Open Access Books

In this paper, we describe and discuss the implementation, the effects, and the consequences of an experimental service designed to capture, record, edit and stream video lectures. This service, named ONELab, is operating since September 2017 at the Department of Communication and Economics of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia to support the courses offered by the six degree programs available at the Department. Before the pandemic emergency, traditional face-to-face classes were regularly held, but ONELab was intended to provide flexibility to the educational contents (i.e., no time and geographical constraints) and to improve the students' learning process. The usage analyses show that, when given the opportunity, students tend to customise the learning process to their needs and life-style, with a large quote of usage in the late afternoon/night hours and during the week-ends. Video lectures are watched mostly during the teaching semester, but a significant part of students resort to watch them when the semester is over. The number, frequency and variety of accesses allow to describe different styles of usage, and students who use ONELab show better achievements, both in terms of acquired credits and in terms of grades, than those who never accessed the system. Moreover, some usage styles can help predicting the risk of dropout, signaling students who should be furtherly supported in order to prevent them from abandoning their studies.

Durante el confinamiento producido por la pandemia de la Covid-19, las redes sociales jugaron un papel predominante dentro del ecosistema mediático. Plataformas emergentes como TikTok recibieron un impulso inesperado respecto al número de usuarios registrados y frecuencia de uso. La versatilidad de TikTok ha permitido que se diversifiquen sus propósitos siendo utilizada más allá del entretenimiento, enfocándose hacia fines comerciales políticos y educativos. Además de una visión panorámica de TikTok desde la perspectiva comunicativa, esta publicación incluye reflexiones sobre los medios de comunicación en pandemia, sus vulnerabilidades, amenazas y problemáticas -desinformación, infoxicación y noticias falsas- en un debate que busca prevenir su reiteración en futuras situaciones de crisis.

How do we know through atmospheres? How can being affected by an atmosphere give rise to knowledge? What role does somatic, nonverbal knowledge play in how we belong to places? Atmospheric Knowledge takes up these questions through detailed analyses of practices that generate atmospheres and in which knowledge emerges through visceral intermingling with atmospheres. From combined musicological and anthropological perspectives, Birgit Abels and Patrick Eisenlohr investigate atmospheres as a compelling alternative to better-known analytics of affect by way of performative and sonic practices across a range of ethnographic settings. With particular focus on oceanic relations and sonic affectedness, Atmospheric Knowledge centers the rich affordances of sonic connections for knowing our environments. “This episodic, experimental, and intellectually capacious book is an example of what contemporary anthropology and musicology do best.” — TIMOTHY COOPER, author of Moral Atmospheres “Atmospheres are everywhere—and yet they have been surprisingly under-researched until now. This wonderfully provocative book provides a foundational text for tomorrow’s theorists in fields like anthropology, environmental studies, music and sound studies, and critical geography.” — JIM SYKES, author of The Musical Gift “This book provides intellectual and analytical tools for future generations of scholars across a broad range of academic terrains.” — CAROLA LOREA, author of Folklore, Religion and the Songs of a Bengali Madman

« À la lisière de l’art et de la vie, le théâtre se trouve dans l’inconfort fécond de l’entre-deux. Shakespeare dispense des consignes pour appréhender la convention théâtrale, invite à s’entraîner et à s’éduquer pour pleinement en bénéficier, mais en même temps il reconnaît sans cesse le pouvoir contaminateur du théâtre et identifie son impact sur le comportement des êtres au quotidien, dans le monde, parmi les autres. De la scène à la vie et de la vie à la scène, voilà un aller-retour sur lequel Shakespeare réfléchit et revient constamment. Et, pour conclure, il invite, après la journée où se débattaient ses héros sur le plateau élisabéthain, à l’entrée dans la nuit afin que le théâtre finisse en songe. »

How are media and education connected? Anna-Maria Nothelfer develops an approach to critical and creative media education that explores media from the perspectives of social theory and aesthetics. In doing so, she offers an alternative to the data-driven logic of digitalisation. Current concepts do not do justice to either media or the concept of education. So how can we rethink digital media education?

Thermodynamics is one of the most exciting branches of physical chemistry which has greatly contributed to the modern science. Being concentrated on a wide range of applications of thermodynamics, this book gathers a series of contributions by the finest scientists in the world, gathered in an orderly manner. It can be used in post-graduate courses for students and as a reference book, as it is written in a language pleasing to the reader. It can also serve as a reference material for researchers to whom the thermodynamics is one of the area of interest.

