Books published by Springer

In Pascal's God and the Fragments of the World, Martin Nemoianu offers a new interpretation of the thought of Blaise Pascal, drawn from the Pensées and beyond. The book takes Pascal's central theme to be the distinction - Infini rien - between the transcendent God and the created world, which, without God, would be nothing. Nemoianu identifies the distinction in Pascal, articulates it, and works through the difficulties attending the distinction's disclosure. He then considers the implications of the distinction for the nature of nature and the nature of the human being, culminating in the ideal of martyrdom. The book closes with treatment of a closely related theme: the relation between human freedom and divine grace, in the context of the vexed question of Pascal's Jansenism.

This book serves as an introduction to the growing field of quantum many-body transport in interacting nanojunctions. It delves into a theoretical approach based on a general density-matrix formulation for open quantum systems. In the book, relevant transport observables, like the current or its higher order cumulants, are obtained by evaluating quantum statistical averages. This approach requires the knowledge of the reduced density matrix of the interacting nanosystems.The formulation for addressing transport problems, based on the evolution of the reduced density operator in Liouville space, is highly versatile. It enables the treatment of charge and spin transport across various realistic nanostructures. Topics encompass standard Coulomb blockade, cotunneling phenomena in quantum dots, vibrational and Franck-Condon effects in molecular junctions, as well as many-body interference observed in double quantum dots or carbon nanotubes.Derived from lectures tailored for graduate and advanced students at the University of Regensburg in Germany, this book is enriched with exercises and step-by-step derivations.

The technological boom has provided consumers with endless choices, removing the hindrance of time and place. Understanding the dynamic and competitive business environment, marketers know they need to reinforce indestructible customer experience with the support of algorithmic configurations to minimize human intrusion. World Wide Web (WWW) and online marketing have changed the way of conducting business; with artificial intelligence (AI), business houses can furnish a customized experience to fulfil the perceived expectation of the customer.Artificial intelligence bridges the gap between business and prospective clients, provides enormous amounts of information, prompts grievance redressal system, and further complements the client's preference. The opportunities online marketing offers with the blend of artificial intelligence tools like chatbots, recommenders, virtual assistance, and interactive voice recognition create improved brand awareness, better customer relationshipmarketing, and personalized product modification.Explainable AI provides the subsequent arena of human-machine collaboration, which will complement and support marketers and people so that they can make better, faster, and more accurate decisions. According to PwC's report on Explainable AI(XAI), AI will have $15.7 trillion of opportunity by 2030. However, as AI tools become more advanced, more computations are done in a "black box" that humans can hardly comprehend. But the rise of AI in business for actionable insights also poses the following questions: How can marketers know and trust the reasoning behind why an AI system is making recommendations for action? What are the root causes and steering factors? Thus, transparency, trust, and a good understanding of expected business outcomes are increasingly demanded.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 16th Latin American Symposium on Theoretical Informatics, LATIN 2042, which took place in Puerto Varas, Chile, in March 2024. The 44 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 93 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: Part I: Algorithms and Data Structures; Approximation and Online Algorithms; Complexity Theory; Part II: Combinatorics and Graph Theory; Parameterized Algorithms; Automata Theory and Formal Languages; and Game Theory and Fairness.

This book discusses the recent advancements in chemical engineering and their role in achieving the United Nations' 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Addressing these goals involves tackling intricate and interdisciplinary challenges.Chemical engineers have been diligently addressing a diverse array of issues across academia, society, and industry, with the aim of positively impacting these goals.The book offers essential insights and detailed analyses for each SDG. It explores the challenges encountered within various applications and proposes solutions based on foundational engineering principles. The book's content is tailored to professionals, students, and researchers across diverse fields, including engineering, environmental science, and biotechnology.

