Livres sur le sujet « The possible concrete process of the Good »

Over the past fifty years, (financial) capitalism has brought about an enormous growth in wealth. Millions around the world have been lifted out of poverty. However, the downsides of the present global economic constitution are rapidly becoming evident as well. Rising inequality, soaring debt levels, and repeated cycles of boom and bust have proven to be some of its key characteristics. After the 2008 crisis brought the financial system to the brink of collapse, new regulations, stricter supervision, higher capital requirements, and ethical codes were introduced to the sector. Today we find ourselves in the middle of another economic boom. Yet one pressing question remains: has anything changed? Have the (necessary) repairs fixed the flaws in the system? Or do we require even more fundamental reforms? This volume builds on the observation that society has co-evolved with the financial sector. We cannot simply claim that 'finance' was the sole instigator of the 2008 crisis. Society itself has become financialized; the process of replacing relations, structures of trust and reciprocity, by anonymous and systemic transactions. The volume poses vital questions with regard to this societal development. How did this happen? And more importantly: is change possible? If yes, how? This volume contains 21 essays on the themes mentioned above. Authors include Jan Peter Balkenende, Wouter Bos, Lans Bovenberg, Govert Buijs, and Herman Van Rompuy. A recommendation by Dutch Minister of Finance Wopke Hoekstra is also included.

The book Geography of Barriers: Examples of Good Barrier-free Practice offers a collection of texts that are interested in making space, services, and information accessible. Thus, the collection is primarily about barriers, their nature, localization, and possible effects. Under barriers, most people imagine material barriers for wheelchair users in the form of steps or sidewalk curbs. Only a few would think that barriers can be represented by loosely placed rugs, unfit lighting, large glass surface, a doorbell without visual output, unwanted attention, frequent asking and offering help, lack of language knowledge, pity, etc. Thus, the book broadens awareness of what can be considered a barrier. The texts are divided into three parts – theoretical, methodic, and empirical – and their arrangement follows the logic of thematic focusing from the most general to the most concrete types of barriers. While the theoretical part places the policies of accessibility into the wider context of scientific disciplines and their development – such as disability studies, disability geography or service design, the methodic part discusses the introduction of accessibility policies in the city of Brno, describing how it tried to make its space, services, and information more accessible. Finally, the empirical part offers 18 examples of relatively good barrier-free implementations that have been recently realized in Brno. This division reflects an effort to target several groups of readers. The first part thus addresses mainly students interested in accessibility issues, the second, methodic part is intended for politicians and municipalities searching for inspiration to implement their own accessibility measures and policies. The last part stating concrete examples of good barrier-free implementations is aimed at general public, at people who like to think about a whole range of topics related to accessibility of space, services, and information.

Abstract: This chapter summarizes and discusses the planning phase of the community change process that comprised the three Good Neighborhoods phases (planning, readiness, and transformation). The purpose of the planning phase was to engage neighborhood residents and stakeholders in a community-wide planning process that would result in a community goal and action plan that was community-owned and -driven. In this chapter, the authors describe and discuss the process by which engagement of the community, needs assessment, and planning took place. The authors use the Osborn neighborhood as the case, recognizing that, as much as possible, the same process was followed in each of the six neighborhoods.

The book on “Innovative Teaching and Learning Process during COVID 19” is a very good effort in bringing novel ideas at the time of pandemic. The engagement with academic fraternity leading to this wonderful outcome is laudable. As the editors of this book, we are fortunate to go through every article and found few interesting aspects in teaching and learning process. Innovation has been the most buzzed word in the world today. In fact, academia across the globe are potentially involved in INNOVATION at every possible level. We wish this race with this pace towards innovation in teaching and learning mechanism drives us to “INNOVATION 5.0” in near future. This book will be instrumental in polarizing the thoughts of reader towards this process of innovation, particularly, in delivering lectures using online platforms and e-resources. Congratulations the authors in this book touched upon diverse topics related to the paradigm shift in teaching and learning process. Various tools, innovative practices were presented vividly in the articles of this book. Congratulations and wishes to authors and publishers for bringing out this productive outcome in the most critical transition time of educational reforms.

The book on “Innovative Teaching and Learning Process during COVID 19” is a very good effort in bringing novel ideas at the time of pandemic. The engagement with academic fraternity leading to this wonderful outcome is laudable. As the editors of this book, we are fortunate to go through every article and found few interesting aspects in teaching and learning process. Innovation has been the most buzzed word in the world today. In fact, academia across the globe are potentially involved in INNOVATION at every possible level. We wish this race with this pace towards innovation in teaching and learning mechanism drives us to “INNOVATION 5.0” in near future. This book will be instrumental in polarizing the thoughts of reader towards this process of innovation, particularly, in delivering lectures using online platforms and e-resources. The authors in this book touched upon diverse topics related to the paradigm shift in teaching and learning process. Various tools, innovative practices were presented vividly in the articles of this book. Congratulations and wishes to authors and publishers for bringing out this productive outcome in the most critical transition time of educational reforms.

