Open Access Books

Les rapports entretenus par les entreprises avec l’environnement sont multiformes et puisent leurs racines dans la Révolution industrielle. Ils ont fait l’objet d’une attention accrue à partir de la décennie 1960-1970 et plus récemment encore avec les problématiques du réchauffement climatique et les nuisances, dommages et risques dont les entreprises sont potentiellement porteuses. Le modèle de développement qui recherche le profit maximum en un minimum de temps se trouve désormais interpell...

Eight contributors discuss early trade relations between Plains and Pueblo farmers, the evolution of interdependence between Plains hunter-gatherers and Pueblo farmers between 1450 and 1700, and the later comanchero trade between Hispanic New Mexicans and the Plains Comanche. Contributors: Timothy G. Baugh Judith A. Habicht-Mauche Frances Levine Christopher Lintz David H. Snow John D. Speth Katherine A. Spielmann David R. Wilcox

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food" said Hippocrates, the father of medicine approximately 2500 years ago. Is food also medicine? Are products that intend to cure diseases medicinal products and not food? Do we know the combination of foods or food components with functional properties that can help promote the well-being or reduce the risk of chronic diseases? In general terms, all foods are functional because they provide the nutrients necessary for a healthy diet. So what are the components that functional foods have beyond their nutrition value? What is the definition of functional foods? What scientific research is needed to validate health claims for functional foods? This book will provide answers to all of these questions. It is important for scientists to have the opportunities to study the relationship between a food type or a food active component and the improved state of health or reduction of diseases. The communication of health benefits to consumers is of critical importance so that they have the knowledge to make informed choices about the foods they eat and enjoy.

The book Universality of semantic frames and language specific Bulgarian data is devoted to the principles of data organisation in the Bulgarian FrameNet, which has been in development for more than 20 years and has gone through various phases. Originally it was developed as an independent resource, but for about fifteen years it has been correlated with the Berkeley FrameNet, observing the following basic principles: The information in the FrameNet that is relevant for the description of Bulgarian is considered language-independent (e.g. definition of frames and relations between them, definitions of frames and elements and relations between them, etc.) and is automatically transferred into a structure called a superframe. For each superframe, there may be one or more Bulgarian frames in which the language-independent information is restructured, if necessary, so that it corresponds exactly to the description for the Bulgarian language. The Bulgarian verbs of communication, change, movement, contact and emotion are described in more detail, their subclasses are delineated and the similarities and differences in the semantic and syntactic description for Bulgarian and English are compared and discussed. It is shown how the semantic frames can be used in an experiment to assess children's mastery of semantic conceptualisation and syntactic use of verbs from their basic vocabulary. These and a number of other applications: automatic assignment of semantic roles, automatic recognition of events in news, automatic recognition of scenes in images and videos are some of the applications in which the Bulgarian FrameNet can be used. In addition, the semantic and syntactic information in the Bulgarian FrameNet can be used for theoretical considerations, including comparative studies focussing on the modern state of the Bulgarian language and other languages for which a FrameNet has been developed.

Rabbit livestock is especially important in the Mediterranean area and in the semi-arid zones of Africa, Asia, and America, representing a valuable alternative source of good animal protein of high quality (low fat and low cholesterol). However, rabbit husbandry should adapt to be a competitive and sustainable sector. In addition, it must maintain a balance between rabbit welfare, customer demands, and breeder requirements. Then, improvement in breeding systems is needed and may involve avoiding hormones and antibiotics in rabbit management; enhancing the efficiency of reproductive procedures such as artificial insemination systems and freezing of semen and embryos; extending the productive lifespan of does; improving genetic selection systems; and adjusting nutritional systems to optimize the physiological status of animals and the immune response. This Special Issue concerns all these challenges in increasing rabbit productivity and sustainability.

Vaste enquête ethnographique portant sur la préparation d'une gigantesque célébration qui se tient tous les vingt ans environ. Elle est l'objet d'un très long travail de préparation qui mobilise près de dix milles personnes, professionnelles et bénévoles, des entreprises et des institutions publiques. Travail d'organisation, de création, de conception technique et d'infrastructure très largement invisible et méconnu ; il demande compétence, engagement, débrouille et parfois génie. La fête est un immense laboratoire où s'explorent des solutions innovantes pour faire face à des défis nouveaux. Cet ouvrage de sociologie et d'anthropologie des techniques rend compte du travail de ces métiers de l'ombre qui font la fête.

The main goal of the entire project was so to investigate problems of daily commuting of workers, pupils and students, especially from the modal split point of view. The project is structured in two parts.The first part of the book is an extensive analysis of modal split by different relations (routes) and groups of commuters (pupils, secondary school pupils, students and workers). We tried to establish the areas in Slovenia where the usage of public transport is the weakest and to provide credible causes of that. The data of modal split was compared with the supply of public transport and with this we established that there is a significant link between the high public transportation usage and the high quality and competitiveness offer of public transportation vis-à-vis personal transportation.The next chapter was dedicated to particular pilot areas where the supply of public transport was greatly improved (Dol pri Ljubljani, Ankaran, Idrija, Nova Gorica). With the method of field interviewing and passenger counting we found out that the greatly improved offer of public transport does not necessarily cause a greater demand for public transport and thus the shift towards a more sustainable mobility.The synthesis of the book is in ten recommendations of possible transport policy measures for the purpose of achieving more sustainable mobility patterns with workers and students.

