The organisation and characteristics of early and ancient states have become the focus of a renewed interest from archaeologists, ancient historians and anthropologists in recent years. On the one hand, neo-evolutionary schemas of political transformation find it difficult to define some of their most basic concepts, such as ‘chiefdom’, ‘complex chiefdom’ and ‘state’, not to mention the transition between them. On the other hand, teleological interpretations based on linear dynamics, from less to increasingly more complex political structures, in successive steps, impose biased and too rigid views on the available evidence. In fact, recent research stresses the existence of other forms of socio-political organisation, less vertically integrated and more heterarchical, that proved highly successful and resilient in the long term in tying together social groups. What is more, such forms quite often represented the basic blocks on which states were built and that managed to survive once states collapsed. Finally, nomadic, maritime and mountain populations provide fascinating examples of societies that experienced alternative forms of political organisation, sometimes on a seasonal basis. In other cases, their consideration as ‘marginal’ populations that cultivated specialised skills ensured them a certain degree of autonomy when living either within or at the borders of states. This book explores such small-scale socio-political organisations, their potential and the historical trajectories they stimulated. A selection of historical case studies from different regions of the world may help rethink current concepts and views about the emergence and organisation of political complexity and the mechanisms that prevented, occasionally, the emergence of solid polities. They may also cast some light over trajectories of historical transformation, still poorly understood as are the limits of effective state power. This book explores the importance of comparative research and long-term historical perspectives to avoid simplistic interpretations, based on the characteristics of modern Western states abusively used retrospectively.

This book is written in honor of Prof. Francisco Rodriguez-Reinoso, who has made significant contributions in the area of porous materials such as active carbons and graphenes. It details the preparation of porous materials, including carbonaceous, zeolitic, and siliceous materials, MOFs, aerogels, and xerogels, describing the characterization techniques and the interpretation of the results, and highlighting common errors that can occur during the process. This book subsequently presents the use of modeling based on thermodynamics to describe the materials. Lastly, it illustrates a number of current environmental protection applications in the context of both water and air.

This book is written in honor of Prof. Francisco Rodriguez-Reinoso, who has made significant contributions in the area of porous materials such as active carbons and graphenes. It details the preparation of porous materials, including carbonaceous, zeolitic, and siliceous materials, MOFs, aerogels, and xerogels, describing the characterization techniques and the interpretation of the results, and highlighting common errors that can occur during the process. This book subsequently presents the use of modeling based on thermodynamics to describe the materials. Lastly, it illustrates a number of current environmental protection applications in the context of both water and air.

Markets emerge in recent historical research as important spheres of economic interaction in ancient societies. In the case of ancient Egypt, traditional models imagined an all-encompassing centralized, bureaucratic economy that left practically no place for market transactions, as many surviving documents only described the activities of the royal palace and of huge institutions, mainly temples. Yet scattered references in the sources reveal that markets and traders were crucial actors in the economic life of ancient Egypt. In this perspective, this volume aims to discuss the role of markets, traders and economic interaction (not necessarily organized through markets) and the use of "money" (metals, valuable commodities) in pre-modern societies, based on archaeological, anthropological and historical evidence. Furthermore, it intends to integrate different perspectives about the social organization of transactions and exchanges and the different forms taken by markets, from meeting places where exchanges operated under ritualized procedures and conventions, to markets in which profit-seeking activities were marginal in respect with other practices that stressed, on the contrary, community collaboration. The book also deals with social forms of pre-modern exchanges in which trust and ethnic solidarity guaranteed the validity of commercial operations in the absence of formal codes of laws or accepted authorities over long distances (trade diasporas, guilds, etc.). Finally, the volume analyzes a critical aspect of small-scale trade and markets, such as the commercialization of agricultural household production and its impact on the peasant economic strategies. In all, the book covers a diversity of topics in which recent research in the fields of economic sociology, archaeology, anthropology, economics and history proves invaluable in order to analyze the role of Egyptian trade in a broader perspective, as well as to suggest new venues of comparative research, theoretical reflection and dialogue between Egyptology and social sciences.

