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Science should tell us what the world is like. However, realist interpretations of physics face many problems, chief among them the pessimistic meta induction. This book seeks to develop a realist position based on process ontology that avoids the traditional problems of realism. Primarily, the core claim is that in order for a scientific model to be minimally empirically adequate, that model must describe real experimental processes and dynamics. Any additional inferences from processes to things, substances or objects are not warranted, and so these inferences are shown to represent the locus of the problems of realism. The book then examines the history of physics to show that the progress of physical research is one of successive eliminations of thing interpretations of models in favor of more explanatory and experimentally verified process interpretations. This culminates in collections of models that cannot coherently allow for thing interpretations, but still successfully describe processes.

The so-called Mamluk sultans who ruled Egypt and Syria between the late thirteenth and early sixteenth centuries AD have often been portrayed as lacking in legitimacy due to their background as slave soldiers. Sultanic biographies written by chancery officials in the early period of the sultanate have been read as part of an effort of these sultans to legitimise their position on the throne. This book reconsiders the main corpus of six such biographies written by the historians Ibn ʿAbd al-Ẓāhir (d. 1293) and his nephew Shāfiʿ ibn ʿAlī (d. 1330) and argues that these were in fact far more complex texts. An understanding of their discourses of legitimisation needs to be embedded within a broader understanding of the multi-directional discourses operating across the texts. The study proposes to interpret these texts as "spectacles", in which authors emplotted the reign of a sultan in thoroughly literary and rhetorical fashion, making especially extensive use of textual forms prevalent in the chancery. In doing so the authors reimagined the format of the biography as a performative vehicle for displaying their literary credentials and helping them negotiate positions in the chancery and the wider courtly orbit.

Auf Goldplättchen geschrieben und aus Gräbern geborgen, haben sich geheime Texte des Dionysischen Mysterienkults erhalten. Die erst seit dem 19. Jahrhundert zutage tretenden Funde stammen aus fast dem gesamten Mittelmeergebiet und aus einem Zeitraum von über 600 Jahren (Ende 5. Jh. v. Chr. – Anfang 3. Jh. n. Chr.). Nie für eine Veröffentlichung bestimmt, überliefern die Texte göttliches Wissen, als dessen Überbringer der mythische Sänger Orpheus angesehen wurde. Damit liegen im Original einzigartige Quellen für die griechisch-römische Religionsgeschichte vor, die faszinierende Einblicke in rituelle Abläufe der Initiation gewähren und in Vorstellungen von den Glückseligkeiten, aber auch von den Gefahren, denen die Eingeweihten nach dem Tod entgegengingen. Die bislang gefundenen Texte werden hier erstmals in ihrer Gesamtheit mit deutscher Übersetzung ediert, durch ausführliche Kommentierung erschlossen und in die aktuelle Forschungsdiskussion eingebettet. Eine Einführung in wesentliche Elemente der Dionysischen Mysterien und ein Anhang zu verwandten Texten (und Bildern) runden den Band ab und dienen der Einordnung der Funde in ihren kulturhistorischen Kontext.

Across the most diverse societies, the reuse of writing surfaces in contexts such as learning to write, note-taking, literary creation, and bookkeeping has been not only desirable but essential to optimising resources. In these contexts, it has been typical to use erasable media of various kinds – a practice which in turn has had important implications for palaeography, literary creation, and virtually every aspect related to writing. Manuscript cultures addressed the quest for rewritability through using permanently recyclable materials such as clay and wax tablets, special technologies such as erasable coatings, and ingenious strategies for reusing papyrus, parchment, paper, wood, and more. This volume systematically explores the fascinating intersection between the potential ephemerality of the written word and the reusability of its supports. It combines a theoretical framework on ‘rewritability’ with case studies on materials, related technologies and their interplay with competing techniques, spanning from ancient Mesopotamia to present-day Nigeria, from Egypt to Japan, from Greece and Rome to the Arab world. In doing so, the volume illuminates a crucial aspect of cultural history relevant to anyone studying the written word.

This book provides an introduction to probabilistic methods in finance, based on stochastic models in discrete time. It is aimed primarily at graduate students in mathematics but may also benefit mathematicians in academia and the financial industry.　

In this fifth edition, the entire text has been thoroughly revised to enhance clarity and completeness. This includes new sections on

The integration of Radio Detection and Ranging (RADAR) remote sensing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) provides a platform for understanding various Earth's surface processes and their predictive analysis. This book offers state-of-the-art techniques and applications to address real-time challenges through AI-based RADAR remote sensing. Furthermore, it explores the potential applications of AI in emerging areas of remote sensing and image processing.

James Kopf approaches the phenomenon of music from the level of perception, as opposed to presuming a definition of music as either prima facie known or gleaned solely from a specific cultural tradition. Methodologically, this work draws from phenomenology, particularly the field of modern phenomenology as inaugurated by Edmund Husserl and its promulgation by Martin Heidegger, sound studies, and, in terms of rhetorical style, deconstruction, though it considers the work of thinkers from a wide variety of other fields, from Theodor Reik’s psychoanalysis to archaeology and beyond.

The author charts a path forward into a more ethical understanding of music and listening in the age of global capitalism, one that tolerates difference and uniqueness across the perceived divides of culture, time, species, and matter. In pursuing this path, the possibility of musical experiences to be emergent in aural spaces historically deemed "non-musical" is considered: the space between notes of a chorale, breaks between movements, aboriginal sonic practices ignored or scorned by colonial logic, a forest rent by fracking, and even bodily noises.

Today’s surface challenges are hardly redeemed by traditional coatings. Besides decoration or protection coatings shall bring additional features dependent on the substrate coated. Smart and Functional coatings have become well adopted in the market in recent years and are applied to a surface to improve its performance in terms of functionality, durability, aesthetics, and other properties. These coatings are widely used in a variety of industries, including automotive, aerospace, construction, electronics, medical devices, and consumer goods. The book describes a wide range of smart coatings such as photocatalytic, self-cleaning, self-healing, anti-microbial, low surface energy, optical, EMI-shielding, anti-corrosion and anti-icing coatings. It also covers nanotechnology which plays a key role in the development of Smart and Functional coatings as advancements in this field of technology allow for precise control over the size, shape, and composition of materials at the nanoscale level. Nanotechnology enables the incorporation of functional components, such as sensors or actuators, into coatings, which provide responsive behavior to external stimuli or impart a specific functionality. Furthermore, the use of nanotechnology in coatings can also lead to more sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions. For example, by using nanoscale particles, coatings can be made thinner, reducing the amount of material required and minimizing waste. Nanotechnology can also help develop coatings that are more efficient and durable, reducing the need for frequent maintenance or replacement.

As global priorities shift towards sustainable resources, there is a growing interest in alternatives to petroleum-based raw materials for industrial polyurethane (PU) foam production. Polyurethane foams (PUFs), produced from the reaction between a polyol (a polymer with multiple hydroxyl groups) and a diisocyanate, are widely used for their versatility. They range from flexible foams, like those found in mattresses or furniture, to rigid foams used for home insulation. The market for PU foams is anticipated to grow due to rising demand for comfort. Historically, petroleum-based polyols have been favored for their availability and versatility. However, as petroleum supplies dwindle, with oil reserves projected to be exhausted by around 2052, the pressing need for sustainable alternatives is clear to sustain the PU industry. Bio-based substitutes, such as polyols derived from palm, soybean, castor, and sunflower oils, have been extensively researched to replace the petroleum-based polyol feedstock. This book focuses on applying coconut oil-derived polyols in polyurethane foam production, offering a detailed examination of their potential benefits and associated difficulties. The introductory chapter outlines the critical need for greener alternatives and emphasizes the significant role of coconut oil as a substitute for petroleum-based polyols. Subsequent chapters delve into the chemistry and synthesis of coconut oil-derived polyols and polyurethanes, providing insights into their properties and contributions to polyurethane formulations. This book further provides an overview of how coconut oil's high saturation impacts the polyol production process and explores methods to overcome these challenges. It bridges the gap between raw material science and practical applications using coconut oil in polymer studies. It provides valuable information for researchers and industry professionals aiming to innovate with sustainable polymer materials.

