Open Access Books

Notre destin est depuis toujours inséparable de celui de l'environnement. Pour comprendre le rôle que celui-ci a tenu dans le passé, il faut envisager le climat et la société humaine comme un système complexe, parfois résistant aux perturbations, parfois sensible aux changements rapides, avec des effets en cascade. Puisant dans la paléoclimatologie, les modèles de complexité et les études de cas historiques, cet ouvrage montre que l’intégration des archives naturelles en histoire peut enrichir considérablement notre compréhension du passé et du présent, et ainsi nous aider à mieux évaluer les risques liés au changement climatique.

This volume contributes to an emerging field that could be referred to as "plural spiritual care and chaplaincy". It's innovative approach brings together contributions from a broad range of contexts and religious traditions and includes empirical work and conceptual explorations. It helps to fill the gap between practices and developments related to plural spiritual care and chaplaincy in the scholarly discourse.

Originally published in 1962. The rise of "metaphoric" criticism is a reaction against a previous critical preoccupation with psychology and time. Milton spatialized time, thoroughly mastering a metaphoric technique. The Metaphoric Structure of Paradise Lost, after discussing the influences that shaped Milton's aesthetic, systematically examines the structural components of Paradise Lost—light, darkness, and vertical movement—and finds that they imitate, metaphorically, the overall theme of the epic. To test further the implications of his hypothesis, Professor Cope turns to two unsettled points in Miltonic exegesis: Milton's muse and the dialogue in Heaven.

In 1672, when the Dutch Republic was under simultaneous attack by four foreign armies, Gerard de Lairesse created a magnificent three-part ceiling painting for one of the main protagonists of this Disaster Year—the powerful former burgomaster of Amsterdam, Andries de Graeff. Technical examination has revealed that Lairesse repeatedly altered his composition and in no fewer than four successive stages, he changed, removed or added figures and objects. In this book, Margriet van Eikema Hommes, in search of an explanation for this ceiling painting’s intriguing origins, investigates its meaning and purpose. The painter and his patron prove to have been jointly responsible for the iconography, which they repeatedly updated to reflect military and political events in the Disaster Year and the dramatic twists of fate in De Graeff’s own life. This beautifully illustrated book not only situates the work within its cultural and historical context but also offers an in-depth examination of Lairesse’s painting technique and the way he meticulously designed his ceiling pieces in close dialogue with the architecture of the room.

This SI presents a platform for researchers to disseminate recent advances in the fundamentals, science, and technology of functional polymeric materials for use in water treatment. High-quality original articles, review articles, case studies, and short communications in this Special Issue cover topics such as: Polymeric coagulants and adsorbents for water purification; Polymeric separation membranes and ion-exchange resins for water treatment and reuse; Polymeric materials for enhancing biological water treatment (filler, bioaugmentation agents, etc.); Polymeric materials for use in water treatment, anti-scaling, scale removal, corrosion inhibition, and the suppression of bacteria and algae; Fabrication, modification, and characterization of polymeric materials for water treatment; Other polymeric material-related applications for pollutant detection in and removal from water (filtration, catalytic oxidation, electrode, sensors, etc.).

Den Gegenstand der vorliegenden Arbeit bilden die Handlungsstrukturen der Erzählliteratur, die - im Einklang mit dem strukturalistischen Ansatz - als Manifestationen einer "Sprache der Handlungen" aufgefaßt werden.

La pandémie de Covid-19 a bouleversé les Amériques qui étaient, à l’automne 2021, le continent le plus touché au monde. Pourquoi ? Rétrospectivement, le continent américain présente plusieurs vulnérabilités : des inégalités économiques abyssales, un travail informel très important, une grande ouverture économique et culturelle sur les autres continents qui impliquent des mouvements intenses, notamment de personnes, ou encore la présence au pouvoir de régimes populistes peu enclins à prendre des mesures draconiennes. Les conséquences de la pandémie sur les sociétés américaines sont, elles aussi, profondes, parce qu’elles réactivent des lignes de fractures anciennes ou parce qu’elles font émerger de nouvelles configurations politiques ou sociales. Analyser un phénomène alors qu’il est encore en train de se dérouler, sans le recul dont on peut disposer une fois qu’on en connaît toutes les conséquences, est un exercice périlleux, mais néanmoins indispensable et attendu, en période de crise, de la part des praticiens des sciences sociales. C’est à cet exercice que se sont risqués les auteurs des douze contributions de cet ouvrage. Celui-ci ne cherche pas à tracer un tableau exhaustif de la pandémie sur le continent américain, mais à montrer comment certaines situations ou certaines thématiques se sont trouvées affectées par une réalité qui a pris tout le monde à l’improviste. Cet exercice de sciences sociales « à chaud » propose des éclairages importants à l’heure où tous les pays du monde cherchent à évaluer comment et combien la pandémie les a transformés.

Little over 200 years ago, a quarter of a century of warfare with an 'outlaw state' brought the great powers of Europe to their knees. That state was the revolutionary democracy of France. Since then, there has been a remarkable transformation in the way democracy is understood and valued – today, it is the non-democractic states that are seen as rogue regimes. Now, Christopher Hobson explores democracy’s remarkable rise from obscurity to centre stage in contemporary international relations.

