Open Access Books

In the THz frequency range, superconducting detectors coupled to planar antennas are well suited for the use in the field of accelerator beam diagnostics. This work studies the coupling efficiency and spectral sensitivity of different antenna designs. Based on the conclusions, two different detector systems for spectroscopic measurements are developed and verified with measurements at accelerator-based light sources.

Burglary offenses, especially domestic burglaries, have increasingly been the focus of public interest in recent years. This area of crime is essential for the public's sense of security and thus also for crime policy. The tightening of penalties for domestic burglary enacted by the legislature in 2017 has been the subject of widespread discussion in criminal policy and criminal law dogmatics. This study addresses the offense area of burglary from an empirical perspective, the sanctioning of offenders as well as their criminal history and recidivism by evaluating a nationwide dataset from the Federal Central Register. Using the underlying data material, the criminal careers of burglars are also analyzed prospectively over a nine-year recidivism period and - if no redemptions were made - retrospectively over an indefinite period.

This open access book focuses on both the theory and practice associated with the tools and approaches for decisionmaking in the face of deep uncertainty. It explores approaches and tools supporting the design of strategic plans under deep uncertainty, and their testing in the real world, including barriers and enablers for their use in practice. The book broadens traditional approaches and tools to include the analysis of actors and networks related to the problem at hand. It also shows how lessons learned in the application process can be used to improve the approaches and tools used in the design process. The book offers guidance in identifying and applying appropriate approaches and tools to design plans, as well as advice on implementing these plans in the real world. For decisionmakers and practitioners, the book includes realistic examples and practical guidelines that should help them understand what decisionmaking under deep uncertainty is and how it may be of assistance to them. Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty: From Theory to Practice is divided into four parts. Part I presents five approaches for designing strategic plans under deep uncertainty: Robust Decision Making, Dynamic Adaptive Planning, Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways, Info-Gap Decision Theory, and Engineering Options Analysis. Each approach is worked out in terms of its theoretical foundations, methodological steps to follow when using the approach, latest methodological insights, and challenges for improvement. In Part II, applications of each of these approaches are presented. Based on recent case studies, the practical implications of applying each approach are discussed in depth. Part III focuses on using the approaches and tools in real-world contexts, based on insights from real-world cases. Part IV contains conclusions and a synthesis of the lessons that can be drawn for designing, applying, and implementing strategic plans under deep uncertainty, as well as recommendations for future work. The publication of this book has been funded by the Radboud University, the RAND Corporation, Delft University of Technology, and Deltares. ; Offers a comprehensive examination of the approaches and tools for designing plans under deep uncertainty and their application Identifies barriers and enablers for the use of the various approaches and tools in practice Includes realistic examples and practical guidelines to help readers better understand the concepts

This open access book analyzes the relation between dominant frameworks of LGBTQ+ identity in India and non-elite, non-metropolitan communities such as kothis and hijras, a spectrum of feminine-identified people usually assigned male at birth. Going beyond the well-known ‘third gender’ hijra community, this is the first book to study the discourses and practices of related but underrepresented groups like kothis and dhuranis in small-town and rural India while simultaneously examining their relation to and role within LGBTQ+ identity politics. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, the book demonstrates that non-elite groups facilitate the transregional expansion of organized queer politics and become more consolidated as gender/sexual identities in the process. Yet, they often remain irreducible to emerging identity categories and become subordinated through hierarchies of scale and language that serve to contain such communities and related discourses as local and vernacular. The book shows how this process, in effect, denies them an equal role in transnational LGBT politics; reinforces class/caste hierarchies within and beyond queer communities; and delegitimizes or erases articulations of gender/sexual difference that contravene dominant understandings of gender/sexual identity aligned with transnational capitalism, liberalism, or nationalism. Simultaneously, it reveals how non-elite communities rearticulate dominant identity categories in more equal, liberatory ways. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. This book was made possible with generous support from the University of Iowa’s Office of the Vice President for Research and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

In 1992, the voters of Colorado passed a ballot initiative amending the state constitution to prevent the state or any local government from adopting any law or policy that protected a person with a homosexual, lesbian, or bisexual orientation from discrimination. This amendment was immediately challenged in the courts as a denial of equal protection of the laws under the United States Constitution. This litigation ultimately led to a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court invalidating the Colorado ballot initiative. Suzanne Goldberg, an attorney involved in the case from the beginning on behalf of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Lisa Keen, a journalist who covered the initiative campaign and litigation, tell the story of this case, providing an inside view of this complex and important litigation.

