Open Access Books

The impact of neoliberal governance on indigenous peoples in liberal settler states may be both enabling and constraining. This book is distinctive in drawing comparisons between three such states—Australia, Canada and New Zealand. In a series of empirically grounded, interpretive micro-studies, it draws out a shared policy coherence, but also exposes idiosyncrasies in the operational dynamics of neoliberal governance both within each state and between them. Read together as a collection, these studies broaden the debate about and the analysis of contemporary government policy.The individual studies reveal the forms of actually existing neoliberalism that are variegated by historical, geographical and legal contexts and complex state arrangements. At the same time, they present examples of a more nuanced agential, bottom-up indigenous governmentality. Focusing on intense and complex matters of social policy rather than on resource development and land rights, they demonstrate how indigenous actors engage in trying to govern various fields of activity by acting on the conduct and contexts of everyday neoliberal life, and also on the conduct of state and corporate actors.

The MAVEBA Workshop proceedings, held on a biannual basis, collect the scientific papers presented both as oral and poster contributions, during the conference. The main subjects are: development of theoretical and mechanical models as an aid to the study of main phonatory dysfunctions, as well as the biomedical engineering methods for the analysis of voice signals and images, as a support to clinical diagnosis and classification of vocal pathologies. The Workshop has the sponsorship of: Ente Cassa Risparmio di Firenze, COST Action 2103, Biomedical Signal Processing and Control Journal (Elsevier Eds.), IEEE Biomedical Engineering Soc. Special Issues of International Journals have been, and will be, published, collecting selected papers from the conference.

Nowadays, the innovation in space technologies creates a new trend for the Earth observation and monitoring from space. This book contains high quality and compressive work on both microwave and optical remote sensing applications. This book is divided into five sections: (i) remote sensing for biomass estimation, (ii) remote sensing-based glacier studies, (iii) remote sensing for coastal and ocean applications, (iv) sewage leaks and environment disasters, and (v) remote sensing image processing. Each chapter offers an opportunity to expand the knowledge about various remote sensing techniques and persuade researchers to deliver new research novelty for environment studies.

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Written by a leading expert in the field, this book analyses the complex relations between the European Union (EU) as a regional organization and the United Nations (UN) as an international, global governance institution. The book explores how collaboration between the EU and the UN has evolved and how the two entities collaborate both structurally and in day-to-day work. It shows how the EU acts within institutions such as the United Nations General Assembly and how UN agencies, funds and entities, such as UNHRC, UNICEF and UN Women, interact with the EU and its member states. Through its analysis, the book demonstrates how, despite recent criticism, patterns of multilateralism and cooperation between regional and international institutions can be central to stable patterns of rules-based regional and global governance.

Over the past years, a considerable amount of effort has been devoted, both in industry and academia, towards the development of basic technology as well as innovative applications for the Internet of Things. Adaptive Middleware for the Internet of Things introduces a scalable, interoperable and privacy-preserving approach to realize IoT applications and discusses abstractions and mechanisms at the middleware level that simplify the realization of services that can adapt autonomously to the behavior of their users. Technical topics discussed in the book include:Behavior-driven Autonomous ServicesGAMBAS Middleware ArchitectureGeneric and Efficient Data AcquisitionInteroperable and Scalable Data ProcessingAutomated Privacy PreservationAdaptive Middleware for the Internet of Things summarizes the results of the GAMBAS research project funded by the European Commission under Framework Programme 7. It provides an in-depth description of the middleware system developed by the project consortium. In addition, the book describes several innovative mobility and monitoring applications that have been built, deployed and operated to evaluate the middleware under realistic conditions with a large number of users. Adaptive Middleware for the Internet of Things is ideal for personnel in the computer and communication industries as well as academic staff and research students in computer science interested in the development of systems and applications for the Internet of Things.

"From Jonathan Swift to Washington Irving, those looking to propose and justify exceptions to social and political norms turned to Cervantes’s notoriously mad comic hero as a model. A World of Disorderly Notions examines the literary and political effects of Don Quixote, arguing that what makes this iconic character so influential across oceans and cultures is not his madness but his logic. Aaron Hanlon contends that the logic of quixotism is in fact exceptionalism—the strategy of rendering oneself an exception to everyone else’s rules. As British and American societies of the Enlightenment developed the need to question the acceptance of various forms of imperialism and social contract theory—and to explain both the virtues and limitations of revolutions past and ongoing—it was Quixote’s exceptionalism, not his madness, that captured the imaginations of so many writers and statesmen. As a consequence, the eighteenth century witnessed an explosion of imitations of Quixote in fiction and polemical writing, by writers such as Jonathan Swift, Charlotte Lennox, Henry Fielding, and Washington Irving, among others. Combining literary history and political theory, Hanlon clarifies an ongoing and immediately relevant history of exceptionalism, of how states from Golden Age Spain to imperial Britain to the formative United States rendered themselves exceptions so they could act with impunity. In so doing, he tells the story of how Quixote became exceptional."