For centuries, forms of European identity were built up through contrasts and oppositions, creating various forms of orientalism and occidentalism. It is useful to keep three levels of discussion distinct: that of the concrete procedure of the unification of Europe, that of the different ideas and ideologies regarding a united Europe, and that of identity. Multiculturalism has been suggested as the basis for an identity that could be recognised also by non-territorialised groups, such as foreigners or immigrants, and as the only possible basis for shaping a European political culture which could foster a European identity. In reference to Europeanness, the number and extension of currently possible cultural identities has increased. The process of globalisation, which has relativised the nation state, has led to the interpenetration of the European Union and other regions of the world. Thus it has suggested new conceptions of regional identities, in a modified vision of the relationship between self and other.

This book offers a detailed study of the political philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and Benedict de Spinoza, focussing on their concept of power as potentia, concrete power, rather than power as potestas, authorized power. The focus on power as potentia generates a new conception of popular power. Radical democrats—whether drawing on Hobbes’s ‘sleeping sovereign’ or on Spinoza’s ‘multitude’—understand popular power as something that transcends ordinary institutional politics, as, for instance, popular plebiscites or mass movements. However, the book argues that these understandings reflect a residual scholasticism that Hobbes and Spinoza ultimately repudiate. Instead, on the book’s revisionist conception, a political phenomenon should be said to express popular power when it is both popular (it eliminates oligarchy and encompasses the whole polity) and also powerful (it robustly determines political and social outcomes). Two possible institutional forms that this popular power might take are distinguished: Hobbesian repressive egalitarianism and Spinozist civic strengthening. But despite divergent institutional proposals, the book argues that both Hobbes and Spinoza share the conviction that there is nothing spontaneously egalitarian or good about human collective existence. From this point of view, the book accuses radical democrats of pernicious romanticism; the slow, meticulous work of organizational design and maintenance is the true centre of popular power.

Without microbes, no other forms of life would be possible. But what does it mean to be with microbes? In this book, 24 contributors attune to microbes and describe their multiple relationships with humans and others. Ethnographic explorations with fermented foods, waste, faecal matter, immunity, antimicrobial resistance, phages, as well as indigenous and scientific understandings of microbes challenge ideas of them being simple entities: not just pathogenic foes, old friends or good fermentation minions, but much more. Following various entanglements, the book tells how these relations transform both humans and microbes in the process.

The gradual progression of dementia means there has to be a constant search for a reasonable balance between supporting autonomy and ensuring proper representation. ∙ Good end of life care for people with dementia depends on adequate advance care planning, startling early in the disease process ∙ Where possible, it involves striving for joint decision-making with the patient and next-of-kin about (future) medical treatment and (future) care. ∙ Written advance directives may support representatives of incompetent patients in their role of surrogate decision maker, but the contents of the directive require interpretation in the context of advance care planning. ∙ The concept of “palliative care” offers a (policy) framework for advance care planning as well as moral guideline for dealing with written advance directives of patients with dementia.

Laura made her students’ lives in the classroom as positive as she could by creating a classroom community that met her students’ needs for autonomy, belonging, and competence. She helped them become aware that they were in the process of composing not only their current, but also their future, lives. Through the study of biographies and the opportunity to meet and interview successful members of their community, she provided models of possible future lives. She taught the academic, social, emotional, and moral understandings her students would need to compose happy, productive, and good lives. She nurtured in them the understanding that they are in control of their lives and that they have the capacity to compose successful lives, even in the face of hardship.

This chapter addresses problems concerning the doctrine of res judicata in international commercial arbitration. It also asks the following questions: What are the possible consequences of the occurrence of res judicata issues in international commercial arbitration? Expressed differently, what interests are at stake? Duplicative proceedings of res judicata require vast resources. The parties are required to invest considerable amount of time, money, and efforts in proceedings which they already went through, without having any good reason to suppose that the second proceedings will lead to a more accurate decision than the first one. These situations only gave an additional burden on the party who prevailed in the first proceedings. Also, these proceedings create risk of inconsistent decisions. Coexistence of inconsistent decisions could seriously undermine the very existence of the arbitral process.