Since the inception of reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes in the seventies, biological fouling, also known as biofouling, still remains as the key challenge to get solved so that membranes can run smoothly and without issues in desalination and water treatment plants. Biofouling occurs when certain bacteria attach to the reverse osmosis membranes, and starts building a biofilm. This is a key problem, as if this quickly growing biofilm is not properly taken care of, it can affect the mechanical integrity of the reverse osmosis membrane elements, and damage them irreversibly. Organic fouling occurs when organic matter deposits into the membrane, thus reducing its permeability. Both phenomena are interconnected. This books provides an understanding on why biological fouling occurs, what variables affect its development, and what can be done to mitigate its impact.

Shackleton Bailey’s Horatius text is a university set text used world-wide; in the US American market in particular, it became standard reading for students of Latin. From the first edition in 1985, Shackleton Bailey improved and updated his work with each new edition, especially with the 4th revised edition in 2001. Thus the editor has put his Horatius text on course to continue being used and disseminated in the coming decades.

Fascism or Whatever You Want to Call It constructs a crucial framework for diagnosing and exposing fascist ideologies and movements in whatever historical and geographical circumstances or disguises they may appear. At no point in history have so many people been subjected to the rule or threat of fascist movements. Nor have power and privilege ever been so concentrated in the hands of a few. We are living in the age of the decline of bourgeois liberalism and the rise of something much less democratic, something sectarian, extremist, militaristic, and exclusionary, which should be called fascism. Because fascism deploys endless camouflaging strategies, a critical theory for diagnosing and analyzing it is desperately needed. That is what this book offers. Arguing against conventional approaches that use the European model of the 1930s as a yardstick, Bahozde conceptualizes fascism as a form, rather than a system, of power and ideology.

Late antique and early medieval normative sources frequently employ Roman legal terminology to denote a person’s legal inferiority, and thus suggest the continued relevance of the concepts associated with these terms. However, it is far from clear to what extent the use of identical terminology actually indicates the similarity of social phenomena. There is ample evidence of important changes regarding the rights and duties of enslaved persons and the development or emergence of other, new, forms of asymmetrical dependency. This raises the question to what extent consistency in terminology and legal practice is actually an indicator of the stability of social structures. Against this background, a group of scholars of legal, ecclesiastical, and social history were invited to a conference at the BCDSS in March 2022 to scrutinise different law codes and legal sources for their evidence of dependency. The result are these ten papers that truly enhance our understanding of slavery and other dependency relations in late antique and early medieval societies from c. 100 to c. 900 CE.

The notions of intermediation and intercession play a central role in the theology of monotheistic religions. In the Islamic context, the specific doctrine connected to the intermediation (wasīla, wāsiṭa) and intercession of the Prophet Muḥammad towards God (shafāʿa, tawassul), particularly on the Day of Judgement, is widely attested in the primary sources of Islam. The eschatological function of the Prophet is represented in these sources through a series of royal metaphors, connected to his rank (jāh) on the Day of Judgement, which will allow him access to a special station called the Station of Praise (al-maqām al-maḥmūd), endowed with specific attributes of royalty. Within Islamic esotericism, these doctrines receive a metaphysical interpretation closely connected to the reality of Muḥammad as the Perfect Man (al-insān al-kāmil). Since contemporary times, with the birth and spread of the Islamic Reform movements, these doctrines have been the target of intense opposition aimed also at related practices, such as, for example, visiting tombs in search of intercession, eventually resulting in the destruction of numerous sacred sites.

This book covers the science of measuring the invisible building blocks of thought processes that are useful for understanding humans, including technology users, media consumers, and consumers of goods and services. It provides:

• An explanation of what self-report measurement entails for beginners;
• A clear set of assumptions needed in order for self-report measures to yield valuable information;
• A mindset that needs to be adopted when using self-report measurement in the contexts of surveys and experiments;
• Guidance for extracting opinion from social media text content and integrating AI;
• A roadmap for quantifying the errors associated with self-report measurement.

Dynamics, Mediation, Mobilization provides an accessible overview of cultural memory studies, a field substantially shaped by Ann Rigney. In more than sixty short chapters, leading and emerging scholars in the field present key concepts for the study of cultural memory – from ‘divided narratives’ to ‘the platformization of memory’ and ‘the memory of activism’. The volume includes voices from literary studies, media studies, history, sociology, political science, anthropology, and psychology.

Eight sections discuss innovations in the major research areas of cultural memory studies today: 1. History, Narrative, Literature; 2. The Dynamics of Memory; 3. Mediation and Remediation; 4. Lives and Afterlives of Texts; 5. National and Transnational Memory; 6. The Matter of Memory; 7. The Agency of the Aesthetic; 8. The Memory-Activism Nexus.

This new handbook will be an indispensable resource for cultural memory research across disciplines, opening up this exciting field to interested students and advanced academics alike.

The number of organization theorists and sociologists studying innovation and entrepreneurship has grown rapidly over the past two decades, yet it has been roughly 15 years since any volume has attempted a comprehensive review of the state of the literature.

In addition to having grown rapidly, the sociological literatures on entrepreneurship and innovation have evolved relatively independently. However, there are intellectual synergies to be gained in connecting these two literatures. A large share of innovation happens in the context of startups and a large share of startups pursue innovation through the commercialization of products and services.

Featuring engaging contributions from leading scholars in the field, the De Gruyter Handbook of Sociology of Innovation and Entrepreneurship is a must-have and up-to-date summary of the literatures on the sociology of entrepreneurship and innovation. It is a comprehensive reference work, highlighting emerging areas and cutting-edge research, while also providing a vibrant agenda that empowers scholars and students to generate new ideas and knowledge.

The aim of the textbook is two-fold: first to serve as an introductory graduate course in Algebraic Topology and then to provide an application-oriented presentation of some fundamental concepts in Algebraic Topology to the fixed point theory.

A simple approach based on point-set Topology is used throughout to introduce many standard constructions of fundamental and homological groups of surfaces and topological spaces. The approach does not rely on Homological Algebra. The constructions of some spaces using the quotient spaces such as the join, the suspension, and the adjunction spaces are developed in the setting of Topology only.

The computations of the fundamental and homological groups of many surfaces and topological spaces occupy large parts of the book (sphere, torus, projective space, Mobius band, Klein bottle, manifolds, adjunctions spaces). Borsuk's theory of retracts which is intimately related to the problem of the extendability of continuous functions is developed in details. This theory together with the homotopy theory, the lifting and covering maps may serve as additional course material for students involved in General Topology.

The book comprises 280 detailed worked examples, 320 exercises (with hints or references), 80 illustrative figures, and more than 80 commutative diagrams to make it more oriented towards applications (maps between spheres, Borsuk-Ulam Theory, Fixed Point Theorems, …) As applications, the book offers some existence results on the solvability of some nonlinear differential equations subject to initial or boundary conditions.

The book is suitable for students primarily enrolled in Algebraic Topology, General Topology, Homological Algebra, Differential Topology, Differential Geometry, and Topological Geometry. It is also useful for advanced undergraduate students who aspire to grasp easily some new concepts in Algebraic Topology and Applications. The textbook is practical both as a teaching and research document for Bachelor, Master students, and first-year PhD students since it is accessible to any reader with a modest understanding of topological spaces.

The book aspires to fill a gap in the existing literature by providing a research and teaching document which investigates both the theory and the applications of Algebraic Topology in an accessible way without missing the main results of the topics covered.

When Keith Busby published his field-shaping Codex and Context in 2002, the work was referred to as ‘groundbreaking’ and ‘monumental’. It prompted scholars of medieval literature to return to manuscripts in their droves. However, Busby’s Codex and Context would also enact another, more gradual movement. His formulation of the term ‘medieval Francophonia’ to describe the presence, power and effect of French outside France would filter steadily into academic enquiry. The term and concept are now widely recognised and applied in global scholarship, including in multiple major projects dedicated to the topic.

