Open Access Books

Powerful and economic sensors such as high definition cameras and corresponding recognition software have become readily available, e.g. for face and motion recognition. However, designing user interfaces for robots, phones and computers that facilitate a seamless, intuitive, and apparently effortless communication as between humans is still highly challenging. This has shifted the focus from developing ever faster and higher resolution sensors to interpreting available sensor data for understanding social signals and recognising users' intentions. Psychologists, Ethnologists, Linguists and Sociologists have investigated social behaviour in human-human interaction. But their findings are rarely applied in the human-robot interaction domain. Instead, robot designers tend to rely on either proof-of-concept or machine learning based methods. In proving the concept, developers effectively demonstrate that users are able to adapt to robots deployed in the public space. Typically, an initial period of collecting human-robot interaction data is used for identifying frequently occurring problems. These are then addressed by adjusting the interaction policies on the basis of the collected data. However, the updated policies are strongly biased by the initial design of the robot and might not reflect natural, spontaneous user behaviour. In the machine learning approach, learning algorithms are used for finding a mapping between the sensor data space and a hypothesised or estimated set of intentions. However, this brute-force approach ignores the possibility that some signals or modalities are superfluous or even disruptive in intention recognition. Furthermore, this method is very sensitive to peculiarities of the training data. In sum, both methods cannot reliably support natural interaction as they crucially depend on an accurate model of human intention recognition. Therefore, approaches to social robotics from engineers and computer scientists urgently have to be informed by studies of intention recognition in natural human-human communication. Combining the investigation of natural human behaviour and the design of computer and robot interfaces can significantly improve the usability of modern technology. For example, robots will be easier to use by a broad public if they can interpret the social signals that users spontaneously produce for conveying their intentions anyway. By correctly identifying and even anticipating the user's intention, the user will perceive that the system truly understands her/his needs. Vice versa, if a robot produces socially appropriate signals, it will be easier for its users to understand the robot's intentions. Furthermore, studying natural behaviour as a basis for controlling robots and other devices results in greater robustness, responsiveness and approachability. Thus, we welcome submissions that (a) investigate how relevant social signals can be identified in human behaviour, (b) investigate the meaning of social signals in a specific context or task, (c) identify the minimal set of intentions for describing a context or task, (d) demonstrate how insights from the analysis of social behaviour can improve a robot's capabilities, or (e) demonstrate how a robot can make itself more understandable to the user by producing more human-like social signals.

Anachronisme ou résurgence d'une pratique que l'on croyait oubliée ? En Asie du Sud-Est, la piraterie maritime est en tout cas qualifiée de « nouvelle menace ». Mais d'où viennent ces hommes qui font trembler les marins des détroits par lesquels circule l'essentiel du commerce maritime mondial ? Et comment l'Indonésie, la Malaysia, Singapour, la Thaïlande, les Philippines ou le Vietnam s'emploient-ils à lutter contre ces avatars contemporains des pavillons noirs de jadis ? Les États sont-ils prêts à renoncer pour partie à leur souveraineté afin de s'ouvrir à des solutions collectives pour assurer la sécurité de leurs eaux ? Quel rôle jouent les grandes puissances comme le Japon, la Chine, l'Inde ou encore les États-Unis et la France qui, à plus d'un titre, sont concernées par le problème ? Ce livre s'efforce de répondre à toutes ces questions en s'interrogeant sur les limites de l'ordre juridique international.

« Ils ont des droits sur nous ! » Comme le rappelle cette formule célèbre de Georges Clemenceau, les anciens combattants français jouissent après la Première Guerre mondiale d’une supériorité morale fondée sur une victoire obtenue au prix de lourds sacrifices. Une catégorie de vétérans ne partage cependant pas ce prestige. Les Alsaciens-Lorrains, en effet, ne sont devenus français qu’au terme du traité de Versailles, à la faveur du retour de l’Alsace-Lorraine à la France. Avant cela, ils ont vécu la guerre dans les rangs de l’armée allemande. Après l’armistice, leur retour dans une province désormais française s’apparente à un nouveau « parcours du combattant ». Aux difficultés du passage de la vie militaire à la vie civile s’ajoute la nécessité d’apprendre à vivre avec le poids de ce passé encombrant, voire stigmatisant. Ils n’éprouvent pas moins la volonté de faire valoir leur propre droit à reconnaissance car, s’ils n’ont pas combattu du côté des vainqueurs, ils ont en commun avec eux d’avoir partagé les mêmes souffrances. Ce qui se joue en toile de fond n’est rien de moins que leur intégration à la nation française, et celle-ci passe par l’élaboration de nouvelles normes sociales.

Resilienzfaktoren gegen Extremismus wurden bislang noch wenig erforscht, obwohl sie für Präventionsarbeit bedeutsam sind. Dieses Buch fasst die Ergebnisse biografischer Fallstudien zu ehemals radikalisierungsgefährdeten jungen Menschen zusammen. Im Zentrum steht die Frage, wie Resilienzfaktoren gegen extremistische Sinn- und Zugehörigkeitsangebote im biografischen Verlauf ausgebildet und wirksam werden. Die Ergebnisse verdeutlichen, wie Risiko- und Resilienzfaktoren in Verflechtung von individueller und gesellschaftlicher Ebene komplex ineinandergreifen und zu spezifischen Dynamiken führen.