This chapter analyses the potential impact of Brexit on the Northern Ireland ‘peace process’, through a discussion of four interrelated issues—political divisions in Northern Ireland; the single market; the common travel area; and the Good Friday Agreement, all of which reflect the fundamental political divisions between Irish nationalists and those who believe that Northern Ireland should remain part of the UK. The chapter highlights two main threats to peace – the undermining of the Good Friday Agreement which is premised on membership of the EU and its institutional framework, and the crucial issue of where the inevitable hard border between the EU and the UK will be located. It argues that Brexit has the potential to destroy the peace process and suggests possible policy solutions to mitigate the impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland, while also assessing the political obstacles to the adoption of such flexible policy solutions.

The optimal control of the metal solidification process in casting is considered. Quality of the obtained detail greatly depends on how the crystallization process proceeds. It is known that to obtain a model of a good quality it is desirable that the phase interface would be as close as possible to a plane and that the speed of its motion would be close to prescribed. The proposed mathematical model of the crystallization process is based on a three dimensional two phase initial-boundary value problem of the Stefan type. The velocity of the mold in the furnace is used as the control. The control satisfying the technological requirements is determined by solving the posed optimal control problem. The optimal control problem was solved numerically using gradient optimization methods. The effective method is proposed for calculation of the cost functional gradient. It is based on the fast automatic differentiation technique and produces the exact gradient for the chosen approximation of the optimal control problem.

In terms of biological wastewater treatment processes used for the treatment of municipal wastewater excess activated sludge is inevitably generated, which needs to be removed from the wastewater treatment process and must be properly processed, recycled, and disposed of. The handbook provides information on wastewater and sewage sludge management techniques, treatment and recycling technologies, various possible alternative solutions to ensure the high quality, economic and environmentally friendly management of it. The handbook is developed on the basis of the technical solutions and economic calculations included in the national planning document “Sewage Sludge Management Strategy in Latvia” (project), resulting from an analysis of the existing situation in terms of the project “Implementation of River Basin Management Plans of Latvian towards good surface water status” (LIFE18 IPE/LV/000014 - LIFE GOODWATER IP) that are included in the deliverables of the project.

Chapter 7 introduces commercial banks as creators of money and integrates them into the general equilibrium framework. The motivation to deviate from the standard approach that neglects commercial banks and entrusts all money creation to a central bank is twofold. First, apart from currency, central banks do not provide money directly but rather supply reserves that enable banks to create deposits. After the Great Recession, this transmission process staggered: increases in reserves outpaced increases in deposits. Any analysis of the monetary expansions starting in 2008 would remain incomplete and unsatisfactory unless it took account of this fact. Second, central banks normally control an overnight interbank interest rate that differs from the market interest rate on bonds. Considering an interbank market and its relationship with the bond market makes it possible to derive a term structure of interest rates. This is important because inverse term structures are good predictors for recessions.

What constitutes an authoritative judgment for attribution? Is that the same thing as a sound and universally true judgment? Furthermore, what are the political implications of acknowledging that attribution relies on judgment? Taking account of political judgment brings an important contribution to the debate on attribution by displacing the usual focus on technical constraints to a focus on political ones. It transpires that political judgment for attribution is neither good nor bad; it is fallible but inescapable. Attribution is a process that constantly evolves and is never perfect, due to its inherent reliance on judgment. This reliance on judgment in order to attribute cases threatening national security explains a useful trend: attribution is always possible, but with differing degrees depending on the authority and trust conferred on the entity expressing the judgment. In fact, though, the veracity of the judgment expressed is only secondary to its authoritative value: the role of attribution is primarily to convince an audience that its consequences were called for. Technical forensic evidence for attribution is therefore important; but so is the extent to which the public will be convinced of the guilt of the alleged instigator.

Audits and inspections are a vital and well recognised part of the clinical trial process. The requirement for quality data is recognised by everyone who works in clinical research. The ability to maintain accuracy and quality throughout a clinical trial is a dynamic process which involves both ongoing quality control (QC) steps and systematic and independent quality assurance (QA). This chapter starts by outlining the comparison between QC and QA and how these important processes form part of a Quality Management System (QMS) for an organisation. Additionally, we cannot begin to start discussing aspects of quality in clinical research without thinking about Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and this is frequently referenced throughout the chapter. Establishing a QA Unit, especially in the healthcare environment can be daunting. There always seems to be so many priorities and there are often pressures from within the organisation or from other teams for your help and support. It is important to allocate resources carefully to ensure the QA Unit is effective. By having an effective Quality Management System and a QA programme of effectual audits means that a range of possible risks may be prevented. Study-specific audits looking particularly at site audits are discussed as well as a systems based approach which is more common in larger QA Units. The audit process is reviewed in detail for both internal and external audits. Finally, inspection preparation, the inspection process and a detailed comparison of EMA, FDA and MHRA regulations used by inspectors is presented.

