Open Access Books

In two parts, this open access work offers a broad and often unconventional approach to animal ethics, written by a pioneer in animal welfare science and ethics. The author Clive Phillips, Australia's first professor of animal welfare, first describes his life experience and career in the field, which enabled him to provide thoughts and possible solutions to some of the key problems in human-animal relations following in section two. His memoirs describe a journey from privileged upbringing in the Christian tradition to confronting Australian livestock industries with some of their traditional practices. Experiences meeting livestock farmers, industry supporters and national representative bodies taught him new approaches to the ways in which we manage animals. After building one of the largest animal welfare centers worldwide, Clive Phillips retired and pursues his animal welfare mission independently. The second part introduces novel aspects that evolved with the author over several decades of involvement in animal welfare science. This part takes a wide perspective, asking how important and unique our animal kingdom is, how did it evolve and why, and what are the key issues for our treatment of other animals? It concludes by considering our future relationship with animals and how this will change with current developments in society and in particular contemporary attitudes toward the consumption of animals. This historical and futuristic look at animal ethics is unique, making this book a thought provoking read for all interested. The audience includes, but is not limited to, the areas of veterinary science, ethics and welfare, animal industries, universities and philosophy departments.

This open access book makes a distinctive contribution by providing a novel defence of psychiatric diagnoses. It defends psychiatric diagnoses by portraying them as idealised models understood in a neo-Kantian sense. It reject accounts which see psychiatric diagnoses as biomedical entities or as natural kinds. Drawing upon this neo-Kantian approach to scientific models, the book provides a novel metaphysical account of what psychiatric diagnoses are and novel epistemological guidelines for constructing psychiatric diagnoses. Psychiatric diagnoses are portrayed as models which abstract away from particular aspects of particular people to create generalised models that are applicable to multiple people. In Defence of Psychiatric Diagnoses is essential reading for all scholars and researchers of the philosophy of science especially those focussing on the philosophy of psychiatry.

This volume explores how understanding relates to conscious experience. In doing so, it builds bridges between different philosophical disciplines and provides a metaphysically robust characterization of understanding, both in and beyond science. The past two decades have witnessed growing interest from epistemologists, philosophers of science, philosophers of mind and ethicists in the nature and value of intellectual understanding. This volume features original essays on understanding and the phenomenal experiences that underlie it. The chapters are divided into three thematic sections. Part 1 provides theoretical characterizations of understanding, including Henk de Regt’s defense of a contextual theory of scientific understanding and a debate on whether scientific inference and explanatory power are necessary or central features of understanding. Part 2 explores how conscious experience and understanding are related. The chapters articulate a phenomenal theory of understanding and address themes that are connected to understanding, including awareness, transformative experiences and exemplification. Finally, Part 3 is devoted to domain-specific inquiries about understanding, such as logical proofs, particle physics and moral understanding. Understanding and Conscious Experience will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in the philosophy of science, epistemology, philosophy of mind, ethics and phenomenology.

The remarkably high number of medieval sources on the history of Austrian Jews provide insights into the economic, legal, and social standing of the Jews as well as into how the Christian environment treated them. The sources collected in this volume give evidence of the rulers' increased pressure on their Jewish subjects, particuarly by means of financial exploitation, and document the first open persecutions on today's Austrian territory after the Plague-related pogroms. Additionally, the source material allows for an analysis of the manifold Jewish-Christian interaction and the living conditions of the Jewish population.

