Open Access Books

The prediction of China's rise is the subject of this book. The main ideas of this book are derived from Kanshokufuji, a new concept proposed by the chief editor of Prof. Nanseki, pertaining to a sound food system in a sound agro-environment. It implies that food supply and demand are non-separable in terms of location due to the importance of retaining the suitable condition of the environment and biodiversity in the region. This concept is necessary and useful for coping with environmental issues and related food safety issues. From this view point, several integrated surveys in both rural and urban areas of China were conducted by the food risk research group at the Research Institute for East Asia Environments (RIEAE), Kyushu University to reveal the current status of the environment, food, and agriculture in this country. The results of the surveys are introduced in this book, along with implications and recommendations. We hope this book be referential for policy-makers, researchers and industry personnel relating to food, agriculture and environment.

This monograph is devoted to the analysis of the operating parameters of photovoltaic modules and systems. Particular attention was focused on technologies based on crystalline silicon, including PERC (Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell) technology. The analysis also covered thin-film photovoltaic modules made of copper-indium-gallium diselenide (CIGS), cadmium telluride (CdTe), and amorphous silicon, as well as the hybrid HIT technology (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin Layer). The research was conducted at the Lublin University of Technology, at a photovoltaic farm in Bordziłówka (Lublin Voivodeship), and at the University of Jaén in southern Spain. It was hypothesised that the application of the proposed computer modeling methods and experimental analyses enables an accurate assessment of the operating parameters of photovoltaic modules of various technologies under real operational conditions. The research section of the monograph is divided into three stages. The first stage focuses on analysing the electrical and temperature parameters of PV modules, obtained from current–voltage (I-V) characteristics. The measurements were conducted under real operating conditions, characterised by high variability and a clear deviation from the so-called standard test conditions (STC). A methodology for determining the reference parameters of PV modules based on I-V curves measured under real conditions was proposed. In the next part of the study, a correlation analysis was conducted between the experimental parameters of PV modules and the parameters obtained using the diode model, which enabled the development of relatively simple yet accurate mathematical models for simulating current–voltage (I-V) curves under any solar irradiance and PV module temperature conditions. The final part of the monograph focuses on the analysis of grid-connected photovoltaic systems. The assessment included monthly energy yields and losses, as well as the performance ratio during the first year of the PV farm’s operation. The degradation of PV modules was also analysed using standard methods, such as the year-on-year (YoY) approach and classical seasonal decomposition (CSD). Additionally, an alternative method based on singular spectrum analysis (SSA) was proposed, which proved particularly effective for short-term PV system performance data.

Beginning in 1948, Israeli paramilitary forces began violently displacing Palestinian Arabs from Palestine. Nakba and Survival tells the stories of Palestinians in Haifa and the Galilee during, and in the decade after, mass dispossession. Manna uses oral histories and Palestinian and Israeli archives, diaries, and memoirs to meticulously reconstruct the social history of the Palestinians who remained and returned to become Israeli citizens. This book focuses in particular on the Galilee, using the story of Manna’s own family and their village Majd al-Krum after the establishment of Israel to shed light on the cruelties faced by survivors of the military regime. While scholars of the Palestinian national movement have often studied Palestinian resistance to Israel as related to the armed struggle and the cultural struggle against the Jewish state, Manna shows that remaining in Israel under the brutality of occupation and fighting to return to Palestinian communities after displacement are acts of heroism in their own right. “Nakba and Survival is bound to be the standard authoritative study of the 1948 war in the city of Haifa and the Galilee.”—Salim Tamari, coauthor of Camera Palaestina: Photography and Displaced Histories of Palestine “Essential reading for anyone wishing to understand how the events of 1948 continue to shape the Palestinian condition today.”—Maha Nassar, author of Brothers Apart: Palestinian Citizens of Israel and the Arab World “The empathy for, and solidarity with, Adel Manna’s historical subjects shapes the book’s narratives, the questions it asks, and its deft use of oral histories. A must-read for all those who want to understand daily lives under settler colonial rule.”—Orit Bashkin, coeditor of Jews and Journeys: Travel and the Performance of Jewish Identity

What does it mean to write African American literature after the end of legalized segregation? In this study of Colson Whitehead's first six novels, Marlon Lieber argues that this question has permeated the Pulitzer Prize-winning author's writing since his 1999 debut The Intuitionist. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's relational sociology and Marxist critical theory, Lieber shows that Whitehead's oeuvre articulates the tension between the persistent presence of racism and transformations in the United States' class structure, which reveals new modes of abjection. At the same time, Whitehead imagines forms of writing that strive to transcend the histories of domination objectified in social structures and embodied in the form of habitus.

In the years 1899–1901,Karel Štrekelj (1859–1912) held a course on Slovenian literature at the University of Graz. These are the first university lectures on Slovenian literature in the Slovenian language, published in two volumes. However, Štrekelj's history is more than this: it is a monumental, classically balanced synthesis of all the former knowledge of Slovenian literature, given against rich historical, social, and linguistic backgrounds.The present book includes volumes three and four of Štrekelj’s manuscript in a historically faithful, critical and annotated copy. Štrekelj opens a surprisingly fresh, original view of the era of Prešeren and Bleiweis, as well as the period up to the end of the 19th century, focusing on a series of major and minor figures, some of whom are almost forgotten today. He presents this period, in which there was no lack of disputes and disagreements, from a higher perspective: he attempts to explain each individual in the light of his or her own endeavours in the historical period, and to demonstrate the essence of his or her contribution to Slovenian literature. In so doing, Karel Štrekelj stands high above not only the internal disputes of individual writers in Slovenian literature, but also the ideological battles that later literary historians admitted to their literary histories through wide open doors.

