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This book provides an overview of recent advances in technologies for water treatment processes, such as green technology, nano-adsorbents, photocatalysts, advanced oxidation, membranes separation and sustainable technologies. Advances in membrane technology and fabrication process is presented in detail. Latest approaches like microbial treatment, electro chemical and solar energy-based treatment techniques were presented. Also, the use of sustainable and energy efficient approaches were discussed.· The book presents the negative impact of inorganic and organic pollutants on the natural environment and human health. It describes and discussing the advanced membrane technologies, novel green adsorbents, microbial treatment techniques, electro chemical and solar based removal techniques It also compares the most effective methods of removing toxic contaminants from water solutions with the use of sustainable and energy efficient approaches It also presents the life cycle assessment of emerging technologies in industrial wastewater treatment and desalination as well as presents the benchmarking of energy efficiency during treatment process

This book sheds new light on the evolution and transformation of polytheistic religions. By applying economic models to the study of religious history and by viewing religious events as the result of rational choices under given environmental constraints, it offers a political economy perspective for the study of Indo-European polytheism. The book formally models the rivalry or competition among multiple gods in a polytheistic system and the monotheistic solution to this competition. Presenting case studies on the transformation and demise of various polytheistic religions, it highlights the pivotal role of the priestly class in driving religious change and suggests a joint explanation for the demise of Greco-Roman religion and the resilience of Hinduism and Zoroastrianism. It will appeal to scholars of the economics of religion and religious history and to anyone seeking new insights into the birth and death of religions, and the birth of monotheism in particular.

¿Given their ethnic diversity, to what extent, and at what cost and benefit to human dignity, can European countries adopt and adapt plural democracy?¿ The contributors to this volume offer answers to this question from a variety of multidisciplinary perspectives within the framework of the integral theory of law and the state. Their shared aim is to explain legal phenomena in the context of other relevant issues and to identify, analyse and critique conceptualizations, problems and situations. This volume is rooted in the historical and contemporary European experience with special cases from Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Latvia, Slovenia, Spain and Canada which are relevant for understanding the European problem. Solutions to the problem are sought through innovative interpretations of the rule of law, democracy and human dignity, which are followed by argumentation about how these concepts, when recognized as European legal principles, can be implemented in order to avoid ethnic conflicts.Following an introduction that defines the problem at the centre of the book and explains how legal theory can be used to address it, the book consists of eleven contributions divided into three thematic sections. The first covers topics concerning the European principles which can help avoid ethnic conflicts: the principle of compulsory adjudication in interstate relations, the principle of democracy, and principles regarding the recognition of individual and collective identities. These European principles are then investigated by drawing on legal and political theories. The second section presents three ways of conceptualizing ethnical needs in multi-ethnic states: asymmetric federalism, dêmoicratic account and cooperative federalism. The third and final section elaborates on issues concerning the protection of minority rights: the role of judicial ideology in protecting minority rights, citizenship, the EU mechanism for the protection of minority rights, and theimportance of remembering tragic events affecting minorities.

This third edition is a comprehensive and extended study about the best known approaches for preparing the main types of glycosides, covering the classic and more recent glycosylation reactions used for preparing simple and challenging glycosides currently used as potent antiviral and antineoplastic drugs, or fluorogenic substrates used for enzymatic detection in cell biology. Besides, this new edition provides more examples of the glycosidic methodologies followed for preparing complex glycoconjugates such as glycoproteins and glycosphingolipids and gangliosides used as adjuvants or as synthetic vaccines candidates.Also, additional mechanistic evidence is presented for better understanding of the glycosylation reaction, trying to identify the variables mainly depending on protecting and leaving groups, as well as catalyst and reaction condition which altogether directs the anomeric stereo control.A chapter on the glycoside hydrolysis is included in view of the increasing interest in the use of biomass as a natural and renewable source for obtaining important intermediates or products used in food or valuable materials.The author includes information in the characterization of glycosides section with the aim of giving additional tools for the structural assignment through NMR, X-Ray and mass spectra techniques.

This book explores how community influences civic engagement, focusing on the case of Ghana. It offers an interdisciplinary perspective to those studying psychology, political development and civic engagement in African countries. Previous research has shown that the social and economic context in which an individual interacts influences their political behaviors and attitudes, and that personal characteristics account for differences in political behavior and attitudes. This work moves away from the cultural demographics of a person, which often take center stage in existing investigations of partisan political behavior in the African context, and addresses the following five questions:(1) To what extent do individual traits influence civic engagement in Ghana?(2) To what extent is community identity similar or different in small rural villages versus large metropolitan areas in Ghana and how does community identity influence civic engagement?(3) To what extent does trust influence civic engagement in Ghana?(4) What factors and activities influence political knowledge and how does political knowledge influence civic engagement?(5) What is the status of women in civic engagement?

This third volume of the Balkan Yearbook of European and International Law (BYEIL) is devoted in particular to the specific legal challenges faced by Southeast European countries in the area of intellectual property law. The authors discuss a range of topics in Serbian and Bosnian and Herzegovinian copyright law, trademark and patent law, the relevance of which extends beyond their national borders. The papers included in the permanent sections on European law and international law explore contemporary challenges in public and private law. These challenges concern various legal fields, including consumer law, commercial law, corporate and criminal law, and the corresponding papers tackle a number of fundamental theoretical issues, while also highlighting the latest developments in legal practice.