This open access edited volume introduces the concept of causal mechanisms to explore new ways of explaining the global dynamics of social policy, and shows that a mechanism-based approach provides several advantages over established approaches for studying social policy. The introductory chapter outlines the mechanism-based approach, which stands out by modularisation and a clear focus on actors. The mechanism-based approach then guides the twelve chapters on social policy developments in different Asian, African, European and Latin American countries. Based on these findings, the concluding chapter provides a structured compilation of causal mechanisms and outlines how a mechanism-based approach can further strengthen research on the global development of social policies, especially in a comparative perspective. The edited volume is highly relevant for social policy scholars from a variety of disciplines, as well as for scholars interested in strengthening explanation in the social sciences.

The subject of project financing provides the opportunity to consider a new model of public intervention characterised by co-operation with the private sector, and the transformation of the public sector from the owner of the work into the entity that plans and monitors the activities rendered. At contractual level, this new paradigm of action demands the adoption of forms of contract and protective instruments functional to a relation between public and private interests characterised not by antagonism, but by "necessary co-operation". In this perspective, the goal pursued is that of reconstructing the discipline of project financing as a homogenous regulatory corpus inspired by the constitutional principle of horizontal subsidiarity, a microsystem within the context of public contracts.

In the past decades, translation studies have increasingly focused on the ethical dimension of translational activity, with an emphasis on reflexivity to assert the role of the researcher in highlighting issues of visibility, creativity and ethics. In Reflexive Translation Studies, Silvia Kadiu investigates the viability of theories that seek to empower translation by making visible its transformative dimension; for example, by championing the visibility of the translating subject, the translator’s right to creativity, the supremacy of human translation or an autonomous study of translation. Inspired by Derrida’s deconstructive thinking, Kadiu presents practical ways of challenging theories that argue reflexivity is the only way of developing an ethical translation. She questions the capacity of reflexivity to counteract the power relations at play in translation (between minor and dominant languages, for example) and problematises affirmative claims about (self-)knowledge by using translation itself as a process of critical reflection.

The significant enhancement of desirable traits in vegetables and crops can be achieved through the utilization of diverse approaches in plant breeding. These approaches are crucial in developing vegetables and crops that exhibit enhanced yield, disease resistance, and adaptability to fluctuating environmental factors, ultimately contributing to the establishment of sustainable and resilient agricultural practices for ensuring food security. This book delves into the fundamental principles and recent breakthroughs in plant breeding and genetic improvement. It focuses on the application of physiological and molecular approaches to augment plant tolerance to stressful environmental conditions. Additionally, the book provides plant breeders, researchers, and scientists with updated insights into the prospective developments in plant breeding.

This book offers a new analysis of the intellectual and the Chinese socialist revolution. Under the Chinese Communist Party, the intellectual was never simply an outspoken scholar, a browbeaten artist, a supportive official, or any kind of person facing an increasingly powerful political regime. The intellectual was first and foremost a widening classification of people based on Marxist thought. As the party turned revolutionaries and otherwise perfectly ordinary people into subjects identified locally as intellectuals, their appearance profoundly affected the political thinking of the party elites and how they organized the revolution, as well as postrevolutionary Chinese society. Drawing on a wide range of data, Eddy U takes the reader on a fascinating journey that examines political discourses, revolutionary strategies, rural activities, official registrations, organized protests, work organizations, and theater productions. The book lays out in colorful details the formation of new identities and new patterns of organization, association, and calculus. The outcome is a compelling picture of the mutual constitution of the intellectual and the Chinese socialist revolution, the impact of which is still visible in globalized China.