This brief introductory chapter summarizes some of the key clinical and structural features of osteoarthritis (OA) and highlights some general observations and concepts concerning the nature of OA. General observations include the preservation of OA throughout human evolution; the occurrence of OA in many other animals; the dynamic, metabolically active nature of OA pathophysiology; the fact that most OA never associates with symptoms or functional impairment; and the good outcome in many cases of symptomatic OA. Such observations support the concept of OA as the inherent repair process of synovial joints, which can be triggered by a range of diverse insults and in which all the joint tissues are involved. Aetiologically, OA is a common complex disorder with recognized genetic, constitutional, and environmental risk factors, and these may combine in multiple ways to cause marked variation in phenotypic presentation and in some instances ‘joint failure’ with associated symptoms and disability. Within the spectrum of OA are some discrete subsets, the best defined being nodal generalized OA. However, in many people OA does not fit neatly into one type and its phenotypic characteristics may change as it evolves. Two striking associations of OA are with ageing and with crystal deposition, especially calcium crystals but also urate crystals, and there are a number of possible mechanisms to explain these.

Rationality is a central concept for epistemology, ethics, and the study of practical reason. But what sort of concept is it? It is argued here that—contrary to objections that have recently been raised—rationality is a normative concept. In general, normative concepts cannot be explained in terms of the concepts expressed by ‘reasons’ or ‘ought’. Instead, normative concepts are best understood in terms of values. Thus, for a mental state or a process of reasoning to be rational is for it to be in a certain way good. Specifically, rationality is a virtue, while irrationality is a vice. What rationality requires of you at a time is whatever is necessary for your thinking at that time to be as rational as possible; this makes ‘rationally required’ equivalent to a kind of ‘ought’. Moreover, rationality is an “internalist” normative concept: what it is rational for you to think at a time depends purely on what is in your mind at that time. Nonetheless, rationality has an external goal—namely, getting things right in your thinking, or thinking correctly. The connection between rationality and correctness is probabilistic: if your thinking is irrational, that is bad news about your thinking’s degree of correctness; and the more irrational your thinking is, the worse the news is about your thinking’s degree of correctness. This account of the concept of rationality indicates how we should set about giving a substantive theory of what it is for beliefs and choices to be rational.

Sensory language is commonly used to describe human encounters with the divine. Scripture, for example, employs perceptual language like ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’, ‘hear the word of the Lord’, and promises that ‘the pure in heart will see God’. Such statements seem to point to certain features of human cognition that make perception-like contact with divine things possible. But how precisely should these statements be construed? Can the elusive notion of ‘spiritual perception’ survive rigorous theological and philosophical scrutiny and receive a constructive articulation? Perceiving Things Divine seeks to make philosophical and theological sense of spiritual perception. Reflecting the results of the second phase of the Spiritual Perception Project, this volume argues for the possibility of spiritual perception. It also seeks to make progress towards a constructive account of the different aspects of spiritual perception while exploring its intersection with various theological and philosophical themes, such as biblical interpretation, aesthetics, liturgy, race, ecology, eschatology, and the hiddenness of God. The interdisciplinary scope of the volume draws on the resources of value theory, philosophy of perception, epistemology, philosophy of art, psychology, systematic theology, and theological aesthetics. However, spiritual perception is often distorted due to the general brokenness of the human condition. The volume explores such distortions as pornographic sensibility and racist prejudice. Since perceiving spiritually involves the whole person, the volume proposes that spiritual perception could be purified by ascetic discipline, healed by contemplative practices, trained in the process of spiritual direction and the pursuit of virtue, transformed by the immersion in the sacramental life, and healed by opening the self to the operation of divine grace.

Habit rules our lives. And yet climate change and the catastrophic future it portends, makes it clear that we cannot go on like this. Our habits are integral to narratives of the good life, to social norms and expectations, as well as to economic reality. Such shared shapes are vital. Yet while many of our individual habits seem perfectly reasonable, when aggregated together they spell disaster. Beyond consumerism, other forms of life and patterns of dwelling are clearly possible. But how can we get there from here? This book shows how an approach to philosophy attuned to our ecological existence can suspend the taken-for-granted and open up alternative forms of earthly dwelling. Sharing the earth, as we do, raises fundamental questions. Deconstruction exposes all manner of exclusion, violence to the other, and silent subordination. Phenomenology and Whitehead's process philosophy offer further resources for an ecological imagination. The book plots experiential pathways that disrupt our habitual existence and challenge our everyday complacency. It shows how living responsibly with the earth means affirming the ways in which we are vulnerable, receptive, and dependent, and the need for solidarity all round. If we take seriously values like truth, justice, and compassion we must be willing to contemplate that the threat we pose to the earth might demand our own species' demise. Yet we have the capacity to live responsibly. In an unfashionable but spirited defense of an enlightened anthropocentrism, the book argues that to deserve the privileges of Reason we must demonstrably deploy it through collective sustainable agency. Only in this way can we reinhabit the earth.