This publication is a collection of articles which summarise results of investigations into archival materials concerning wartime stories of various nations involved in the Great War. The objective of the authors was to analyse the wartime experience of individuals and local communities as well as whole nations. They further tried to present a closer, more personal overview of wartime drama. As a result the book portrays the impact of the Great War on the lives of multicultural communities, re-constructs individual war narratives and studies consequences of the conflict. The use of various types of historical materials from state archives and from other sources enabled the authors to create a multifaceted portrayal of the war seen from local and international perspectives.

Dieses Open-Access-Buch untersucht mit Fokus auf einzelne Bürger*innen fallspezifisch und empirisch den Handlungs- und Wirkungszusammenhang von Straßenprotest und Online-Aktivismus im Bereich der Umweltschutz-Bewegung. Eine ganze Bandbreite von Online- und Offline-Protestpraktiken erlaubt es Bürger*innen heutzutage, sich in politische Prozesse einzumischen, Öffentlichkeit für bestimmte Themen zu erzeugen und Politiker*innen und Unternehmen unter Druck zu setzen. Online ist hierbei jedoch nicht zwangsläufig Ersatz für Offline. In vielen Situationen von Protestpartizipation ergänzen sich Elemente beider Sphären. Warum entschließen sich Bürger*innen, ganz spezifischen Praktiken – online wie offline – nachzugehen und anderen Praktiken nicht? Welche Vor- und Nachteile benennen sie für die einzelnen ihnen zur Verfügung stehenden Formate? Die Arbeit steht im Schnittfeld unterschiedlicher politikwissenschaftlicher Forschungsfelder wie der Protestforschung, der politischen Partizipationsforschung und der Forschung rund um das Thema Digitalisierung. Basierend auf 18 Leitfaden-Interviews und einer ausführlichen Analyse werden sechs Typen von Protest-Aktivist*innen gebildet.

This book focuses on the fate of Polish Jews and Polish-Jewish relations during the Holocaust and its aftermath, in the ill-recognized era of Eastern-European pogroms after the WW2. It is based on the author’s own ethnographic research in those areas of Poland where the Holocaust machinery operated. The results comprise the anthropological interviews with the members of the generation of Holocaust witnesses and the results of her own extensive archive research in the Polish Institute for National Remembrance (IPN). «[This book] is at times shocking; however, it grips the reader’s attention from the first to the last page. It is a remarkable work, set to become a classic among the publications in this field.» Jerzy Jedlicki, Professor Emeritus at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Rainwater tank systems have been widely adopted across the world to provide a safe local source of water in underdeveloped rural areas, and as a substitution for mains water for non potable end uses in water stressed urban areas. They also provide flood control in monsoonal climates like Korea or in combined sewer systems like in Germany. The importance of these systems in cities has grown, as water managers seek to provide a range of decentralised solutions to supply constraints of current water supply systems, whilst reducing the impact of urban development on the natural environment, and increasing resilience to climate change. Rainwater Tank Systems for Urban Water Supply is based on a comprehensive, multi-million dollar research program that was undertaken in South East Queensland (SEQ) Australia in response to the Millennium drought when the water supply level in the regions drinking water dams dropped to 17% in July 2007 and the area came close to running out of water.

Model-based methods are increasingly being used for a safe and efficient operation of battery cells. For modeling battery cells, fractional models which are characterized by non-integer derivative orders have become established due to their electrochemical interpretability. In this work, methods for parameter and derivative order identification of fractional systems are derived without restriction with respect to the excitation at the begin of identification.