Si les liens qui unissent l’art et la contestation sont à la fois étroits et multiples, ils ont rarement attiré l’attention des analystes des mouvements sociaux, alors même que ce domaine de recherche s’est considérablement développé au cours de la dernière décennie. L’objectif de cet ouvrage est d’explorer la diversité des liens qui unissent art et contestation, c’est-à-dire l’ensemble des similitudes, passages, importations ou reconversions qui s’opèrent entre le champ artistique et les mobilisations collectives. Il explore les engagements d’artistes autour d’enjeux propres au monde de l’art ou touchant les modes d’exercice des professions artistiques, mais aussi le rapport que l’activité contestataire entretient à l’art et aux artistes, ainsi que les usages de l’art à des fins militantes. Du groupe Zebda au « rock identitaire français », du raggamuffin occitan au rap engagé italien, de la contestation par les comédiens polonais de l’état de guerre à la protestation des acteurs américains contre la guerre en Irak, de la « critique artiste » portée par Mai 68 à la contestation esthétique du néolibéralisme en passant par le néopolar, des luttes autour du régime de l’intermittence aux mobilisations théâtralisées d’Act Up, l’ouvrage couvre un large spectre de mouvements sociaux comme de domaines esthétiques (musique, littérature, théâtre, arts plastiques, cinéma). De même y rencontrera-t-on différentes perspectives théoriques, témoignage du foisonnement conceptuel de la sociologie des mobilisations contemporaine. Loin de se restreindre aux seules formes socialement légitimes, il intègre les artistes consacrés comme les avant-gardes ou les marges artistiques, voire des pratiques artistiques amateurs ou encore le public d’œuvres à la réputation « contestataire ». Destiné à dresser un état des lieux de la recherche, ce livre rend compte du potentiel heuristique, tant pour la sociologie de l’art que pour l’analyse de la politique contestataire, de l’étude sociologique des liens qu’entretiennent ces deux univers distincts que sont le monde de l’art et celui du militantisme.

This reprint of a Special Issue of Mathematics presents recent research on the theory and applications of optimization. The subjects that are addressed in the ten research papers cover a broad spectrum of optimization algorithms, such as unconstrained optimization, non-convex optimization, multi-objective optimization, graph theory, or flow shop scheduling.

In recent political and constitutional history, scholars seldom specify how and why they use the concept of territory. In research on state formation processes and nation building, for instance, the term mostly designates an enclosed geographical area ruled by a central government. Inspired by ideas from political geographers, this book explores the layered and constantly changing meanings of territory in late medieval and early modern Europe before cartography and state formation turned boundaries and territories into more fixed (but still changeable) geographical entities. Its central thesis is that analysing the notion of territory in a premodern setting involves analysing territorial practices: practices that relate people and power to space(s). The book not only examines the construction and spatial structure of premodern territories but also explores their perception and representation through the use of a broad range of sources: from administrative texts to maps, from stained glass windows to chronicles.

Web-marketing;Customer services;International business

What does the collapse of India’s tea industry mean for Dalit workers who have lived, worked and died on the plantations since the colonial era? Plantation Crisis offers a complex understanding of how processes of social and political alienation unfold in moments of economic rupture. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the Peermade and Munnar tea belts, Jayaseelan Raj – himself a product of the plantation system – offers a unique and richly detailed analysis of the profound, multi-dimensional sense of crisis felt by those who are at the bottom of global plantation capitalism and caste hierarchy. Tea production in India accounts for 25 per cent of global output. The colonial era planation system – and its two million strong workforce – has, since the mid-1990s, faced a series of ruptures due to neoliberal economic globalisation. In the South Indian state of Kerala, otherwise known for its labour-centric development initiatives, the Tamil speaking Dalit workforce, whose ancestors were brought to the plantations in the 19th century, are at the forefront of this crisis, which has profound impacts on their social identity and economic wellbeing. Out of the colonial history of racial capitalism and indentured migration, Plantation Crisis opens our eyes to the collapse of the plantation system and the rupturing of Dalit lives in India's tea belt. Praise for Plantation Crisis ‘Raj’s well-crafted ethnography offers profound and moving insight into the experience of Tamil Dalit plantation workers as they become alienated not just from their labour and its product, but from their families, communities, settlements and selves. An excellent read.’ – Tania Li, University of Toronto ‘An important, insightful and compelling story of the alienation of Tamil Dalit plantation workers, the disjuncture between economic and social mobility, the production of stigma and the role of caste and class, the failure of unions alongside that of the state and corporations, the destruction of labour organisation yet the possibility of finding resistance. Not only a major contribution to the South Asian literature but also a decolonisation “must read”.’ – Alpa Shah, London School of Economics