This volume brings together a series of cutting-edge studies of medieval Francophonia, covering in one place and for the first time the fullest scope of the concept’s remit, with contributions on history, historiography, language, literature, culture, society and authority. At the same time as offering a timely contribution to the field, this volume pays tribute to Busby’s life work not only to pioneer medieval Francophonia, but also, and moreover, to encourage the study of the medieval through material philology. Each of the studies here, written by Busby’s friends and colleagues, thus roots its approach in a material context.

Divine epithets serve a variety of purposes, with the most frequent being those related to the locations and functions of the gods. Epithets derived from individual names, however, have received less attention. While few studies have focused on the Greek world, research on the Latin-speaking Mediterranean is still sporadic. Such “anthropophoric” onomastic attributes have often been interpreted as related to the name of a cult founder. Yet, such a practice rather suggests various forms of relationships between the god and the individual (or group) whose name shapes the epithet. These dynamics of “individualisation” of a deity require further exploration. This collective book provides, for the first time, a detailed catalog of 398 Greek and Latin occurrences from the broad circum-Mediterranean area (including Greece, Anatolia, the Levant, North Africa, the Iberian peninsula, Central Europe, Italy, and Rome), related to 45 divinities and 191 different epithets. Multiple case studies ranging from the 5^th or 4^th century BCE to the 4^th century CE, examined through different chronological, geographical, and thematic perspectives, offer valuable insights into local and regional strategies of religious appropriation.

This collection brings together twenty eight chapters written by Stephen Harrison’s colleagues and former students from around the globe to celebrate both his distinguished teaching and research career as a classicist and his outstanding and admirable service to the international classical community. The wide variety of original contributions on topics ranging from Greek to Latin and ancient literature’s reception in opera and contemporary writing is divided into five parts. Each corresponds to the staggering publication record of the honorand, encompassing, as it does, a broad literary spectrum, starting from the literature of the end of the Roman Republic and coming down to Neo-Latin and the reception of Classics in Irish, in English poetry and in European literature and culture in general. This corpus of compelling chapters is hoped to match Stephen Harrison’s rich research output in an illuminating dialogue with it.

Technological evolution represents a potential threat for incumbent businesses while offering opportunities for potential new entrants to surf the wave of change to break-in.

Technology Strategies - Turning technological change into competitive advantage addresses the challenge of reaping the benefits of technological innovation, providing firms with sound concepts, frameworks, tools, and methods to develop technology strategies proactively to carve a viable path for their future.

The book recaps fifty years of research findings reported in academic literature, sieving through the many bits and pieces of what has been learnt and reorganizing them into an integrated framework. The book also contains a part dedicated to the practical implications of the overall framework presented.

The book delves into technological change and its strategic consequences, revisits technological substitutions beyond the classic though potentially misleading S-curve representation, and suggests buying insurance against technological uncertainty, using the concept of organizational competence and capabilities underlying technologies.

Technology Strategies is an excellent resource to help top-tier management craft an overarching technology strategy for the future success of their organization.

Derivations on von Neumann algebras are well understood and are always inner, meaning that they act as commutators with a fixed element from the algebra itself. The purpose of this book is to provide a complete description of derivations on algebras of operators affiliated with a von Neumann algebra. The book is designed to serve as an introductory graduate level to various measurable operators affiliated with a von Neumann algebras and their properties. These classes of operators form their respective algebras and the problem of describing derivations on these algebras was raised by Ayupov, and later by Kadison and Liu. A principal aim of the book is to fully resolve the Ayupov-Kadison-Liu problem by proving a necessary and sufficient condition of the existence of non-inner derivation of algebras of measurable operators. It turns out that only for a finite type I von Neumann algebra M may there exist a non-inner derivation on the algebra of operators affiliated with M. In particular, it is established that the classical derivation d/dt of functions of real variables can be extended up to a derivation on the algebra of all measurable functions. This resolves a long-standing problem in classical analysis.

Gagaku, the ceremonial music of the imperial court, Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in Japan, was established in the early 8th century and has been continuously performed since then. Despite its importance in the cultural and religious history of Japan, this is the only book on the cultural history of Gagaku published outside of Japan. The chapters, written by the leading experts on Gagaku in Japan and elsewhere, address religious, philosophical, and socio-cultural aspects of this music with focus on Buddhism, Confucianism, Shinto, and also explore the impact of modernization and globalization.

The book discusses developments from the 1600s until the present (most previous works focus on the 8th through 12th centuries), including the samurai appropriation of Gagaku and the diffusion of this music among learned commoners. It also traces the history of the global interest for Gagaku among contemporary composers in the early 20th century. This book brings a new understanding of the cultural history of Japan, by focusing on music, its conceptual system, and its impact on religion, society, and politics. A must read for specialists of Japanese religion and culture, musicologists, and all those who are interested in world music.

Numerical methods are the mathematical procedures that approximate the solution of complex mathematical problems into much simpler form and which find a wide variety of use while solving complex Physical Chemistry problems. This book aims to aide in understanding of such numerical methods including solving complex differential equations and numerical differentiation & integration. Moreover it also explains various statistical tests used in Analytical Chemistry for data analysis. The author has tried to include as many example from Chemistry problems for a better understanding of the methods.

Un beau jour de décembre 875, le tisserand ʿUmar b. Mūsā, épousa Ḥalīma bint Nafīs devant d’illustres témoins de Fusṭāṭ. Quelque six siècles plus tard, au printemps 1411, Dame Fāṭima bint Fatḥ al-Dīn convola en secondes noces avec Ṭūġān, un mamelouk à l’avenir prometteur, et l’accueillit avec sa suite dans son palais de la capitale égyptienne. Les historiens d’aujourd’hui n’en auraient rien su si leurs actes de mariage n’avaient pas résisté au passage du temps, à l’instar de la centaine de pièces documentaires dont Mathieu Tillier et Naïm Vanthieghem offrent pour la première fois l’édition, la traduction et l’étude. Riches ou indigents, libres ou esclaves, les hommes et les femmes d’Égypte médiévale prirent l’habitude, dès le VIII^e siècle au moins, de faire consigner leurs unions par écrit, afin d’en expliciter les clauses et les modalités. Les ruptures par répudiation ou divorce à l’amiable étaient elles aussi confiées au calame des notaires. Les actes inédits ici réunis, s’échelonnant sur les périodes abbasside, fatimide, ayyoubide et mamelouke, ouvrent une fenêtre d’observation unique sur les stratégies matrimoniales, tant dans la capitale que dans les campagnes égyptiennes, sur les relations conjugales, sur les femmes et les hommes du commun comme de l’aristocratie, et sur les normes juridiques qui présidèrent à leurs unions. Après une première partie consacrée à l’édition de ces actes et de pièces annexes, les auteurs offrent une étude générale des pratiques matrimoniales dans l’Égypte médiévale d’après la documentation arabe.

Thirteen original essays study the mobility of Classicists sensu latiore, including philologists and archaeologists, between the Anglophone and Germanophone worlds between the mid-19th C. and 2020, concentrating on the North Atlantic Triangle. American classicists "rushed across the seas" for doctoral work in Germany (the great Hellenist Gildersleeve, the American circle around Wölfflin, the historian of classical scholarship Gudeman). The archaeologist Schliemann’s dubious profiteering in America is exposed. Two contemporary scholars describe how they moved to enrich their career horizons (Ludwig, Shanzer). More, however, sadly, were forced to seek asylum from 20^th century Fascism and anti-Semitism (Bieler, Brendel, Fraenkel). One (Gudeman) emigrated from America to Germany in the early Nazi period and later died in a labor camp. The lasting prominence of one novelist (Wallace) and one critic with a dark past (Pöschl), whose influential works crossed the sea, are also evaluated. The volume includes work in academic sociology, archival and epistolographical detective-work, in life writing, transmission-reception, and the history of scholarship.

