Bücher veröffentlicht von Springer International Publishing

The book provides an analysis of the emergence, evolution, and transformation of transnational securities regulation and of the influences from and the interactions between global regulatory powers in the field. Combining insights from law and political science, the work employs a two-tier complementary "e;on-the-books"e; and "e;in-action"e; approach. The more classical "e;on-the-books"e; approach draws on scholarship in United States and European Union securities regulation; transnational regulation and global administrative law; regime complexity; global governance studies; and the regulatory production of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). The law in-action approach leverages the author's experience as Compliance senior professional in a multinational financial institution as well as research interviews with senior IOSCO staff.The author's findings enable the reader to develop an original understanding of IOSCO, its standards, and its unique place in the transnational regulatory arena. They also challenge the doxa that the US are the only driving regulatory power in the securities area when in fact, other regulatory powers are emerging - for the time being, the EU. The balance has shifted and regulatory compromises are achieved at different points in the rule making process.

This book presents a critical analysis and examination of the major theories and social issues in the social construction of aging and death. It is concerned with the impact of death and places how our experiences of death are transformed by the roles that truth and discourse about aging play in everyday life. A major element of the book is an examination of the way in which groups and individuals employ specific representations of mortality in order to construct meaning and purpose for life and death. To accentuate this, the book provides an investigation into the social construction of death practices across time and space. Special attention is given to the notion of death as a socially accomplished phenomenon grounded in a unique sociological introduction to the meaning of death throughout history to the present. The purpose of this book is to critically inform debates concerning the abstract and empirical features of death examined through the lens of sociological perspectives. This book explores the emergent biomedical dominance relating to ageing and death. An alternative is advocated which re-interprets ageing for Graduate schools. This innovative book explores the concept, history and theory of aging and its relationship to death. Traditionally, many books have focused on older people dying of 'natural causes', a biomedical explanatory framework. This book looks at alternative social theories and experiences with aging and relate to death in different countries, victims, crime, imprisonment and institutional care. Are these deaths avoidable? If so, what are the solutions the book addresses. This is one of the first books that re-interprets aging and its relationship of examples of death. It will be of essential reading for graduate students and researchers in understanding these different examples of aging and death across the globe.

This edited volume examines the leadership and legacy of Ghana's Jerry John Rawlings within the broader context of Africa's leadership and democratic governance. The central purpose of the book is threefold. First, it examines the role and place of good and effective political leadership in the development of Africa. Second, it situates Jerry Rawlings' political style and legacy in the annals of democratic governance in post-independence Africa. Finally, the book adds to the knowledge and understanding of former President Rawlings as one of Africa's preeminent and transformational political leaders. Taking an interdisciplinary and Pan-African approach, this volume will be of great interest to scholars, policymakers, and students of African politics, African studies, governance, political leadership, democracy, development studies, and political economy.

This book discusses state-of-the-art stochastic optimization algorithms for distributed machine learning and analyzes their convergence speed. The book first introduces stochastic gradient descent (SGD) and its distributed version, synchronous SGD, where the task of computing gradients is divided across several worker nodes. The author discusses several algorithms that improve the scalability and communication efficiency of synchronous SGD, such as asynchronous SGD, local-update SGD, quantized and sparsified SGD, and decentralized SGD. For each of these algorithms, the book analyzes its error versus iterations convergence, and the runtime spent per iteration. The author shows that each of these strategies to reduce communication or synchronization delays encounters a fundamental trade-off between error and runtime.

The book is devoted to design and optimization of control units represented by combined finite state machines (CFSMs). The CFSMs combine features of both Mealy and Moore FSMs. Having states of Moore FSM, they produce output signals of both Mealy and Moore types. To optimize the circuits of CFSMs, we propose to use optimization methods targeting both Mealy and Moore FSMs. The book contains some original synthesis and optimization methods targeting hardware reduction in VLSI-based CFSM circuits. These methods take into account the peculiarities of both a CFSM model and a VLSI chip in use. The optimization is achieved due to combining classical optimization methods with new methods proposed in this book. These new methods are a mixed encoding of collections of microoperations and a twofold state assignment in CFSMs. All proposed methods target reducing the numbers of arguments in systems of Boolean functions representing CFSM circuits. Also, we propose to use classes of pseudoequivalent states of Moore FSMs to reduce the number of product terms in these systems.The book includes a lot of examples which contributes to a better understanding of the features of the synthesis methods under consideration.   This is the first book entirely devoted to the problems associated with synthesis and optimization of VLSI-based CFSMs. We hope that the book will be interesting and useful for students and PhD students in the area of Computer Science, as well as for designers of various digital systems. We think that proposed CFSM models enlarge the class of models applied for implementation of control units with modern VLSI chips.  