This reprint is a compilation of nine papers published in Processes, in a Special Issue on “Modeling and Simulation of Polymerization Processes”. It aimed to address both new findings on basic topics and the modeling of the emerging aspects of product design and polymerization processes. It provides a nice view of the state of the art with regard to the modeling and simulation of polymerization processes. The use of well-established methods (e.g., the method of moments) and relatively more recent modeling approaches (e.g., Monte Carlo stochastic modeling) to describe polymerization processes of long-standing interest in industry (e.g., rubber emulsion polymerization) to polymerization systems of more modern interest (e.g., RDRP and plastic pyrolysis processes) are comprehensively covered in the papers contained in this reprint.

Digital intercultural experiences are shaped by broader sociocultural dynamics, including migration, corporate discourse, and social activism. This volume offers a comprehensive exploration of ‘digital interculturality’, drawing on insights from intercultural communication studies, sociolinguistics, and adjacent fields. The contributors examine how digital technologies—such as social media platforms, translation apps, and artificial intelligence—mediate intercultural encounters, identities, and meaning-making processes. Together, these perspectives advance our understanding of the entanglement of intercultural communication with digital technologies, laying the groundwork for ‘digital interculturality’ as an emerging interdisciplinary field.

This study investigates the role of embedded narratives in Silius Italicus’ Punica, an epic from the late first century AD on the Second Punic War (218–202 BC). At first sight, these narratives seem to be loosely ‘embedded’ in the epic, having their own plot and being situated in a different time or place than the main narrative. A closer look reveals, however, that they foreshadow or recall elements that are found elsewhere in the epic. In this way, they serve as ‘mirrors’ of the main narrative. The larger part of this book consists of four detailed case studies.

A constellation of thoughts by 25 established and emerging scholars who plot the indices of modernity and locate new coordinates within the shifting landscape of art. These newly commissioned essays are accompanied by close to 200 full-colour image plates.

This book contains the proceedings of the first international conference organised by the Centro di Studi sulla civiltà comunale of the University of Florence, and offers a fine overview of the contribution made by international historiography to the history of the Italian Comunes. One of the most significant periods in the country's past is addressed here by some of the leading international specialists through the reconstruction of the approaches, issues and outcomes of the principal foreign historiographies (German, French, American, Spanish and English). The result is a fairly articulated picture of how the civilisation of the Comune has been treated and appraised over time outside Italy. Consequently, the book is offered as an updated tool of historiographic reflection and as a useful yardstick for studies devoted to the European urban world.

Este livro representa uma cuidadosa contribuição de profissionais da área de Educação Especial para a ampliação e o fortalecimento de informações sobre surdocegueira. Sua abordagem, para além da disponibilidade e do envolvimento pessoal e profissional das autoras, sua coerência e seu rigor metodológicos, derivados de diversos estudos e pesquisas, resultam em uma mensagem de esperança e compromisso com a construção de uma nova ordem social que priorize o respeito à diversidade e que a reconheça como enriquecedora para a convivência humana. O eixo principal desta obra remete o leitor - de esferas administrativa e legislativa, profissionais da área de Educação Especial, alunos em formação, pais e educadores - à reflexão sobre os diferentes entendimentos e percepções acerca da temática, de forma que se perceba a grandeza das condições humanas de adaptabilidade e flexibilidade. Além disso, pretende-se despertar interrogações e questionamentos sobre diferentes experiências de pessoas que utilizam trilhas perceptuais desconhecidas, incomuns.

This volume lists 332 documents and letters from Emperor Friedrich III. from the Vienna House, Court and State Archives for the years 1476 to 1479. Among other things, the material provides insight into the emerging conflicts in the east and west, which were to have a lasting impact on the last decade of the emperor's reign: war against the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus and the War of Succession over Burgundy. The documents on the peace negotiations with Matthias Corvinus (1477) and Maximilian's borrowing against Burgundy (1478) are among the most important documents in this volume. The extensive documentary record of the inherited administrative and financial system points to the increasing compression and professionalization of administrative writing.

Agricultural workers have long been underrepresented in labour history. This volume aims to change this by bringing together a collection of studies on the largest group of the global work force. The contributions cover the period from the early modern to the present – a period when the emergence and consolidation of capitalism has transformed rural areas all over the globe. Three questions have guided the approach and the structure of this volume. First, how and why have peasant families managed to survive under conditions of advancing commercialisation and industrialisation? Second, why have coercive labour relations been so persistent in the agricultural sector and third, what was the role of states in the recruitment of agricultural workers? Contributors are: Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk, Josef Ehmer, Katherine Jellison, Juan Carmona, James Simpson, Sophie Elpers, Debojyoti Das, Lozaan Khumbah, Karl Heinz Arenz, Leida Fernandez-Prieto, Rachel Kurian, Rafael Marquese, Bruno Gabriel Witzel de Souza, Rogério Naques Faleiros, Alessandro Stanziani, Alexander Keese, Dina Bolokan, and Janina Puder.

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Os estudos de casos, escritos ou, modernamente, em vídeo, são utilizados para a formação profissional, como medicina, direito, negócios e outras atividades. Na formação de professores, um caso é usado em sala de aula para aprimorar o estudo do ensino de alguma disciplina e/ou de determinada prática de ensino relacionado a tópicos conhecidos por serem difíceis de lidar por envolverem dilemas. A docência em ciências demanda de professores a capacidade de lidar com a multiplicidade de fatores presentes no contexto escolar. Desde questões comportamentais até a consideração das identidades de gênero de alunos, a singularidade e a complexidade da realidade em sala de aula exigem novas abordagens formativas. Neste livro, encontram-se onze casos relacionados ao ensino de Química, produzidos por pós-graduandos e professores brasileiros, sob orientação e revisão de docentes da Harvard e da Unesp. Esperamos que esses casos – com dilemas, histórias e lições – sirvam como material de apoio para melhorar a formação de professores de Ciências e, mais especificamente, os professores de Química.