This open access book offers a comprehensive overview of the role and potential of microorganisms in the degradation and preservation of cultural materials (e.g. stone, metals, graphic documents, textiles, paintings, glass, etc.). Microorganisms are a major cause of deterioration in cultural artefacts, both in the case of outdoor monuments and archaeological finds. This book covers the mic…
In diesem Open-Access-Buch kritisiert Philipp Schäfer die Entwicklung der Circular Economy hin zu einem Selbstzweck. Um den Beitrag der Circular Economy zu einer nachhaltigen Entwicklung zu gewährleisten, muss sie stets Mittel zum Zweck sein und bedarf daher konkreter Zielsetzungen. Anhand eines ausführlichen Exkurses in die Fachliteratur zeigt der Autor, dass das primäre Ziel der Circular …
Based on the German case, this open access book highlights the increasing flows of migration and the internationalisation of individual life courses. It analyses the experiences of migration across four central domains - employment and income, partners and families, health and wellbeing, as well as friends and social participation - which potentially have far-reaching consequences for social in…
This open access book introduces readers to a new methodology for assessing the risks to the marine environment following accidental oil spills. The methodology will soon be implemented on the Norwegian Continental Shelf and will be complemented by guidelines for its use in a regulatory framework. The brief book is intended to provide international readers with a basic grasp of what the ER…
This is an open access book. Statistical machine learning (ML) has triggered a renaissance of artificial intelligence (AI). While the most successful ML models, including Deep Neural Networks (DNN), have developed better predictivity, they have become increasingly complex, at the expense of human interpretability (correlation vs. causality). The field of explainable AI (xAI) has emerged with t…
Groupwork with Refugees and Survivors of Human Rights Abuses describes, explores and promotes the power of groupwork for refugees and survivors of human rights abuses in a range of contexts. Drawing on multiple theoretical approaches, the book features chapters from practitioners running groups in different settings, such as torture rehabilitation services, refugee camps, and reception centr…
This book presents a new perspective on skateboarding, centred on the senses, skill acquisition, embodiment, and the concept of "city craft". Skateboarding and the Senses traces how skaters use their skilled bodies to bring vitality to contested spaces. Building on sensory anthropology, the book draws connections between the diverse ways skaters move and their boundless drive for social acti…
This open access book provides the first systematic overview of existing challenges and opportunities for responsible data linkage, and a cutting-edge assessment of which steps need to be taken to ensure that plant data are ethically shared and used for the benefit of ensuring global food security – one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The volume focuses on the contemporary contou…
This open access book provides a broad range of insights on market engineering and information management. It covers topics like auctions, stock markets, electricity markets, the sharing economy, information and emotions in markets, smart decision-making in cities and other systems, and methodological approaches to conceptual modeling and taxonomy development. Overall, this book is a source of …
This open access book honors the work of Michael Cernea, who was the World Bank’s first professional sociologist, by taking on and extending his arguments for "putting people first.” Cernea led a community of social scientists in formulating and promoting a comprehensive set of innovative and original social policies on development issues, which the World Bank adopted and implemented. This …