This book analyses the challenges facing the European Union through the frame of the rule of law. It shows how over the last decades the increased dissensus and contestation of the rule of law has given rise to heightened tensions between national and EU institutions, leading to the establishment of new soft and hard policy tools to safeguard it at the supranational level. The book proposes a comprehensive and multifaceted analysis of the current state of debates by exploring how EU institutional actors seek to uphold the Union¿s values. It shows that European integration in core state powers is the outcome of the clash between liberal and anti-liberal ideas, between dissensus and contestation over how collective problems should be solved, in a community of voices featuring assent and dissent, all of which give democracy its substance. Beyond the analysis of the emerging EU¿s rule of law policy, the book will help readers to better understand the EU¿s fragilities and resilience and the potential challenges for the future of EU integration.

This book reviews Marx's contributions to the debate on the working class. The first part of the work presents the synthesis of the main contributions of Marx and Engels (and 20th century Marxist writers) to the understanding of social classes, the class struggle, and the working class. The remaining parts present exercises of dialogue between Marx's and Marxists¿ discussions on the working class, presented in the first part, and empirical elements of class reality today, as well as debates in the social sciences and historiography on the same issues. The thesis defended in the book is simple: the "working class,¿ also called the "proletariat,¿ as it appears in the work of Karl Marx, had and has validity as an analytical category for the understanding of social life under capitalism. Nevertheless, Marx¿s discussion on the issue is complex and the category ¿working class¿ in his approach is wider than many Marxists have presented it.

This book explains the metabolic processes by which microbes obtain and control the intracellular availability of their required metal and metalloid ions. The book also describes how intracellular concentrations of unwanted metal and metalloid ions successfully are limited. Its authors additionally provide information about the ways that microbes derive metabolic energy by changing the charge states of metal and metalloid ions.Part one of this book provides an introduction to microbes, metals and metalloids. It also helps our readers to understand the chemical constraints for transition metal cation allocation.Part two explains the basic processes which microbes use for metal transport. That section also explains the uses, as well as the challenges, associated with metal-based antimicrobials.Part three gives our readers an understanding that because of microbial capabilities to process metals and metalloids, the microbes have become our best tools for accomplishing many jobs. Their applications in chemical technology include the design of microbial consortia for use in bioleaching processes that recover metal and metalloid ions from industrial wastes. Many biological engineering tasks, including the synthesis of metal nanoparticles and similar metalloid structures, also are ideally suited for the microbes. Part four describes unique attributes associated with the microbiology of these elements, progressing through the alphabet from antimony and arsenic to zinc.

This book offers a comprehensive and complete description of a new scheme to stabilize the power of a laser on a level needed for high precision metrology experiments. The novel aspect of the scheme is sensing power fluctuations via the radiation pressure driven motion they induce on a micro-oscillator mirror. It is shown that the proposed technique can result in higher signals for power fluctuations than what is achieved by a direct power detection, and also that it enables the generation of a strong bright squeezed beam. The book starts with the basics of power stabilization and an overview on the current state of art. Then, detailed theoretical calculations are performed, and the advantages of the new scheme are highlighted. Finally, a proof-of-principle experiment is described and its results are analyzed in details. The success of the work presented here paves a way for achieving high power stability in future experiments and is of interest for high precisionmetrology experiments, like gravitational wave detectors, and optomechanical experiments.Nominated as an outstanding PhD thesis by the Gravitational Wave International Committee.

The book examines prominent literary works from the past two decades by Russian women writers dealing with the Soviet past. It explores works such as Daniel Stein, Interpreter by Ludmilla Ulitskaya, The Time of Women by Elena Chizhova, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexievich, and In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova, and uncovers connecting thematic structures and features. Focusing on the concepts of displacement and postmemory, the book shows how these works have given voice to those on the margins of society and of ¿great history¿ whose resistance was often silent. In doing so, these women writers portray the everyday experiences and trauma of displaced women and girls during the second half of the twentieth century. This study offers new insights into the importance of these women writers¿ work in creating and preserving cultural memory in post-Soviet Russia.

This edited volume discusses the contest and contestation between China and Taiwan for diplomatic recognition and supremacy on the African continent. Written by a diverse group of international scholars, this volume provides insight into five interlocking questions and areas: the origins of China and Taiwan¿s continent-wide competition for supremacy; China and Taiwan¿s foreign policy towards Africa during and after the Cold War; the shift in dominance from Taiwan to China; the changing allegiances of African governments; and the implications of ongoing China-Africa-Taiwan relations on the global system, especially on countries in the Global South.This book is divided into three parts. Part One deals primarily with the early history of both Chinas on the continent. Chapters in Part Two discuss the foreign policy of China and Taiwan toward the African continent. Part Three focuses on the shifting alliances and diplomatic allegiance of African countries towards the People¿s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC). Filling the gap in Africa-China-Taiwan studies, this volume will be of interest to researchers and students in the social sciences especially political science, comparative politics, international relations, foreign policy, politics of developing nations, area studies, and Taiwanese/Chinese studies.