Um die nuancierte Funktionsweise von Interpunktion in den neutestamentlichen Handschriften der ägyptischen Spätantike zu ermitteln und eine mögliche Abhängigkeit oder auch Eigenständigkeit der koptischen von der älteren griechischen Interpunktion zu skizzieren, wurden mehrere Handschriften beider Sprachen nach einem neu entwickelten Schema behandelt. Die ausgewählten Zeugen umfassen die griechischen Kodizes P.Bodmer II und XV sowie den protobohairischen Papyrus Bodmer III und den sahidischen Gospelkodex sa 1, daneben mehrere Bilinguen mit dem Johannesevangelium.

Eine Zusammenstellung aller registrierten Pausen und deren Ordnung in ein Kategoriensystem bilden die Datensammlung. Eine darauf aufbauende Untersuchung von Schlüsselworten und bestimmten syntaktischen Strukturen auf die Regelmäßigkeit ihrer Markierung lässt Muster erkennen, die sich je nach Handschrift unterscheiden, jedoch häufig gemeinsame Grundzüge tragen. Die erfasste Interpunktion wirkt zumeist satzgliedernd und erleichtert den Lesefluss, kann teils aber auch inhaltliche Schwerpunkte setzen. Die Ergebnisse werfen neues Licht auf das setting, in dem die Handschriften produziert worden sind, und erlauben textkritisch relevante Einblicke in das spätantike Textverständnis.

Analysis and Probability on graphs is an introduction to random graphs, Markov chains on digraphs, entropy of Markov Chains, and discrete Lyapunov exponents and Hausdorff dimension, requiring only minimal background in probability, mathematical analysis, and graphs. This textbook includes constructive discussions about the motivation of basic concepts, and many worked-out problems in each chapter, making it ideal for classroom use or self-study.

The practice of management has experienced significant changes in recent years. Advances in technology, globalization, cultural shifts, competitive pressures, and the unpredictability of a fast-paced business environment have presented new challenges as well as opportunities for contemporary managers. The book Evolution of Management Practice has assembled the viewpoints of leading academics, management practitioners, and business consultants in order to uncover the most effective approaches pertaining to planning, leading, organizing and controlling. The book is poised to be an authoritative reference that will guide the practice of management for many years to come.

This book gives an advanced overview of several topics in infinite group theory. It can also be considered as a rigorous introduction to combinatorial and geometric group theory. The philosophy of the book is to describe the interaction between these two important parts of infinite group theory. In this line of thought, several theorems are proved multiple times with different methods either purely combinatorial or purely geometric while others are shown by a combination of arguments from both perspectives.

The first part of the book deals with Nielsen methods and introduces the reader to results and examples that are helpful to understand the following parts. The second part focuses on covering spaces and fundamental groups, including covering space proofs of group theoretic results. The third part deals with the theory of hyperbolic groups. The subjects are illustrated and described by prominent examples and an outlook on solved and unsolved problems.

New edition now includes the topics on universal free groups, quasiconvex subgroups and hyperbolic groups, and also Stallings foldings and subgroups of free groups. New results on groups of F-types are added.

The Aqedah, i.e., the story of the 'binding' of Isaac by Abraham, is a core text in all three Abrahamic religions and has been widely discussed in Judaism, Christianity and Islam for centuries. It still represents an intellectual, moral, and spiritual challenge for anyone who claims to be able to link morality and faith in God in a reasonably comprehensible way. The contributions in this anthology address this challenge from philosophical, theological and literary perspectives, by considering exemplary problems, epochs and authors pertaining to all three Abrahamic religions. The first part contains seven contributions exploring the epistemic and/or philosophical dimensions of the Aqedah. The second part contains nine essays on the (history of the) interpretation of the Aqedah from Israelite/Jewish, Christian and Islamic perspectives. The three texts in the third and final part discuss narratological issues and reflections of the problem within modern Hebrew literature. The volume complements and expands the existing scholarship on the subject, above all through its consistently interreligious approach and the inclusion of current philosophical and literary sources and debates.

This book is a comprehensive guide to Linear Algebra and covers all the fundamental topics such as vector spaces, linear independence, basis, linear transformations, matrices, determinants, inner products, eigenvectors, bilinear forms, and canonical forms. It also introduces concepts such as fields, rings, group homomorphism, and binary operations early on, which gives students a solid foundation to understand the rest of the material.

Unlike other books on Linear Algebra that are either too theory-oriented with fewer solved examples or too problem-oriented with less good quality theory, this book strikes a balance between the two. It provides easy-to-follow theorem proofs and a considerable number of worked examples with various levels of difficulty. The fundamentals of the subject are explained in a methodical and straightforward way.

This book is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students of Mathematics and Engineering Mathematics who are studying Linear Algebra. It is also a useful resource for students preparing for exams in higher education competitions such as NET, GATE, lectureships, etc. The book includes some of the most recent and challenging questions from these exams.

This book delves into democratic deficiencies in the United States federal government, especially those that disenfranchise minority communities. It highlights key contemporary and persistent challenges to American democracy, examines them in their historical context, and proposes reforms to remedy them. It will serve as unique secondary text for US government & politics, African American racial & ethnic politics, and public policy courses.

Few philosophers present themselves with as much complexity as Marcus Tullius Cicero. At once a philosopher, statesman, orator, and lawyer, Cicero consciously fashioned his own image for posterity and wrote philosophical texts as invitations for his readers to think for themselves. His philosophy has continued to unfold over the centuries, repeatedly inspiring new and independent philosophical positions. Since J.G.F. Powell’s pivotal contribution in 1995, we have witnessed countless translations and scholarly treatments of Cicero’s philosophy that emphasize his creativity and influence. In this tradition, the present volume offers fresh and incisive contributions that advance the ongoing renaissance in Cicero scholarship.

Part One of the volume focuses on Cicero’s approaches to writing philosophy and on specific interpretive questions facing readers of his philosophical corpus. Part Two traces key moments in Cicero’s philosophical afterlife, from Augustine through the Scholastic period to the Renaissance, culminating in the rich and varied tradition of Ciceronian reception in the European Enlightenment. Throughout the volume, special attention is given to Cicero’s practical philosophy.

Roman epic is traditionally understood to advance a masculine, martial form of heroism. In his version of the Argonaut legend, the Argonautica, however, Valerius Flaccus challenges that prevailing ethos of the genre by turning Medea, Jason’s love interest in the story, into a heroic figure and Jason himself into her emasculated victim. The present study charts this plotline as it unfolds in the second half of Valerius’ epic, finding its key source of inspiration in the poetry of Ovid with its tales of transgressive love, gender-bending, and unconventional heroism. Employing an extensive program of allusion to his Metamorphoses and elegiac works, Valerius transforms Medea from the innocent, vulnerable girl we see in her first appearance in the poem into a threatening, powerful, and masculine figure, who not only helps Jason fulfill his quest for the golden fleece, but eclipses him as hero in the process. Readers of this study will gain insight into Valerius’ inventive reworking of the Argonaut myth and innovations within the epic genre as well as a greater appreciation for Ovid’s influence on Roman epic poetry in the first century CE.

Although nearly all scholars acknowledge that the Metamorphoses appears to engage with pastoral poetry, there has not been a monograph specifically designed to address and explore the interaction between pastoral and epic in the Metamorphoses. This book fills in this gap, building on modern approaches to intertextuality, Ovidian, and pastoral studies.

The present book is comprised from five main chapters: 1. Pastoral Encounters, 2. Female Pastoral, 3. Mourning Pastoral, 4. Pastoral Ascent in the Metamorphoses, 5. Pastoral, Golden Age and the Metamorphoses). The chapters are often in dialogue with one another, thus offering a more sustained examination of the topic. Alongside the lack of comprehensive monograph on pastoral in the Metamorphoses, the preseny book’s originality and contribution lie on the exploration of pastoral in the Metamorphoses through the lenses of fiction, heroics, and gender, notions which are interwoven throughout the chapters.

