Open Access Books

This open access book revolves around predictive mathematical modelling and simulation of brain multiphysics with an emphasis on cerebrospinal fluid flow and solute transport in and around the human brain. The book consists of 10 self-contained and relatively short chapters, each offering a rapid introduction to a key problem or topic, supported by open source software. Readers will gain insights into state-of-the-art mathematical tools and techniques for modelling and simulation of brain multiphysics ranging from classical finite element approaches, network-based modelling techniques and deep neural networks. The target audiences are researchers in applied mathematics, scientific computing, biophysics, bioengineering or computational neuroscience interested in a compact introduction to image-based computational modeling of brain multiphysics and cutting-edge available tools.

London is one of the world’s most popular destinations and visitors contribute approximately £14.9 billion of expenditure to the city every year. Its tourism and events sectors are growing and over the last few years London has received more visitors than ever before. However, detailed accounts of the city’s visitor economy are conspicuously absent. This book analyses how the capital is developing as a destination through the expansion of tourism and events into new urban spaces. The book outlines how parts of London not previously regarded as tourist territory are now subject to the visitor gaze with tourism spreading beyond established central zones into peripheral, suburban and residential areas – in part propelled by a big rise in peer to peer accommodation use. Simultaneously, London’s airports and sports stadiums and their surrounds are becoming destinations in their own right. New vantage points have been created, allowing tourists to explore the city: from above, at night-time or through tours given by the homeless; via the opening up of the River Thames; or through the transformation of local parks into eventscapes. The book explores these trends and shows how urban destinations expand. In doing so, it enhances our understanding of London and highlights the growing significance of tourism and events in global cities.

This book sheds light on the translation of current mechanistic research on placebo effects to develop comprehensive and adequate strategies for better symptom management and treatment. This book identifies three core aspects to bridge state-of-the-art concepts with day-to-day clinical practice. First, lessons from mechanistic placebo research indicate a neurobiological basis underlying placebo effects. Second, placebo research can improve the design of clinical trials to advance drug development. Third, placebo effects can be exploited in daily clinical practice to optimize patient-clinician communication and relationships and clinical outcomes. Together, these three core aspects provide a new perspective with which to appraise the implications of Placebo Research for healthcare systems, clinicians, patients, and caregivers. New patient-centered approaches, mental health, and pain-related issues are discussed while describing technologically advanced and novel research applications that will shift current clinical practice to improve treatment outcomes.

The Angkorian World explores the history of Southeast Asia’s largest ancient state from the first to mid-second millennium CE. Chapters by leading scholars combine evidence from archaeology, texts, and the natural sciences to introduce the Angkorian state, describe its structure, and explain its persistence over more than six centuries. Comprehensive and accessible, this book will be an indispensable resource for anyone studying premodern Asia. The volume’s first of six sections provides historical and environmental contexts and discusses data sources and the nature of knowledge production. The next three sections examine the anthropogenic landscapes of Angkor (agrarian, urban, and hydraulic), the state institutions that shaped the Angkorian state, and the economic foundations on which Angkor operated. Part V explores Angkorian ideologies and realities, from religion and nation to identity. The volume’s last part reviews political and aesthetic Angkorian legacies in an effort to explain why the idea of Angkor remains central to its Cambodian descendants. Maps, graphics, and photographs guide readers through the content of each chapter. Chapters in this volume synthesise more than a century of work at Angkor and in the regions it influenced. The Angkorian World will satisfy students, researchers, academics, and the knowledgeable layperson who seeks to understand how this great Angkorian Empire arose and functioned in the premodern world.

Planung und Politik sind gefordert, den urbanen Raum an neue Wohn-, Produktions- und Bewegungsbedürfnisse, Extremwetterereignisse oder Versorgungsansprüche anzupassen. Gute Ideen dafür gibt es viele, die Wege zur Umsetzung sind allerdings steinig. Die Beiträge zeigen, wie es gehen kann: Mutige und erfolgreiche Umsetzer*innen erzählen Erfolgsgeschichten aus ihrer Berufspraxis und zeigen an Beispielen, wie gute Ideen wirksam realisiert werden können. Dabei nehmen sie verschiedene Umsetzungsinstrumente in den Blick und weisen anhand von Projekten nach, wie sie Prozesse anschieben, beflügeln, stabilisieren, strukturieren und rechtlich absichern können.

For the first time, this volume presents a geographically and phenomenologically broad range of case studies on late medieval changes of rule, from dynastic succession to conquest by force. The focus will be on the border regions of Latin Europe, political and cultural contact zones with distinctive dynamics. By presenting examples from the Canaries to Moscow and from Sicily to Norway, late medieval Europe will be covered in all its diversity.

Outsourcing has been seen as a phenomenon allowing competitive advantages for organizations, but some studies do not include the causes and consequences of this particular strategy. Consequently, the objective of this book is to fill this gap by combining several studies from different perspectives. The various chapters presented here follow several approaches, which researchers explore in different contexts. This book intends, therefore, to add to the body of knowledge about outsourcing. Furthermore, it shows how the outsourcing strategy can stimulate organizations' development in various countries and regions worldwide.

Simultaneously speculative and inspired by everyday experiences, this volume develops an aesthetics of metabolism that offers a new perspective on the human-environment relation, one that is processual, relational, and not dependent on conscious thought. In art installations, design prototypes, and researchcreation projects that utilize air, light, or temperature to impact subjective experience the author finds aesthetic milieus that shift our awareness to the role of different sense modalities in aesthetic experience. Metabolic and atmospheric processes allow for an aesthetics besides and beyond the usually dominant visual sense.