This book provides readers with the most current knowledge on hazardous waste management practices. It addresses the rapidly changing advances in waste stream characterization and the discovery of new chemicals ¿ which have led to new hazardous wastes, technological innovation, stringent environmental regulations, changes in transport and dispersion modelling of hazardous pollutants, and new waste management techniques. Hazardous Waste Management: Advances in Chemical and Industrial Waste Treatment and Technologies is an invaluable reference for waste management and treatment professionals, chemical engineers and technicians, medical professionals, and environmental regulators, as well as students taking courses on hazardous waste management, environmental engineering, and environmental science.

This book¿along with its companion volume Writing Mary I: History, Historiography, and Fiction¿centers on representations of Queen Mary I in writing, broadly construed, and the process of writing that queen into literature and other textual sources. It spans an equally wide chronological and geographical scope, accounting for the years prior to her accession in July 1553 through the centuries that followed her death in November 1558 and for her reach across England, and into Ireland, Spain, Italy, Russia, and Africa. Its intent is to foreground words and language¿written, spoken, and acted out¿and, by extension, to draw out matters of and conversations about rhetoric, imagery, methodology, source base, genre, narrative, form, and more. Taken together, these two volumes find in England¿s first crowned queen regnant an incomparable opportunity to ask new questions and seek new answers that deepen our understanding of queenship, the early modern era, and modern popular culture.

This book examines civil society's peacebuilding role in sub-Saharan Africa in the contextof climate change and the pursuit of environmental peace and justice in the Anthropocene.Five main research themes emerge from its 20 chapters:· The roles of environmental peacemaking, environmental justice, ecologicaleducation and eco-ethics in helping to mitigate the impacts of climate change· Peacebuilding by CSOs after violent conflicts, with particular reference toaccountability, reconciliation and healing· CSO involvement in democratic processes and political transition after violentconflicts· Relationships between local CSOs and their foreign funders and the interactionsbetween CSOs and the African Union's peace and security architecture.· The particular role of faith-based CSOsThe book underlines the centrality of dialogue to African peacebuilding and the indigenouswisdom and philosophies on which itis based. Such wisdom will be a key resource inconfronting the existential challenges of the Anthropocene.The book will be a significant resource for researchers, academics and policymakersconcerned with the challenge of climate change, its interactions with armed conflict and thepeacebuilding role of CSOs.· This pathbreaking book shows why peacebuilding analysis and efforts need to beurgently re-oriented towards the existential challenges of environmental peace andjustice.· It explains the emerging conceptual frameworks which are needed for this new role.· It explains the critical role that CSOs - local and international - will play inimplementing this new peacebuilding approach, with particular reference to sub-Saharan Africa.

The book presents a cross-disciplinary overview of critical issues at the intersections of biology, information, and society. Based on theories of bioinformationalism, viral modernity, the postdigital condition, and others, this book explores two inter-related questions: Which new knowledge ecologies are emerging? Which philosophies and research approaches do they require?The book argues that the 20th century focus on machinery needs to be replaced, at least partially, by a focus on a better understanding of living systems and their interactions with technology at all scales ¿ from viruses, through to human beings, to the Earth¿s ecosystem. This change of direction cannot be made by a simple relocation of focus and/or funding from one discipline to another. In our age of the Anthropocene, (human and planetary) biology cannot be thought of without (digital) technology and society. Today¿s curious bioinformational mix of blurred and messy relationships betweenphysics and biology, old and new media, humanism and posthumanism, knowledge capitalism and bio-informational capitalism defines the postdigital condition and creates new knowledge ecologies.The book presents scholarly research defining new knowledge ecologies built upon emerging forms of scientific communication, big data deluge, and opacity of algorithmic operations. Many of these developments can be approached using the concept of viral modernity, which applies to viral technologies, codes and ecosystems in information, publishing, education, and emerging knowledge (journal) systems. It is within these overlapping theories and contexts, that this book explores new bioinformational philosophies and postdigital knowledge ecologies.

Writing Plague: Language and Violence from the Black Death to COVID-19 brings a holistic and comparative perspective to ¿plague writing¿ from the later Middle Ages to the twenty-first century. It argues that while the human ¿hardware¿ has changed enormously between the medieval past and the present (urbanization, technology, mass warfare, and advances in medical science), the human ¿software¿ (emotional and psychological reactions to the shock of pandemic) has remained remarkably similar across time. Through close readings of works by medieval writers like Guillaume de Machaut, Giovanni Boccaccio, and Geoffrey Chaucer in the fourteenth century, select plays by Shakespeare, and modern ¿plague¿ fiction and film, Alfred Thomas convincingly demonstrates psychological continuities between the Black Death and COVID-19. In showing how in times of plague human beings repress their fears and fantasies and displace them onto the threatening ¿other,¿ Thomas highlights the danger of scapegoating vulnerable minority groups such as Asian Americans and Jews in today¿s America. This wide-ranging study will thus be of interest not only to medievalists but also to students of modernity as well as the general reader.