Open Access Books

À côté des choses du monde extérieur, d’une part, et des représentations du monde mental, d’autre part, « on doit, écrit Frege dans La Pensée, reconnaître un troisième monde. Ce qui y appartient s’accorde avec les représentations en ce qu’il ne peut être perçu par les sens, avec les choses en ce qu’il n’a besoin d’aucun porteur au contenu de conscience duquel il appartiendrait. Il en est ainsi, par exemple, de la pensée que nous exprimons dans le théorème de Pythagore : elle est vraie intempo...

Si le futur est indéterminé et relativement ouvert, il s’avère possible d’agir et de penser de façon à modifier les possibilités ou les préférences que nous élaborons vis-à-vis de l’avenir. Deux questions se posent alors : comment se structurent, évoluent les représentations de l’avenir et comment nos prédictions ou nos attentes s’actualisent-elles dans le futur ? Cet ouvrage répond à ces deux questions. Il traite des contenus et des processus conduisant à l’élaboration des représentations individuelles et collectives de l’avenir. Il aborde également la façon dont tout un chacun construit des projets, fait face à l’avenir à travers ses menaces et ses opportunités. À ce niveau, on considèrera les conduites humaines comme étant finalisées, orientées, intentionnelles et ancrées dans des contextes qui déterminent nos contenus de pensées et circonscrivent les possibles en matière d’action. Enfin, on évoquera quelques pratiques psychologiques pouvant relever de la prospection et de l’anticipation c’est-à-dire de la simulation dans trois champs d’application : l’accompagnement thérapeutique, l’orientation scolaire et professionnelle et la prévention en matière de santé.

Zusammenfassung Der Voluntaris Sonderband vertieft die Diskussion der ersten wissenschaftsorientierten Fachtagung zu entwicklungspolitischen Freiwilligendiensten, die im September 2018 an der TH Köln anlässlich des 10-jährigen Jubiläums des Freiwilligendienstprogramms weltwärts stattgefunden hatte. Der Band gibt einen Überblick zum Stand der wissenschaftlichen Forschung. Er wird vom KuratorInnen-Team der Tagung herausgegeben und versammelt WissenschaftlerInnen und VertreterInnen der Praxis aus dem Forschungsschwerpunkt Nonformale Bildung der TH Köln, dem Dachverband ventao – Verein für entwicklungspolitische Austauschorganisationen sowie dem HerausgeberInnenkreis von Voluntaris Abstract This special issue of Voluntaris further develops the discussions conducted at the first academic conference on developmental voluntary work, which took place at Cologne’s University of Applied Sciences (TH Köln) in September 2018 to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the voluntary work programme ‘weltwärts’. This book provides an overview of the current state of research in this regard, with its contributions revealing which research findings are being discussed in politics and in practice and where further research is needed. This issue is edited by the conference’s team of organisers and consists of works by academic specialists in and those involved in the practical application of TH Köln’s research focus of informal education, representatives of the umbrella organisation ‘ventao’ (the Association of Developmental Exchange Organisations) and the editors of Voluntaris (the Journal for Volunteer Services and Civic Engagement).

Published

Optimization processes are present in nearly all human activities, aiming to reduce time and expenses, conserve resources, and maximize efficiency. Classical numerical optimization methods were initially employed in more complex or elaborate problems. This class of methods was convenient to use when equations could correctly and completely formulate all the attributes of the problem to be optimized and whose search space for the solution had convexity characteristics and was not multimodal. Expressing a problem completely through equations is often a difficult (if not impossible) task because linguistic values or employing quantities that are not easily dealt with by classical optimization methods can only describe certain limitations and barriers. Irregular and non-convex search spaces also present problems for classical methods, especially those with multiple local minima and maxima, as they can lead to suboptimal solutions. In this context, researchers in optimization have presented new techniques to overcome these barriers, introducing new concepts and methods that enable working with problems that are not well-defined and in multimodal search spaces. Many of these techniques utilize artificial intelligence methods, and it is possible to optimize problems where their limitations are not clearly defined or where their search spaces contain different local maxima and minima. This book is a contribution in this sense. In it, the reader will find two sections. The first, titled "Methodologies", presents the frontier of state-of-the-art optimization techniques and their applications to various problems. The second section, titled "Applications," presents examples of practical applications of modern techniques in optimizing issues, which can be easily adapted to others with similar characteristics. Thus, the reader can use this book to optimize their problems by applying the solutions presented in the chapters and adapting them to their specific issues.

This book examines the forced labor of Jews in the General Government of Occupied Poland from 1939-1943. Specifically, it traces the bureaucratic understanding and use the terms "labor" and "work" in the General Government; it also examines how these terms figured in the lives of Jews, for whom "labor"''s original understanding as a means of subsistence came to be redefined as a means of survival. The changing meaning of other key terms are examined in detail; these include, among others, "forced labor" (Zwangsarbeit), "slave labor" (Sklavenarbeit). The volume carefully analyzes the modus operandi of the Nazi system of power, in which bureaucracy ballooned, there were conflicts of interest between different institutions, and there was a total destruction of human and moral values, which led to extensive degeneration.