The videogame series Mass Effect is a remarkable rarity not only for being an original science-fictional franchise of recent vintage that has risen to such prominent commercial and critical success in popular culture but also for pushing the canonical boundaries of how science fiction as a genre will be experienced and understood in the future. This book analyzes the significance of the game for an understanding of the evolving SF genre and articulates an explanatory framework to limn its landmark reception in videogame history. This book both synthesizes the burgeoning body of scholarship on Mass Effect for a readership unfamiliar with either the game or the critical conversation on its salient importance, while simultaneously, for readers already invested in the science-fiction and videogame scholarship, mounting an extended inquiry as to why Mass Effect has served as such a representative milestone in videogame and genre history. The book should appeal to veteran science-fiction and videogame scholars and students as well as a wide variety of fans, consumers, gamers, and general readers.

Breast cancer remains the leading cause of cancer in women, which makes accurate diagnoses on core needle biopsy (CNB) specimens of vital importance in staging and guiding therapy decisions for patients. The first edition of this multi-authored text written by leaders in the field from major academic medical centers provided a comprehensive guide on diagnostic breast pathology in the core biopsy setting. In addition to in-depth coverage of benign and malignant entities encountered in breast core biopsies, the book provided additional resources to improve diagnostic accuracy such as pattern-based approaches to evaluation, mimickers of breast lesions arising in extra-mammary sites, and pitfalls specific to small tissue samples. In recent years, there have been several notable developments in the field of breast pathology including revisions in AJCC breast cancer staging, updated guidelines in the testing and reporting of ER, PR, and HER2, as well as implementation of immunotherapy and companion biomarker testing. In addition, several key updates were included in the most recent edition of the WHO Classification of Breast Tumours (2020). In addition to updates specific to individual breast entities, the second edition will detail updates regarding biomarker testing in the primary and metastatic setting, and incorporate newly defined entities and updated definitions of rare tumors in alignment with the WHO Classification of Breast Tumours (2020). Furthermore, this edition will address the role of CNB in companion biomarker testing for eligibility for immunotherapy in the context of advanced triple-negative breast carcinoma. Written by leaders in the field and edited by expert breast pathologists, The Second Edition of Comprehensive Guide to Core Needle Biopsies of the Breast is the definitive reference on breast core needle biopsies for practicing pathologists, pathology trainees, oncologists and clinicians of patients with breast disease.

This book presents the features of Wolff-Parkinson-White and other preexcitation syndromes with detailed discussion of the management and treatment of these patients. Catheter ablation has become a curative first-line treatment for circus movement tachycardias involving accessory pathway conduction. However, diagnostic and interventional challenges may be associated with anatomically and electrophysiologically complex single accessory pathway conduction, multiple accessory pathways, accessory pathways with other coexistent tachycardias, including atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia and atrial tachycardias, and accessory pathways with coexistent congenital heart disease. The complexity involved requires a thorough theoretical and practical knowledge for performing unequivocally conclusive/meaningful electrophysiological testing and successful catheter ablation. This book is based on the author's personal long-term experience and contains over 700 illustrations of intracardiac recordings and fluoroscopic images, as well as clear and user-friendly descriptions of the electrophysiologic data, its analysis and interpretation. It therefore offers a comprehensive practical guide for mapping and catheter ablation. The systematic approach is also invaluable for accessory pathways coexistent with other arrhythmias or congenital heart diseases. Wolff-Parkinson-White and Other Preexcitation Syndromes presents the topic as a fascinating part of clinical cardiac electrophysiology and all types of corresponding accessory pathways, which are often associated with diagnostic and interventional challenges. It therefore provides an invaluable educational resource to further scientific and medical knowledge in the topic and will be essential reading for all electrocardiologists and any medical professional that manages these patients.

