Search results for ""Author Four"

An Innovative Approach to Multidimensional Signals and Systems Theory for Image and Video Processing In this volume, Eric Dubois further develops the theory of multi-D signal processing wherein input and output are vector-value signals. With this framework, he introduces the reader to crucial concepts in signal processing such as continuous- and discrete-domain signals and systems, discrete-domain periodic signals, sampling and reconstruction, light and color, random field models, image representation and more. While most treatments use normalized representations for non-rectangular sampling, this approach obscures much of the geometrical and scale information of the signal. In contrast, Dr. Dubois uses actual units of space-time and frequency. Basis-independent representations appear as much as possible, and the basis is introduced where needed to perform calculations or implementations. Thus, lattice theory is developed from the beginning and rectangular sampling is treated as a special case. This is especially significant in the treatment of color and color image processing and for discrete transform representations based on symmetry groups, including fast computational algorithms. Other features include: An entire chapter on lattices, giving the reader a thorough grounding in the use of lattices in signal processing Extensive treatment of lattices as used to describe discrete-domain signals and signal periodicities Chapters on sampling and reconstruction, random field models, symmetry invariant signals and systems and multidimensional Fourier transformation properties Supplemented throughout with MATLAB examples and accompanying downloadable source code Graduate and doctoral students as well as senior undergraduates and professionals working in signal processing or video/image processing and imaging will appreciate this fresh approach to multidimensional signals and systems theory, both as a thorough introduction to the subject and as inspiration for future research.

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The seminal guide to risk management, streamlined and updated Risk Management in Banking is a comprehensive reference for the risk management industry, covering all aspects of the field. Now in its fourth edition, this useful guide has been updated with the latest information on ALM, Basel 3, derivatives, liquidity analysis, market risk, structured products, credit risk, securitizations, and more. The new companion website features slides, worked examples, a solutions manual, and the new streamlined, modular approach allows readers to easily find the information they need. Coverage includes asset liability management, risk-based capital, value at risk, loan portfolio management, capital allocation, and other vital topics, concluding with an examination of the financial crisis through the utilisation of new views such as behavioural finance and nonlinearity of risk. Considered a seminal industry reference since the first edition's release, Risk Management in Banking has been streamlined for easy navigation and updated to reflect the changes in the field, while remaining comprehensive and detailed in approach and coverage. Students and professionals alike will appreciate the extended scope and expert guidance as they: Find all "need-to-know" risk management topics in a single text Discover the latest research and the new practices Understand all aspects of risk management and banking management See the recent crises – and the lessons learned – from a new perspective Risk management is becoming increasingly vital to the banking industry even as it grows more complex. New developments and advancing technology continue to push the field forward, and professionals need to stay up-to-date with in-depth information on the latest practices. Risk Management in Banking provides a comprehensive reference to the most current state of the industry, with complete information and expert guidance.

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The first in-depth look at one of the world's richest-and most secretive-businessmen Though his wealth is certainly no secret, the world's fourth richest man remains an enigma. Paul Allen made his fortune as Bill Gates's partner in Microsoft, supplemented it with questionable, though often profitable, venture capital schemes, and has since invested his wealth in a widely divergent list of interests. He owns the NBA's Portland Trailblazers and the NFL's Seattle Seahawks. Among hundreds of smaller ventures, he is a primary stakeholder in the film production company DreamWorks SKG and formerly held a large piece of the widely despised Ticketmaster monopoly. Dubbed the "Accidental Zillionaire" by Wired magazine, Allen has often appeared to be a bumbler who succeeded primarily through luck and by coopting the visionary ideas of others. In The Accidental Zillionaire, Laura Rich, one of the foremost chroniclers of the Internet economy, unravels the secret Paul Allen, his inner motivations, his vision, and his personality. She tells Allen's story from his days as a fledgling computer geek in suburban Washington state, to his role in founding the world's largest software company, to his battle with cancer, to his sycophantic flirtation with Hollywood and its brightest stars. Paul Allen is a man of various interests and passions, but few if any know him well. The Accidental Zillionaire for the first time reveals the inner workings of a towering figure in the worlds of technology, business, sports, and entertainment. Laura Rich (Los Angeles, CA) is a former writer for The Industry Standard, Adweek, and Inside Media. She currently covers the world of digital entertainment for Entertainment Weekly, Fortune, and The Hollywood Reporter. She penned The Standard's popular "Rich List" report and has reported on Paul Allen for years.