This book presents the adaptation of cause-effect structures to the formal description of phenomena such as the behaviour of living objects, the mutual communication of living cells, but also such as the growth of crystals and other natural processes. The system of cause-effect structures has been designed for the description and analysis of objects with dispersed components, acting concurrently and synchronizing and communicating one another. This adaptation consists in customizing generic semantics of cause-effect structures to semantics specific to the behaviour of natural objects. That is creating evolution rules for the formal models of these objects. However, the structural, algebraic properties of cause-effect structures are retained. The activity of cellular cause-effect structures is supposed to imitate the activity of cellular automata, the formal system intended for the above-mentioned aims. But operations on syntactic constructions, in particular their transformations and simplification, are the same as for the general cause-effect structures. These algebraic operations are also used to perform certain geometric/topological conversions of location bases for the cellular cause-effect structures, like flat surfaces into cylindrical or toroidal. This is depicted by numerous illustrations. An adaptation of cause-effect structures to other formal descriptions of some natural phenomena, such as reaction systems, is provided in book 331 of the "Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems" series, whereas the complete description of cause-effect structures, in book 45.

Quantitative assessments of the effects of global change on soil development are mostly focused on soil carbon, some nutrients, pollutants and soil water. Soil however is a complex entity with interacting biological, physical and chemical processes that are rarely modelled in its entirety. Additionally, for the sake of simplicity various soil properties are considered constants whereas in reality they are not. Soil as we observe it is the resultant of many processes driven by varying boundary conditions such as climate and organisms including men. This is not different when we study global change, thus modelling soil development under global change overlaps with modelling soil formation. This book gives an overview of what such model should entail, with ample descriptions to use SoilGen, a simulattion model to study pedogenesis.

This book provides a precise portrayal of the current trends and future perspectives of e-Government. It outlines new approaches that optimize public services across diverse sectors. Going beyond traditional boundaries, it offers mathematical models for public services supported by convincing case studies. This book significantly enhances various government services, such as education, healthcare, safety, security, and culture. It also strongly emphasizes safeguarding citizens' personal data, ensuring privacy, and obtaining explicit consent. Tailored for students and academics, the book is an invaluable reference for teaching graduate courses in e-Government, Process Modelling, or Artificial Intelligence. Its impact extends beyond the classroom; civil servants from all domains can find practical insights to navigate the ongoing modernization of public services. Even citizens curious about the transformation in their public services can find this book enlightening. Researchers working in the area of e-Governance can use this book to discover the recent developments in e-Government.

Trends and Technological Challenges in Green Energy: Selected Papers from ICGET 2023 offers readers selected and expanded papers from the 2023 8th International Conference on Green Energy Technologies held at the University of the Applied Sciences in Hamburg, Germany. It features innovative work by academics, researchers, and industry experts highlighting the latest renewable energy developments. The book covers fundamental and practical applications for green energy resources, including security, energy consumption, localization, energy access, environment-friendly energy systems, sustainable energy development, energy-saving technologies, and conservation. It is a valuable interdisciplinary reference for young researchers, postgraduate students, professionals, and industry practitioners working with green energy technology and applications.

The scope of this book is to present the papers included at the 21st UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI 2022), hosted by The University of Sheffield, between 7 and 9 September 2022, Sheffield, UK. This marks the first fully in-person UKCI conference, following the pandemic, a testament to the success and resilience of the UKCI community, as well as to the importance of computational intelligence (CI) research. The papers in this book are divided into five sections: fuzzy logic systems, machine learning, hybrid methods and network systems, deep learning and neural networks, and optimization and search.