This modern approach to generic interaction will be useful for scholars working on Ovid and across the range of Greek and Roman literature, as well as for students of Classics.

Recent advancements in Transmission Electron Microscopy is built upon the remarkable achievements of the transmission electron microscope, especially, with the aberration corrected object lens, which itself is the incoherent integration of the particle electron optics and modern wave imaging technology.This involves the particle-wave duality of electrons.This book answers questions by applying the de Broglie Hypothesis and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity on the relationship between particles and electromagnetic waves to shed some light onto the electron microscopy. The first chapter explains what an electron is, which includes: (a) using the transmission electron microscope to observe the wave-particle duality of electrons, (b) the internal structure of the electron, (c) the electron as a confined electromagnetic vortices field in a corpuscle space. The following chapters, then, decipher the enigmatic relationship between the de Broglie wave of the electron and the internal electromagnetic flux circulatory motion, and analyze the spatiotemporal modification of the traveling electron corpuscle as it passes through the electron gun and magnetic lens. Based on the de Broglie wave of the traveling electron corpuscle at a certain velocity, the author defines the electron microscopy as the technology steering the velocity of the electron corpuscle assemble which encodes the information of periodic spatial grating constructed by the atoms and electromagnetic potential field, which surround the flying electrons. Then the author uses the space-time Talbot effects of the electrons to interpret the high resolution images, which was first developed by Ijima-Cowley, and expounds the contrast of the high resolution electron microscopy images as the intensity distribution of the assemble of corpuscle electron torus pulses train or beam at near field and at its far-field, which is a diffraction pattern. The final chapter of the book elaborates on how to understand the quantum electron microscopy. This book offers a comprehensive understanding what the quantum electron microscopy is, that may bring the microscopy field beyond the atom’s spatial periodicity in materials.

Is entrepreneurship a pathway out of poverty? Does creating a business represent a means for improving one’s life circumstances? Surprisingly little is known about ventures started by those in circumstances of poverty. This pioneering handbook integrates diverse perspectives from around the world regarding the poverty and entrepreneurship interface.

While the tendency among many scholars, economic developers, and policymakers is to downplay these ventures, arguing they are largely inefficient, marginal enterprises that create little innovation and few jobs, the chapters in this handbook demonstrate their significant contributions, and encourage societies to invest in their development.

The authors explore a range of factors affecting the ability of the poor to create enterprises that contribute to their well-being, including the role played by personal capabilities, education, family support and faith, availability of microfinance, technology, supportive community ecosystems and a munificent institutional environment. By shedding light on issues that can help nations realize the potential of these ventures, this volume demonstrates how entrepreneurship can serve as a source of empowerment, while providing direction regarding ways to surmount the obstacles that stand in the way.

Modern Science and R&D critically rely on teamwork. This completely revised and expanded book "Towards Scientific Leadership" offers a unique approach to helping young professionals transition from productive team members to effective team leaders. The authors provide innovative ideas and strategies for leadership development, setting the book apart from others in the field.

The basis of being a successful leader is authentic self-leadership – essential for all who want to control their own life. People who know themselves and realise what it takes to be productive and deliver results also understand how to lead others and inspire them to perform naturally and undertake initiatives. For scientists, who like to focus on knowledge and insight and how to transfer it to others, self-leadership is key to creating value and adopting it in practice. The book explains how to become a successful (self)leader, not with tricks, but with an inspiring vision and mission, the correct mindset, and effective teamwork.

Variously identified as an art, a technology, and a professional prerequisite, forms of shorthand have been in use from Antiquity to the modern day. Far from a niche corner in manuscript studies, shorthand represents an almost global phenomenon that has touched upon many aspects of everyday life and of scholarship. Due to its immediate illegibility, however, and the daunting task of decipherment, shorthand has long been neglected as a research object in its own right. The immense quantity of extant and unread shorthand manuscripts has been downplayed, as has the technology’s place in cultures of learning, religious devotion, court practice, parliamentary procedure, authorial composition, corporate life, public and private writing, and the academy. As the first ever peer-reviewed volume on the subject, this book presents a much-needed introduction to shorthand, its history, and its disparate historiography, alongside eight contributions by shorthand specialists that showcase some of the many lines of inquiry that shorthand inspires across a range of disciplinary and methodological perspectives. For readers with a vested interest in shorthand, this volume provides a range of approaches to shorthand in the Latin West, from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century, upon which to orient, substantiate, and inform their own work. For general readers, this publication invites scholars to consider ways in which historically overlooked or underestimated forms of writing facilitated a variety of writing cultures in different contexts, periods, and languages.

This book contains surveys and research articles on the state-of-the-art in finitely presented groups for researchers and graduate students. Overviews of current trends in exponential groups and of the classification of finite triangle groups and finite generalized tetrahedron groups are complemented by new results on a conjecture of Rosenberger and an approximation theorem. A special emphasis is on algorithmic techniques and their complexity, both for finitely generated groups and for finite Z-algebras, including explicit computer calculations highlighting important classical methods. A further chapter surveys connections to mathematical logic, in particular to universal theories of various classes of groups, and contains new results on countable elementary free groups. Applications to cryptography include overviews of techniques based on representations of p-groups and of non-commutative group actions. Further applications of finitely generated groups to topology and artificial intelligence complete the volume. All in all, leading experts provide up-to-date overviews and current trends in combinatorial group theory and its connections to cryptography and other areas.

This volume of essays in honor of Lucia Athanassaki offers a great variety of chapters on a number of topics in Greek and Latin literature and genres, from Greek epic and lyric poetry to Greek drama and late antiquity, Greek historiography, and Latin lyric poetry.

This book introduces quadratic ideal numbers as objects of study with applications to binary quadratic forms and other topics. The text requires only minimal background in number theory, much of which is reviewed as needed. Computational methods are emphasized throughout, making this subject appropriate for individual study or research at the undergraduate level or above.

Die Forschungen von K. Holl (1896 und 1899) und M. Richard (1962 und 1976) haben gezeigt, dass die von M. Lequien 1712 (PG 95–96) publizierten Sacra Parallela nur Auszüge eines sehr viel umfangreicheren, in drei Bücher unterteilten Florilegs sind, das in seiner ursprünglichen Form verloren ist, aber mit Hilfe der aus ihm abgeleiteten Florilegien einigermaßen rekonstruiert werden kann. Spätestens seit dem 10. Jh. wurden die Sacra Johannes von Damaskos zugeschrieben, wohl zu Unrecht, da gute Gründe für eine Datierung des Werkes in das erste Viertel des 7. Jh.s sprechen. Das erste Buch ist Gott gewidmet.

Religion plays a central role in a variety of social movements, including many that are not explicitly faith-based. This book provides the first systematic analysis of the ways religion contributes to diverse movements for social change. It draws on a variety of case studies, from the US and globally, to build an argument about religion’s distinctive capacity to provide logistical support, to inspire and legitimize activist practices, to connect different spatial scales, and to link big ideas to everyday experiences.

The book’s analysis rests on three foundational arguments. First and most fundamentally, it is impossible to understand movements for social change without analyzing the multiple ways that religion shapes their ideas, communities, and practices.

Second, religion is always in mutually transformative interaction with social and political forces and can never be entirely separated from them. In social movements and in the public sphere more generally, people interpret politics with values and concepts drawn from religion and understand their activism as spiritually meaningful. This challenges the assumption that religion is a largely a private matter.

Third, scholars must treat religion as a relatively independent variable, which actively shapes social processes just as it is shaped by them. We cannot make sense of religion’s role in social movements without acknowledging that religious institutions and traditions have, to some extent, a life of their own.

Currently, large amounts of plastic waste are incinerated or landfilled, despite the existence of several recycling routes. In this book, a roadmap is provided to increase the amount of recycled plastic waste. Focus is on poly(methyl methacrylate), PMMA, which is a polymer widely used for its optical properties. The entire recycling chain, from collection of plastic waste, to mechanical/chemical recycling, and purification is covered.

