Open Access Books

undefined

This Manual of Good Practices is intended to be an ethical and legal guide, based on national and international legislation and ethical documents that address the topics covered, aimed at healthcare professionals. Advances in genomic-based Personalized/Precision Medicine (PPM) are developing at such a dizzying pace that, in certain respects, the legal system is not evolving at the same pace. As a result, many of the challenges arising from this new model of medicine and healthcare provision do not find sufficiently clear answers at the regulatory level. Starting from the recognition of this gap, the aim is, in addition to presenting the possible solutions already clarified in the legal system, to bring to mind the many other ethical and legal challenges offered by the MPP in the field of genetics.

Agricultural products such as fruit, vegetables, and cereal are believed to be some of the most crucial sources of certain phytonutrients necessary for humans, such as vitamins, dietary fibers, and minerals. However, agricultural products are prone to quality deterioration during storage under ambient temperatures. Currently, the annual post-harvest loss rate of agricultural products can reach up to 20–30%. Owing to their perishable nature, the development of processing and preservation technologies for agricultural products is an important research topic closely associated with the national economy and people’s livelihoods that has attracted ever-increasing attention. In view of the prominent issues of high energy consumption, high costs, serious pollution, and low-quality properties in agricultural product manufacturing, our journal mainly focuses on research articles on novel techniques and the underlying mechanisms of the processing, preservation, and quality control of agricultural products, so as to promote the upgrading and updating of the agricultural product industry.

The purpose of this open access book is threefold. The first is to shed light on patient participation and health literacy for Good Health and Well-being, which is one of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Health literacy is considered a prerequisite for patients to be able to participate in shared decisions on their own treatment (WHO,1998). Health literacy has received increased international attention: the concept is linked to person-centred health services, sustainable resource utilization, health-promoting and preventive health work, treatment of chronic diseases and social inequality (WHO, 2016). The second purpose is to provide health professionals and students with educational models for building health literacy for patients and relatives. This purpose is linked to Quality Education, one of the UN's sustainability goals. The third purpose is to present critical perspectives on the demand for sustainability in healthcare services. Both ethical dilemmas and philosophical reflections on patient participation, health literacy and sustainability are presented. The Norwegian definition of health literacy is as follows: “Health competence is a person's ability to understand, assess and apply health information to be able to take knowledge-based decisions related to one's own health. This applies to both decisions related to lifestyle choices, disease prevention measures, self-management of disease and use of the health and care service” (Helsedireektoratet, 2020). The sustainability goal is clearly outlinedin this definition, although the organisational perspective on health literacy is lacking. Patient participation leads to improved patient satisfaction and safety (Castro, Van Regenmortel, Vanhaecht, Sermeus, & Van Hecke, 2016; Collins, Britten, Ruusuvuori, & Thompson, 2007; Vahdat, Hamzehgardeshi, Hessam, & Hamzehgardeshi, 2014), efficient co-operation between patients and healthcare professionals, and enhanced management ofthe disease (Collins et al., 2007; Vahdat et al., 2014). Health literacy as well as patient participation are important aspects for sustainable development and good and effective healthcare services in the future.

Published

This publication offers an edition of the “Royal court book” in full text. It starts with a foreword by Bernhard Diestelkamp, who underlines the central importance of this source for research. In the extensive analysis that follows, the applicant classifies the book into legal and cultural-historical research.

The papers collected in this Special Issue deal with the effects of ionizing radiation at molecular and cellular levels, as well as possible applications in medicine and radiation protection. In particular, some works analysed the early stages of the interaction between ionizing radiation and DNA focusing on DNA cluster damage, which is widely considered as an important step towards subsequent endpoints. Other studies investigated the consequences of hypoxia on the evolution of the initial DNA damage, and one work analysed genome-wide DNA alterations in irradiated human cells. Concerning radiation therapy, the response of cancer cells to different radiation types was characterized both in vitro and in vivo, and possible strategies to enhance such response were investigated; furthermore, FLASH radiotherapy was reviewed. In the framework of cancer therapy side effects, the consequences of high doses on gene expression in healthy cells were analyzed, and the RBE (Relative Biological Effectiveness) for late effects in the central nervous system was predicted by the BIANCA biophysical model. Finally, the protective role of melatonin and Vitamin D, as well as hypothermia, was reviewed, valine radiolysis was investigated, the changes in radio-sensitivity of embrios during the early developmental stages of the preimplantation were analyzed, and epigenetic modifications induced by ionizing radiation were reviewed.

