Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
Not a member yet
85081 research outputs found
Sort by
Deliberation in International Institutions
No full textThis book studies the deliberative dynamics in the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations’ specialised agency for regulating international shipping. The importance of international shipping becomes clear when we realise that almost everything is transported through this mode of transportation; indeed 90% of world trade is carried by those vessels we call ships. The study takes a two-step approach whereby it firstly assesses the extent to which the IMO meets the requirements for an ideal deliberative setting and then proceeds to analysing the determinants of variation in deliberative quality within the IMO. Original empirical evidence and findings are used in both stages of the study. Significantly, within the International Relations discipline, it is unknown what are the factors that can determine the quality of deliberations in international organisations; an important question given the great potential that deliberation holds for improving global governance. It also remains unknown what are the determinants of deliberative quality across state delegations. Those questions are directly answered in this book. This book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of International Relations and International Politics as well as international public policy practitioners and interested readers worldwide
The Artificial Womb on Trial
No full textArtificial womb technology is approaching over the scientific horizon. This Element places the research and development process of the technology under the microscope and explores the bioethical issues raised by human subject trials of ectogenic prototypes. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core
Eco-Friendly Coatings and Adhesive Technology
No full textCoatings and adhesives are indispensable polymer materials used for modern industrial development. They are widely used in construction, aerospace, electronic information, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, and have many other applications. As people pay more attention to environmental protection and sustainable development, research on environmentally friendly coatings and adhesives is receiving increasing attention
Interrogating Integration
No full textInterrogating Integration explores how international sporting spectacles, media campaigns, and public debates construct racialized national identity in an era of rising right-wing nationalism. Across Europe, “integration” has emerged as a guiding concept to regulate cultural differences, particularly in Germany, where integration became a watchword after the introduction of birthright citizenship in 2000. The legal expansion of German citizenship threatened the homogeneous definition of the nation and spurred increased scrutiny of immigrants and Germans of color, primarily Muslim and Black Germans. This opened a new chapter in the long struggle over German identity. The celebrations, scandals, and debates analyzed here reveal how the admission of new citizens inspired an optimistic cosmopolitanism that claimed to differentiate the new Germany from its fascist past while simultaneously reinscribing racialized hierarchies and providing fuel for rising far-right politics.
Using touchstones of public memory, including events surrounding men’s World Cup soccer and the record-breaking success of a book blaming Muslims for Germany’s decline, Zambon examines persistent problems in European conceptions of race, where racializing projects take place under an “ideology of racelessness” and the atrocities of historical and transnational racisms are used to deny current local forms of racism
Du commerce maritime à l’industrie
No full textPort secondaire, Landerneau est néanmoins depuis l’Antiquité un centre actif de commerce maritime, notamment grâce aux diverses productions de son arrière-pays et en particulier aux fameuses crées (toiles fines en lin) du Léon. L’implantation de la Marine royale à Brest à la fin du xviie siècle, pour préparer la « Seconde guerre de Cent Ans », la perte du marché anglais pour les crées, les guerres incessantes entre 1744 et 1815, les crises de toute nature, la perte du marché espagnol et de ses colonies dans les années 1820, voilà autant de défis à relever pour la communauté marchande landernéenne. Elle développe un commerce actif en saisissant toutes les opportunités. Renforcée par des apports allogènes, elle devient le groupe dominant, s’installant au sommet de la hiérarchie financière. En 1721, elle s’empare du pouvoir local dans une ville devenue pleinement négociante. Elle oriente ainsi l’action publique au service de ses ambitions en réalisant un équipement portuaire capable d’accueillir des trafics en expansion. Près de ce poumon économique s’édifient les hôtels particuliers témoignant de la réussite des négociants. Lorsqu’au début des années 1820 la Révolution libérale espagnole et l’émancipation des colonies ferment définitivement ces marchés aux toiles bretonnes, le principal groupe marchand de la ville engage (cas unique pour l’industrie textile en Bretagne) une étonnante reconversion industrielle afin de se positionner en leader sur les marchés de fournitures à la Marine et aux armées. Cette révolution de la production aboutit à la création en 1845 de la Société linière du Finistère qui devient la plus importante entreprise privée du Finistère, salariant jusqu’à 4 500 employés, avant de fermer ses portes en 1892
Nonlinear Systems
No full textOpen Mathematics is a challenging notion for theoretical modeling, technical analysis, and numerical simulation in the fields of physics and mathematics, among others, as highly correlated nonlinear phenomena, evolving over a large range of time and length scales, control the underlying systems and processes in their spatiotemporal evolution. Indeed, available data, be they physical, biological, or financial, and technologically complex systems and stochastic systems, such as mechanical or electronic devices, can be managed from the same conceptual approach, both analytically and through computer simulation, using effective nonlinear dynamics methods. The aim of this Special Issue is to highlight papers that show the dynamics, control, optimization, and applications of nonlinear systems. This has recently become an increasingly popular subject, with impressive growth concerning applications in engineering, economics, biology, and medicine, and can be considered a veritable contribution to the literature. Original papers relating to the objective presented above are especially welcome subjects. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following: Stability analysis of discrete and continuous dynamical systems; Nonlinear dynamics in biological complex systems; Stability and stabilization of stochastic systems; Mathematical models in statistics and probability; Synchronization of oscillators and chaotic systems; Optimization methods of complex systems; Reliability modeling and system optimization; Computation and control over networked systems