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The definitive guide to running productive meetings Facilitating With Ease! has become the go-to handbook for those who lead meetings, training, and other business gatherings. Packed with information, effective practices, and invaluable advice, this book is the comprehensive handbook for anyone who believes meetings should be productive, relevant, and as short as possible. Dozens of exercises, surveys, and checklists will help transform anyone into a skilled facilitator, and clear, actionable guidance makes implementation a breeze. This new fourth edition includes a new chapter on questioning, plus new material surrounding diversity, globalization, technology, feedback, distance teams, difficult executives, diverse locations, personal growth, meeting management, and much more. With in-depth, expert guidance from planning to closing, this book provides facilitators with an invaluable resource for learning or training. Before you run another meeting, discover the practices, processes, and techniques that turn you from a referee to an effective facilitator. This book provides a wealth of tools and insights that you can put into action today. Run productive meetings that get real results Keep discussions on track and facilitate the exchange of ideas Resolve conflict and deal with difficult individuals Train leaders and others to facilitate effectively Poorly-run meetings are an interruption in the day, and accomplish little other than putting everyone behind in their “real” work. On the other hand, a meeting run by an effective facilitator makes everyone’s job easier; decisions get made, strategies are improved, answers are given, and new ideas bubble to the surface. A productive meeting makes everyone happy, and results in real benefits that spread throughout the organization. Facilitating With Ease! is the skill-building guide to running great meetings with confidence and results.

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_____________________________What if our future lies 40,000 years in our past? Subject Twenty-One is an astonishing debut novel in which a young woman's refusal to accept the status quo opens her eyes to the lies her society is built on.A stonking good sci-fi & coming-of-age story all wrapped into one . . . a book that tackles humanity, hardship, and classism at the deepest level.' - Magic Radio Book ClubElise's world is forever changed when she is given the opportunity of a lifetime - to work at the Museum of Evolution and be a Companion to the Neanderthal, Subject Twenty-One.As a Sapien, a member of the lowest order of humans, she and others like her are held responsible for the damages inflicted on the world by previous generations. This job may be Elise's only chance to escape a stagnating life in an ostracised and impoverished community.But it doesn't take long for Elise to realise that, away from the familiarity and safety of her home, her own secrets are much harder to conceal. And the longer she stays the more she comes to realise that little separates her from the exhibits . . . and a cage of her own.________________________________PRAISE FOR THE TOMORROW'S ANCESTORS SERIES'An unputdownable exploration into the ethics of science' Buzz Magazine'Incredible . . . without a doubt one of the best YA sci-fi books I've ever read' Out and About Books'Instantly engaging . . . widens out from a tale of a girl trying to find her own identity to a broader story encompassing an entire population's burden of oppression, and the desire for freedom' Track of Words'One of the rare debuts that are really five star reads. Subject Twenty One grabbed me instantly and I couldn't put it down' Dom Reads__________________________________________________Make sure you've read the whole series!1. Subject Twenty-One2. The Hidden Base3. The Fourth Species

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Un peu moins de trois cents Gallo-Romains ont appartenu aux deux ordres nobiliaires romains au cours du Haut-Empire, chevaliers pour les trois quarts, sénateurs pour le quart restant. La reconnaissance de cette appartenance est le résultat d’une application de critères d’origine géographique aux sénateurs et chevaliers romains présumés originaires de Gaule ou présumés tels à divers titres, qui a conduit à écarter, dans l’état actuel de la documentation, un nombre assez élevé de personnages considérés comme ayant appartenu à l’ordre sénatorial ou à l’ordre équestre pour des raisons individuelles ou un statut présumé de groupes. Il s’agit en ce cas d’une part de Gaulois assurés mais dont l’appartenance à l’un des deux ordres nobiliaires ne peut être qu’une erreur ou une trop fragile hypothèse, d’autre part de sénateurs ou de chevaliers parfaitement authentiques mais pour lesquels une origine de Gaule ne pose sur de fondements dépourvus de solidité ou qui ne suffisent pas à asseoir une conviction. Ces deux élites nobiliaires ont connu simultanément une triple évolution. Une évolution chronologique des effectifs connus: ils ont progressé de manière parallèle pour les sénateurs et les chevaliers jusqu’à la fin du 1er siècle, en laissant derrière eux les effectifs sénatoriaux et équestres des provinces hispaniques, africaines et micrasiatiques ; une baisse a commencé dans la seconde moitié du IIe siècle et s’est généralisée au IIIe siècle, plus rapidement et plus profondément, au moins en apparence, pour les sénateurs dont les effectifs connus furent, comme ceux des chevaliers, de plus en plus largement distancées par ceux des nobles d’Afrique et d’Asie Mineure. Cette évolution chronologique s’est accompagnée d’une évolution de la répartition géographique de ces primores. La Narbonnaise est présente dans la prosopographie sénatoriale et équestre dès la fin de la République, mais le premier chevalier connu des Trois Gaules date de l’époque augustéenne et la première attestation d’un sénateur de l’une de ces provinces de l’époque claudienne. Ce retard a duré pour le recrutement sénatorial jusqu’au début du IIe siècle, tandis que les effectifs des chevaliers croissaient oins inégalement. Au IIe siècle le contraste entre la Narbonnaise et le reste de la Gaule s’est atténué à la suite de la diminution du nombre des sénateurs et des chevaliers connus dans la province du Sud-Est, alors que dans les Trois Gaules le nombre des premiers augmentait légèrement et que se maintenait le nombre des seconds, les deux provinces rhénanes restant en retrait. Au cours du IIIe siècle s’est produit un renversement des valeurs au bénéfice de la Gaule conquise par César, les régions rhénanes fournissant alors ses assises les plus larges au recrutement équestre. Les primores gallo-romains ont aussi connu une évolution d’ordre sociologique. Commencée par l’octroi du droit de cité au chefs indigènes, expliquant l’accès privilégié de ceux-ci à l’ordre équestre et par lui à l’ordre sénatorial, l’extension progressive du recrutement équestre puis sénatorial du Sud-Est vers les régions de l’intérieur et du Nord de la Gaule a continué jusqu’au deuxième tiers du IIe siècle au profit des milieux dirigeants traditionnels, mais aux chefs indigènes des peuples du Sud-Est et aux descendants des dynastes aquitains ou bataves ont succédé des notables de moindre envergure ; enfin ont accédé à leur tour à l’ordre équestre des militaires de carrière venus avant tout des régions du Nord-Est.