Le temps des prophéties sur la “déscolarisation” de la société semble bien révolu. Au système de formation, et même à l’école en tant qu’institution de “socialisation”, les responsables politiques ont tendance à demander la solution de tous les “problèmes sociaux” : le chômage, l’insertion des étrangers, l’ordre urbain, etc. Mais, en raison même des ces demandes, l’institution est remise en question car, telle que le passé l’a modelée, elle paraît à certains incapable d’y répondre. D’autres , au contraire, appellent à une sorte de réhabilitation de certaines des fonctions plus ou moins explicites de l’école, en particulier républicaine, notamment l’éducation civique ou même une certaine éducation morale. Il en résulte, dans la presse et dans de nombreux ouvrages, d’incessants débats et polémiques, où les grands moments de l’histoire scolaire sont souvent évoqués. La sociologie, surtout lorsqu’elle se veut historique, ne peut esquiver ce débat. On propose ici un certain nombre d’outils d’analyse sociologique - notamment celui de “forme scolaire” - qui peuvent permettre de penser les changements historiques, y compris ceux qui sont peut-être en train de se produire actuellement.

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online. As Africa stands at the threshold of rapid global and technological change, Transforming Africa offers a timely, agenda-setting response to the urgent call for bold, future-oriented innovation across the continent. This edited volume explores how African countries can reshape their innovation ecosystems to meet contemporary challenges and opportunities. It brings together diverse perspectives on emerging issues such as artificial intelligence, fintech, and smart agriculture, alongside critical socio-economic themes including food systems, health, education, culture, fashion, and peacebuilding. Transforming Africa is a call to action: to reimagine Africa’s innovation agenda with greater urgency, creativity, and contextual relevance. It highlights the rise of alternative paradigms and local approaches to innovation that challenge dominant models and offer more inclusive and sustainable pathways forward. Rich in insight and grounded in practice, this volume is essential reading for policymakers, entrepreneurs, researchers, and students interested in Africa’s development and innovation futures. It is the third in a series produced by the Africa Innovation Summit Foundation and is supported by ICESCO.

Gene-editing technologies (e.g., ZFNs, TALENs, and CRISPRs/Cas9) have been extensively used as tools in basic research. They are further applied in manufacturing agricultural products, food, industrial products, medicinal products, etc. Particularly, the discovery of medicinal products using gene-editing technologies will open a new era for human therapeutics. Though there are still many technical and ethical challenges ahead of us, more and more products based on gene-editing technologies have been approved for marketing. These technologies are promising for multiple applications. Their development and implications should be explored in the broadest context possible. Future research directions should also be highlighted. In this book, the applications, perspectives, and challenges of gene-editing technologies are significantly demonstrated and discussed.

Guatemala receives counternarcotics aid from the United States. The president of Guatemala established the Interagency Task Force (IATF) Tecún Umán to develop domestic counternarcotics capability. USSOUTHCOM intends to use it as a model for developing new units in similar regions in the area. This report demonstrates how lessons learned inform future IATF development and provides recommendations for resolving remaining IATF challenges.

Robust control has been a topic of active research in the last three decades culminating in H_2/H_\infty and \mu design methods followed by research on parametric robustness, initially motivated by Kharitonov's theorem, the extension to non-linear time delay systems, and other more recent methods. The two volumes of Recent Advances in Robust Control give a selective overview of recent theoretical developments and present selected application examples. The volumes comprise 39 contributions covering various theoretical aspects as well as different application areas. The first volume covers selected problems in the theory of robust control and its application to robotic and electromechanical systems. The second volume is dedicated to special topics in robust control and problem specific solutions. Recent Advances in Robust Control will be a valuable reference for those interested in the recent theoretical advances and for researchers working in the broad field of robotics and mechatronics.

Writing sometimes involves wandering. This writing seeks to say and show what it is to write wandering around the edges of the arts and humanities. It also concerns why some writing is difficult, and thence writing on some of those difficulties. These problematics are wandered around, by several rounds – some images invoked by edge-wandering; registering particular significant individuals; how particular places persist in understandings of wandering; disciplines and methodologies, including reflecting on spatiality and locationality; interdisciplinarity and academia; transnational wanderings across writing genres; and relations of art, humanities, science and politics, understood as personal, work, political and theoretical.

[...] acreditamos que o livro constitui pelo menos um esforço no sentido de apresentar uma visão do conjunto e relativamente coerente das transformações em curso nas últimas duas décadas na sociedade brasileira. Nosso objetivo e desejo é que possa tornar-se referência e incentivo para novos e melhores estudos, capazes de proporcionar uma imagem sintética da complexa estrutura social brasileira. [trecho retirado da apresentação do livro]

The Mississippi River Delta is home to more than two million people and is a hub for energy, transportation, and petrochemical industry of national importance in the United States. It is also home to 40% of coastal wetlands in the contiguous United States, which provide natural habitats for hundreds of species of fish and wildlife, as well as for millions of migrating birds in North America each year. However, this delta has been losing land at a rapid speed and its existence is being seriously threatened. A number of factors have contributed to the current situation, including reduced riverine sediment supply, coastal land erosion, subsidence, and sea level rise. In an attempt to determine resilience of the Mississippi River Delta, this book collected 14 articles that present the latest assessments of the river delta in five aspects: 1) riverine processes and sediment availability, 2) sediment deposition and land creation, 3) wetland loss, saltwater intrusion and subsidence, 4) community resilience and planning, and 5) review and synthesis. This holistic approach to investigating a river delta as a coupled natural-human system can be applicable for assessing other populated and industrialized deltaic regions in the world.