The defence of the market and economic freedom have been the main objectives of the investigations by liberal thinkers such as Milton Friedman, Gary Becker, F Hayek and L Von Mises. Bearing in mind that the first two economists are the maximum exponents of the Chicago School and the last two of the Austrian School, it is often concluded that the theories of both schools are similar. This book demonstrates that in reality, there is no convergence or complementariness to be found between both schools of thought. The anthropological categories, contributed by Mises, allow us to understand all human phenomena from the view of the man who acts. In this view, economics is part of a philosophical system whose core is the creative capacity of people. Becker’s work, on the other hand, is concentrated on the generalization of the homo economicus as the basis for explaining all human behaviour. He generalizes the maximizing principle to explain all human reality, and extends the scope of the application of a so-called scientific and technical view of the world. In this key volume, an important read for those in the fields of economic theory and political economy, Javier Aranzadi argues, in essence, that the tradition of Hayek and Mises encourages a humanistic liberalism, whereas the Chicago School proposes only a technical humanism.

The “Sun-goddess of the earth” and the less clearly defined category of “chthonic solar deities” of Hittite religion have been the objects of various studies in recent years. This paper aims to examine the significance of these categories of deities within the Hittite festival texts. Although the Sun-goddess of the earth achieves some prominence in local cult contexts, such as at Zippalanda and Nerik, she otherwise remains a marginal deity. This contrasts with her general significance in Hittite magical rituals. The chthonic solar deities represent a less tangible deity type that is associated with death and the netherworld, but that also does not attain overarching significance in the Hittite state pantheon. Finally, the paper addresses the question, to what cultural milieu can we trace the beginnings of the Sun-goddess of the earth? Efforts to identify her origins in the Hattian milieu of north-central Anatolia will be critiqued, favoring the Luwian milieu instead as the most likely from which the tradition of the Sun-goddess emerged, and later flourished in the magical traditions especially that became widespread in Hittite society of Late Bronze Age Anatolia.

The study has been analysing the the international nature of studies, research and universities in Germany since 2001. As well as highlighting the trends in the German higher education and research sector, it presents data relating to particularly relevant study regions such as the USA, the United Kingdom and Asia. The study integrates the international data published by the OECD and UNESCO with the national data from the Federal Statistical Office. In combination with other indicators, it provides a valid basis for long-term analysis. Wissenschaft weltoffen is published as separate German and English editions. It is available free of charge at wbv-open-access.de.

The chapter describes experiences of 360° videos use by the Agrismart Lab Group of the University of Florence. The Agrismart Lab Group focuses on the technological transfer of information obtained during the research phase to provide the greatest possible diffusion and dissemination of discoveries regarding the technological-digital revolution in the agricultural sector. Dissemination, applications, and teaching are the main outcomes of our research activities, and we have fully utilized the SEPA360 project's resources. In particular, the student will be able to see smart farming examples both in the field and in the immersive teaching lab having clearer theoretical notions by 360° viewers. Two case studies (tractor 4.0 and Agrobot) are included in the interactive videos, which are utilized both for learning and verification.

Can Israel be both Jewish and democratic? Transformative Justice, Leora Bilsky's landmark study of Israeli political trials, poses this deceptively simple question. The four trials that she analyzes focus on identity, the nature of pluralism, human rights, and the rule of law-issues whose importance extends far beyond Israel's borders. Drawing on the latest work in philosophy, law, history, and rhetoric, Bilsky exposes the many narratives that compete in a political trial and demonstrates how Israel's history of social and ideological conflicts in the courtroom offers us a rare opportunity to understand the meaning of political trials. The result is a bold new perspective on the politics of justice and its complex relationship to the values of liberalism. Leora Bilsky is Professor of Law, Tel Aviv University.