Between the late fifteenth and early eighteenth centuries, the State of Muscovy emerged from being a rather homogenous Russian-speaking and Orthodox medieval principality to becoming a multi-ethnic and multi-religious empire. Not only the conquest of the neighbouring Tatar Khanates and the colonisation of Siberia demanded the integration of non-Christian populations into the Russian state. The ethnic composition of the capital and other towns also changed due to Muscovite policies of recruiting soldiers, officers, and specialists from various European countries, as well as the accommodation of merchants and the resettlement of war prisoners and civilians from annexed territories. The presence of foreign immigrants was accompanied by controversy and conflicts, which demanded adaptations not only in the Muscovite legal, fiscal, and economic systems but also in the everyday life of both native citizens and immigrants. This book combines two major research fields on international relations in the State of Muscovy: the migration, settlement, and integration of Western Europeans, and Russian and European perceptions of the respective "other". Foreigners in Muscovy will appeal to researchers and students interested in the history and social makeup of Muscovy and in European-Russian relations during the early modern era.

Between the late fifteenth and early eighteenth centuries, the State of Muscovy emerged from being a rather homogenous Russian-speaking and Orthodox medieval principality to becoming a multi-ethnic and multi-religious empire. Not only the conquest of the neighbouring Tatar Khanates and the colonisation of Siberia demanded the integration of non-Christian populations into the Russian state. The ethnic composition of the capital and other towns also changed due to Muscovite policies of recruiting soldiers, officers, and specialists from various European countries, as well as the accommodation of merchants and the resettlement of war prisoners and civilians from annexed territories. The presence of foreign immigrants was accompanied by controversy and conflicts, which demanded adaptations not only in the Muscovite legal, fiscal, and economic systems but also in the everyday life of both native citizens and immigrants. This book combines two major research fields on international relations in the State of Muscovy: the migration, settlement, and integration of Western Europeans, and Russian and European perceptions of the respective "other". Foreigners in Muscovy will appeal to researchers and students interested in the history and social makeup of Muscovy and in European-Russian relations during the early modern era.

This volume focuses on the interconnections between the Cold War, technological innovation and globalization. Although the consequences of globalization have received ample attention in both academia and the public discourse, only limited attention has so far been given to the factors that instigated various waves of this process. This holds particularly true for the period following World War II, during which a struggle between the two global blocs fanned not only technological innovations but also their transfer. This volume is dedicated to examining the links between the Cold War and this phase in the history of globalization, a phase that gradually made the world-despite high levels of international tension-more and more inter-related. More specifically, it anchors a very contemporary phenomenon to its historical context and pinpoints how the varied and multi-layered East-West interactions helped to induce and foster the globalization processes. Emphasizing technology and its cross-bloc flows, as well as several levels of actors, including states, private companies, and individuals, this volume reflects an important shift towards "transnationalism" which has occurred in the historiography in the recent years. This book will be of interest to students of Cold War Studies, science and technology studies, and International Relations.

A few months after the end of World War I, Wolfgang Mueller was born in Germany to two Jewish, college-educated parents. As he grew up in a happy, erudite environment, Mueller could never have known that the celebration of his Bar-Mizwa in 1932, coinciding with the rise the Nazis, would mark a very important turning point in his life.

As Adolf Hitler assumed the role of chancellor, Mueller was filled with fear and foreboding, as were his parents--feelings that instigated a subsequent decision to send Mueller to boarding school in England. After being recruited to work at an American company while still in school, Mueller details how he embarked on a journey in 1936 that carried him through life-changing experiences as an American soldier during World War II to a return to civilian life, during which he eventually married, started a family, and realized professional success.

Wolf shares the inspirational story of one man's remarkable lifelong experiences as he escaped from Nazi terror to build a life in America and learned to appreciate his good fortune.

A few months after the end of World War I, Wolfgang Mueller was born in Germany to two Jewish, college-educated parents. As he grew up in a happy, erudite environment, Mueller could never have known that the celebration of his Bar-Mizwa in 1932, coinciding with the rise the Nazis, would mark a very important turning point in his life.

As Adolf Hitler assumed the role of chancellor, Mueller was filled with fear and foreboding, as were his parents--feelings that instigated a subsequent decision to send Mueller to boarding school in England. After being recruited to work at an American company while still in school, Mueller details how he embarked on a journey in 1936 that carried him through life-changing experiences as an American soldier during World War II to a return to civilian life, during which he eventually married, started a family, and realized professional success.

Wolf shares the inspirational story of one man's remarkable lifelong experiences as he escaped from Nazi terror to build a life in America and learned to appreciate his good fortune.

This journal subline serves as a forum for stimulating and disseminating innovative research ideas, theories, emerging technologies, empirical investigations, state-of-the-art methods, and tools in all different genres of edutainment, such as game- based learning and serious games, interactive storytelling, virtual learning environments, VR-based education, and related fields. It covers aspects from educational and game theories, human-computer interaction, computer graphics, artificial intelligence, and systems design. This special issue consists of two parts: the first one features original research papers on interactive digital storytelling in the applied context of edutainment; the second part contains a selection of revised and expanded best papers from the 4th eLearning Baltics (eLBa 2011) conference. The papers on digital storytelling have been split into sections on theory, technology, and case studies; the eLBA 2011 conference papers deal with technology and applications, case studies and mobile applications, and game-based learning and social media.