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*** LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 ****** ONE OF THE DAILY TELEGRAPH'S SPORTS BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2023 ****** ONE OF THE TIMES' SPORTS BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2023 ***The remarkable inside story of how two Hollywood A-listers, Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, stunned the football world by buying a non-league club in North Wales.'astute, lovingly detailed ... so entertaining ... so charming' Victoria Segal, the Sunday Times'A superb account of a modern-day success story, told beautifully by one of the best writers in the business. This is one of the great football stories of recent years. No matter who you support, if you love football, you will love the story of Tinseltown.' Daniel Taylor, The Athletic'This is a compelling, multi-layered, page turner, underpinned by a real sense of both place and connection with the eclectic characters involved. It will appeal to anyone with even the slightest interest in the game's enduring place in a changing world.' Louise Taylor, Guardian'...the best sports book I've read all year for many years...It's full on factual but funny, exhaustive but not exhausting and well written and wonderful.' Paul Ross, talkSPORT'terrific ... A richly layered and fascinating story of a club and community reborn' FourFourTwo'This book comes from the heart. It tells the story of how Wrexham, the club I love, has always been special and achieved so much in the past, as well as the present. I really enjoyed it.' Mickey Thomas, Wrexham FC legend and 1992 FA Cup heroIt was one of the most extraordinary takeovers British football has known. In February 2021, Ryan Reynolds joined with Rob McElhenney to buy Wrexham FC, a non-league team in North Wales. Wrexham, a former coal and steel town dealing with its post-industrial legacy, suddenly found itself at the centre of global attention, with broadcast networks around the world descending to discover what was going on. The club became the subject of a smash hit Disney+ docu-series, Welcome to Wrexham.Tinseltown tells the story of this extraordinary, unpredictable and often surreal football takeover and the remarkable events that followed. Written with the full cooperation of Wrexham FC, it is the inside story of what happened when Hollywood met a dot on a map. How a town was transformed when its football club, aspiring only to survive on the fifth rung of the British football ladder, was sprinkled with gold dust and found ambition again. With unique access to key figures, the book charts the club's attempts to climb up the pyramid, providing a vivid sense of what it is like to play for this 'Hollywood' team and the pressure and spotlight that comes with it.At their only press conference since buying the club, nobody laughed when Reynolds and McElhenney said the Premier League could be an aspiration. 'Couldn't we theoretically make this happen?' McElhenney asked. 'Why not dream big?' added Reynolds. 'If you don't dream big, you will never go there, so why not?' Tinseltown is the story of how they did just that.

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During the last few years technical diving has become much more popular and has moved into mainstream diving. As a result a significant number of recreational divers are moving towards technical diving. Despite this, there are still many misconceptions about what technical diving actually means and what is involved. Introduction to Technical Diving - An Introduction by Mark Powell gives a straightforward overview of technical diving and dispels many of the myths surrounding this area. It explores what is meant by technical diving, what is involved, the risks that arise and how you can move towards this type of diving. Section one describes technical diving in general and illustrates some of the differences between technical and recreational diving as well as explaining some of the things that recreational divers can learn from technical divers. Section two explains some of the ideas behind this form of diving. It defines exactly what we mean by technical diving as well as why it has become so popular. This section then explains how to make a start in technical diving and the type of divers who tend to get into technical diving. For these divers the second section then goes on to explain what to expect from a technical diving course. Finally this section discusses how accident analysis has been used to shape some of the concepts in technical diving as well as some of the mental aspects of this type of diving. The third section then goes on give an overview of technical diving equipment and explains why this is different to the equipment used in recreational diving. There are many different opinions about technical diving equipment and this section of the book lays out the advantages and disadvantages of the various options so that divers can make an informed decision about their equipment choices. Topics such as twinset configuration, Hogarthian gear configuration and choice of stage cylinders are all covered for the open circuit diver. The fourth section covers the various skills required for technical diving are discussed in detail including buoyancy control, trim, tram diving, problem shutdown and valve shutdowns. Section five covers the issues involved in rebreather diving and the various choices available to divers looking to switch to a rebreather. Section six discusses the various aspects of technical dive planning including decompression planning, dealing with narcosis, avoiding oxygen toxicity and gas planning. Finally this section covers some of the various aspects of planning for specific situations such as wreck, cave penetration and mixed gas expedition diving. The book is aimed at anyone who wants to know more about technical diving. Whether you are looking to take a technical diving course, are looking to improve your skills, or simply want to find out more about what's involved then this book will provide a comprehensive overview. Even those divers who are not tempted to venture into this area of the sport can benefit from this book as it also discusses what lessons can be learnt from technical diving in order to improve normal recreational diving.