Biogenic toxins are fascinating natural products characterized by an enormous diversity of chemical structures and pharmacological activities. They not only pose hazards to humans and animals, but they are important components in the interplay of substances and living beings in nature and, moreover, important sources for new drugs.

Numerous images of plants and chemical structural formulas complete the book, as well as extensive references for further reading.

The multivolume reference is an essential resource for physicians, veterinarians, pharmacists, chemists, biochemists, food chemists and biologists, for students in the relevant fields, and maybe for interested laymen.

All aspects of natural toxins based on the latest scientific knowledge are included:

• All aspects of the toxicology of all living organisms and natural foods, chemistry, action mechanisms, symptoms of intoxications.
• The only book arranged on a strictly scientific base according to the biogenetic origin and chemical structure.

Natural Poisons and Venoms in 5 Volumes:

Volume 1: Plant Toxins: Terpenes and Steroids 2023, ISBN 978-3-11-072472-1

Volume 2: Plant Toxins: Polyketides, Phenylpropanoids and Further Compounds 2024, ISBN 978-3-11-072851-4

Volume 4: Animal Toxins 2023, ISBN 978-3-11-072854-5

Volume 5: Fungal and Microbial Toxins 2025, ISBN 978-3-11-072856-9

Environmental Injustice and Catastrophe meticulously explores key global security issues that pose severe threats to the future of humanity and the planet. This distinctive, timely, and conceptually rigorous book combines a rich body of research. It is a valuable source for sociologists, political scientists, historians, critical theorists, and all those who care about our future and environment.

Flagging enrollments. Disappearing majors. Closed departments. The academic study of religion is in trouble. No Bosses, No Gods argues that Karl Marx is essential for reversing course—but it will take letting go of what most scholars think they know about him.

The book’s first half draws on the scholarship of international specialists—as well as new translations of the original German texts—to present Marx the anti-theorist, a political journalist deeply skeptical about what happens when the professoriate sits down to "theorize" about social worlds. The second half appeals to this modified portrait of Marx and charts a new course beyond both actually existing religious studies and contemporary genealogies of the religion category. The result, perhaps, is an academic study of religion worth having in the twenty-first century.

Many data needed for problem solving in Chemical Engineering are dispersed over the literature. Also, various systems of units are used, often forcing the user to do tedious conversions before a ‘quick calculation’ can be done. In this companion the authors have compiled those data frequently used in transport phenomena and related subjects. Since all data are in S.I. units a rapid access to various calculations is facilitated.

This compendium consists of four parts. The first part provides general information varying from heuristics for quick estimations to S.I. units and their conversions. The second part consists of frequently used mathematics. In addition to general techniques, it contains vectorial and tensorial calculus relevant to hydrodynamics and elementary rheology. The third part is a compendium of transport phenomena and includes data relevant for environmental sciences. A systematic arrangement facilitates its use. In the final part various material properties are presented. Special attention is given to the most common materials: air and water, but also other materials like hydrocarbons, foods and plastics are included.

The comprehensive form of the books facilitates its use for students, scientists and professionals.

In Creation and Contemplation, Julien Decharneux explores the connections between the cosmology of the Qur’ān and various cosmological traditions of Late Antiquity, with a focus on Syriac Christianity.

The first part of the book studies how, in exhorting its audience to contemplate the world, the Qur’ān carries on a tradition of natural contemplation that had developed throughout Late Antiquity in the Christian world. In this regard, the analysis suggests particularly striking connections with the mystical and ascetic literature of the Church of the East, which was in effervescence at the time of the emergence of Islam.

The second part argues that the Qur’ānic cosmological discourse is built so as to serve the overarching theological message of the text, namely God’s absolute unity. Despite the allusive, and sometimes obscure, way in which the Qur’ān talks about the world’s coming into being and its maintenance in existence, the text betrays its authors’ acquaintance with cosmological debates of Late Antiquity.

In studying the Qur’ān through the prism of Late Antiquity, this book contributes to our understanding of the emergence of Islam and its relationship with other religious traditions of the time.

Winner of the 2022 Marie-Antoinette Van Huele Prize and the 2023 Richard Kreglinger Prize (both Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Free University of Brussels.

The aim of this book is to provide a comprehensive guide to the metaphysics of Bohmian mechanics. Bohmian mechanics is a quantum theory that describes the motion of particles following trajectories that are determined by the quantum wave-function. The key question that the theory has to face relates to the ontological interpretation of the quantum wave-function. The main debate has mostly centered around two opposing views, wave-function realism on the one hand, and the nomological view on the other hand. The supporters of the former believe that the wave-function is a physical field living in a high-dimensional space; the supporters of the latter regard the wave-function as just an entity that appears in the laws of nature and lacks physical status. This monograph discusses both views open-mindedly, illuminating their tacit problems and providing new insight into how they can be overcome. Moreover, it discusses the structuralist view, which is often neglected and which can be regarded as a reconciliation of the two main opposing camps.

Wolff's book defends the Kantian idea of a "general logic" whose principles underlie special systems of deductive logic. It thus undermines "logical pluralism," which tolerates the co-existence of divergent systems of modern logic without asking for consistent common principles. Part I of Wolff’s book identifies the formal language in which the most general principles of logic must be expressed. This language turns out to be a version of syllogistic language already used by Aristotle. The universal validity of logical principles, as well as the translatability of other logical languages into this language, are shown to depend only on the meanings of its logical vocabulary. Part II of the book answers the metalogical question concerning the deductive relation between general logic and special logical systems, which also have their own (less general) principles. This part identifies the rules according to which logical rules can be derived from principles. The main result of the book is that the highest principles of logic and metalogics are provided by the syllogistic, when properly understood.

Organic contaminants even in very low concentrations can have toxic and ecotoxic effects on exposed organisms. Detection and quantification of such trace amounts in diverging matrices (e.g., water, air, soil, food, tissue, organisms) is challenging and great carefulness and strategic thinking is needed to get reliable results along the way from taking samples up to the final analysis. In the 2^nd edition, besides revisions of existing chapters, new analytical technologies and recent application examples are presented: non-target mass spectrometric analysis, trace analysis of per- and polyfluoroalkylated "forever chemicals", organophosphorus esters (nerve agents), and micro- and nanoplastic particles in the environment.

Students will learn about peculiarities and state of the art organic trace analysis and acquire basic and advanced principles of

• statistical evaluation of analytical results
• quality control strategies and good laboratory practices
• sampling techniques from various matrices
• sample treatment, enrichment and clean-up techniques
• chromatographic analyses including hyphenated techniques, and spectroscopy as well
• mass spectrometry
• and bioanalytical tools.

An extended chapter on selected applications will transfer the theoretical understanding into applied scientific problems. Students will profit from a comprehensive and state of the art overview of organic trace analyses and from an extensive collection of relevant literature.

Russian culture and Slavic Studies maintain that Gogol is an incontrovertible Russian writer. To call him a Ukrainian is to encounter deep skepticism. Oddly, the grounds of his "Russianness" are rarely made explicit and even less often examined critically. This book addresses these problems. It shows, for example, how scholars assume that language and theme make Gogol Russian. How others call him Russian by denying Ukrainians status as a separate nation, while still others avoid explanations altogether by representing him as a typical Russian in a national culture and literature. This book challenges such paradigms, situating Gogol within an "imperial culture," where Russian and Ukrainian elites shared intellectual pursuits but clashed over rival national projects. It reveals Gogol as a Ukrainian Russian-language Imperial Writer, a person who embraced an emergent Ukrainian movement while remaining a loyal imperial subject. This book will appeal to Russianists and Ukrainianists, anyone interested in questions of identity, cultural politics, and colonialism. It provides ample context and background, making it suitable for students. Readers who enjoy Taras Bulba will be drawn to the chapter that dispels the myth of its "Russianness."