This volume covers a period when Europeans were making great advances in the production and application of pure knowledge, especially in the fields of navigation and discovery. Thus European powers gained empires around the globe and the benefits that came with them, while the rest of the world had to be content with supplying the raw material (i.e labour, bullion, wood, plants, ore) of these good things. This would not have been possible without navies and trading monopolies, enterprises in which the freedom of the seas was disputed, then gained or lost. The essays in this volume range between three eras in the age of discovery: first, the excitement of seeing something for the first time; second, the experience of understanding the importance of the new thing; and third, the disillusion incident to reframing the prehistory of humanity and its destiny without the usual signposts of an anthropocentric journey from innocence to salvation via sin, atonement and judgment. The maritime contribution to all three eras was enormous not simply because it provided a mobile platform for the inspection of the new but because it proved experimentally that there were no extremes of heroic virtue or of brutal depravity to which humans might not tend when necessity or wantonness called for them. Usually the evil side of humanity was assigned to `savages’ but in the curiously singular person of the pirate, a mirror-image can be found of everyone – really, all people who lived on or by the sea were pirates of a sort. Commencing as an age of rational certainties, the Enlightenment gave way to the opposite. The symmetries of the Linnaean system yielded to the endless process of mutation Buffon called speciation. Rational government of the passions was succeeded by the cult of sensibility and spontaneous emotion. The mathematical exactness of Cartesian knowledge was supplanted by imagination. Sailors returned with pictures of mirages never seen before, the products of Nature’s own imagination that posed a question posed again here: `No doubt they are real, but are they true?’