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'Health practice has always been many things, with many constraints and pressures. These things have changed over time and still vary from place to place. Being a practitioner here and now is, from one perspective, no different to the way it has always been. It involves integration. It involves weaving together many threads into one whole tapestry. It involves taking a constrained and limited palate and painting freely. It may be a science, it may be technical, it may be psychological, it may be spiritual, but it is always an art, because it integrates everything in order to create. And what we create is better health.' Justin Amery This extraordinary new series fills a void in practitioner development and well-being. The books take a reflective step back from the tick-box, target-driven and increasingly regulated world of 21st century health practice; and invite us to revisit what health and health practice actually are. Building carefully on the science and philosophy of health, each book addresses the messy, complex and often chaotic world of real-life health practice and offers an ancient but now almost revolutionary understanding for students and experienced practitioners alike: that health practice is a fundamentally creative and compassionate activity. The series as a whole helps practitioners to redefine and recreate their daily practice in ways that are healthier for both patients and practitioners. The books provide a welcome antidote to demoralisation and burn-out amongst practitioners, reversing cynicism and reviving our feeling of pride in, and our understanding of, health practice. By observing practice life through different lenses, they encourage the development of efficiency, effectiveness and, above all, satisfaction. The fourth book in the series, The Integrated Practitioner: Integrating Everything, considers the 'we', the 'me' and the 'other' perspectives of books 1-3 and integrates everything into 'health practice' as a single entity. It recognises the multifaceted nature of healthcare, its different constraints and varied pressures, but also views it from a new perspective, fostering a happier, healthier and more skilful whole within the real-life, complex and often messy world of health practice. Brilliantly written, practitioners, students and trainees and GP trainers will find the enlightening, witty, conversational style a joy to read.

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The Roman emperor Commodus wanted to kill a rhinoceros with a bow and arrow, and he wanted to do it in the Colosseum. Commodus' passion for hunting animals was so fervent that he dreamt of shooting a tiger, an elephant, and a hippopotamus; his prowess was such that people claimed he never missed when hurling his javelin or firing arrows from his bow. For fourteen days near the end of AD 192, the emperor mounted one of the most lavish and spectacular gladiatorial games Rome had ever seen. Commodus himself was the star attraction, and people rushed from all over Italy to witness the spectacle. But this slaughter was simply the warm-up act to the main event: the emperor was also planning to fight as a gladiator. Why did Roman rulers spend vast resources on such over-the-top displays - and why did some emperors appear in them as combatants? Why did the Roman rabble enjoy watching the slaughter of animals and the sight of men fighting to the death? And how best can we in the modern world understand what was truly at stake in the circus and the arena? In The Day Commodus Killed a Rhino, Jerry Toner set out to answer these questions by vividly describing what it would have been like to attend Commodus' fantastic shows and watch one of his many appearances as both hunter and fighter. Highlighting the massive logistical effort needed to supply the games with animals, performers, and criminals for execution, the book reveals how blood and gore were actually incidental to what really mattered. Gladiatorial games played a key role in establishing a forum for political debate between the rulers and the ruled. Roman crowds were not passive: they were made up of sophisticated consumers with their own political aims, which they used the games to secure. In addition, the games also served as a pure expression of what it meant to be a true Roman. Drawing on notions of personal honor, manly vigor, and sophisticated craftsmanship, the games were a story that the Romans loved to tell themselves about themselves.