Die vorliegende Schrift stellt sich zum Ziel, die Segmentsysteme des Gegenwartsdeutschen und des Gegenwartsbulgarischen in kontrastiver Sicht zu beschreiben und aus dieser Beschreibung Konsequenzen auf Unterschiede und Übereinstimmungen sowohl im Tätigkeitsprozeß ihrer Realisierung als auch in ihrem phonologischen Status, der Distribution und Kombinatorik zu ziehen. Die beschriebene Darstellung wird nach den Grundaspekten des lautsprachlichen Kommunikationsvorgangs vorgenommen: nach dem physiologisch-genetischen, nach dem akustisch-perzeptiven und dem phonologischen.

This second volume in the NWU Community‑based Educational Research Series presents scholars’ drawings on their intellectual resources, research expertise and extensive craft wisdom to vivify early childhood education in marginalised, disadvantaged African communities. Across 10 chapters, the book examines principles of sustainable development in early childhood contexts, structured around three themes: first, strengthening early childhood care and education management and quality; second, play, motor development and sustainability; and third, language development in the early years. By employing participatory action learning research approaches, the authors illustrate how communities of practice and action learning groups enable teachers, practitioners, parents, guardians and researchers to collaboratively develop mechanisms to address and overcome barriers to provide children quality education. Through empirical data, the authors highlight how direct engagement with community members in these communities fosters innovative, contextually grounded strategies aligned with the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development , particularly Sustainable Development Goal 4 on inclusive, equitable and quality education. The chapters illustrate how research driven by indigenous knowledge, collaboration and sustainability principles can develop and reinforce practitioners’ skills in historically‑marginalised African communities to inspire young children to grow as confident, active learners and socially responsible citizens. This novel collection is not only authored by scholars for scholars but also for policymakers, inviting peers to critically reflect on how dynamic and productive relationships between higher education institutions and early childhood centres can foster sustainable development and transformation.

Cet ouvrage propose une synthèse sur l’impact socio-juridique de la Constitutio Antoniniana, avec pour question fondamentale de savoir ce que cela signifie d’être un citoyen romain, à la fois pour les individus et pour l’administration provinciale au lendemain de cet événement. L’étude du changement onomastique survenu dans les provinces permet d’en affiner la datation. L’analyse de précédents octrois de la citoyenneté permet de catégoriser ce changement universel sur le plan juridique et d’en extrapoler certaines caractéristiques. L’examen des institutions qui suivent un régime personnel, tels que les mariages et les successions, donne une idée des interactions entre les provinciaux et le droit romain, ainsi qu’un aperçu de l’attitude des autorités romaines.

This open access book discusses several didactic traditions in mathematics education in countries across Europe, including France, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, the Czech and Slovakian Republics, and the Scandinavian states. It shows that while they all share common features both in the practice of learning and teaching at school and in research and development, they each have special features due to specific historical and cultural developments. The book also presents interesting historical facts about these didactic traditions, the theories and examples developed in these countries.

This essay looks at the specific iconography of saint Jerome in the artistic commissions of the Jesuati during the 15th century. This specific iconography meant to show the Doctor of the Church as the illustrious founder of the congregation in place of Colombini who never was canonized and meant to presents their form of religious life and the rejection of the Holy Orders through the extremely rare illustration of the episode in the life of Saint Jerome: The anticiceroniano dream. The dissemination of this theme was previously attributed to Hieronymites of Fiesole

An Anthropology of Crosslocations introduces a radical new approach to understanding location. The co-authors show that the question of where something is depends on how places are mutually connected and disconnected. The location of a place can be established by different logics, such as national borders, ecosystems, or economic zones. These different ways of classifying the relative value and significance of a place coexist and overlap: for example, national borders are regularly crosscut by ecosystems. By thinking of 'location' as a process defined by several different coexisting locating regimes, the book showcases a fresh way to think about the multiple and overlapping connections and disconnections between here and elsewhere. This approach can fundamentally revise ethnographic and anthropological views on the importance, value and significance of where people, things and animals are located and, as such, redefines the idea of ‘the field.’ The volume brings together seven anthropologists who have worked together for six years. The chapters take the reader through a series of journeys around the Mediterranean region—to North Africa, the East Mediterranean, and Southern Europe. Each chapter unfolds an ethnographic or historical account of the coexistence of different values and meanings of location in different places.

Bridge Maintenance, Safety, Management, Digitalization and Sustainability collects the lectures and technical papers presented at the 12th International Conference on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management (IABMAS 2024, Copenhagen, Denmark, 24-28 June 2024). This Open Access book contains 480 contributions, including the T.Y. Lin Lecture, 9 Keynote Lectures, and 470 technical papers from 44 countries. The contributions are presented bring together academic and technological developments in Bridge Maintenance, Safety, Management, Digitalization and Sustainability, to solve new and old problems with innovative solutions. Major topics include: advanced bridge design, construction and maintenance approaches, safety, reliability and risk evaluation, life-cycle management, life-cycle resilience, sustainability, standardization, analytical models, bridge management systems, service life prediction, structural health monitoring, non-destructive testing and field testing, robustness and redundancy, durability enhancement, repair and rehabilitation, fatigue and corrosion, extreme loads, needs of bridge owners, whole life costing and investment for the future, financial planning and application of information and computer technology, extensive data analysis and artificial intelligence for bridges, among others. Bridge Maintenance, Safety, Management, Digitalization and Sustainability provides an up-to-date overview of the field of bridge engineering and significant contributions to making more rational decisions on bridge safety, maintenance, management, life-cycle, resilience, sustainability, and bridge innovations to enhance society’s welfare. The Editors hope that this book will serve as a valuable reference to all concerned with bridge structure and infrastructure systems, including engineers, researchers, academics, and students from all areas of bridge engineering.