Prekladaný vysokoškolský učebný text „Bioenergetika“ by mal slúžiť ako úvod do problematiky štúdia v oblasti bioenergetiky. Táto vedná oblast je v súčasnosti vysoko aktuálna, pretože výsledky získané bioenergetickým výskumom v uplynulých rokoch zreteľne ukazujú, že bioenergetické procesy prebiehajúce v živých systémoch neslúžia “len” na transformáciu energie, ale ovplyvňujú aj priebeh procesov ako sú apoptóza, starnutie, vznik a rozvoj mnohých ochorení (predovšetkým neurodegeneratívnych). Tieto skutočnosti jednoznačne naznačujú potrebu existencie kvalitných učebných textov, ktoré by prijateľným spôsobom umožnili študentom získať potrebné informácie a vedomosti v tejto vednej discipline. Z vyššie uvedených dôvodov sme sa rozhodli vytvoriť tieto učebné texty, ktoré sú vo forme desiatich samostatných kapitol, ktoré však na seba prirodzene a logicky nadväzujú. Jedna kapitola predstavuje v podstate jednu prednášku v rámci kurzu Bioenergetiky, ktorý je realizovaný na Prírodovedeckej fakulte Univerzity Pavla Jozefa Šafárika v Košiciach na magisterskom a doktorandskom stupni študijného programu „Biofyzika“. Zároveň tieto texty môžu poslúžiť aj pri výučbe v študijnom predmete Biochémia, ktorý je prednášaný v bakalárskych a magisterských stupňoch študijných programov “Biochémia” resp. “Biofyzika”. Dovoľujeme si vyjadriť presvedčenie, že tieto učebné texty by mohli byť istým spôsobom nápomocné aj vedeckým pracovníkom pracujúcim v oblasti výskumu týkajúcho sa problematiky transformáci energie v biologických organizmoch a fenoménoch spojených s touto transformáciou. V týchto učebných textoch sú postupne uvádzané poznatky týkajúce sa základných konceptov bioenergetiky, mechanizmov procesov ako sú glykolýza a Krebsov cyklus (okrem podrobného a uceleného popis týchto procesov je tu uvedený aj všeobecný náhľad o prepojenosti týchto procesov ako aj ich začlenenie do kompaktného pohľadu na celkový proces transformácie energie v biologických organizmoch), zloženia štruktúry a funkčnosti biologických membrán (táto oblast je nevyhnutná pre lepšie pochopenie poznatkov, ktoré sú uvedené v nasledujúcich kapitolách). V nasledujúcich kapitolách sa učebný text zaoberá popisom štruktúry a funkcie mitochondrií, pričom veľký dôraz je dávaný na popis vlastností a mechanizmov fungovania štyroch komplexov dýchacieho reťazca a ATP-syntázy. Tieto komplexy vytvárajú podmienky pre existenciu “najdôležitejšieho” bioenergetického procesu, oxidatívnej fosforylácie. V záverečných dvoch kapitolách sú uvedené mechanizmy procesov vytvárajúcich fotosyntézu, jej svetlej aj tmavej fázy. Sú tu relevantné informácie o tomto “druhom” najdôležitejšom bioenergetickom procese prebiehajúcom v mnohých biologických organizmoch a poskytujúcom možnosť transformácie enrgie elektromagnetického žiarenia na energiu “ukrytú” v chemických väzbách určitých chemických molekúl. Chceme vyjadriť naše presvedčenie, že predložené učebné texty “Bioenergetika” budú dobrým “pomocníkom a inšpirátorom” pre mnohých študentov, ktorí sa budú chcieť dozvedieť čo najviac o fascinujúcich štruktúrach a mechanizmoch umožňujúcich transformáciu energie v živých systémoch, bez ktorej by nebola možná existencia života ako ho poznáme. Želáme príjemné a podnetné čítanie a štúdium. URL: www.unibook.upjs.sk The textbook "Bioenergetics" should serve as an introduction to the study of bioenergetics. This field of science is currently highly actual, as the results of the bioenergetics research in recent years clearly show that bioenergetics processes in living systems can "serve" not only to transformation of energy, but also affect the course of processes such as apoptosis, aging, origin and development of many diseases (especially neurodegenerative). These facts clearly indicate the need for the existence of quality teaching texts that would allow students to acquire the necessary information and knowledge in this scientific discipline in an acceptable way. For the above mentioned reasons, we decided to create these textbooks, which are in the form of ten chapters, which naturally and logically follow each other. One chapter basically presents one lecture within the course of Bioenergetics, which is realized at the Faculty of Science of the Pavel Jozef Šafárik University in Košice at the master's and doctoral degree of the study program "Biophysics". At the same time, these texts can also be used for teaching in the study subject Biochemistry, which is taught in the bachelor's and master's degree programs of the study programs "Biochemistry" resp. “Biophysics”. We would like to express our conviction that these textbooks could in some way also help researchers working in the field of the energy transformation in biological organisms and the phenomena associated with this transformation. These textbooks present knowledge about the basic concepts of bioenergetics, the mechanisms of processes such as glycolysis and the Krebs cycle (in addition to a detailed and comprehensive description of these processes, there is also a general view of the interconnectedness of these processes and their incorporation into a compact view of the overall energy transformation in biological organisms), the structure and functionality of biological membranes (this area is necessary for a better understanding of the knowledge presented in the following chapters). In the following chapters, the textbook deals with the description of the structure and function of mitochondria, with great emphasis on the properties and mechanisms of functioning of the four complexes of the respiratory chain and ATP-synthase. These complexes create the basis for the existence of the "most important" process in bioenergetics, oxidative phosphorylation. In the final two chapters, the mechanisms of the processes that produce photosynthesis, its light and dark phases, are presented. There is relevant information about this "second" most important bioenergetics process taking place in many biological organisms and providing the possibility of transforming the energy of electromagnetic radiation into energy "hidden" in the chemical bonds of certain chemical molecules. We want to express our conviction that the textbooks "Bioenergetics" will be a good "helper and inspirer" for many students who want to learn as much as possible about the fascinating structures and mechanisms for energy transformation in living systems, without which it would not be possible existence of life as we know it.