Calorimetric Methods for the Characterization of Porous Materials presents the calorimetric methods that can be used in the characterization of porous materials using chemical thermodynamics. Among these materials, catalysts, supports and adsorbents (such as Activated Carbon, Metal-Organic-Frameworks, SBA-15, Zeolites, Graphene, Graphite, Carbon Foams) are presented. In addition, the use of calorimetry in the study of catalytic reactions in different phases is presented, applicable to air and wastewater treatment, clean and renewable energies, green chemistry, as well as energy production and storage (CO2, CH4 and H2 at high pressure). The chapters summarize the basic concepts of thermodynamics and kinetics alongside the use of experimental techniques such as thermal analysis and calorimetry to answer practical questions. Information is given about different calorimetric methods that can be used in studies aimed at characterizing the physicochemical properties of adsorbents, supports and solid catalysts, as well as the processes related to the adsorption-desorption phenomena of the reactants and/or products of catalytic reactions. The thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of catalytic reactions are also shown to be effectively investigated by calorimetric methods to achieve a better understanding of the sequence of the elementary steps in catalytic reactions. Calorimetric Methods for the Characterization of Porous Materials is written for graduate level students and postdoc researchers in chemistry, chemical engineering, and materials science.

The transition between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC was an era of deep economic changes in the ancient Near East. An increasing monetization of transactions, a broader use of silver, the management of the resources of temples through "entrepreneurs", the development of new trade circuits and an expanding private, small-scale economy, transformed the role previously played by institutions such as temples and royal palaces. The 17 essays collected here analyse the economic transformations which affected the old dominant powers of the Late Bronze Age, their adaptation to a new economic environment, the emergence of new economic actors and the impact of these changes on very different social sectors and geographic areas, from small communities in the oases of the Egyptian Western Desert to densely populated urban areas in Mesopotamia. Egypt was not an exception. Traditionally considered as a conservative and highly hierarchical and bureaucratic society, Egypt shared nevertheless many of these characteristics and tried to adapt its economic organization to the challenges of a new era. In the end, the emergence of imperial super-powers (Assyria, Babylonia, Persia and, to a lesser extent, Kushite and Saite Egypt) can be interpreted as the answer of former palatial organizations to the economic and geopolitical conditions of the early Iron Age. A new order where competition for the control of flows of wealth and of strategic trading areas appears crucial.

The role of Cities in driving global economies has been well covered, and their impact on the larger ecosystem is well documented. Resilient and Sustainable Cities: Research, Policy and Practice explores how cities can be transformed into sustainable fabrics, while leading to positive socio-economic change. The topics include urban policy and covers the challenges cities experienced during the pandemic and resulting urban responses from federal, state, and local levels. This includes a transdisciplinary perspective dwelling on the city narrative, including Resources, Economics, Politics, and others. Resilient and Sustainable Cities serves as a valuable resource for leaders and practitioners working in Urban Policy and academia, as well as students in urban planning, architecture, and policy undergraduate and graduate level programs.

Handbook of Carbon-Based Nanomaterials provides a comprehensive overview of carbon-based nanomaterials and recent advances in these specialized materials. This book opens with a brief introduction to carbon, including the different forms of carbon and their range of uses. Each chapter systematically covers a different type of carbon-based nanomaterial, including its individual characteristics, synthesis techniques and applications in industry, biomedicine and research. This book offers a broad handbook on carbon-based nanomaterials, detailing the materials aspects, applications and recent advances of this expansive topic. With its global team of contributing authors, Handbook of Carbon-Based Nanomaterials collates specific technical expertise from around the world, for each type of carbon-based nanomaterial. Due to the broad nature of the coverage, this book will be useful to an interdisciplinary readership, including researchers in academia and industry in the fields of materials science, engineering, chemistry, energy and biomedical engineering.