Ana Paula Dias Rodrigues propõe o diálogo entre três pares de contos de Lygia Fagundes Telles e telas de René Magritte, analisando os aspectos intrínsecos das obra. Essas análises destacam fatores ligados ao funcionamento de cada sistema, e o exercício intersemiótico ilumina as questões ligadas ao funcionamento das respectivas linguagens. Dessa maneira, o livro apresenta uma perspectiva nova de se ler Lygia Fagundes Telles, tendo como elemento condutor a implicação metalinguística da consciência artística, o que possibilita a sua aproximação com o pintor belga. Assim, contos da escritora são projetados em telas de Magritte e por elas iluminados, da mesma maneira que telas do pintor refletem os mistérios dos textos da escritora brasileira. O resultado são análises originais e instigantes, que revelam a consciência crítica e a sensibilidade perceptiva da autora.

Durante el neolítico la expansión ecumética del género humano llegó, hasta cierto punto, a su término, pues todos los continentes quedaron poblados. Desde entonces, cada uno de los grupos étnicos, de muy diverso origen racial, fue elaborando sus propias formas culturales en el espacio que le había tocado. Base notar, que por su naturaleza misma, todos los dominios culturales que se originaron aspiraron desde el principio a extender la esfera de su influencia y de su podería hacia otros pueblos, hacia los ámbitos cualturales "subdesarrollados". En esta obra el autor analiza las consecuencias que para los pueblos de ultramar tuvo la expansión europea.

Traduit pour la première fois intégralement en français, l’essai Sur l'origine de l'activité artistique, paru en 1887, est un texte décisif. Son auteur, Konrad Fiedler, est le premier philosophe de l’art. Il démontre que l'esthétique, uniquement préoccupéedes effets de l’art, s’avère relativiste ; caisse de résonance d’un bon goût très social, elle promeut la sensibilité à la beauté sans jamais s’atteler à définir la nature et Yessence de la production artistique. Fiedler s’applique donc à recentrer la réflexion surÏactivité de l’artiste comme Constitution d’une réalité : l’art, loin d’imiter la nature ou de représenter l’idéal, construit desformes d’être qui deviennent visibles et consistantes par l'action de l’œil et de la main de l’artiste. Cette critique aiguëdu romantisme et du réalisme est une manière de clore le XIXe siècle et d’ouvrir la voie aux avant-gardes. Ainsi, la pensée de Fiedler invente une théorie de la connaissance sensible qui répond aux préoccupations des artistes d’aujourd’hui.

The book "Renal Failure - The Facts" consists of some facts about diagnosis, etiopathogenis and treatment of acute and chronic renal failure. Acute, as well as chronic renal failure is great medical problems and their treatment is a burden for the budget of each government. The purpose of the chapters is to present some important issues of diagnosis and causes of AKI, as well as caused by snakes and arthropods, after cardiac surgery, as well as some therapeutic achievements in AKI. Well presented are the psychological condition in patients on haemodialysis, as well as the treatment of diabetic uremics. The book is aimed at clinicians with a special interest in nephrology, but it should also prove to be a valuable resource for any generalists who encounter a nephrological problems in their day-to-day practice.

This publication presents an introductory study, of didactic nature, to Plautus’ Bacchides. Aspects related to the context, the characteristics, the structure and the characters of the play are discussed, as well as the problem of Plautus’ originality regarding the creation of the ‘third deception’.

The significantly increased world population and accelerated climate change are strongly affecting agricultural production. These aspects, as well as the latest socio-economic limitations caused by the standoff following the COVID-19 pandemic, are part of the ongoing economic crisis bringing new challenges to modern agriculture and the need to have high production efficiency combined with high-quality products in accordance with the principles of sustainable production. These requirements are linked to all branches of agriculture: crop production, livestock production, and other links supporting the production of healthy food. To meet these challenges, advanced digital innovation techniques are more and more frequently being used, including those based on machine learning, artificial neural networks, Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, and Digital Twins. They are widely applied in solving various optimization tasks in the agri-food production processes in the context of the increasing use of precision and digital farming technologies on the path from Agriculture 3.0 to 5.0. This Special Issue focused even more on the contribution of modern technology to the development and ongoing support of sustainable, regenerative, and balanced agriculture. The publications included original research, research concepts, communications, and reviews related to digital innovation, widely defined, in the agri-food sector.

Die freie Verfügbarkeit dieser E-Book-Ausgabe auf Basis einer CC BY 4.0-Lizenz wurde ermöglicht durch die ZBW – Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft.

This volume presents a collection of contributions by linguists and lawyers on topical questions of the interconnections between language and law, and opens up a wide range of theoretical, methodological and practical approaches to aspects such as politics and the public domain, court proceedings, criminology, the editing of legislation, legal training, and the Europeanisation of law.

Global scientific literature widely deals with analysis of regional innovative systems and their contribution to economic growth. Modern theories and empirical researches indicate strong correlation between the technical progress, creative human resources, toleration and capital investments. New investments are basic but not sufficient condition for balancing the developmental stimulation. Capital, linked with investment activities, natural (material) resources and human resources (work, knowledge, information) are main driving forces of the economic progress. New forms of investments today are strongly connected with population educational structure and knowledge, therefore investments do not occur everywhere, simultaneously and equally.

To increase the flexibility of continuous conveyor systems, a completely decentralized control system for a modular conveyor system was developed. The system is able to carry conveyor units without any centralized infrastructure. Based on existing methods of data transfer in IT networks, single modules operate autonomously and, after being positioned into the required topology, independently connect together to become a functioning conveyor system.