This book sheds light on structural drivers that led to the Chinese omnipresence in African infrastructure markets and offers a strategic-relational approach to the study of African agency in Sino-African infrastructure encounters. Case studies cover the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA), Zambiäs road sector as well as Tanzaniäs Bagamoyo port and Standard Gauge Railway. It is shown that African (state) agency in the infrastructure sector is contingent upon dynamic state-society relations and distinct political-economic contexts and constraints. The book problematises contradictions related to infrastructure debt, the emergence of Sino-African public-private partnerships and the intensifying geopolitics-cum-geoeconomics of infrastructure across Africa.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of Natural Language Interfaces to Databases (NLIDBs), an indispensable tool in the ever-expanding realm of data-driven exploration and decision making. After first demonstrating the importance of the field using an interactive ChatGPT session, the book explores the remarkable progress and general challenges faced with real-world deployment of NLIDBs. It goes on to provide readers with a holistic understanding of the intricate anatomy, essential components, and mechanisms underlying NLIDBs and how to build them. Key concepts in representing, querying, and processing structured data as well as approaches for optimizing user queries are established for the reader before their application in NLIDBs is explored. The book discusses text to data through early relevant work on semantic parsing and meaning representation before turning to cutting-edge advancements in how NLIDBs are empowered to comprehend and interpret human languages. Various evaluation methodologies, metrics, datasets and benchmarks that play a pivotal role in assessing the effectiveness of mapping natural language queries to formal queries in a database and the overall performance of a system are explored. The book then covers data to text, where formal representations of structured data are transformed into coherent and contextually relevant human-readable narratives. It closes with an exploration of the challenges and opportunities related to interactivity and its corresponding techniques for each dimension, such as instances of conversational NLIDBs and multi-modal NLIDBs where user input is beyond natural language. This book provides a balanced mixture of theoretical insights, practical knowledge, and real-world applications that will be an invaluable resource for researchers, practitioners, and students eager to explore the fundamental concepts of NLIDBs.

This book is based on an institutional evolutionary theoretical view to the Göta kanal. Canals were the major transport infrastructure system besides roads and maritime transport until railroads were introduced. The canal studied is the Swedish Göta kanal project during the preparation and construction phase from 1800¿1832. Thus, the Göta kanal, and the canal-era, is seen from a technological, an economic and a political perspective. Comparisons are made with two contemporary major canal-projects; the Erie Canal in the USA (1817¿1825) and the Caledonian Canal in Britain (1804¿1822). It is argued that the Göta kanal project, as Sweden's Mega Project of its time, represented an important development step in Sweden as regards learning and innovation and became a starting point for Swedish transport infrastructure projects in the time to come, primarily the railways.

This book presents a compilation of case studies from practitioners, educators, and researchers working in the area of digital violence, along with methodologies to prevent it using cyber security. The book contains three basic sections namely: the concept of digital violence in policy and practice; the impact of digital violence; and the implication of cyber security to curb such violence. The intention of this book is to equip researchers, practitioners, faculties, and students with critical, practical, and ethical resources to use cyber security and related technologies to help curb digital violence and to support victims. It brings about the needs of technological based education in order to combat gendered crimes like cyberbullying, body-shaming, and trolling that are a regular phenomenon on social media platforms. Topics include societal implications of cyber feminism; technology aided communication in education; cyber security and human rights; governance of cyber law throughinternational laws; and understanding digital violence.

This edited book examines the concept of researcher independence and its various strands and manifestations using the conceptual lens of the hidden curriculum. Contributions highlight, discuss and exemplify the instrumental and formational roles played by the hidden curriculum in promoting and facilitating doctoral scholars¿ researcher independence. Contributing to limited scholarly resources on the hidden curriculum, the book stimulates debate concerning its pragmatic and theoretical importance, particularly in pursuit of researcher independence. Including first-hand examples from doctoral scholars, doctoral supervisors, researcher developers and institutional leaders, the book will appeal to doctoral scholars, researchers and students working in the areas of doctoral education, curriculum and pedagogical practices, doctoral supervision, mentoring and coaching, researcher education, learning and development and educational leadership.

