This open access book bridges the divide between political science and public health, whilst simultaneously embracing the complexities and differences of both. Although public health is inherently political, the tools and insights of political science are often ignored in public health scholarship. Bringing together academics and researchers working at the intersection of both, the book demonstrates how integrating these fields can help reconcile the roles of politics and scientific eviden...

Manfred Baumann is a loner. Socially awkward and perpetually ill at ease, he spends his evenings quietly drinking and surreptitiously observing Adèle Bedeau, the sullen but alluring waitress at a drab bistro in the unremarkable small French town of Saint-Louis. One day, she simply vanishes into thin air and Georges Gorski, a detective haunted by his failure to solve one of his first murder cases, is called in to investigate the girl’s disappearance. He sets his sights on Manfred.As...

This open access book offers a synthetic reflection on the authors’ fieldwork experiences in seven countries within the framework of ‘Authoritarianism in a Global Age’, a major comparative research project. It responds to the demand for increased attention to methodological rigor and transparency in qualitative research, and seeks to advance and practically support field research in authoritarian contexts. Without reducing the conundrums of authoritarian field research to a simple how-to g...

"Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus, &c" is a captivating travelogue that chronicles the adventures of Adele and Xavier Hommaire de Hell as they journey through the diverse landscapes of Eastern Europe and Asia. The book offers a vivid portrayal of the regions they explored, highlighting the rich cultures, traditions, and natural beauty encountered along the way. The authors' keen observations and detailed descriptions provide readers with an immersive expe...

In a powerful collection, eleven internationally acclaimed fiction writers draw on personal objects to bring the First World War to life for listeners of all ages.A toy soldier. A butter dish. A compass. Mundane objects, perhaps, but to the remarkable authors in this collection, artifacts such as these have inspired stories that go to the heart of the human experience of World War I. Each author was invited to choose an object that had a connection to the war—a wri...

In the eyes of Nadine, a polygamist and serial bride, nudging her husbands into heaven is a testament to love. Even Nancy Neptune, a notorious shock jock, is gobsmacked by Nadine's so-called “Celestial Send-Offs.” Things go to hell in a hurry when Nadine offs the wrong guy and is charged with assisted suicide.Meanwhile, Blue McKenna has problems of her own. A power outage has leveled Blue's medical marijuana dispensary. Scottie Sphincter, lead singer of a band called The Rectal Sur...

Drylands, a home for nearly 2.5 billion people, are highly vulnerable to anthropogenic climate change, and dryland area may expand to 50% of the Earth's surface by 2100. Climate change may aggravate the prevalence of undernutrition and malnutrition because of adverse effects on quantity and quality of food production in these regions. This book takes a holistic approach to sustainable management of drylands to make agriculture drought-resilient. Eminent scientists from around the world sha...

Fanny Burney and Adele, Comtesse de Boigne, were two of the most remarkable female writers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: one a famous novelist, the other an aristocrat from one of France's most ancient families. This was the tumultuous era which saw the French Revolution, the Napoleonic years and the July 1830 Revolution in France; and in England the 'madness' of George III and the extravagant Regency period. Fanny and Adele were similarly strong characters - both ...

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Computer Graphics, AVR 2021, held in Italy, in September 2021. Due to COVID-19 pandemic the conference was held virtually.The 38 full and 14 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 69 submissions. The papers discuss key issues, approaches, ideas, open problems, innovative applications and trends in virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed real...

This comprehensive, multi-authored book covers all aspects of surgery on obese patients in emergency conditions.Obesity is a metabolic disease affecting a high percentage of world population.. It involves marked anthropometric changes, affecting surgical practice and altering patients’ ability to react to surgical stress. The prevalent comorbidities also affect the rate of complications and mortality after surgery. The obesity paradox, the ability of obese patients to survive emerg...

The 5-volume set LNCS constitutes the proceedings of the International Conference on Extended Reality, XR Salento 2026, held in Otranto, Italy, during June 2026.The 154 full papers and 67 short papers presented in these two volumes were carefully reviewed and selected from 262 submissions.The papers are organized in the following topical sections:Part I: Virtual Reality; Augmented and Mixed RealityPart II: Extended Reality; Extended Reality in Education; Ext...

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Conference on Augmented and Virtual Reality, AVR 2015, held in Lecce, Italy, in September 2015.The 32 papers and 8 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 82 submissions. The SALENTO AVR 2015 conference brings together a community of researchers from academia and industry, computer scientists, engineers, and physicians in order to share points of views, knowledge, experiences, and sc...