This book considers Sweden’s pandemic management which differed so significantly from much of the rest of the world: it provoked intense and wide-reaching interest, curiosity and criticism. Trans-disciplinary Swedish authors from the humanities, life sciences, social sciences, and cultural studies use a variety of tools to mine deeper into some of the central elements and dimensions in their country’s pandemic management such as understandings of freedom, the execution of power, denialism, exceptionalism, patriotism, the role of expertise and trust in the national state to give a deeper understanding of Sweden’s decisions, failures, successes, and the lessons to be learned. Aimed at readers with interest in global health and politics it will also be of interest in disciplines such as virology, epidemiology, history, cultural studies, ethics, media studies, medicine and economics. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

We have long moved on from a mere information age to the era of big data. Here, databases represent both the enormous potential for gaining knowledge of data collection and the alarming information excesses of digital culture. Furthermore, the term refers to concrete technologies and processes of gathering and accessing digital information. Media theory has to locate databases in between these very different conceptions. Marcus Burkhardt retraces the history of databases and asks how technical procedures of processing digital information determine what can be found how in databases and what knowledge can be gained through them.

In an age where history is a global battleground and fake news proliferates, culture wars are being waged across India over its future – majoritarian or inclusive, neoliberal or socialist, religious or secular? Fake Gods and False History takes us to the BDD Chawls, a central Mumbai neighbourhood of tenement blocks (chawls) on the brink of a controversial redevelopment. It reveals how contested narratives of Indian history play out in the daily life of this divided neighbourhood and how the legacies of certain godlike but very human historical figures, such as Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and Chhatrapati Shivaji, are invoked by different communities. Jonathan Galton draws on research conducted among the formerly untouchable Dalit Buddhist community, who are staunchly opposed to the redevelopment plans and deeply critical of the religious nationalism they perceive in their Hindu neighbours. We also meet young male migrants living in village-linked dormitory rooms called Gramastha Mandals, trapped in a liminal space between urban and rural. Throughout the book, which is woven through with candid reflections on methodology and research ethics, readers are challenged into drawing connections with their own experiences of history impinging on their lives. A story that might initially seem parochial will thus resonate with a diverse global audience. Praise for Fake Gods and False History 'With the skill of an exceptional ethnographer, Galton vividly brings to life the dynamics of an entire country in the everyday life of a tenement block. Familiar clear-cut narratives on migration, politics and caste are called into question, resulting in a remarkable story that makes this book a treasure.' David Mosse, School of Oriental and African Studies 'With his empathetic, wry examination of contested pasts and anxious presents as they play out in Delisle Road's BDD Chawls, Galton allows us to imagine the contours of Mumbai's – and India's – uncertain futures. Fake Gods and False History is painstaking academic research disguised as an engaging collection of city stories.' Naresh Fernandes, Founder and Editor, Scroll.in

L'ambition de cet ouvrage est de contribuer à une histoire et à une sociologie des élites et des pouvoirs locaux sous la Troisième République, à partir de travaux portant sur leurs profils, leurs représentations, leur permanence et leur renouvellement ainsi que sur leurs attitudes dans le conflit traditionnel entre Paris et la province. Il s'agit donc de tenter de reconstituer, de manière empirique, un certain nombre de « configurations » et de réseaux de pouvoir afin de mieux saisir l'armature du contrôle politique et social, et par conséquent, les figures concrètes de la gouvernance des sociétés locales. Les champs d'investigation englobent ici la dimension communale, départementale et régionale sur l'ensemble du territoire de la France du Sud-Est.

The monograph is a compendium of knowledge in the field of broadly understood finance, on the essence and mechanisms of the functioning of the banking sector and the problems associated with them. The subject of the analysis is the financing of the needs of the economy through credit action. The importance of this problem is extremely important, because the provision of funds is the main function performed by banks for the economy, as well as the basic source of banks' income. The aim of the study is to identify and assess the prospects of the banking system's ability to finance the economy in Poland. The publication describes the issue of the development of credit action in Poland, and scenario forecasts for the demand for credit are developed. The assumptions and results of forecast scenarios showing different variants of credit growth paths and the banking sector's demand for capital adequate to them are presented. The basis for the presented forecasts is the inflow of EU funds under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (KPO), as well as funds from the cohesion fund. In the individual scenarios, different assumptions were made regarding the formation of macroeconomic variables in the years 2024-2027. The assumption of different macroeconomic scenarios resulted from the need to test different credit growth paths related to them. The scale of credit growth was dependent on the adopted macroeconomic assumptions, but also on changes in the structure of investment financing by enterprises. The results of the scenarios are varied and lead to the final conclusions that in order to effectively support the economy with financing provided by banks, stable and predictable conditions for the functioning of this sector should be created. They should be based on transparent, long-term regulations and adjustment of costs incurred by banks to the role they should play in a developing economy. In previous studies, relatively rarely have attempts been made to conduct an in-depth analysis of the financing of the economy by the banking sector. The originality of this publication is the collection of all information on this subject and the presentation of this issue in the perspective of potential event scenarios. This is one of the few publications that present such issues in such a synthetic and at the same time detailed way on the publishing market in Poland.