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Now in its fully updated fourth edition, the bestselling Descriptosaurus is the first book for creative writing that is a thematic expansion of a dictionary and a thesaurus; it provides students with a language toolkit with which to expand their descriptive vocabulary, experiment with language and sentence structure and build up narratives based around settings, characters and creatures.Descriptosaurus positions the word, zooms in on it to examine the meaning, expands it into phrases, and then provides alternatives in words, phrases and sentences; the model was created and refined over a number of years as a result of feedback from students inside and outside the classroom as to the resources they required to inspire and assist them with their writing. For reluctant writers or those faced with blank page syndrome, it provides essential starting points to encourage putting pen to paper, not only inspiring students, but also building their confidence, encouraging them to use, apply and create using the correct grammatical structures, and adding colour to their writing through evaluation and experimentation.New features for this expanded edition include: Additional vocabulary, including technical vocabulary for non-fiction topics such as volcanoes, mountains and caves An additional chapter to cover the popular primary topic of cold climates and polar exploration How to use word clines to expand vocabulary and explore shades of meaning Guidelines, resources and models to scaffold learning about grammar Sentences that have been expanded and reworked to provide modelled sentences for DFI (Detail, Flow and Impact) Guidelines, resources, exercises and models to support the teaching of sentence construction using imitation, combining and expansion techniques Accompanied by Instructor and Student Resources containing all the games, planning sheets and vocabulary builders from the book, this is an ideal resource to dramatically improve students' creative writing, confidence and facility with sentence construction for all primary and secondary English teachers, literacy coordinators and parents. It would also make an excellent classroom book for PGCE students, particularly Primary PGCE with English specialism.

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Examine the fourth largest mental health problem in AmericaOCDand how YOU can help!Since obsessive-compulsive disorder affects 2.5% of the world population, someone you know is likely to have this disorder. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Guide for Family, Friends, and Pastors is a handy physician's assistant that not only provides a fresh overview of OCD but also focuses on the issue of scrupulosityobsessive-compulsive anxiety over scruples in self and othersas a religious issue. Written by a pastoral counselor who is also a clinical social worker, this book will help you gain insight into the psychological and neurological dimensions of the disorder, the problems of those suffering from OCD, and the development of support groups. Written with extensive knowledge and deep compassion, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Guide for Family, Friends, and Pastors presents the latest information available on OCD and its effects upon sufferers and their personal relationships. The information is discussed in both pastoral as well as therapeutic aspects, explaining OCD in the brain, then continuing with ways to help a sufferer manage the conflict. Special attention is paid to the issue of scrupulosityseeing sin where there is no sinwhich is especially symptomatic for many Roman Catholics, Orthodox Jews, and Orthodox Muslims. Filled with insightful case studies and a useful bibliography, this book helps you understand OCD from all sides while giving effective strategies for individual and group therapy. In Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Guide for Family, Friends, and Pastors you will find: answers to the most frequently asked questions detailed explanations of terms insightful information on pastoral caring an in-depth exploration of scrupulosity helpful information on trichotillomania (hair pulling), kleptomania (stealing), Tourette’s syndrome, body dysmorphoric disorder (hatred of a particular body part), and hypochondriasis case studies highlighting personal and relationship issues resources for developing support groups resources for further information on OCD A Guide for Family, Friends, and Pastors is for pastors, pastoral counselors, chaplains, lay ministries, social workers, psychiatric nurses, marriage counselors, and for anyone who cares about someone with OCD.

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For more than forty years William Watson has occupied a unique place in the study and teaching of Chinese art in Great Britain. Professor Watson's publications cover a wide field, his command of Chinese, Japanese, Russian and western languages giving access to the fullest literature on his subjects. The colloquies he organized at the Percival David Foundation achieved international repute, with results that remain on record. At the Royal Academy of Arts he took a leading part in the Chinese archaeological exhibition of 1972 which reinstated cultural relations between Britain and China. Also at the Royal Academy he was the instigator and chief organizer of the Japanese exhibition of 1982, in which for the first time the art of the Tokugawa period was comprehensively presented outside of Japan as enshrining the national genius. The present two volumes collect Professor Watson's main smaller publications made in the course of museum and university careers. Many are specific studies of works in terms of cultural context, dating and historical significance. They contain mainly writing on Chinese, Japanese and Korean subjects, in particular the bronze art, ceramics and sculpture of the T'ang and earlier periods. Painting is treated in some closely defined topics. Contents: Preface The Lathe in Antiquity Ancient Khorezm The Seligman Gift A Grave Guardian from Ch'ang Sha A Bronze Mirror from Shao Hsing Recent Discoveries in Chinese Archaeology I & II A Buddhist Patron of the Refectory Chinese Lacquered Wine-cups The Earliest Buddhist Images of Korea Sung Bronzes A Dated Buddhist Image of the Northern Wei Period A Jade Hatstand An Inscribed Jade Cup from Samarqand A Chinese Bronze Bell of the Fifth Century BC A Chinese Bronze Figure of the Fourth Century BC The Kingdom of Tien and the Dong Son Culture Inner Asia and China in the pre-Han Period Overlay and p'ing-t'o in T'ang Silverwork On T'ang Soft-glazed Pottery The Thai-British Archaeological Expedition Chinese Ceramics from Neolithic to T'ang History and Technological History Traditions of Material Culture in the Territory of Ch'u The Chinese Contribution to Nomad Culture in the pre-Han and early Han Periods