This chapter reflects on what materiality-inflected methodologies1 can bring to an anthropology of law, and to legal studies more generally. Its starting point is an increasing attention across the social sciences and humanities for objects, and thinking beyond the human. These have often, but not only, emerged from science and technology studies (STS), to which we pay particular attention. However, approaches to materiality have themselves become diversified, and their implications for law can similarly be read in multiple ways. At the same time, legal anthropology has helped to re-characterise the complexity of law as a field of social activity by paying attention to its meanings, for actors within as well as outside its own institutions; to its modes of action in practice, again within its explicitly designated spaces as well as its everyday; to its unexpected forms, patterns and directions; to its multiplicity and uncertainty. Approaches within a broadly defined ‘legal anthropology’ agenda have provided tools to move away from grand and removed theorisation of the law, or an exclusive attention to its own claims, and towards a subtler understanding of law as a relatively fluid, changing and uncertain set of practices. While doing so, legal anthropology has also reminded us of the significance of empirical research to identify and theorise the complex existences of law, a contribution which echoes some of the implications of materiality-oriented theories.

This is a concise and practical introduction to the topic of dual career athletes, those sportspeople who balance professional or elite sport with other career or educational pursuits. This book defines the concept of dual careers in sport and explores its significance for athletes, sports organizations, and wider society. It considers why dual careers are increasingly significant in contemporary sport and analyzes the role of sports organizations in supporting athletes’ dual career paths and implementing supportive measures. This book also offers practical tools and programs that sports organizations can use to develop effective policies toward dual careers and to facilitate the dual career development, helping both the athlete and the organization to perform at their best. This book is invaluable reading for any athlete, manager, policymaker, or researcher with an interest in dual careers, career transitions, athlete welfare, organizational behavior, sport management, or sport policy.

The kingfisher, one of the most "exotic" European birds by its colors, has always aroused the wonder of those who manage to observe it. A predator of small fry, it needs, to complete its life cycle, aquatic environments rich in fish and especially soft banks with a vertical or slightly concave profile where it can dig the burrow in which the eggs are laid. Formerly destroyed by man because of the damage to fish farms of which it was accused, it is now protected by law, but its nesting sites are not sufficiently respected. Many rivers are seriously polluted, their banks reprofiled, rectified, coated, even concreted: so many attacks on the capacity of the environment for the kingfisher. The book tells, in a few chapters, the scientific elements to understand the life of the kingfisher. After the rigorous presentations (etymology, ancient history, zoological classification, morphology), we dive into the intimate life of the bird: reproduction cycle, ecological perspective, but also ethology. Demography (births and deaths) plays a crucial role in understanding fluctuations in numbers, which are closely linked to winter mortality and the production of young. Behavioral plasticity is revealed by particular cases, notably by means of molecular genetics. Finally, movement and migration, diet, social systems and predators are discussed in this book. / Le martin-pêcheur, un des oiseaux européens les plus « exotiques » par ses couleurs, a toujours suscité l’émerveillement de ceux qui parviennent à l’observer. Prédateur de menu fretin, il a besoin, pour boucler son cycle de vie, de milieux aquatiques riches en poissons et surtout de berges meubles au profil vertical ou légèrement concave où il peut creuser le terrier dans lequel les oeufs sont pondus. Jadis détruit par l’homme en raison des dégâts aux piscicultures dont il était accusé, il est maintenant protégé par la loi, mais ses sites de nidification ne sont pas suffisamment respectés. Nombre de rivières sont gravement polluées, leurs berges reprofilées, rectifiées, enrochées, voire bétonnées : autant d’atteintes à la capacité d’accueil des milieux pour le roi-pêcheur. Le livre conte, en quelques chapitres, les éléments scientifiques pour comprendre la vie du martin-pêcheur. Après les présentations de rigueur (étymologie, histoire ancienne, classification zoologique, morphologie), on plonge dans la vie intime de l’oiseau : cycle de reproduction, perspective écologique, mais aussi éthologie. La démographie (naissance et décès) joue un rôle crucial pour comprendre les fluctuations des effectifs, qui dépendent étroitement de la mortalité hivernale et de la production de jeunes. La plasticité comportementale est révélée par des cas particuliers, notamment au moyen de la génétique moléculaire. Finalement, déplacements et migration, régime alimentaire, système social ou encore prédateurs sont autant de thèmes abordés dans cet ouvrage.