Early studies recognized the unique phenotype and attributes of T cells found in mucosal tissues, such as the intestines, skin, lung and female reproductive tract. This special topic issue will cover many aspects of mucosal-resident T cell biology during infection and disease and is dedicated to Leo Lefrancois, a pioneer in this field who recently passed away. A major proportion of these mucosal T cells are memory T cells, now recognized as a major constituent of memory T cells referred to as tissue-resident memory T cells. Unlike central and effector memory T cell subsets, tissue-resident memory T cells exhibit tissue specificity with minimal systemic migration. Nonetheless, tissue-resident memory T cells share a similar origin and display some overlapping phenotypes with their other memory T cell counterparts. Articles in this issue will describe the different types of memory T cells residing in mucosal tissues, their origins and functions as well as how they vary among discrete mucosal sites. Manuscripts will consider the unique physiological environments and cellular constituents which facilitate tissue residency while preserving tissue function. Additionally, there will be descriptions of the various mechanisms responsible for the migration and segregation of tissue resident memory CD8 T cells from the peripheral T cell pool. Although the mechanisms facilitating the sequestration of tissue-resident memory T cells within a respective tissue has not well characterized, various theories will also be discussed. Lastly, how these T cells contribute to immunity to pathogens, cancer, and autoimmunity and could be modified through vaccination or therapeutic intervention will be described. As mucosal tissues are the major portals of pathogen entry and frequent transformation, the activities and persistence of tissue resident memory T cells is crucial for mediating protection at these sites.

Las cartas aquí reunidas se caracterizan por su unidad temática – discutir los méritos o insufribles vicios de la obra poética de Luis de Góngora – sino que forman un conjunto autónomo dentro de la dilatada querelle en torno a la obra de Góngora. Francisco Cascales lanzó la polémica en una carta humorística, con fórmulas memorables como la que hace del poeta un ángel de luz convertido en ángel de tinieblas. Esto desde Murcia, muy lejos de Madrid, donde Góngora transcurría entonces sus últimos y amargos años, aureolado de una gloria y de escándalo cuyos ecos se oían en toda la península.Quienes participan en esta controversia son son personajes de segunda fila de la República de las letras españolas, asentados en el Sur de España: respectivamente en Murcia para Cascales, donde ejerció como catedrático de Retórica; en Andújar (provincia de Jaén) para Villar, donde fue vicario y juez eclesiástico; y en Loja (provincia de Granada) para Angulo y Pulgar, un hombre acomodado, de linaje noble. El fuego y la pasión con los cuales debaten de la poesía gongorina les llevan a movilizar el sarcasmo más burlón (Cascales) o bien argumentaciones matizadas e ingeniosas, en defensa de su admirado Góngora (Villar y Angulo y Pulgar). La cuestión central es la del estatuto de la lengua moderna en relación con el latín, pero también el uso y los límites de la erudición. Los editores, mediante las notas y el estudio preliminar, restituyen cuidadosamente las tres figuras, las circunstancias del intercambio y las sutilezas de los textos.