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The Taverna by the Sea is an enchanting, funny, poignant travel memoir about answering the call of adventure by taking on the challenge of running a Greek beach taverna. During a walking holiday on the island of Karpathos, a chance encounter with a Greek-American hotel owner results in a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Jennifer Barclay. The best-selling travel writer and long-term resident of Greece drops everything, returning with dog and tent to the remote bay that will form her home for one hectic, event-filled summer. This book offers a rare account of life in north Karpathos in the South Aegean, famous for its traditional community and dramatic, rugged landscape. While primarily a light, engaging, amusing read full of anecdotes, one-liners, twists and turns - perfect for summer - Barclay's fourth book about life in Greece also conveys the life-affirming importance of trusting one's instincts, taking risks and grasping opportunities. Wake with Jennifer to experience a summer of pink dawns over the olive grove and an empty bay, and swim with her in moonlight, hearing only the waves. Or help yourself to local cuisine - creamy yoghurt and local honey and warm figs, olive oil and rosemary, freshly baked bread, and wine on tap. Alongside a cast of characters from farmers to fishermen, mad guests and a wicked witch, meet Minas the hotel owner, a creative, unconventional Greek-American with the ability to fix anything mechanical and create money out of thin air with food, plus a penchant for drinking, singing and falling asleep. Experience days full of music, days of no running water, and days with a goat tied to a tree - but also nights when the overworked taverna manager awoke convinced there was a large fish in the tent, and customers outside waiting to be served. In The Taverna by the Sea, Barclay reveals what happens behind the scenes of an apparently blissful, peaceful paradise, capturing both the magic and the difficulties of island life. Underpinning an entertaining read for lovers of Greece and its cuisine is an inspiring call to live life to the full - and even escape the rat race.

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Written by long-term resident, adventurer and experienced travel writer Oscar Scafidi, this brand new Bradt publication is the most up-to-date, comprehensive travel guidebook to Tunisia produced by a mainstream publisher. Taking account of this North African country's recent political and social flux, and covering each of the nation's 24 governorates, the book's listings for hotels, restaurants and activities cater for all types of travellers and budgets. Complemented by 80 detailed maps and advice on navigating bureaucracy, this guide provides all the practical information you need to visit or explore here. The birthplace of the Arab Spring in 2010, Tunisia is readily accessible from European cities. From relaxing on Mediterranean beaches to camel-trekking or quad-biking in the Sahara Desert and marvelling at the moonscapes of Chott el Djerid salt lake, this fascinating nation crams much excitement and interest into a small area. In the 2,000-year-old capital of Tunis, originally a Berber settlement, you can haggle in the ancient Medina, browse artefacts at the Bardo National Museum or enjoy fresh seafood at waterfront restaurants. Archaeology afficionados will hardly know where to begin in Africa's fourth-richest country for UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the remnants of Ancient Carthage, perhaps, or superbly preserved Roman ruins, such as the world's second-largest amphitheatre of El Jem? Djerba, where Berbers, Muslims and the world's oldest Jewish community have co-existed for centuries, is a world-renowned kitesurfer's paradise. Sunseekers have over 1,000km of coastline on which to bask - why not sip cocktails at the upmarket resort of Gammarth, just north of Tunis - while hedonists can party at a mammoth 30-hour rave in the desert at Ong Jmal. Meanwhile, film buffs can make pilgrimages to sets used in the Star Wars movies or explore canyons used by Steven Spielberg' for an Indiana Jones film, and culture vultures can visit Islamic sites such as the Ribat of Monastir fort or 7th-century city of Kairouan. With a language appendix covering Tunisian Arabic and French, detailed context that helps visitors travel with awareness and sensitivity, and in-depth travel information, Bradt's Tunisia is an indispensable practical companion to exploring this exciting country.

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'He was haunted by a feeling of invisibility, as if he were a mere spectator of his own life, with no one to identify him in the barren circumstances of the here and now.'Paul Sturgis is a retired banker manager who lives alone in a dark little flat. He walks alone and dines alone, seeking out and taking pleasure in small exchanges with strangers: the cheerful Australian girl who cuts his hair, the lady at the drycleaners. His only relative, and only acquaintance, is a widowed cousin by marriage - herself a virtual stranger - to whom he pays ritualistic visits on a Sunday afternoon. Trying to make sense of his current solitary state, and fearing that his destiny may be to die among strangers, Sturgis trawls through memories of his failed relationships and finds himself longing for companionship, or at the very least a conversation. But then a chance encounter with a stranger - a recently divorced and demanding younger woman - shakes up his routine and when an old girlfriend appears on the scene, Sturgis is forced to make a decision about how (and with whom) he wants to spend the rest of his days . . . 'Each book is a prayer bead on a string, and each prayer is a secular, circumspect prayer, a prayer and a protest and a charm against encroaching night' Hilary Mantel, Guardian'No one writes with more skill and honesty about the human condition and this book is possibly her finest' Julie Myerson, Observer'A novel of great stylistic beauty and psychological truth. As great a reflection on fear and regret as Philip Larkin or Beckett' Guardian'Like Graham Greene, she draws the reader into a world that has a character and signature all of its own . . . Strangers is a novel of sober brilliance, and the unerring, unflinching Brookner is still a much underestimated novelist' Helen Dunmore, The TimesAnita Brookner was born in south London in 1928, the daughter of a Polish immigrant family. She trained as an art historian, and worked at the Courtauld Institute of Art until her retirement in 1988. She published her first novel, A Start in Life, in 1981 and her twenty-fourth, Strangers, in 2009. Hotel du Lac won the 1984 Booker Prize. As well as fiction, Anita Brookner has published a number of volumes of art criticism.