CSEL 109 is the first critical edition of the five books of Vigilius of Thapsus’ Contra Eutychetem based on all known codices. Composed in the aftermath of the Council of Chalcedon, the books deal with the refutation of the Monophysite heresy and the defence of Chalcedonism. The introduction presents the stemmatic classification of the manuscripts, discusses linguistic peculiarities and explains the reasons for textual decisions.

Im fünften Faszikel des Supplements zu CIL IX legt Marco Buonocore für rund 150 neu gefundene lateinische Inschriften der Regio Italiae quarta eine kritische Edition samt bildlicher Dokumentation vor. Der Band enthält ferner Addenda und Corrigenda zu den bereits im 19. Jahrhundert bekannten, 1883 von Theodor Mommsen edierten Inschriften, ebenso zu den 2018–2022 in den Faszikeln 1–4 publizierten. Der zweite Teil des Faszikels bietet die Gesamtindices zum Stammband und den Supplementen. Der Band schließt mit einer Übersichtskarte.

Das Gebiet der Regio Italiae quarta umfasst die Territorien der Samnites, Frentani, Marrucini, Paeligni, Vestini, Marsi, Aequi, Sabini. Es besitzt umfangreiches und für die Ereignis- und Kulturgeschichte des Römischen Imperiums bedeutendes epigraphisches Quellenmaterial. Der Band schließt die langjährige Forschungstätigkeit von Marco Buonocore zu den Inschriften der Regio quarta ab.

The book investigates the multifaceted entanglements between the many pasts and presents of the Nordic medieval period and colonialism. The edited volume contributes to the untangling of questions concerning how present, recent, and past structures of colonialism affect historiography on the medieval Nordic past. Consisting of thematically diverse chapters, the book brings together a range of approaches related to medieval colonialism in a Nordic context, touching both on medieval and medievalist factors. The editors and contributors understand their project as part of the growing conversation about colonialism and its reverberations in academia, and as a contribution to decolonization efforts. The volume will offer an interdisciplinary approach to oft-neglected aspects of the medieval world through an incorporation of more inclusive methodologies and re-readings of both medieval texts and previous scholarship.

This volume looks to core ideas defining Goethe’s work and his influence on his contemporaries and inheritors. Contributions to this volume explore his impact through ideas of organic and aesthetic formation; methods of biology, reason, becoming, and Bildung; modes of self-conscious comportment to nature, art, and the self; and conceptions of finitude and divinity. This volume underscores the interdisciplinary impact of Goethe’s thought and work. Of particular note is Goethe's unified and non-reductive account of nature, human education, social life, and reason. These contributions shed light on how Goethe's thought furthers the methodological sciences of his day while yielding resources for the grounding of theories of art in principles of idealism as well as imminent critiques of idealism through insights about organic formation and activity. The result is a compelling sense of unity through plurality. Contributors: James Conant, Richard Eldridge, Camilla Flodin, Michael Forster, Gerad Gentry, Keren Gorodeisky, Johannes Haag, Joel Lande, Lara Ostaric, Mattias Pirholt, Anne Pollok, Karin Schutjer, Allen Speight, Joan Steigerwald, Violetta Waibel, David Wellbery.

We live in a world riven through with standards. To understand more of their deep, rich past is to understand ourselves better.
The two volumes, Standardization in the Middle Ages. Volume 1: The North and Standardization in the Middle Ages. Volume 2: Europe, turn to the Middle Ages to give a deeper understanding of the medieval ideas and practices that produced—and were produced by—standards and standardization. At first glance, the Middle Ages might appear an unlikely place to look for standardization. The editors argue that, on the contrary, generating predictability is a precondition for meaningful cultural interaction in any historical period and that we may look to the Middle Ages to learn more about the historical, social, and cognitive processes of standardization.
This multidisciplinary venture, which includes medievalists from the fields of history, intellectual history, art history, philology, numismatics, and more, as well as scholars of cognitive science, informatics, and anthropology, interrogates how medieval people and groups envisioned and enforced predictability, uniformity, and order, and how they attempted to obtain and maintain standards across vast distances and heterogeneous social and cultural structures.

This three-volume set of essays is dedicated to Alain Touwaide, known for his far-reaching investigations in fields such as ancient medicine, botany, pharmacy, texts and manuscripts, the classical tradition, translation, the history of science, ethnopharmacology, and plant therapies. The essays, penned by 80 international scholars and researchers and written in six languages, are grouped into three broad categories—Manuscripts, Plants, and Remedies—to reflect Alain’s main areas of research. Each category is broken into subgroups, such as manuscripts, texts, and science; botany; gardens, materia medica, pharmacy, drugs, archaeology, medical traditions, and continuity of scientific knowledge in the East and West. The papers reach across many fields of scholarship, science, and medicine and are, necessarily and fundamentally, trans-disciplinary, trans-chronological, and trans-geographic. These volumes are not so much a Festschrift as an approach to Alain’s work through many disciplines and methods, a discussion of the current status of each field, and an opening into new perspectives.

Over a period of 22 years (1934-1955), the mathematician Kurt Gödel wrote down philosophical remarks, the so-called Maximen Philosophie (Max Phil). They are preserved in 15 notebooks in Gabelsberger shorthand. The first booklet contains general philosophical considerations, booklets two and three consist of Gödel's individual ethics. The following volumes show that Gödel developed a philosophy of science in which he places his discussions on physics, psychology, biology, mathematics, language, theology and history in the context of a metaphysics.

A complete, historical-critical edition of Gödel's Philosophical Notebooks is now being prepared for the first time at the Kurt Gödel Research Centre of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. One volume will be published each year as part of this edition.

In volume 4, Gödel deals with fundamental questions of mathematics and logic as well as the philosophy of mathematics. In addition, the relationship between different scientific disciplines and their specific questions are at the centre of his considerations. These include, in particular, philosophy, psychology and theology.

Drawing on almost a decade of first-hand experience, Principles of Digital Democracy presents a unique look at digital democracy tools in action. Whether it is carbon budgeting in Canada, voting on legislation in Italy or policy consultation in Taiwan, this book explains not just what is possible to achieve with digital democracy tools today, but how to assess the life-cycle of civic engagement, as well as different approaches to security and policy implementation.

Principles of Digital Democracy combines theory with practice, giving the reader an overarching theory of the components (Bestandteile) of digital democracy (e.g. ideation, deliberation, decision-making), as well as numerous case studies from around the world. Interviews with organizers and participants provide further insight into who participates in digital democracy and why they do so.

In the summer of 1783, an unusual dry fog descended upon large parts of the northern hemisphere. The fog brought with it bloodred sunsets, a foul sulfuric odor, and a host of other peculiar weather events. Inspired by the Enlightenment, many naturalists attempted to find reasonable explanations for these occurrences.

Between 8 June 1783 and 7 February 1784, a 27-kilometer-long fissure volcano erupted in the Icelandic highlands. It produced the largest volume of lava released by any volcanic eruption on planet Earth in the last millennium. In Iceland, the eruption led to the death of one-fifth of the population. The jetstream carried its volcanic gases further afield to Europe and beyond, where they settled as a fog, the origin of which puzzled naturalists and laypersons.

"A Mist Connection" is an environmental history that documents the Laki eruption and its consequences for Iceland and the wider world. The book combines methods of historical disaster research, climate history, global history, history of science, and geology in an interdisciplinary approach.

Icelandic flood lava eruptions of this scale have a statistical recurrence period of 200 to 500 years; it is crucial to understand their nature so that we can prepare for the next one. An eruption of this magnitude would surely be disastrous for our modern, globalized, and interconnected world.

This book presents nativism – the notion that foreign-born immigrants are not "real" Americans – as the leading ideological feature of American politics. Clifford Young and Kirby Goidel offer a rigorous and operational definition of nativism that, in combination with original survey data, explores public attitudes about who counts as an American.

They explain the economic, demographic, and cultural circumstances that cause this condition to break through and demonstrate its distinguishing policy preferences. Not only do the authors define the US as a Nativist Nation historically, they also show how it has profoundly affected contemporary politics.