The main target of this book is to present a new concept of Ulam-type stability, i.e., multi-stability, through the classical, well-known special functions and to obtain the best approximation error estimates by a different concept of perturbation stability including fuzzy approaches for uncertainty considerations. This stability allows us to obtain diverse approximations depending on various special functions that are initially chosen and to evaluate maximal stability and minimal error which enable us to obtain a unique optimal solution of functional equations, inequalities, and fractional equations. Stability analysis in the sense of the Ulam and its different kinds has received considerable attention from the researchers. However, how to effectively generalize the Ulam stability problems and to evaluate optimized controllability and stability are new issues. The multi-stability not only covers the previous concepts but also considers the optimization of the problem and provides a comprehensive discussion of optimizing the different types of the Ulam stabilities of mathematical models used in the natural sciences and engineering disciplines with fuzzy attitudes. Besides, this book also deals with nonlinear differential equations with various boundary conditions or initial value problems, based on the matrix Mittag-Leffler function, fixed point theory, as well as Babenko's approach to study uniqueness and existence of solutions. In general, the benefits for the readers can be concluded as follows: 1. Evaluates maximal stability with minimal error to get a unique optimal solution. 2. Discusses an optimal method of the alternative to study existence, uniqueness, and different types of Ulam stabilities under special consideration of the fuzzy approaches. 3. Delves into the new study of boundary value problems of fractional integro-differential equations with integral boundary conditions and variable coefficients

Trusted execution environments (TEEs) protect sensitive code and data on computing platforms, even when the primary operating system is compromised. Once a technical curiosity, TEEs have rapidly become a key component in securing numerous systems from cloud servers to constrained devices. Today, TEEs have been deployed on billions of devices for protecting financial payments, personal files, copyrighted media content, and many others. Despite this, TEEs remain poorly understood due to their complexity and diversity. This book addresses this gap, providing a comprehensive treatment of different TEE technologies, their features, benefits, and shortcomings.A holistic view of secure and trusted execution is taken, examining smart cards and CPU protection rings before discussing modern TEEs, such as Intel SGX and ARM TrustZone. A wide range of paradigms for building secure and trusted execution environments are explored, from dedicated security chips to system-on-chip extensions and virtualisation technologies. The relevant industry standards and specifications are covered in detail, including how TEEs are evaluated and certified in practice with respect to security. Several case studies are presented showing how TEEs are used in some common security mechanisms, such as secure boot sequences, biometric authentication, and file-based encryption. This book also discusses present challenges in the field, covering potential attack vectors against TEEs and concerns relating to fragmentation, interoperability, and transparency. Lastly, a selection of future directions are examined that may be used by the trusted execution environments of tomorrow.This book is particularly targeted at practitioners and researchers in cyber security, such as penetration testers, security engineers, and security analysts. Additionally, this book serves as a valuable resource for university students, both postgraduate and advanced undergraduates, and professors in computer science and electrical engineering.

The book showcases how the technologies are transforming entertainment, education, and professional training, offering readers real-world examples of their applications. "Innovative Technologies for Enhancing Experiences and Engagement" is an enlightening guide that reveals how emerging technologies are shaping our world, offering insights into the evolving digital landscape and inspiring a future of more personalized, immersive, and engaging experiences.

This book provides insights into the wetting behavior on fiber-dressed surfaces and guidelines for developing superhydrophobicity based on electrospinning. In developing superhydrophobicity, electrospinning possesses the following advantages over other fabrication techniques. First, the electrospun micro- and nanofibers, which may also featured with secondary fiber morphology, provide sufficient surface roughness for superhydrophobicity. Second, electrospinning is considered an additive manufacturing technique, so the surfaces to be modified are not destroyed for superhydrophobicity. Third, the introduced electrospun structure is featured with high porosity with inter-fiber pores, allowing for a high vapor transmission rate, which is necessary in many applications such as wound dressing, gas sensor.However, books focused on developing superhydrophobicity using electrospinning are rarely found. Electrospinning is only introduced as one section in most superhydrophobicity-related books, and the mechanism of superhydrophobicity by different electrospinning-based methods lacks detailed explanation.

This book includes presentations given at the 88th annual meeting of the Psychometric Society, held in Maryland, USA on July 24¿28, 2023.The proceeding covers a diverse set of psychometric topics. The topics include, but are not limited to item response theory, cognitive diagnostic models, Bayesian estimation, validity and reliability issues, and several applications within different fields. The authors are from all over the world, they work in different psychometrics areas, as well as having diverse professional and academic experiences.