A Literary History of Medicine by the Syrian physician Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah (d. 1270) is the earliest comprehensive history of medicine. It contains biographies of over 432 physicians, ranging from the ancient Greeks to the author’s contemporaries, describing their training and practice, often as court physicians, and listing their medical works; all this interlaced with poems and anecdotes. These volumes present the first complete and annotated translation along with a new edition of the Arabic text showing the stages in which the author composed the work. Introductory essays provide important background. The reader will find on these pages an Islamic society that worked closely with Christians and Jews, deeply committed to advancing knowledge and applying it to health and wellbeing.

Pectic substances are the type of heteropolysaccharides, of exclusively plant origin, structurally more complex of nature. They are constituted by a mixture of very branched acidic and neutral polymers. They constitute the main component of the middle sheet of the cell wall and represent 30 % of the dry weight of the primary cell wall of plant cells. With the present work, entitled Chemistry and applications of the Pecticos Substances and Enzymes, the authors, professors of the Agricultural Chemistry Area of ​​the University of Murcia, carry out a review of the current situation of these compounds in relation to their structure, chemistry andFood and pharmaceutical applications, which aims to contribute, both to teachers and students, the latest knowledge acquired. The work is structured in three differentiated parts related to Pectic Substances, Pectics and its industrial applications. The first part is intended to know the structure of the pectins and the components that integrate it. The location in the plant cell is exposed, showing the possible routes that lead to their biosynthesis in the Golgi apparatus. The chapter ends with a review of the main properties of these substances and their forms of degradation. The second part of the work focuses on the description of the enzyme set, the pectinases, which participate in the degradation of the péctic substances, both in the development of the plant and in its industrial applications. Thus, desterifying enzymes and depolimerizers are treated that make pectins evolve in the plant, mainly in the fruits, contributing to the maintenance of their texture. Finally, the third part is dedicated to exposing the main fields of industry that pectins use.Used raw materials and industrial obtaining are treated.In the food industry, pectin, it is a product that is characterized by being soluble in water. It is used as a gelifying, stabilizing, thickening or emulgent agent in the elaboration of jams, jellies and jams, canned fruits, bakery and pastry products, drinks and other foods, because it gives them the characteristics, desired by the manufacturer and the consumer. In the pharmaceutical section, pectins have a positive effect such as immuno-regulator of the digestive system and for cancer prevention, especially colorectal; They block the adhesion of pathogenic microorganisms in the stomach mucosa; They have been used in the synthesis of biofilms, adhesives, paper substitutes and medical products for drug implants or transporters;contribute to the decrease in cholesterol and blood glucose levels;decrease the rate of glucose absorption in the serum of obese and diabetic patients; and are also used as a substitute for fats or sugars in low -calorie products.

São diversos os caminhos de estudo que se apresentam quando se busca compreender como a fenomenologia descreve a percepção e como suas contribuições podem se ligar às preocupações concretas de quem vive no século XXI. Destacam-se discussões referentes aos vínculos entre a percepção e a ação, entre a percepção e a consciência, entre a percepção e o desejo, à dinâmica da percepção no tocante à passividade e à atividade, ao lugar do corpo nas indagações acerca do fenômeno perceptivo, à relação entre a experiência sensível e o mundo social, além do papel da estética nos estudos da percepção. Neste livro, fruto de pesquisas empreendidas ao longo de nove anos, envolvemo-nos nessas matérias, empenhados em examinar os fundamentos da fenomenologia da percepção e seus desdobramentos a partir de uma matriz conceitual que prioriza, justamente, a natureza corpórea e ativa da percepção.

The public sector is changing under the pressure of increased competition, reduced resources and citizens' awareness about their role as customers/users. There is therefore a need for new principles and new tools for public management. However, such managerial skills do not belong to the political sphere and these new tools cannot be imported from the private sector without undergoing a specific adaptation. Public managers therefore play a central role in this process of change: in fact, the aim to be pursued is essentially to have more results-oriented attitudes on their part, in order to make a better use of the available resources.

Spanning a historical period that begins with women’s exclusion from university debates and continues through their participation in coeducational intercollegiate competitions, Debating Women highlights the crucial role that debating organizations played as women sought to access the fruits of higher education in the United States and United Kingdom. Despite various obstacles, women transformed forests, parlors, dining rooms, ocean liners, classrooms, auditoriums, and prisons into vibrant spaces for ritual argument. There, they not only learned to speak eloquently and argue persuasively but also used debate to establish a legacy, explore difference, engage in intercultural encounter, and articulate themselves as citizens. These debaters engaged with the issues of the day, often performing, questioning, and occasionally refining norms of gender, race, class, and nation. In tracing their involvement in an activity at the heart of civic culture, Woods demonstrates that debating women have much to teach us about the ongoing potential for debate to move arguments, ideas, and people to new spaces.

This volume brings together the proceedings of the symposium titled “Albino Bernardini in the History of Italian Education,” held in October 2025 and organized by the University of Cagliari to mark two significant anniversaries: the tenth anniversary of the Sardinian educator’s passing and the twentieth anniversary of the conferral of his honorary doctorate in Primary Education. Through contributions from scholars at various Italian universities, the volume traces Bernardini’s biographical and intellectual journey, exploring the social and cultural context in which he worked, the origins and development of his pedagogical thought, his civic engagement, and his literary works aimed at children and adolescents. The essays analyze the Sardinian writer’s career from historical-pedagogical, political-cultural, and didactic perspectives, situating his multifaceted contribution within the broader context of Italian schools and society in the second half of the 20th century. What emerges is the profile of a teacher who was able to combine educational research, political commitment, and methodological innovation, leaving a human and pedagogical legacy that is still capable today of shaking up, challenging, and inspiring the very essence of what it means to be a teacher and to run a school.