Plenoptic Imaging and Processing
No full textThis open access book delves into the fundamental principles and cutting-edge techniques of plenoptic imaging and processing. Derived from the Latin words "plenus" (meaning "full") and "optic," plenoptic imaging offers a transformative approach to optical imaging. Unlike conventional systems that rely solely on the pinhole camera model to capture spatial information, plenoptic imaging aims to detect and reconstruct multidimensional and multiscale information from light rays in space. Chapter 1 begins with the introduction of the basic principle of the plenoptic function and the historical development of plenoptic imaging. Next, Chapter 2 describes representative plenoptic sensing systems, including single-sensor devices with lenslet arrays, coded-aperture masks, structured camera arrays, and unstructured camera arrays. Then, Chapter 3 introduces gigapixel plenoptic sensing techniques capable of capturing large-scale dynamic scenes with extremely high resolution. Further, chapter 4 examines typical plenoptic reconstruction methods, including light-field image reconstruction, image-based, and RGBD-based geometry reconstruction. After that, chapter 5 tackles the challenges of large-scale plenoptic reconstruction by introducing sparse-view priors, high-resolution observations, and semantic information. Finally, chapter 6 discusses the frontier issues of plenoptic processing, including the gigapixel-level video dataset PANDA and corresponding visual intelligent algorithms
A Spatial Theory of the Camp
No full textThis is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. From concentration camps to refugee settlements, there is little consensus about what exactly defines ‘the camp’. This timely and comprehensive book adopts a geographical perspective to develop a spatial theory of the camp, advancing the interdisciplinary field of camp studies. Richard Carter-White and Claudio Minca explore the spatial logics and practices that unite different camps, demonstrating why the camp has become such an integral tool of contemporary governance and what this reveals about the geopolitics and biopolitics of the modern nation-state.Publishe
German Empires and Decolonial Fantasies, 1492–1942
No full textGerman Empires and Decolonial Fantasies, 1492–1942 investigates the ways German-speaking Europe’s cultural narratives reflect histories of entanglement with the colonial world. Drawing from an impressive range of sources, Patricia Anne Simpson decodes the ironclad colonial logic that reproduces and inflects tropes of the conquistador, scientific explorer, and pioneers. She brings them into dialogue with a cast of historical agents who reimagine the cannibal, the enslaved, the conquered, Indigenous interlocutors, and the ungovernable. Throughout, intersectional attributes of race, gender, ethnicity, and religion reconfigure around shades of European whiteness. Individual chapters explore the Hohenzollern legacy in early modernity; debates about sovereignty and enslavement; recruitment literature, prose and fiction about migration and colonization in Africa and the Americas; and colonial memoirs driven by recolonial fantasies after 1918. German Empires and Decolonial Fantasies advances efforts to decolonize the multiple disciplines that intersect the field of German studies, including literary criticism, history, philosophy, art history, and anthropology.
German Empires and Decolonial Fantasies, 1492–1942 draws from a wide range of sources, from a seventeenth-century Brandenburg fort on the coast of Ghana to a novella about a beleaguered colonial administrator in German East Africa, to advance an interdisciplinary discourse at the nexus of colonial narratives and national imaginaries. Through detailed case studies, Simpson argues for the inclusion of voices that pushed back against imperialist expansion or intervention, as well as those historical actors who disputed the supremacy of whiteness and the persuasive power of German-centric national history
DNA, Race, and Reproduction
No full textDNA, Race, and Reproduction helps readers inside and outside of academia engage with the current genomic landscape. The volume brings together experts in law, medicine, religion, history, anthropology, philosophy, and genetics to investigate how scientists, medical professionals, and laypeople use genomic concepts to construct racial identity and make reproductive decisions. It interrogates how DNA figures in the reproduction of racialized bodies and the racialization of reproduction and examines the privileged position from which genomic knowledge claims to speak about human bodies, societies, and activities. The book begins from the premise that reproduction forces a confrontation between biomedical, scientific, and popular understandings of genetics, and that those understandings are often racialized. It therefore centers reproduction as both a site of analysis and an analytic lens.
“Rather than approaching DNA, race, and reproduction as isolated topics, this collection integrates insights from various disciplines to offer a holistic perspective. It challenges conventional assumptions about race and genetics and exposes the flaws in using racial, ethnic, and ancestral categories as proxies for genetic variation.” — KIMBERLY ZAYHOWSKI, Assistant Professor at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
“Expertly tackles the troublesome relationship between our genes and our race. Merging critical scientific and humanistic perspectives, this book provides much-needed insights into how society can better construct identity and heredity, as well as re-envision our fundamental understanding of mind and body.” — RINA BLISS, Associate Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University and author of Rethinking Intelligence and What’s Real about Race