This book is a comprehensive guide to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Financial Technology (FinTech) industry. It is comprised of ten chapters, each addressing a specific aspect of AI in FinTech. The reader is introduced to AI in FinTech, including its history and current state and the role of chatbots in FinTech and how they are used to improve customer service. Furthermore, the book explores the business framework of AI-based ChatGPT in FinTech, including the technology behind ChatGPT and how it can be applied to various financial sectors. The book examines the use of predictive analytics and machine learning in FinTech, highlighting how these tools are used to predict customer behavior and improve decision-making. The author delves into how ChatGPT is used to determine buying behavior and discusses the use of machine learning to reshape the digital experience in FinTech. Additionally, the book provides best practices for retaining customers in FinTech, including how to use AI to create personalized experiences that keep customers coming back, and explores the different applications of predictive models in FinTech, including how they are used to improve risk management and fraud detection. Lastly, the book discusses the use of ChatGPT for stock price prediction and the detection of financial fraud and examines the role of ChatGPT in the world of cryptocurrency, including how it can be used to make informed investment decisions. Overall, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the different ways AI is being used in FinTech and the potential it holds for improving customer experiences and driving innovation in the financial industry.

Humanism in business is not only an alternative to economism but a way to human excellence. Humanism presented here revolves around the rich notion of ¿human person¿, keystone of modern personalist philosophy and Catholic Social Teaching. From this perspective this book is offered to everyone, believer and nonbeliever alike. The person-centered humanism considers the human-wholeness, individual and relational, with subjectivity, self-determination, openness to transcendence, and with capacity not only to possess but also to give. It also highlights the uniqueness of each person, endowed with a high constitutive dignity and in continuous process of flourishing toward human plenitude. An attitude of respect and good will is due to non-personal beings, while persons deserve to be treated with justice and even with love of benevolence. The book is prepared in dialogue with mainstream of thought in business and business ethics and focused on exploring ways to improve some conventional views. It includes some proposals such as a person-based ethics, ethics understood as intrinsic to business activity, the consideration of the company as an organized community of persons, and the purpose of the company oriented toward the common good through a double mission, internal and external. It is also suggested substituting the notion of ¿stakeholder¿ for the richer one of ¿relationholder.¿

This book focuses on nanoscale electronic phase separation in a wide class of different materials, especially in strongly correlated electron systems. It features an extensive review of the field of inhomogeneous spin and charge states in condensed matter physics while delivering a topical and timely discussion of a wide range of recent advances in electronic phase separation. It describes the formation of different types of nanoscale ferromagnetic metallic droplets in antiferromagnetically ordered, charge-ordered, or orbitally-ordered insulating matrices, as well as the colossal magnetoresistance effect and tunneling electron transport in the nonmetallic phase-separated state of complex magnetic oxides. It also discusses compounds with spin-state transitions, inhomogeneously phase-separated states in strongly correlated multiband systems, and the electron polaron effect, paying special attention to systems with imperfect Fermi surface-nesting such as chromium alloys, iron-based pnictides, and AA-stacked graphene bilayers. The authors investigate also the formation of order parameter clusters and insulator-superconductor transition in different superconducting systems including bismuth oxides, two-dimensional films in the presence of strong disorder, as well as inhomogeneous Fermi-Bose mixtures in Aharonov-Bohm rings with a superconducting bridge in a topologically nontrivial state. This book is a valuable resource for researchers involved in theoretical and experimental studies of strongly correlated materials, such as magnetic semiconductors, Fermi-Bose mixtures, and twisted bilayer graphene.