Authored by a leading expert in the field, this book introduces an innovative methodology that harnesses the power of fuzzy logic to enhance decision-making in multi-attribute scenarios. In a world of complexity and uncertainty, effective decision-making is paramount. Springer proudly presents a cutting-edge publication that revolutionizes decision analysis: "Fuzzy Decision Analysis: Multi-attribute Decision-Making Approach." This book stands at the forefront of decision analysis, introducing the integration of fuzzy logic into multi-attribute decision-making. It is a transformative journey into the realm of advanced decision analysis. It book not only equips you with the knowledge to comprehend the theoretical underpinnings but also empowers you to apply these insights in practical scenarios. This book serves as your indispensable companion. Its comprehensive coverage serves as a beacon, guiding you through the intricate maze of fuzzy logic and multi-attribute decision-making, ultimately empowering you to embrace innovation and master the art of making well-informed decisions in an ever-changing world.

In many countries, censorship, blocking of internet access and internet content for political purposes are still part of everyday life. Will filtering, blocking, and hacking replace scissors and black ink? This book argues that only a broader understanding of censorship can effectively protect freedom of expression.For centuries, church and state controlled the content available to the public through political, moral and religious censorship. As technology evolved, the legal and political tools were refined, but the classic censorship system continued until the end of the 20th century. However, the myth of total freedom of communication and a law-free space that had been expected with the advent of the internet was soon challenged. The new rulers of the digital world, tech companies, emerged and gained enormous power over free speech and content management. All this happened alongside cautious regulation attempts on the part of various states, either by granting platforms near-totalimmunity (US) or by setting up new rules that were not fully developed (EU). China has established the Great Firewall and the Golden Shield as a third way.In the book, particular attention is paid to developments since the 2010s, when Internet-related problems began to multiply. The state¿s solutions have mostly pointed in one direction: towards greater control of platforms and the content they host. Similarities can be found in the US debates, the Chinese and Russian positions on internet sovereignty, and the new European digital regulations (DSA-DMA). The book addresses them all.This book will be of interest to anyone who wants to understand the complexities of social mediäs content regulation and moderation practices. It makes a valuable contribution to the field of freedom of expression and the internet, showing that, with different kinds of censorship, this essentially free form of communication has come ¿ almost by default ¿ under legal regulation and the original freedom may have been lost in too many countries in recent years.

This book provides a complete overview of Crohn¿s disease and ulcerative colitis for the general reader. Written for patients, their friends and families, and any medical or non-medical persons who wish to learn more about Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), it explains the science in clear, accessible language. The book covers the most current and comprehensive information about potential causes, clinical features, diagnosis, and treatment of IBD, including surgical options. Individual chapters are dedicated to special patient populations like pediatric patients, pregnant women, and the elderly. It also includes information about alternative therapies, as well as guidance regarding managing treatment costs for patients with financial or insurance difficulties. Featuring hand-drawn illustrations, references for further reading, and other useful resources, this book is a must-read for patients and others seeking to understand inflammatory bowel disease.

This book examines the multifaceted nature of gender-based violence (GBV) and the many forms it can take. It explores the area of GBV and its implications on human rights, law, and policy. The book highlights the significance of current international debates around preventing GBV and provides context for understanding GBV as a complex structural phenomenon deeply rooted in gender inequality. It addresses GBV as one of the most notable human rights violations within all societies and provides multiple global perspectives on GBV to address the common challenges and barriers to combating this issue.Key areas of coverage include:Sexual violence.Domestic violence.Intimate partner violence.Media Misogyny.Online trolling.Discrimination.Sex trafficking and modern slavery.Preventative Measures and role of men.International Perspectives on Gender-Based Violence is an essential resource for researchers, clinicians/therapists, and upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in developmental psychology, family policy, forensic psychology, human rights, public health, criminology/criminal justice, and clinical social work as well as all interrelated disciplines.

Pedro Dorado Montero was one of Spain¿s most relevant authors. He contributed to modern Criminal law and Penology with a very unique theory: the Protective Law for Criminals. In a time when neoclassical penal theories and new positivist theories clashed, Dorado Monterös proposal served as a bridge between the criminal law conceptions of the 19th and 20th centuries.In order to explore his role in the introduction of positivism within Spain and the subsequent success of this trend, this book addresses several aspects. The first three analyzed are his scholarly career, the historical and international context in which he lived, and the various European and other international influences he was exposed to. On this basis, two major points are then discussed.Firstly, Dorado Montero has been traditionally included within the movement known as correccionalismo. However, his legal-philosophical and criminal thought indicates otherwise. It seems to lie closer to positivism than to neoclassical positions. This research aims at challenging the accuracy of the ¿eclectic¿ label which traditional historiography has applied to him.In turn, Dorado Montero described a reality in which every moral value and legal representation was a mere product of mankind¿s imagination. Man is responsible for the elaboration of morals, law and culture in his own mind. Thus, for him, there were as many moral and legal orders as there were human beings on the planet. Such a claim is polemic even today. Unsurprisingly, the author received criticism from both neoclassical and positivist schools. Thus, the existence of a ¿Doradian positivism¿ is explored. Despite the growing interest in these topics over the last few decades, Dorado Montero has somehow been overlooked ¿ even though his Derecho protector de los criminales described the criminal law of the future as well, one that will have to face the new neurological, medical, psychological and genetic challenges of our time.