Situated Marxism analyzes theoretical practices in postwar Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union on their own terms and within their institutional, social, and historical contexts. Challenging enduring narratives of dogma and decline, twelve case studies from across the region trace how Marxist thought engaged with science, ecology, global futures, and Western philosophy, and how these engagements shaped new understandings of orthodoxy. The volume reveals a rich intellectual tradition with continuing relevance to today’s debates on knowledge, crisis, and social justice.

L’Orient méditerranéen, de la mort d’Alexandre le Grand aux campagnes de Pompée (323-63 av. J.-C.), forme un ensemble géographique en pleine mutation, où se constituent de puissants royaumes et s’épanouissent vieilles cités et fondations nouvelles. Depuis les Détroits et le Pont-Euxin jusqu’à la frontière égyptienne, depuis les îles de la côte micrasiatique jusqu’à l’Halys ou l’Euphrate, un espace territorial aux formes mouvantes et aux populations diverses devient le théâtre de bouleversements décisifs que les historiens de l’Antiquité perçoivent avec acuité en raison du renouvellement de la documentation épigraphique et archéologique. Les conflits des Diadoques finissent par définir dans une stabilité relative plusieurs dynasties, comme les Séleucides ou les Attalides, qui intègrent les héritages macédoniens ou achéménides, mais qui inventent aussi un nouveau langage idéologique pour mieux asseoir leur légitimité et leur pouvoir. Parallèlement à l’expansion de ces entités monarchiques, les cités mènent leur propre histoire, plus ou moins grande, et tentent, dans un tissu de relations complexes, de se faire entendre et respecter à l’échelle des nouvelles puissances du temps. Les phénomènes d’acculturation sont tout aussi fondamentaux. De l’hellénisation à la romanisation, les sociétés qui composent cet espace connaissent de profonds changements, ce qui oblige les historiens à repenser les schémas trop simplistes d’influence ou de mélange des populations et des cultures. Le colloque de la Société des professeurs d’histoire ancienne, tenu à l’université Rennes 2 les 4-6 avril 2003, était l’occasion de dresser un bilan et d’ouvrir des pistes de recherche pour mieux comprendre une des mutations les plus importantes de l’histoire de ces régions, qui n’est pas sans rappeler certaines transformations du XXe siècle. « Nulle époque n’est sans doute mieux faite que la nôtre pour lire, dans le bruit et la fureur, l’histoire hellénistique » (Éd. Will).

Atto da Pistoia (last decades of the eleventh century-1153), abbot general of the Benedictine Vallombrosan monks and bishop of Pistoia, a local saint recognised as such from the seventeenth century onwards, was a churchman and hagiographer, a contemplative man, and an active pastor in the religious and political life of his time. He is undoubtedly one of the most interesting and perhaps least known figures of the twelfth century. The paper highlights his characteristics as a man of government, above all as the leader of the Vallombrosan Order, whose institutional structures, hagiographic memory and territorial diffusion in Central-Northern Italy and Sardinia he consolidated, taking into account the most recent historiographical investigations on the personage and the perspectives of interpretation opened up by research on Vallombrosan monasticism.

The reflections on the methods of applying the style features specific to the protocol by the persons elaborating reports on the course of the meetings of the Society of Polish Craftsmen in Zielona Góra discussed in this paper, and thus their linguistic expression in the scope of style, ability to fit into a genre convention, are aimed at responding to the question: whether the analyzed documents can be considered as a structured report from the meeting.

Postcolonialism has long been associated with post-nationalism. Yet, the persistence of nation-oriented literatures from within the African postcolony and its diasporas registers how dreams of national becoming endure. In this fascinating new study, Hallemeier brings together African literary studies, affect studies and US empire studies, to challenge chronologies that chart a growing disillusionment with the postcolonial nation and national development across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The Nigerian and South African writings in African Literature and US Empire, while often attuned to the trans- and extra- national, repeatedly scrutinise why visions of national exceptionalism, signified by a ‘pan-African’ Nigeria and ‘new’ South Africa, remain stubbornly affecting, despite decades of disillusionment with national governments beholden to a neocolonial global order. In these fictions, optimistic forms of nationalism cannot be reduced to easily critiqued state-sanctioned discourses of renewal and development. They are also circulated through experiences of embodied need, quotidian aspiration and transnational, pan-African relationship.