This edited book Lanthanides is a collection of research chapters, offering an excellent review of recent applications in our lives. It consists of a number of interesting chapters by scientists and researchers from different parts of the world. The book is divided into six chapters. The first chapter is a short introduction that explains the nature and purpose of the book and the logic and significance of its contents. In the second chapter, Katarzyna Kiegiel et al. introduce novel apparatus solutions, for example membrane contactors in the extraction stage and different types of matrices (uranium ore, phosphorites, etc.). The third chapter by Dariusz Sala and Bogus?aw Bieda from AGH University of Science and Technology, Management Department, Poland, describes the development of the life cycle inventory to rare earth elements (REEs) based on secondary sources, conducted according to ISO 14040 (2006) guidelines. Chapter 4 concentrates on lanthanide soil chemistry and shows how the soil chemistry of REEs may support soil science investigations. Dmitry V. Ladonin in Chapter 5 studies the content of forms of lanthanides in soddy-calcareous soils at different distances from the Cherepovets steel mill (Vologda region, Russia). The author concludes that the individual properties of lanthanides are clearly manifested in their interaction with soil components. The largest part of the fraction, bound to organic matter, contains medium lanthanides, while the heavy lanthanides are bound to Fe and Mn (hydr)oxides. The last chapter discusses ecological and physiological impacts of lanthanides on algae as primary producers in aquatic environments. This book will definitely encourage readers, researchers, and scientists to look further into the frontier topics of lanthanides and opens new possible research paths for further novel development.

Ippolito II d’Este (1509-1572), cardinal and prince of Ferrara, played a crucial role in shaping the political and cultural connections between Italy and France. Seen by his contemporaries as staunchly ‘French’, his life rather followed a difficult balance between the political and spatial entities – Rome, Paris, and Ferrara – through which he continuously moved and from which he derived his power. Following his career as cardinal protector of the Valois crown, royal administrator of Siena on behalf of Henry II, and papal legate to France on the eve of the Wars of Religion, this book argues that Ippolito’s apparent diplomatic access ultimately weakened his family’s position in Italy and left it ill-equipped to compete in the changing politics of the peninsula.

Archaeometry is based on the necessary interdisciplinary relationship between diverse branches of the natural and social sciences. This relationship is essential in archaeology, since, from physical materials (objects), scholars have to face questions that go beyond the limits of the tangible and pertain instead to abstract and social concerns. Currently, archaeometric studies are fundamental to the accurate classification and characterization of archaeological materials, providing relevant data, among other aspects, about their production, function and social meaning. In this book, we present a set of papers that show the potential of mineralogical studies (e.g. petrography, mineral geochemistry, X-ray Diffraction) and multiproxy approaches to characterize the composition of a wide diversity of archaeological materials such as ceramics, terracotta, tiles, metals, glazes, glass and mortars related to several periods (Bronze Age, Roman, Middle Age, Modern period). In this sense, this book can be of interest for specialized researchers who seek specific case studies and are mainly concerned with certain kinds of materials, but also for those students, researchers and professionals who look for a practical overview of the chief methods that can be followed in the study of material culture.

If we want to understand contemporary China, the key is through understanding the older generation. This is the generation in China whose life courses almost perfectly synchronised with the emergence and growth of the ‘New China’ under the rule of the Communist Party (1949). People in their 70s and 80s have double the life expectancy of their parents’ generation. The current oldest generation in Shanghai was born in a time when the average household could not afford electric lights, but today they can turn their lights off via their smartphone apps. Based on 16-month ethnographic fieldwork in Shanghai, Ageing with Smartphones in Urban China tackles the intersection between the ‘two revolutions’ experienced by the older generation in Shanghai: the contemporary smartphone-based digital revolution and the earlier communist revolutions. We find that we can only explain the smartphone revolution if we first appreciate the long-term consequences of these people’s experiences during the communist revolutions. The context of this book is a wide range of dramatic social transformations in China, from the Cultural Revolution to the individualism and Confucianism in Digital China. Supported by detailed ethnographic material, the observations and analyses provide a panoramic view of the social landscape of contemporary China, including topics such as the digital and everyday life, ageing and healthcare, intergenerational relations and family development, community building and grassroots organizations, collective memories and political attitudes among ordinary Chinese people.