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Un peu moins de trois cents Gallo-Romains ont appartenu aux deux ordres nobiliaires romains au cours du Haut-Empire, chevaliers pour les trois quarts, sénateurs pour le quart restant. La reconnaissance de cette appartenance est le résultat d’une application de critères d’origine géographique aux sénateurs et chevaliers romains présumés originaires de Gaule ou présumés tels à divers titres, qui a conduit à écarter, dans l’état actuel de la documentation, un nombre assez élevé de personnages considérés comme ayant appartenu à l’ordre sénatorial ou à l’ordre équestre pour des raisons individuelles ou un statut présumé de groupes. Il s’agit en ce cas d’une part de Gaulois assurés mais dont l’appartenance à l’un des deux ordres nobiliaires ne peut être qu’une erreur ou une trop fragile hypothèse, d’autre part de sénateurs ou de chevaliers parfaitement authentiques mais pour lesquels une origine de Gaule ne pose sur de fondements dépourvus de solidité ou qui ne suffisent pas à asseoir une conviction. Ces deux élites nobiliaires ont connu simultanément une triple évolution. Une évolution chronologique des effectifs connus: ils ont progressé de manière parallèle pour les sénateurs et les chevaliers jusqu’à la fin du 1er siècle, en laissant derrière eux les effectifs sénatoriaux et équestres des provinces hispaniques, africaines et micrasiatiques ; une baisse a commencé dans la seconde moitié du IIe siècle et s’est généralisée au IIIe siècle, plus rapidement et plus profondément, au moins en apparence, pour les sénateurs dont les effectifs connus furent, comme ceux des chevaliers, de plus en plus largement distancées par ceux des nobles d’Afrique et d’Asie Mineure. Cette évolution chronologique s’est accompagnée d’une évolution de la répartition géographique de ces primores. La Narbonnaise est présente dans la prosopographie sénatoriale et équestre dès la fin de la République, mais le premier chevalier connu des Trois Gaules date de l’époque augustéenne et la première attestation d’un sénateur de l’une de ces provinces de l’époque claudienne. Ce retard a duré pour le recrutement sénatorial jusqu’au début du IIe siècle, tandis que les effectifs des chevaliers croissaient oins inégalement. Au IIe siècle le contraste entre la Narbonnaise et le reste de la Gaule s’est atténué à la suite de la diminution du nombre des sénateurs et des chevaliers connus dans la province du Sud-Est, alors que dans les Trois Gaules le nombre des premiers augmentait légèrement et que se maintenait le nombre des seconds, les deux provinces rhénanes restant en retrait. Au cours du IIIe siècle s’est produit un renversement des valeurs au bénéfice de la Gaule conquise par César, les régions rhénanes fournissant alors ses assises les plus larges au recrutement équestre. Les primores gallo-romains ont aussi connu une évolution d’ordre sociologique. Commencée par l’octroi du droit de cité au chefs indigènes, expliquant l’accès privilégié de ceux-ci à l’ordre équestre et par lui à l’ordre sénatorial, l’extension progressive du recrutement équestre puis sénatorial du Sud-Est vers les régions de l’intérieur et du Nord de la Gaule a continué jusqu’au deuxième tiers du IIe siècle au profit des milieux dirigeants traditionnels, mais aux chefs indigènes des peuples du Sud-Est et aux descendants des dynastes aquitains ou bataves ont succédé des notables de moindre envergure ; enfin ont accédé à leur tour à l’ordre équestre des militaires de carrière venus avant tout des régions du Nord-Est.