This open access book focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on well-being, happiness and quality of life, taking into account the mediating effects of social inequalities. The volume brings together and into dialogue the different experiences and perspectives of countries and researchers from the Global North and South. Expert scholars from across the world have analyzed empirical data to reveal how the restrictions associated with the pandemic interrupted lives and livelihoods, and how different socio-economic groups and classes have been differently affected by the crisis. The chapters coalesce around four themes: the impact of COVID-19 on subjective well-being, life satisfaction and happiness in a comparative and longitudinal perspective; the impact of COVID-19 on employment and workers’ well-being; sociability, civic participation and solidarity during COVID-19; and the impact of COVID-19 on children’s and youths’ well-being. Engaging with contemporary theoretical debates on well-being, happiness and quality of life, this volume is of interest to scholars working on well-being, happiness and quality of life, global and cross-national studies, the social impact of COVID-19, and on social and economic change.

Japanese cinema has commonly been studied through the contributions of major directors and actors, its various genres, and, more recently, by audience engagement. This monograph adopts an alternative viewpoint, focusing on the significant yet overlooked role of scriptwriters in the filmmaking process and in the popular imagination during the peak of the studio system between the 1930s and 1960s. Simultaneously, it examines the role and function of a new type of readership, equipped with specific intermedial skills, facilitated by the wide and continuous availability of film scenarios. The monograph is structured into three main parts. The first part provides an analysis of the evolution of the textual format of the Japanese film scenario, emphasising the transformative period that coincided with the advent of sound cinema and tracing the development of the standard master-scene script. It also outlines the field of scenario publishing and demonstrates how the serialisation of film scripts in various periodicals, and their subsequent anthologising, functioned as a site for canon formation. An examination of the standardised use of the manuscript paper (genkō yōshi) in scriptwriting traces the implications arising from its medium specificity as a hybrid modern writing device. The second part shifts the focus to the act of reading scripts and discusses the concerted efforts of the Shinario bungaku undō (Scenario Literature Movement) to establish the scenario as a distinct entity within the literary field. It delineates several topics that emerged in course of the debate, including the scenario’s autonomous status, its role in inviting new talent from outside the industry, and its archival capacity for film preservation. It also examines the unique faculties and skills required from readers of the scenario form, and discusses various examples and functions of readership, including film criticism by Itami Mansaku. The final part is dedicated to exploring the social and spatial conditions of scriptwriting. It highlights how the perceived critical status and privileged writing environment have projected a particular image of the writers and their creative processes. A discussion of the collaborative writing space, as exemplified by the jōyado (regular inn), is further complicated by the introduction of gender in scriptwriting and contributions of several female writers. Finally, an examination of script scouting practises that characterise Japanese scriptwriting, and Mizuki Yōko’s work in particular, addresses the extent of scriptwriter’s agency and authorial status. In conclusion, this book provides a multi-faceted exploration of the role of scriptwriters in Japanese cinema, highlighting their significant contributions and the complexities of their craft. As such, this study offers a fresh perspective on some of the reasons behind the international success of Japanese film since the 1950s, arguing for a more nuanced understanding that fully acknowledges the collaborative nature of filmmaking and the diversity of audience reception through cinema’s textual means.

The volume, dedicated to the 44th International Conference of the Italian Union for Drawing, investigates the theme of ‘Transitions’, which particularly effectively represents our time and the current condition of the discipline of Drawing. The term, beyond its generic meaning of an intermediate stage in a process in which a condition changes from one state to another, has always been used in various fields, from music to geophysics. In fact, the disciplines of drawing have always been confronted with themes and issues relating to transitions from one condition to another. The history of representation tells us of transformations, even epochal ones, relating to ‘drawing’, with all that such transitions entail: suffice it to think of the evolution of forms of representation, of instrumental apparatuses, of the mutability of supports, of the analogical-digital transition underway, of the new modes of communication on platforms, of the hypertrophic offer of images also on the net that confirms Guy Debord’s intuitions relating to the new spectacularisation of society. Similarly, representation triggers transitions in the prefiguration and communication of design, the anticipation and foreshadowing of future events.The challenges posed by the digital pose open questions whose scope can only be glimpsed, such as the relationship between drawing and the act of modelling, and the construction of new paradigms of visual language and communication. ‘Transitions’, almost implicitly, points to possible futures, the evolution of technique and the search for new modes of expression; at the same time, however, it can suggest silences and reflections in a process of connection between history, theory, criticism and construction.

The Fifth Generation (5G) of Wireless Communication is a collection of reviewed and relevant research chapters, offering a comprehensive overview of recent developments in the field of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. The book comprises single chapters authored by various researchers and edited by an expert active in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering research area. All chapters are complete in itself but united under a common research study topic. This publication aims at providing a thorough overview of the latest research efforts by international authors on the fifth generation (5G) of wireless communication, and open new possible research paths for further novel developments.