The origins of Santa Claus, or so I am told, is that the young Bishop Nicholas secretly delivered three bags of gold as dowries for three young girls to their indebted father to save them from a life of prostitution. Armed with immortality, a factory of elves and a fleet of reindeer, his has been a lasting legacy, inextricably linked to Christmas. Of course, this Christmas looks a little different. Amidst a global pandemic, shimmying down the chimneys of strangers certainly does not adhere to social distancing guidelines. Some borders remain closed, and in some instances, the quarantine period is far too long. After all, he only has 24 hours to spread cheer across the world. As with the rest of us, Santa Claus is likely to get the remote working treatment. The reindeers this year are likely to be self-driving, reminiscent of an Amazon swarm of technology, and the naughty and nice lists are likely to be based on algorithms derived from social media accounts. In the age of the fourth industrial revolution, it is difficult to imagine that letters suffice anymore. How many posts were verified as real before shared? Enough to get you a drone. Fake news? Here is a lump of coal. Will we see elves in personal protective equipment (PPE) and will Santa Claus, high risk because of age and his likely comorbidities from the copious amount of cookies, have to self-isolate in the North Pole? In fact, will there be any toys at all this year? Surely production has been stalled with the restrictions on imports and exports into the North Pole. Perhaps, there is a view to outsourcing, or perhaps, there is a shift towards local production and supply chains. More importantly, as we have done in many instances in this period, maybe we should pause to reflect on the current structures in place. The sanctification of a figure so clearly dismissive of the Global South and to be critical, quite classist must be called into question. From some of the keenest minds, the contributions in this book make a strong case against this holly jolly man. We traverse important topics such as, is the constitution too lenient with a clear intruder who has conveniently branded himself a Good Samaritan? Allegations of child labour under the guise of elves, blatant animal cruelty, constant surveillance in stark contrast to many democratic ideals and his possible threat to national security come to the fore. Nevertheless, as the song goes, he is aware when you are asleep, and he knows when you are awake. Is feminism a farce to this beloved man – what role does Mrs Claus play and why are there inherent gender norms in his toys? Then is the worry of closed borders and just how accurate his COVID-19 tests are. Of course, this brings his ethics into question. While there is an agreement that transparency, justice and fairness, nonmaleficence, responsibility, and privacy are the core ethical principles, the meaning of these principles differs, particularly across countries and cultures. Why are we subject to Santa Claus’ notions of good and evil when he is so far removed from our context? As Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein would tell you, this is fundamentally a nudge from Santa Claus for children to fit into his ideals. A nudge, coined by Thaler, is a choice that predictably changes people’s behaviour without forbidding any options or substantially changing their economic incentives. Even with pinched cheeks and an air of holiday cheer, Santa Claus has to come under scrutiny. In the process of decolonising knowledge and looking at various epistemologies, does Santa still make the cut?