This journal subline serves as a forum for stimulating and disseminating innovative research ideas, theories, emerging technologies, empirical investigations, state-of-the-art methods, and tools in all different genres of edutainment, such as game-based learning and serious games, interactive storytelling, virtual learning environments, VR-based education, and related fields. It covers aspects from educational and game theories, human-computer interaction, computer graphics, artificial intelligence, and systems design. This issue contains a special section on serious games with 8 outstanding contributions from the VS-Games 2011 conference; furthermore, there are 13 regular papers. These contributions clearly demonstrate the use of serious games and virtual worlds for edutainment applications and form a basis for further exploration and new ideas.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Conference on E-Learning and Games, Edutainment 2012, held in conjunction with the 3rd International Conference on Serious Games for Training, Education, Health and Sports, GameDays 2012, held in Darmstadt, Germany, in September 2012. The 21 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in this book. They are organized in topical sections named: game-based training; game-based teaching and learning; emerging learning and gaming technologies; authoring tools and mechanisms; and serious games for health.

This journal subline serves as a forum for stimulating and disseminating innovative research ideas, theories, emerging technologies, empirical investigations, state-of-the-art methods, and tools in all different genres of edutainment, such as game-based learning and serious games, interactive storytelling, virtual learning environments, VR-based education, and related fields. It covers aspects from educational and game theories, human-computer interaction, computer graphics, artificial intelligence, and systems design.

The 27 papers of this volume deal with virtual humans; graphics rendering and 3D animation; games and 2D animation; and digital media and its applications.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on E-learning and Games, Edutainment 2011, held in Taipeh, Taiwan, in September 2011.

The 42 full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 130 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on: augemented and mixed reality in education; effectiveness of virtual reality for education; ubiquituous games and ubiquitous technology & learning; future classroom; e-reader and multi-touch; learning performance and achievement; learning by playing; game design and development; game-based learning/training; interactions in games; digital museum and technology, and behavior in games; educational robots and toys; e-learning platforms and tools; game engine/rendering/animations; game-assisted language learning; learning with robots and robotics education; e-portfolio and ICT-enhanced learning; game-based testing and assessment; trend, development and learning process of educational mini games; VR and edutainment.

After World War II, Austria was occupied by Soviet, American, British, and French forces. This study provides the history of the treaty that was negotiated in order to end this occupation. In the Moscow Declaration of 1943, the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union had declared that Austria should be liberated from Nazi rule and reconstructed as an independent state. After the war, however, this goal was soon overshadowed by security and power considerations, and then by the Cold War. While the West strove to safeguard Austria's independence from communist expansion, the USSR refused to finalize a treaty and to withdraw from its zone in the eastern part of the country. In the end it took until 1955 to come to an agreement and receive Soviet consent for a treaty. An important Soviet precondition for agreeing to withdraw was Austria becoming a permanently neutral country. The roots of Austria's neutrality as traced in this volume were not only linked to Soviet, but also to Austrian considerations. Based on US, Soviet, British, French, German, Swiss and Austrian documents, the book analyzes the risks, pitfalls and blockades that had to be avoided and overcome before Austria could finally regain its independence and be reconstructed.

Das Buch behandelt drei einfache Fragen: Was ist unsere Seele wirklich? Als Antwort berichtet das Buch von Erfahrungen mit NTE, Erwachen, Sterben, Verstorbenen, Reinkarnation, Geistheilen, mit Ganzfeldforschungen u.v.a.m.Viele Erfahrungen dieser Art sind bekannt. Es wurden nur besonders gut bezeugte und dokumentierte ausgewahlt und dagegen die Argumente der materialistischen Wissenschaft, insbesondere der Hirnforschung zitiert und als pseudowissenschaftliche Glaubensaussagen erkannt. Die einfache und vernunftige Argumentation ist fur alle nachdenklichen Leser verstandlich. Was bedeutet das?Warum hat Gott die Welt erschaffen? Was ist wirklich Sunde? Was bedeutet die Erlosungstat Christi? Anwort geben Zitate aus den grossen Neuoffenbarungen von Lorber, Greber, Dudde, Wittek, Walsch, Hasselmann, Michael, Seth ua. Aber nicht jede Offenbarung ist gut Manche fantasieren, manche irren sich, manche lugen sogar Aus Beispielen ergeben sich Kritierien zur Beurteilung der Qualitat von Offenbarungen.Wie funktioniert das alles?Bekannt sind z.B. die Theorien der Kreationisten oder die physikalische Quantenmystik von Hans-Peter Durr. Es werden noch weitere Theorien erlautert, die aber allesamt wenig uberzeugen. Eine beeindruckende Ausnahme ist die geistphysikalische Quantenphysik von Prof. Johannes H. Matthaei. Sie ist trotz ihrer Wissenschaftlichkeit verstandlich und vor allem in der Lage, alle paranormalen Phanomene zu erklaren. Der entsprechende Text Evolution Gottes" ist neu, uberzeugend und grundlegend wichtig. Wer ist der Autor?Der Autor ist Informatiker und Physiker, seit seiner Jugend an den theologischen, philosophischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Fragen paranormaler Phanomene interessiert

This journal subline serves as a forum for stimulating and disseminating innovative research ideas, theories, emerging technologies, empirical investigations, state-of-the-art methods, and tools in all different genres of edutainment, such as game-based learning and serious games, interactive storytelling, virtual learning environments, VR-based education, and related fields. It covers aspects from educational and game theories, human-computer interaction, computer graphics, artificial intelligence, and systems design. The 24 papers presented in this 11th issue were organized in four parts dealing with: object reconstruction and management; graphics; VR/AR; and applications.