This book gathers a selection of papers presented at the 5th International Scientific Conference "Environmental Challenges in Civil Engineering", ECCE 2022, held on September 26-28, 2022, in Opole, Poland. Written by an international group of experts, it reports on findings concerning structural material behavior, and new methods and technologies in constructions. A special emphasis is given to sustainable constructions practices, including material recycling and reuse, renovation and restoration of historical building and to those fostering sustainable development of cities and rural areas, and a better integration of buildings with the environment. Offering a good balance of theory and practice, and covering both technical and organizational aspects in civil engineering and architectural projects, this book offers extensive information on solutions and current challenges in construction projects and structural interventions in the context of environmental protection and earthquake prevention.

Does sex matter when it comes to brain function? This volume attempts to answer this very important question which is of relevance to the disciplines of psychology, neuroscience, psychiatry and neurology. Understanding how brain function and resultant behaviors may differ between the sexes impacts upon our knowledge of the pathology and development of treatments for various neurological and psychiatric disorders, particularly those that show significant sex differences in either prevalence and/or manifestation of symptoms. This volume covers three main themes of research into sex differences in basic neurobiology, psychology, preclinical research and clinical research. It begins by exploring our understanding of sex and gender in relation to both animal and human behaviors and discusses the relevance, and importance, of considering sex and gender when conducting research into brain function and behaviors. The second theme focuses on how sex and gender influence mentalhealth and considers the impact of our immune system and the changes that occur with ageing. Finally, the third aspect focuses on examples of neurological disorder which show sex differences in terms of their aetiology and/or symptomology and considers the relevance in the development of treatment for these disorders including dementia, stroke and multiple sclerosis. This volume is of considerable interest to mental health and neurology professionals, including psychiatrists, neurologists, nurses, allied health clinicians and pharmacists. It is also helpful and important for preclinical researchers working in neuroscience, psychopharmacology and reproductive endocrinology.

The book Critical Mathematics Education provides Ole Skovsmose's recent contribution to the further development of critical mathematics education. It gives examples of learning environments, which invite students to engage in investigative processes. It discusses how mathematics can be used for identifying cases of social injustice, and it shows how mathematics itself can become investigated critically. Critical Mathematics Education addresses issues with respect to racism, oppression, erosion of democracy, sustainability, formatting power of mathematics, and banality of mathematical expertise. It explores relationships between mathematics, ethics, crises, and critique.Ole Skovsmose has published what I might call his magnum opus, a 280-page synthesis and extension of his work simply called Critical Mathematics Education. In it he brings together his deep philosophical understanding and theorisation of mathematics itself, mathematics in society from a critical perspective, and mathematics in the teaching, learning and formation of students. For the mathematics education community, especially those concerned with social justice, philosophy, critical pedagogy and the nature of mathematics this is likely to be the publishing event of the year. In this book he offers something lacking in the literature, a philosophy of applied mathematics, as well as much more. Paul Ernest, Emeritus Professor, University of Exeter, UK

This book showcases the state of the art in the field of electronics, as presented by researchers and engineers at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Italian Electronics Society (SIE), held in Rende (CS), Italy, on September 5-7, 2022. It covers a broad range of aspects, including: integrated circuits and systems, micro- and nano-electronic devices, microwave electronics, sensors and microsystems, optoelectronics and photonics, power electronics, electronic systems and applications.