Specifically, they look at the primary elections in 2015–2016, during which Donald Trump tapped into a wellspring of nativist sentiment and found a receptive audience thanks to bold rhetoric.

The reception of Boccaccio’s works began early on, throughout Europe. This is reflected impressively in the splendidly illuminated manuscripts of Filocolo, Filostrato and Teseida, De casibus virorum illustrium, De mulieribus claris, and The Decameron. The stories of The Decameron, an entertaining and profound universe illustrating the all-too-human, were depicted on wedding chests, and in panel paintings and wall frescoes. They were brought into the modern age primarily by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film re-enactment dating from 1971. This volume focuses on Boccaccio’s drawings and the development of his portrait iconography, the illuminated manuscripts and their courtly patrons, and on the impact of The Decameron and its stories, which are so significant in art history and theory.

While there are thousands of books written about feedback control, it is surprising that this is the very first book about feedforward control. Feedforward control is a very powerful technique to compensate for measurable load disturbances in regulation control problems, and the use of feedforward control to assist the traditional feedback controllers is rapidly increasing in industry. The main goal of this book is to describe the power of feedforward control and to present different tuning rules for these controllers. To achieve this goal, theoretical and practical contributions are presented throughout the book to make the technique understandable and easy to implement. The book contains many practical aspects, both in terms of tuning and implementation of the feedforward controller. Many simulation examples are also provided, as well as a presentation of industrial experiences obtained from feedforward control applied to temperature control in greenhouses. For these reasons, we believe that the book will be useful not only at various levels in the teaching systems, but also for engineers working in industry.

Die Forschungen von K. Holl (1896 und 1899) und M. Richard (1962 und 1976) haben gezeigt, dass die von M. Lequien 1712 (PG 95–96) publizierten Sacra Parallela nur Auszüge eines sehr viel umfangreicheren, in drei Bücher unterteilten Florilegs sind, das in seiner ursprünglichen Form verloren ist, aber mit Hilfe der aus ihm abgeleiteten Florilegien einigermaßen rekonstruiert werden kann. Spätestens seit dem 10. Jh. wurden die Sacra Johannes von Damaskos zugeschrieben, wohl zu Unrecht, da gute Gründe für eine Datierung des Werkes in das erste Viertel des 7. Jh.s sprechen. Das erste Buch ist Gott gewidmet.

This book is ideal as an introduction to algebraic topology and applied algebraic topology featuring a streamlined approach including coverage of basic categorical notions, simplicial, cellular, and singular homology, persistent homology, cohomology groups, cup products, Poincare Duality, homotopy theory, and spectral sequences. The focus is on examples and computations, and there are many end of chapter exercises and extensive student projects.

This book explains in clear and vivid language why light plays a central role in life and physical sciences. Fascinating relations arise between physics, chemistry and life sciences from the interaction of light with animate and inanimate matter. Twelve Nobel Prizes have been awarded in the last 30 years for discoveries on these topics including laser techniques, molecular machines, circadian rhythms fluorescent proteins and super-resolution microscopy. Photovoltaics, photocatalysis, photosynthesis, solar hydrogen production, atmospheric ozone production and destruction, DNA sequencing, human vision, and communication in the dark all depend on light absorption and emission. The book concludes with a survey of cultural aspects of light in religion, philosophy and art.

Tolerance as a universal value of modernity is not usually associated in popular consciousness with religion, which is often regarded as inherently intolerant. This volume addresses the hermeneutics of tolerance as it pertains to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Each author offers a distinctive theological interpretation of traditional sources, elucidating the potential and limitations of tolerance in the monotheistic thought. Additionally, the book presents examinations of the promotion of tolerance in diverse historical and cultural contexts, illustrating both similarities and differences between the three religions. The evidence presented in this volume demonstrates that tolerance occupies an important place in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Engendering an intimate and deep relationship with God is at the heart of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This relationship manifests, among other things, in worshipping Him with sincerity, talking to (and about) Him, and being conscious of Him in every moment of life. For believers, God himself plays also an active role in pursuing this relationship by, for example, answering prayers and making the believer know and feel His uninterrupted presence. Many would consider this as common knowledge about the religions mentioned above. However, only few are aware that the meaning of the above differs significantly based on how one thinks that religious language works. Rather, it is taken for granted that the word ‘God’ refers to a metaphysical being with personal traits and plays a similar role in structure as words in empirical language. This has several implications such as the following: God can be talked about in an abstract and theoretical manner; His existence can be subject to inquiry like that of any other being such as planets or unicorns; and calling God good, while creation is obviously full of evil, is a proposition that needs rational justification. The famous 20th century thinker Ludwig Wittgenstein has famously stated that his goal in philosophy essentially amounts to "showing that things which look the same are really different". By his insistence to pay close attention to the grammar of a word – that is its use in language – he has opened up new perspectives on (not only religious) language that challenges the prevalent view outlined above. The goal of this volume is to pick up on Wittgenstein’s insights about language and religion and to bring them in fruitful relation to the three mentioned religious traditions respectively in an attempt to reassess the grammar of the word ‘God’.

The book takes its cue from the topics of PhrasaLex, a workshop dedicated to phraseological approaches to learner’s lexicography which took place for the second time in July 2021 and is connected to the lexicographic project PhraseBase.

Considering the great interest that studies on patterns of meaning have gained in lexicology and lexicography, we not only delve into the more phraseological approach, but broaden our horizon to include further approaches, both established and new, that have as their common thread the identification and analysis of patterns of meaning in their interaction with grammatical patterns. In this way, we present the commonalities of a complex, innovative and partly interdisciplinary strand of research that currently involves disciplines such as theoretical and applied linguistics, corpus linguistics and computational linguistics.

The book provides insights into different theoretical approaches examining the interface between lexis, semantics and grammar, by dealing with methodological advances and issues regarding corpus linguistics explorations and the lexicographic process. A special focus is on the phraseological nature of language as well as on its implication for the design of (learner’s) dictionaries.

"Enki and the World Order," a Sumerian myth from the early second millennium BCE, depicts the god Enki's reconstitution of the Sumerian world after an unspecified catastrophe. The myth ends with a face-off between Enki and the goddess of love and war, Inana, who is dissatisfied with Enki's allotment of functions to the other goddesses.

This volume presents a critical edition of the 472-line Sumerian text, with introduction, translation and commentary, based on 25 published and unpublished manuscripts, mostly from Nippur in what is now southern Iraq. All the manuscripts, with one exception, have been collated, and there are many new fragments and joins to previously known tablets.

In den Wolken lässt Aristophanes zwei Welten mit komischer Wucht aufeinanderprallen: die des ungebildeten Bauern Strepsiades und die des stadtbekannten Intellektuellen Sokrates, der in höheren Sphären schwebt und abstruse 'Forschungen' betreibt. Um Schulden, die sein Sohn gemacht hat, nicht zurückzahlen zu müssen, will Strepsiades von Sokrates das 'ungerechte Argument' lernen. Der moralisch zweifelhafte Plan geht erst auf, als der Sohn anstelle des Vaters bei Sokrates in die Lehre geht, aber anders, als alle Beteiligten sich vorstellen …

Die Uraufführung 423 v. Chr. war kein Erfolg, aber Aristophanes war von dem Stück weiterhin überzeugt und überarbeitete es. Es sind diese 'zweiten' Wolken, die wir haben. Die Sokrates-Figur machte sie zu einer der meistdiskutierten Komödien, aber es steckt viel mehr darin. Das Stück spielt Gegensätze und Konflikte aus, die im Athen jener Jahre erlebt und debattiert wurden: Stadt und Land, Alte und Junge, überkommene und moderne Erziehung, Alltagsverstand und wissenschaftliche Spekulation, traditioneller Götterglaube und sophistischer Relativismus, nicht zuletzt Gefahren durch und für Sprache. Dies alles erschließt die Ausgabe mit Einführung, griechischem Text, Prosaübersetzung und Kommentar.