Can the rules of the European Union’s E-Commerce Directive, which date back to the year 2000, continue to be valid with regard to the dissemination of content in view of the constantly evolving online environment and the changing role of platforms as a result of new business models? The relevant legal foundations in this respect at EU and national level are complex, and their interplay is often unclear. The resulting uncertainty about who is responsible and therefore liable for certain content requires a critical review of the current legal framework. This study, conducted by the Institute of European Media Law (EMR) on behalf of the State Media Authority NRW, analyses the current legal framework and reveals ways of enforcing the applicable provisions concerning illegal content. It pays special attention to the need for reform of the E-Commerce Directive in light of the changing role of platforms. Können die Regelungen der bereits im Jahr 2000 verabschiedeten europäischen E-Commerce-Richtlinie angesichts der sich stetig weiterentwickelnden Online-Welt und der auf neuen Geschäftsmodellen beruhenden veränderten Rolle von Plattformen bei der Inhalteverbreitung fortbestehen? Die einschlägigen Rechtsgrundlagen auf EU- und nationaler Ebene sind vielschichtig und das Zusammenspiel oftmals unklar. Die daraus resultierende Unsicherheit darüber, wer für einen Inhalt verantwortlich und daher haftbar ist, erfordert die Überprüfung des geltenden Rechtsrahmens. Die vom Institut für Europäisches Medienrecht (EMR) im Auftrag der Landesanstalt für Medien NRW erstellte Studie analysiert den aktuellen Rechtsrahmen und zeigt rechtliche Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten der Rechtsdurchsetzung bei als rechtswidrig einzustufenden Inhalten auf. Besonderes Augenmerk wird dabei auf den Reformbedarf der E-Commerce-Richtlinie vor dem Hintergrund der sich wandelnden Rolle von Plattformen gelegt.

Aujourd’hui, la presse écrite et télévisuelle, au même titre que le cinéma, ne cessent d’exposer dans l’espace public l’importance et la richesse des informations livrées par la justice, le fait judiciaire et l’écrit. Fondée sur une solide et ancienne tradition rhétorique, la manière de dire et de raconter un événement, filtré par la justice, rend singulière et originale la perception des faits décrits, met au jour la construction d’images (négatives et positives) et soulève l’ambiguïté du récit lui-même, entre ce qui repose sur la vérité et ce qui relève de la fiction. Ce volume, qui a privilégié une démarche pluridisciplinaire, à la fois synchronique et diachronique, est composé de dix-neuf articles dont l’objectif a été de saisir le lien existant entre la justice et le récit en France, en Italie et en Espagne du XIVe siècle au XIXe siècle. L’intérêt a été prêté aux usages de la justice et de l’écriture, en passant du récit judiciaire au récit fictionnel, de l’espace privé à l’espace public, le tribunal étant l’espace où la parole se trouve finalement libérée.

This book explores the conceptual, historical, and ethical issues of information conflict to present a detailed analysis of cognitive warfare. Is it possible for liberal democracies to deliberately use information on civilian populations to impact political and social institutions? While information conflict has been a part of political conflict, warfare, and international relations for as long as there has been political competition, given that our modern political and social lives are saturated by information, we are now faced with a pressing set of reasons to understand cognitive warfare, and to place it in a wider historical and technological context. This book identifies a series of conceptual and ethical challenges facing liberal democracies around modern information conflict. Drawing from historical practices, it suggests that two values – human dignity and political autonomy – can explain why some acts of cognitive warfare might be judged to be good while other acts are judged to be bad. This book will be of much interest to students and researchers of intelligence studies, ethics, security studies, and International Relations.

Vitamin B is a water-soluble vitamin that plays important roles in cell metabolism and synthesis of red blood cells. Many foods contain B vitamins, including meat, poultry, and fish, among others. Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin with antioxidant properties that can be found in vegetable oils, cereals, meat, poultry, eggs, and fruits. Both vitamins B and E are important for human health. This book provides a comprehensive overview of vitamins B and E. It is organized into three sections on the role of vitamin B on body health and gut flora, vitamin B deficiency and its association with the disease pellagra, and the medicinal significance and complications associated with vitamin E deficiency.