This book, besides discussing challenges and opportunities, will reveal the microbe-metal interactions and strategies for e-waste remediation in different ecosystems. It will unveil the recent biotechnological advancement and microbiological approach to sustainable biorecycling of e-waste such as bioleaching for heavy metal extraction, valorization of precious metal, biodegradation of e-plastic, the role of the diverse microbial community in e-waste remediation, genetically engineered microbes for e-waste management, the importance of microbial exopolysaccharides in metal biosorption, next-generation technologies, omics-based technologies etc. It also holds the promise to discuss the conservation, utilization and cataloging indigenous microbes in e-waste-polluted niches and promising hybrid technology for sustainable e-waste management.Revolution in the area of information technology and communication is constantly evolving due to scientific research and development.Concurrently, the production of new electrical and electronic equipment also thus uplifting in this era of revolution. These technological advancements certainly have problematic consequences which is the rise of huge amounts of electronic obsoletes or electronic waste (e-waste). Improper management of both hazardous and nonhazardous substances of e-waste led to a major concern in our digital society and environment. Therefore, a sustainable approach including microbial candidates to tackle e-waste is the need of the hour.Nevertheless, the continuous demand for new-generation gadgets and electronics set this high-tech evolution to a new frontier in the last few years. With this continuing trend of technological development, e-waste is expanding exponentially worldwide. In the year of 2019, the worldwide generation of e-waste was approximately 53.6 Mt, of which only about 17.4% of e-waste was collected and recycled, and the other 82.6% was not even documented. E-waste containsvarious heterogeneous waste complexes such as metals (60%), blends of many polymers (30%) and halogenated compounds, radioactive elements and other pollutants (10%), respectively. The sustainable, efficient, and economic management of e-waste is thus, a challenging task today and in the coming decades. Conventional techniques such as the use of chemicals, incineration and informal ways of e-waste dismantling trigger serious health risks and contamination to the human population and environment, respectively due to the liberation of toxic and hazardous substances from the waste. In this context, bio-candidates especially microorganisms could be sharp-edged biological recycling tools to manage e-waste sustainably. As microbes are omnipresent and diverse in their physiology and functional aspects, they offer a wide range of bioremediation.

In the present book, the starting line is defined by a morphogenetic perspective on human communication and culture. The focus is on visual communication, music, religion (myth), and language, i.e., on the "symbolic forms" at the heart of human cultures (Ernst Cassirer). The term "morphogenesis" has more precisely the meaning given by René Thom (1923-2002) in his book "Morphogenesis and Structural Stability" (1972) and the notions of "self-organization" and cooperation of subsystems in the "Synergetics" of Hermann Haken (1927- ). The naturalization of communication and cultural phenomena is the favored strategy, but the major results of the involved disciplines (art history, music theory, religious science, and linguistics) are respected.Visual art from the Paleolithic to modernity stands for visual communication. The present book focuses on studies of classical painting and sculpture (e.g., Leonardo da Vinci, William Turner, and Henry Moore) and modern art (e.g., Jackson Pollock and Joseph Beuys). Musical morphogenesis embraces classical music (from J. S. Bach to Arnold Schönberg) and political songwriting (Bob Dylan, Leonhard Cohen). The myths of pre-literary societies show the effects of self-organization in the re-assembly (bricolage) of traditions. Classical polytheistic and monotheistic religions demonstrate the unfolding of basic germs (religious attractors) and their reduction in periods of crisis, the self-organization of complex religious networks, and rationalized macro-structures (in theologies). Significant tendencies are analyzed in the case of Buddhism and Christianism. Eventually, a holistic view of symbolic communication and human culture emerges based on state-of-the-art in evolutionary biology, cognitive science, linguistics, and semiotics (philosophy of symbolic forms).

This book examines the latest manifestations of resource competition. The energy transition and the digitalization of the global economy are both accelerating even as geopolitics driven by Sino-American hyper-competition become increasingly contentious. The volume brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, policy makers, institutional stakeholders, and industry experts to analyze not only the transition itself, but also the implications that the need for uninterrupted access to unprecedented levels of raw materials generates. By framing the challenges ahead for global society, governance, industry, international power politics, and the environment, the book asks hard questions about the choices that need to be made to reach net zero by mid-century. Moreover, it sheds light on different facets of the growing risks to what have been global interdependent supply chains in a way that is nuanced, balanced, and practical, thus pushing back on some of the most sensational headlines that breed confusion and may lead policymakers to make more narrow and less effective decisions. The volume is an outcome of ¿Rich Rocks, the Climate Crisis and the Tech-imperium¿ a Summer Institute at Caltech and the Huntington that took place in July 2021.