Abiotic stressors, such as drought, extreme temperatures, heavy metals, or high salinity, are causing huge crop losses worldwide. These abiotic stressors are expected to become more extreme, less predictable, and more widespread in the near future. The harm of abiotic stresses includes the disruption of cellular redox homeostasis, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and oxidative stress in the plant. Plants have different mechanisms to fight stress, and these mechanisms are responsible for maintaining the required homeostasis in plants. Research on gasotransmitters is rapidly expanding and knowledge regarding the potential of gasotransmitters in biology and medicine is accumulating. Over the past few decades, the roles of these signaling molecules, especially NO and H2S, have been extensively studied for their application in plants. Recently, the emissions of endogenous gasotransmitters in plants have been widely studied and analyzed, thereby providing information to facilitate our understanding of new gasotransmitters signaling pathways. Given the multidimensional role of these signaling molecules, research over the past decades in mitigating abiotic stresses in plant biology and from an agriculture point of view, we intend to bring forth a comprehensive volume ¿Gasotransmitters Signaling in Plants under Challenging Environment". We are hopeful that this comprehensive volume will furnish the requisite of all those who are working or have an interest in the proposed topic

This edited volume discusses the need to increase quantity and enhance quality of science education focused on preparing rural students to thrive in an interconnected, interdependent, and complex world. It acknowledges that globally integrated education incorporates local knowledge and culture with global trends. Additionally it highlights globally competent science teaching is not included in most preparation programs, and teachers enter schools unprepared to address students¿ needs. Rural schools lack opportunities to keep up with reform efforts and may have limited experiences with diversity, particularly at the global level. These chapters describe globalization in authors¿ respective academic institutions by sharing global competence action research projects for preservice teachers. The studies presented were conducted in elementary and secondary science methods, and science content courses. The book¿s research is unique as the contributors have carried out action research in science teacher preparation programs and participated in peer discussions that helped them fill gaps in global science teaching while advancing the field of teacher preparation programs.

Since the release of Christopher Nolan¿s Batman Begins in 2005, there has been a pronounced surge in alternative uses of the computer term ¿reboot,¿ a surge that has witnessed the term deployed in new contexts and new signifying practices, involving politics, fashion, sex, nature, sport, business, and media. As a narrative concept, however, reboot terminology remains widely misused, misunderstood, and misinterpreted across popular, journalistic, and academic discourses, being recklessly and relentlessly solicited as a way to describe a broad range of narrative operations and contradictory groupings, including prequels, sequels, adaptations, revivals, re-launches, generic ¿refreshes,¿ and enactments of retroactive continuity. Adopting an inter-disciplinary approach that fuses cultural studies, media archaeology, and discursive approaches, this book challenges existing scholarship on the topic by providing new frameworks and taxonomies that illustratekey differences between reboots and other ¿strategies of regeneration,¿ helping to spotlight the various ways in which the culture industries mine their intellectual properties in distinct and novel ways to present them anew. Reboot Culture: Comics, Film, Transmedia is the first academic study to critically explore and interrogate the reboot phenomenon as it emerged historically to describe superhero comics that sought to jettison existing narrative continuity in order to ¿begin again¿ from scratch.of franchising in the twenty-first century. of franchising in the twenty-first century.

This book shows possible solutions to how a profitable energy supply can be implemented with almost no population resistance. Worldwide, more than 80 % of our energy needs are still covered by fossil fuels. Under these circumstances, can climate change still be stopped?Essential technologies for usage of wind energy with an emphasis on high-altitude wind utilization are presented. Airborne wind energy is one of the most promising technologies to enable a renewable energy turnaround in an economical way. The main problem of conventional renewable energy is the insufficient availability. To ensure a 100 % supply of renewable energy, enormous and very expensive storage capacities would have to be built up.How we can cover our entire energy needs (electricity, mobility and heat) in the future without fossil fuels, without risking the competitiveness of our economy, is shown in this book.