Economy and mankind are inextricably interlinked. Just as the economy or the production of material wealth is unimaginable without a man, so human existence and development are impossible without the wealth created in the economy. Shortly, both the goal and the means of achieving and realization of the economy are still the human resources. People have long ago noticed that it was the economy that created livelihoods, and the delays in their production led to the catastrophic events such as hunger, poverty, civil wars, social upheavals, revolutions, moral degeneration, and more. Therefore, the special interest of people in understanding the regulatory framework of the functioning of the economy has existed and exists in all historical epochs [A. Sisvadze. Economic theory. Part One. 2006y. p. 22]. The system of economic disciplines studies economy or economic activities of a society. All of them are based on science, which is currently called economic theory in the post-socialist space (the science of economics, the principles of economics or modern economics), and in most countries of the world - predominantly in the Greek-Latin manner - economics. The title of the present book is also Modern Economics. Economics (economic theory) is the science that studies the efficient use of limited resources to produce and distribute goods and services in order to satisfy as much as possible the unlimited needs and demands of the society. More simply, economics is the science of choice and how society manages its limited resources. Moreover, it should be emphasized that economics (economic theory) studies only the distribution, exchange and consumption of the economic wealth (food, beverages, clothing, housing, machine tools, computers, services, etc.), the production of which is possible and limited. And the wealth that exists indefinitely: no economic relations are formed in the production and distribution of solar energy, air, and the like. This current book is the second complete updated edition of the challenges of the modern global economy in the context of the coronary crisis, taking into account some of the priority directions of the country's development. Its purpose is to help students and interested readers gain a thorough knowledge of economics and show them how this knowledge can be applied pragmatically (professionally) in professional activities or in everyday life. To achieve this goal, this textbook, which consists of two parts and tests, discusses in simple and clear language issues such as: the essence of economics as a science, reasons for origin, purpose, tasks, usefulness and functions; Basic principles, problems and peculiarities of economics in different economic systems; Needs and demand, the essence of economic resources, types and limitations; Interaction, mobility, interchangeability and efficient use of economic resources. The essence and types of wealth; The essence, types and models of the economic system; The interaction of households and firms in the market of resources and products; Market mechanism and its elements - demand, supply and price; Demand and supply elasticity; Production costs and the ways to reduce them; Forms of the market - perfect and incomplete competition markets and their peculiarities; Markets for Production Factors and factor incomes; The essence of macroeconomics, causes and importance of origin; The essence and calculation of key macroeconomic indicators (gross national product, gross domestic product, net national product, national income, etc.); Macroeconomic stability and instability, unemployment, inflation and anti-inflationary policies; State regulation of the economy and economic policy; Monetary and fiscal policy; Income and standard of living; Economic Growth; The Corona Pandemic as a Defect and Effect of Globalization; National Economic Problems and New Opportunities for Development in the conditions of the Coronary Crisis; The Socio-economic problems of moral obsolescence in digital technologies; Education and creativity are the main solution way to overcome the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus; Positive and negative effects of tourism in Georgia; Formation of the middle class as a contributing factor to the development of tourism in Georgia; Corporate culture in Georgian travel companies, etc. The axiomatic truth is that economics is the union of people in constant interaction. Given that the behavior of the economy reflects the behavior of the people who make up the economy, after clarifying the essence of the economy, we move on to the analysis of the four principles of individual decision-making. Furtermore, the book describes how people make independent decisions. The key to making an individual decision is that people have to choose from alternative options, that the value of any action is measured by the value of what must be given or what must be given up to get something, that the rational, smart people make decisions based on the comparison of the marginal costs and marginal returns (benefits), and that people behave accordingly to stimuli. Afterwards, the need for human interaction is then analyzed and substantiated. If a person is isolated, he will have to take care of his own food, clothes, shoes, his own house and so on. In the case of such a closed economy and universalization of labor, firstly, its productivity will be low and, secondly, it will be able to consume only what it produces. It is clear that human productivity will be higher and more profitable as a result of labor specialization and the opportunity to trade with others. Indeed, trade allows each person to specialize, to engage in the activities that are most successful, be it agriculture, sewing or construction, and to buy more diverse goods and services from others at a relatively lower price. The key to such human interactions is that trade is mutually beneficial; That markets are usually the good means of coordination between people and that the government can improve the results of market functioning if the market reveals weakness or the results of market functioning are not fair. Moroever, it also shows how the economy works as a whole. In particular, it is argued that productivity is a key determinant of living standards, that an increase in the money supply is a major source of inflation, and that one of the main impediments to avoiding inflation is the existence of an alternative between inflation and unemployment in the short term, that the inflation decrease causes the temporary decline in unemployement and vice versa. The Understanding creatively of all above mentioned issues, we think, will help the reader to develop market economy-appropriate thinking and rational economic-commercial-financial behaviors, to be more competitive in the domestic and international labor markets, and thus to ensure both their own prosperity and the functioning of the country's economy. How he/she copes with the tasks, it is up to the individual reader to decide. At the same time, we will receive all the smart useful advices with a sense of gratitude and will take it into account in the further work. We also would like to thank the editor and reviewers of the books. Finally, there are many things changing, so it is very important to realize that the XXI century has come: 1. The century of the new economy; 2. Age of Knowledge; 3. Age of Information and economic activities are changing in term of innovations. 1. Why is the 21st century the century of the new economy? Because for this period the economic resources, especially non-productive, non-recoverable ones (oil, natural gas, coal, etc.) are becoming increasingly limited. According to the World Energy Council, there are currently 43 years of gas and oil reserves left in the world (see “New Commersant 2007 # 2, p. 16). Under such conditions, sustainable growth of real gross domestic product (GDP) and maximum satisfaction of uncertain needs should be achieved not through the use of more land, labor and capital (extensification), but through more efficient use of available resources (intensification) or innovative economy. And economics, as it was said, is the science of finding the ways about the more effective usage of the limited resources. At the same time, with the sustainable growth and development of the economy, the present needs must be met in a way that does not deprive future generations of the opportunity to meet their needs; 2. Why is the 21st century the age of knowledge? Because in a modern economy, it is not land (natural resources), labor and capital that is crucial, but knowledge. Modern production, its factors and products are not time-consuming and capital-intensive, but science-intensive, knowledge-intensive. The good example of this is a Japanese enterprise (firm) where the production process is going on but people are almost invisible, also, the result of such production (Japanese product) is a miniature or a sample of how to get the maximum result at the lowest cost; 3. Why is the 21st century the age of information? Because the efficient functioning of the modern economy, the effective organization of the material and personal factors of production largely depend on the right governance decision. The right governance decision requires prompt and accurate information. Gone are the days when the main means of transport was a sailing ship, the main form of data processing was pencil and paper, and the main means of transmitting information was sending letters through a postman on horseback. By the modern transport infrastructure (highways, railways, ships, regular domestic and international flights, oil and gas pipelines, etc.), the movement of goods, services and labor resoucres has been significantly accelerated, while through the modern means of communication (mobile phone, internet, other) the information is spreading rapidly globally, which seems to have "shrunk" the world and made it a single large country. The Authors of the book: Ushangi Samadashvili, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University - Introduction, Chapters - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11,12, 15,16, 17.1,18 , Tests, Revaz Shengelia, Doctor of Economics, Professor of Georgian Technical University, Chapters_7, 8, 13. 14, 17.2, 17.4; Zhuzhuna Tsiklauri - Doctor of Economics, Professor of Georgian Technical University - Chapters 13.6, 13.7,17.2, 17.3, 18. We also thank the editor and reviewers of the book.