This book presents the so-called Shuffled Shepherd Optimization Algorithm (SSOA), a recently developed meta-heuristic algorithm by authors. There is always limitations on the resources to be used in the construction. Some of the resources used in the buildings are also detrimental to the environment. For example, the cement utilized in making concrete emits carbon dioxide, which contributes to the global warming. Hence, the engineers should employ resources efficiently and avoid the waste. In the traditional optimal design methods, the number of trials and errors used by the designer is limited, so there is no guarantee that the optimal design can be found for structures. Hence, the deigning method should be changed, and the computational algorithms should be employed in the optimum design problems.The gradient-based method and meta-heuristic algorithms are the two different types of methods used to find the optimal solution. The gradient-based methods require gradient information. Also, these can easily be trapped in the local optima in the nonlinear and complex problems. Therefore, to overcome these issues, meta-heuristic algorithms are developed. These algorithms are simple and can get out of the local optimum by easy means. However, a single meta-heuristic algorithm cannot find the optimum results in all types of optimization problems. Thus, civil engineers develop different meta-heuristic algorithms for their optimization problems.Different applications of the SSOA are provided. The simplified and enhanced versions of the SSOA are also developed and efficiently applied to various optimization problems in structures. Another special feature of this book consists of the use of graph theoretical force method as analysis tool, in place of traditional displacement approach. This has reduced the computational time to a great extent, especially for those structures having smaller DSI compared to the DKI. New framework is also developed for reliability-based design of frame structures. The algorithms are clearly stated such that they can simply be implemented and utilized in practice and research.

This book offers an account of ten crucial moments in the history of ideas, which represent ten key moments of the discovery of pluralism. From the Indian emperor Ashoka to Origen and from Nicola Cusano to Las Casas, Montaigne, Lessing, giants who opened the way to the thought of tolerance, challenging the dogma of a unique truth dictated by authority, followed in this reconstruction by other glowing thinkers of the twentieth century, such as Horace Kallen, Margaret Mead, and Jacques Dupuis. These protagonists, each in their own way, battled against monism for the respect of differences and for the knowledge of otherness. This kind of hall of fame of pluralist thinkers ends with the most important figure of the pluralism of values, Isaiah Berlin, of whom an unpublished interview appears here for the first time in English. The volume is unique in this two-thousand-year-old variety of voices gathered under the denominator of cultural pluralism that they embody in the deepest andmost challenging sense, often at the limits and beyond the limits of heresy. It is of great value and interest to scholars and students of theoretical, moral, political philosophy, sociology, comparative studies, comparative literature, religious diversity, religious studies, anthropology, and all those interested in the history of tolerance.

This book provides a thorough introduction to research ethics and ethically responsible research practice in a research organization. It is relevant for all research areas. Morality, however, is not something one can just "learn". Therefore, the book is written with a different basic tone than regular textbooks, so that it makes the reader aware of how morality plays a role in the various daily tasks one has in a research organization. The book conveys knowledge and experience material about the society's and the research community's view of how different ethical issues should be solved. From this, the reader will acquire the basic ethical principles they need to know and understand and be aware of, in order to be qualified in an ethical context as employees of a research organization, and to be able to deal with common ethical issues associated with research.

This book provides detailed insights into how space and popular culture intersect across a broad spectrum of examples, including cinema, music, art, arcade games, cartoons, comics, and advertisements. This is a pertinent topic since the use of space themes differs in different cultural contexts, and these themes can be used to explore various aspects of the human condition and provide a context for social commentary on politically sensitive issues. With the use of space imagery evolving over the past sixty years of the space age, this is a topic ripe for in-depth exploration. The book also discusses the contrasting visions of space from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the reality of today and analyzes space vehicles and habitats in popular depictions of space from an engineering perspective, exploring how many of those ideas have actually been implemented in practice and why or why not (a case of life imitating art and vice versa). As such, it covers a wide arrayof relevant and timely topics examining intersections between space and popular culture and offering accounts of space and its effect on culture, language, and storytelling from the southern regions of the world.