A subtle change that leads to disastrous consequences-hardware Trojans undoubtedly pose one of the greatest security threats to the modern age. How to protect hardware against these malicious modifications? One potential solution hides within logic locking; a prominent hardware obfuscation technique. In this book, we take a step-by-step approach to understanding logic locking, from its fundamental mechanics, over the implementation in software, down to an in-depth analysis of security properties in the age of machine learning. This book can be used as a reference for beginners and experts alike who wish to dive into the world of logic locking, thereby having a holistic view of the entire infrastructure required to design, evaluate, and deploy modern locking policies.

This book provides readers with the current state-of-the-art research and technology on quantum computing. The authors provide design paradigms of quantum computing. Topics covered include multi-programming mechanisms on near-term quantum computing, Lagrange interpolation approach for the general parameter-shift rule, architecture-aware decomposition of quantum circuits, software for massively parallel quantum computing, machine learning in quantum annealing processors, quantum annealing for real-world machine learning applications, queuing theory models for (Fault-Tolerant) quantum circuits, machine learning for quantum circuit reliability assessment, and side-channel leakage in Suzuki stack circuits.

This book presents a detailed examination of the current state of knowledge in the field of paleoneurology in the main amniote groups (reptiles, birds and mammals), and advances  resulting from new non-invasive technologies. The study of fossil endocasts is an area of considerable current interest, and has long been central to our understanding of the evolution of the brain, development of senses and behavioral adaptations in diverse vertebrate groups and across vertebrates as a whole. Recent advances in non-invasive imaging have significantly increased the number of fossil taxa for which brain morphology is known, and it may now be possible to quantitatively analyze the relative size of brain regions. Providing a general overview of current perspectives and problems in evolutionary neuroanatomy, this book is intended for a wide range of readers, including undergraduate and graduate students, teachers, and anyone with a special interest in paleoneurology. It is also useful as supplementary reading for courses in digital anatomy, vertebrate comparative anatomy, computed morphometrics, paleontology, neurology and radiology as well as evolution programs

This thesis presents significant new observations of nuclear wobbling, and thus expands our understanding of nuclear triaxiality and its prevalence in the nuclear chart. Triaxial nuclear shapes are a very rare phenomena and their experimental identification often relies on two unique signatures - nuclear wobbling motion and chiral rotation. While nuclear chirality is a well-studied phenomenon, experimental observations of wobbling nuclei are rather limited. With the identification of 135Pr and 187Au as wobblers, this work establishes triaxiality to be a general phenomenon present in different regions of the nuclear chart, irrespective of any particular spin or deformation. A major focus of this work is the detailed investigation of the different kinds of wobbling modes. Depending on the geometry of the nuclear system, wobbling can be classified into two types - longitudinal and transverse. This work has, for the first time, reported evidence of the possible coexistence of both forms of wobbling in a single nucleus. Another important result reported in this work is the very first observation of co-existing chiral and wobbling modes in the 135Pr nucleus. This thesis details the experimental methods that led to this breakthrough, along with pertinent theoretical interpretations.

This volume is a collection of essays of a philosophical nature on the subject of technology, introducing authors from the Portuguese-speaking community, namely from Portugal itself, Africa and Brazil. Their contributions detail a unique perspective on technology, placing this important topic within the historical, ideological and social contexts of their countries, all of which share a common language. The shared history of these countries and the cultural and economic specificities of each one have stimulated singular insights into these thinkers' reflections.The essays are thematically diverse. Among the topics covered are technogenic knowledge, visions of technology, risks and uncertainties, mediatization, digitalization, and datafication, engineering practice and ethics, alternative technoscientific strategies, ontotechnologies of the body, virtual and archive. The contributions also explore other themes that are more closely related to the semi-peripheral world, such as technological dependence and the incorporation of Western technology into the social structure of ancestral communities.This book appeals to students and researchers and provides a voice to authors whose work are not usually available in English-language publications. It serves as an ideal guide for all those who seek rigorous and geographically widespread knowledge regarding thinking on technology in several Portuguese-speaking countries.