L'État irakien moderne a été créé sous l'influence du colonisateur anglais sur les ruines de la Mésopotamie ottomane et contre la volonté des dirigeants de la plus importante communauté du pays, les ulémas chiites. Les circonstances de la fondation de cet État-Nation, inspiré par la pratique européenne et imposé par la force face au projet islamique transnational des religieux, expliquent l'origine de nombreux conflits en Irak et au Moyen-Orient. Retracer les événements majeurs qui ont affecté l'Irak au début du siècle, resituer le rôle des religieux chiites, jusqu'ici occulté par les historiens occidentaux aussi bien qu'irakiens, permet de comprendre la question chiite telle qu'elle se pose aujourd'hui sur les rives du Tigre et de l'Euphrate et, en particulier, le processus qui a donné naissance au chiisme politique. Les origines de la « question irakienne » remontent bien au-delà du régime actuel de Saddam Hussein. Un retour sur l'histoire et la société est d'un grand intérêt pour comprendre le présent. Ce livre retrace la genèse de la formation d'un système politique dont l'effondrement sanglant et interminable se déroule aujourd'hui devant nos yeux.

Au cours des cinquante dernières années, Astérix a parcouru le monde, et pas seulement dans de savoureuses aventures. Traduite dans plus de cent langues et dialectes, la série a aussi conquis le monde pour le plus grand bonheur de générations de lecteurs. Enfin, elle est devenue transmédiatique, grâce aux dessins animés, films et autres jeux vidéos. Il fallait bien un colloque international à l'université Sorbonne Nouvelle pour célébrer le cinquantenaire du plus célèbre des guerriers gaulois Des universitaires d'horizons divers, exégètes, traducteurs, traductologues, spécialistes des médias, venus de Gaule, d'Hispanie, d'Helvétie, mais aussi d'Égypte et du Japon, ont exploré le monde, les mondes, d'Astérix. Le présent ouvrage est une sélection des contributions présentées lors du colloque. Nul doute qu'il répondra aux questions que le lecteur peut encore se poser sur le « phénomène Astérix ».

The topics of climate change, weather prediction, atmospheric sciences and other related fields are gaining increased attention due to the possible impacts of changes in climate and weather upon the planet. Concurrently, the increasing ability to computationally model the governing partial differential equations that describe these various topics of climate has gained a great deal of attention as well. In the current book, several aspects of these topics are examined to provide another stepping stone in recent advances in the fields of study and also focal points of endeavor in the evolving technology.

This e-book is dedicated to the celebration of 20 years of the Brazilian Symposium on Cardiovascular Physiology. In 1996 groups from the School of Medicine of Ribeirao Preto, University of Sao Paulo (FMRP-USP) and from the Federal University of Sao Paulo (UNIFESP) joined together to discuss cardiovascular physiology. In subsequent editions of the meeting, the participation of other groups from all over the country has grown and acquired the status of a national symposium. The participants now agree that the symposium should be itinerant and that the chair group is responsible for its organization. In 2016, we proudly reached the 20th edition of the Brazilian Symposium on Cardiovascular Physiology. It is certainly a memorable date and a great opportunity to share the accomplishments of Brazilian groups in the field of cardiovascular physiology.

At present, radar, sonar and optical techniques are often applied in ocean remote sensing. Radar is typically used above the ocean’s surface, while sonar and optical technologies are exploited below the surface. Given the increasing application of these three techniques in the field, this reprint mainly focuses on ocean remote sensing based on radar, sonar and optical methods. It discusses a wide range of topics, which can be divided into three groups. The first group includes five papers that primarily explore the direction of arrival (DOA) and radar signal processing. Through this method, rapid and accurate DOA estimation results are provided. The second group, consisting of ten papers, addresses underwater acoustic image and signal processing, which is challenging due to complications in the underwater environment such as bottom reverberation, spatial–temporal structures, noise, and dynamic underwater flow fields, among others. The last group, represented by one paper, concentrates on underwater optical image enhancement and assessment.

undefined

This reprint offers updated studies on functional membranes for strategic areas such as water cleaning and reuse, environmental remediation, drug delivery, energy recovery, and CO2 capture, but also the recycling of bio-based and ecofriendly materials for membrane manufacturing and purification processes that impact important domains of society and industry. Theoretical modelling, structure–transport assessment, and experimental findings contribute to creating a multidisciplinary representation of membrane science in its many facets. This reprint is a useful reference for inspiring scientists and students who want to tackle scientific and societal challenges within a sustainable and circular chemistry framework.

U.S. health care is a $2.5 trillion system that accounts for more than 17 percent of the nation’s GDP. It is also highly susceptible to fraud. Estimates vary, but some observers believe that as much as 10 percent of all medical billing involves some type of fraud. In 2009, New York’s Medicaid fraud office recovered $283 million and obtained 148 criminal convictions. In July 2010, the U.S. Justice Department charged nearly 100 patients, doctors, and health care executives in five states of bilking the Medicare system out of more than $251 million through false claims for services that were medically unnecessary or never provided. These cases only hint at the scope of the problem. In Phantom Billing, Fake Prescriptions, and the High Cost of Medicine, Terry L. Leap takes on medical fraud and its economic, psychological, and social costs. Illustrated throughout with dozens of specific and often fascinating cases, this book covers a wide variety of crimes: kickbacks, illicit referrals, overcharging and double billing, upcoding, unbundling, rent-a-patient and pill-mill schemes, insurance scams, short-pilling, off-label marketing of pharmaceuticals, and rebate fraud, as well as criminal acts that enable this fraud (mail and wire fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering). After assessing the effectiveness of the federal laws designed to fight health care fraud and abuse—the antikickback statute, the Stark Law, the False Claims Act, HIPAA, and the food and drug laws—Leap suggests a number of ways that health care providers, consumers, insurers, and federal and state officials can bring health care fraud and abuse under control, thereby reducing the overall cost of medical care in America.

Published