Human language is viewed and studied by some authors as a natural object and by other scholars as a social and cultural object. Actually, human language, as usually observed, manifests itself as a tightly entangled bundle of natural and cultural features. In the present essay we propose several ways to disentangle this complex feature bundle in order to show that often what seems contradictory is really complementary. The main goal of this book consists in showing that both views are correct and compatible if applied in a proper way. In order to do that it is necessary to differentiate two distinct entities: natural languages and cultivated languages. A natural language develops in childhood in a spontaneous way on the basis of the innate capabilities determined by the human faculty of language. In contrast, a cultivated language is culturally determined and must be acquired by the individuals through guided learning, since it is based on certain cultural elaborations of a natural language. We show that some of the most controversial topics in current linguistic research are vitiated by the failure to make this distinction or by a poor understanding of it.

This book presents a new analysis of the organization, structure and changes of the pharaonic state through three millennia of its history. Moreno Garcia sheds new light on this topic by bringing to bear recent developments in state theory and archaeology, especially comparative study of the structure of ancient states and empires. The role played by pharaonic Egypt in new studies often reiterates old views about the stability, conservatism and 'exceptionalism' of Egyptian kingship, which supposedly remained the same across the Bronze and Iron Ages. Ancient Egypt shared many parallels with other Bronze and Iron Age societies as can be shown by an analysis of the structure of the state, of the limits of royal power, of the authority of local but neglected micro-powers (such as provincial potentates and wealthy non-elite), and of the circulation and control of wealth. Furthermore, Egypt experienced deep changes in its social, economic, political and territorial organization during its history, thus making the land of the pharaohs an ideal arena in which to test applications of models of governments and to define the dynamics that rule societies on the longue duree. When seen through these new perspectives, the pharaonic monarchies appear less exceptional than previously thought, and more dependent on the balance of power, on their capacity to control the kingdom's resources and on the changing geopolitical conditions of their time.

A lo largo de estas paginas trataremos de explicar lo que hay que analizar y entender para poder sentirnos tranquilos manteniendo nuestras inversiones en un entorno que a veces puede parecer tan complicado como es la bolsa, trataremos de establecer las claves a la hora de invertir y las claves para poder deshacer una inversion cuando ya ha madurado. Estableceremos tambien aquellos aspectos en los que el analisis tecnico sirve como apoyo al fundamental, las estrategias para poder cubrir una cartera ante posibles incertidumbres y estableceremos los momentos en los que el miedo pude ser un factor que juegue a nuestro favor. Finalmente dedicaremos la parte final del libro a casos practicos donde analizaremos porque decidimos invertir en determinadas empresas y cuando pasaron a ser interesantes inversiones a largo plazo, en la ultima parte del libro podra visionar las inversiones realizadas en los ultimos anos, su rentabilidad y cuales son algunas de nuestras apuestas para el proximo ano.

This book presents a new analysis of the organization, structure and changes of the pharaonic state through three millennia of its history. Moreno Garcia sheds new light on this topic by bringing to bear recent developments in state theory and archaeology, especially comparative study of the structure of ancient states and empires. The role played by pharaonic Egypt in new studies often reiterates old views about the stability, conservatism and 'exceptionalism' of Egyptian kingship, which supposedly remained the same across the Bronze and Iron Ages. Ancient Egypt shared many parallels with other Bronze and Iron Age societies as can be shown by an analysis of the structure of the state, of the limits of royal power, of the authority of local but neglected micro-powers (such as provincial potentates and wealthy non-elite), and of the circulation and control of wealth. Furthermore, Egypt experienced deep changes in its social, economic, political and territorial organization during its history, thus making the land of the pharaohs an ideal arena in which to test applications of models of governments and to define the dynamics that rule societies on the longue duree. When seen through these new perspectives, the pharaonic monarchies appear less exceptional than previously thought, and more dependent on the balance of power, on their capacity to control the kingdom's resources and on the changing geopolitical conditions of their time.

The aim of the Element is to provide a comprehensive comparison of the basic organization of power in Mesoamerica and Egypt. How power emerged and was exercised, how it reproduced itself, how social units (from households to cities) became integrated into political formation and how these articulations of power expanded and collapsed over time. The resilience of particular areas (Oaxaca, Middle Egypt), to the point that they preserved a highly distinctive cultural personality when they were included or not within states, may provide a useful guideline about the basics of integration, negotiation and autonomy in the organization of political formations.