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We are 'going virtual' in more and more areas of our lives - from shopping to education, filing systems to love affairs. How can we assess the relationship between technology and culture when culture is so imbued with technology? This clear, concise and readable text aims to offer the student a one-stop guide through this complex and slippery terrain. Introducing a wealth of theoretical perspectives in a lucid and engaging style and covering a range of topical, challenging and intriguing examples - from cyborgs to digital art - it will be an essential text for everyone wanting to make sense of crucial forces of change on contemporary culture.
Cumulative global transformations, occurring daily, affect important aspects of our life. Characteristic cultural and natural heritage, including sites of priceless value, is under constant threat. There are growing pressures, of both natural and human origin, such as wars, con icts, natural or technological disasters and the effects of global climate change. These provoke the continuous degradation of many sites included in the World Heritage List. In consequence, immediate strategic measures must be taken. Natural heritage is our legacy from the past, that we inherited from our ancestors and pass on to future generations. It is vital to realize its value and protect it by all possible mean...
Beginning with a general overview of nanocomposites, Bionanocomposites: Integrating Biological Processes for Bio-inspired Nanotechnologies details the systems available in nature (nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids) that can be integrated within suitable inorganic matrices for specific applications. Describing the relationship between architecture, hierarchy and function, this book aims at pointing out how bio-systems can be key components of nanocomposites. The text then reviews the design principles, structures, functions and applications of bionanocomposites. It also includes a section presenting related technical methods to help readers identify and understand the most widely used analytical tools such as mass spectrometry, calorimetry, and impedance spectroscopy, among others.
This book constitutes the proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Speech and Computer, SPECOM 2019, held in Istanbul, Turkey, in August 2019. The 57 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 86 submissions. The papers present current research in the area of computer speech processing including audio signal processing, automatic speech recognition, speaker recognition, computational paralinguistics, speech synthesis, sign language and multimodal processing, and speech and language resources.
This book discusses the organ-specific systemic manifestations of COVID-19. The initial chapters of the book review the origin and evolution of the coronaviruses, followed by pathogenesis and immune response during COVID-19 infection. The book also provides insight into the role of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 in the onset of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pathogenesis. It summarizes the neurological aspects of SARS-CoV2, including transmission pathways, mechanisms of invasion into the nervous system, and mechanisms of neurological disease. It also delineates the association of severe disease with high blood plasma levels of inflammatory cytokines and inflammatory markers in SARS-CoV-2 infection. Lastly, it discusses the perturbation of gut microbiota by SARS-CoV-2 and uncovers the potential risk of virus infection on reproductive health.
This text offers practical information and vicarious practice for both beginning as well as veteran teachers to become more knowledgeable, skilled, and effective in their work. Through study, application of what has been studied, and the analysis and evaluation of the end result of this application, teachers who care to improve can improve. And, teachers who are already successful in their teaching can be even more successful. Effective teachers are active learners themselves. This text therefore provides a specific context and focus for this active learning in the areas of student motivation and classroom management which are considered critical for best practice in teaching in classrooms t...