal disease. While primary hypertension is on the rise, all children should undergo an evaluation to investigate for a secondary cause of their hypertension. Mild to moderate hypertension is most commonly asymptomatic but may be associated with subtle cardiac, renal, neurological and/or psychosocial.

The interdisciplinarity of contemporary medical sciences, that combine insights from biology, medicine, computer science, and engineering, enables accurate diagnoses, effective treatments, and personalized patient care. Bioinformatics and medical informatics use the advantage of computational power to decode vast amounts of biological data, translating it into actionable medical knowledge. The 'Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics Annual Volume 2024” highlights the integration of these computational techniques and emphasizes the importance of developing new methodologies to tackle emerging health issues and improve patient outcomes. From continuous monitoring of bio-signals using advanced health technology devices to the application of multiscale mathematical modeling for analyzing complex biological systems, the book covers a range of innovative approaches. It also explores the potential of 5G technology to revolutionize healthcare delivery by enabling faster, more reliable communication and improving access to medical resources, particularly in rural areas. The topics covered are timely and crucial, addressing global health challenges and directing future developments.

This book presents the latest solutions in fuel cell (FC) and renewable energy implementation in mobile and stationary applications. The implementation of advanced energy management and optimization strategies are detailed for fuel cell and renewable microgrids, and for the multi-FC stack architecture of FC/electric vehicles to enhance the reliability of these systems and to reduce the costs related to energy production and maintenance. Cyber-security methods based on blockchain technology to increase the resilience of FC renewable hybrid microgrids are also presented. Therefore, this book is for all readers interested in these challenging directions of research.

This book is a compilation of writings handpicked in esteemed scientific conferences that present the variety of ways to approach this multifaceted phenomenon. In this book, knowledge management is seen as an integral part of information and communications technology (ICT). The topic is first approached from the more general perspective, starting with discussing knowledge management’s role as a medium towards increasing productivity in organizations. In the starting chapters of the book, the duality between technology and humans is also taken into account. In the following chapters, one may see the essence and multifaceted nature of knowledge management through branch-specific observations and studies. Towards the end of the book the ontological side of knowledge management is illuminated. The book ends with two special applications of knowledge management.

L’Orient-Express : du nom d’« un train qui se hâte lentement ». Dès sa naissance, le magazine jouait l’effronterie et la contradiction. Il affichait des ambitions assumées : « être un journal arabe en français », en renouant le lien rompu entre le Liban réel, « arabe d’identité et d’appartenance » comme le formule le texte constitutionnel, et un public francophone volontairement ou non ignorant de faits politiques, sociaux, culturels qui traversent le pays. Faire de la langue française un out...