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Let Marco Polo Lanzarote guide you around this Canary Island. Explore Lanzarote with this handy, pocket-sized, authoritative guide, packed with Insider Tips. Discover boutique hotels, authentic restaurants, the island's trendiest places, and get tips on shopping and what to do on a limited budget. There are plenty of ideas for travel with kids, and a summary of all the festivals and events that take place. Let Marco Polo show you all this Canary Island has to offer. Sea, sand and an incomparable landscape make for a really special holiday in Lanzarote. Lava fields, ash mountains, and eruption craters which shimmer from black to rust red in the sun contrast with snow-white villages and sparse but bright green vegetation. Marco Polo Lanzarote introduces you to a unique travel destination. The fourth largest of the Canary Islands was created from fiery eruptions, and, more than any of its neighbours, has been shaped by vulcanism. This pocket-sized guide suggests places to go for breath-taking views, peaceful fishing villages, towns full of colonial architecture and bustling holiday resorts in which you can enjoy a whole range of activities from water sports to hiking. This practical, pocket-sized guide will help you discover the best of Lanzarote. Your Marco Polo Lanzarote Guide includes: Insider Tips – we show you the hidden gems and little-known secrets that offer a real insight into this amazing island from tucked-away restaurants to spectacular beaches Best of – find the best things to do if you’re travelling on a budget, the best things to do with the kids, the best things to do if it rains and the best things to do if you’re looking for an authentic Lanzarote experience Sightseeing – all the top sights are organised by area, so you can easily plan your trip Discovery Tours – specially tailored tours will get you to the heart of Lanzarote. Experience the unique character of the island with these personal tours Lanzarote in full-colour – Marco Polo Pocket Guide Lanzarote includes full-colour photos throughout the guide bringing the island to life offering you a real taste of what you can see and enjoy on your trip Get in the holiday mood – before even leaving home, get in to the holiday mood with Marco Polo’s spotify playlist featuring songs related to the travel destination along with the best apps, blogs, film and book recommendations Useful Spanish phrases - the essential words and phrases are included to help you get by Pull-out map – we’ve included a handy, pull-out map so you can pop the guide in your bag for a full-on sightseeing day or head out with just the map to enjoy your Discovery Tour Trust Marco Polo Pocket Guide Lanzarote to show you this amazing Spanish island. The comprehensive coverage and unique insights will ensure you experience everything that Lanzarote has to offer and more. The special tips, personal insights and unusual experiences will help you make the most of your trip - just arrive and enjoy.

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Covers the major languages, language families, and writing systems attested in the Ancient Near East Filled with enlightening chapters by noted experts in the field, this book introduces Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) languages and language families used during the time period of roughly 3200 BCE to the second century CE in the areas of Egypt, the Levant, eastern Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Iran. In addition to providing grammatical sketches of the respective languages, the book focuses on socio-linguistic questions such as language contact, diglossia, the development of literary standard languages, and the development of diplomatic languages or “linguae francae.” It also addresses the interaction of Ancient Near Eastern languages with each other and their roles within the political and cultural systems of ANE societies. Presented in five parts, The Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Languages provides readers with in-depth chapter coverage of the writing systems of ANE, starting with their decipherment. It looks at the emergence of cuneiform writing; the development of Egyptian writing in the fourth and early third millennium BCI; and the emergence of alphabetic scripts. The book also covers many of the individual languages themselves, including Sumerian, Egyptian, Akkadian, Hittite, Pre- and Post-Exilic Hebrew, Phoenician, Ancient South Arabian, and more. Provides an overview of all major language families and writing systems used in the Ancient Near East during the time period from the beginning of writing (approximately 3200 BCE) to the second century CE (end of cuneiform writing) Addresses how the individual languages interacted with each other and how they functioned in the societies that used them Written by leading experts on the languages and topics The Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Languages is an ideal book for undergraduate students and scholars interested in Ancient Near Eastern cultures and languages or certain aspects of these languages.

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Digital signal processing plays a central role in the development of modern communication and information processing systems. The theory and application of signal processing is concerned with the identification, modelling and utilisation of patterns and structures in a signal process. The observation signals are often distorted, incomplete and noisy and therefore noise reduction, the removal of channel distortion, and replacement of lost samples are important parts of a signal processing system. The fourth edition of Advanced Digital Signal Processing and Noise Reduction updates and extends the chapters in the previous edition and includes two new chapters on MIMO systems, Correlation and Eigen analysis and independent component analysis. The wide range of topics covered in this book include Wiener filters, echo cancellation, channel equalisation, spectral estimation, detection and removal of impulsive and transient noise, interpolation of missing data segments, speech enhancement and noise/interference in mobile communication environments. This book provides a coherent and structured presentation of the theory and applications of statistical signal processing and noise reduction methods. Two new chapters on MIMO systems, correlation and Eigen analysis and independent component analysis Comprehensive coverage of advanced digital signal processing and noise reduction methods for communication and information processing systems Examples and applications in signal and information extraction from noisy data Comprehensive but accessible coverage of signal processing theory including probability models, Bayesian inference, hidden Markov models, adaptive filters and Linear prediction models Advanced Digital Signal Processing and Noise Reduction is an invaluable text for postgraduates, senior undergraduates and researchers in the fields of digital signal processing, telecommunications and statistical data analysis. It will also be of interest to professional engineers in telecommunications and audio and signal processing industries and network planners and implementers in mobile and wireless communication communities.

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Multimedia Signal Processing is a comprehensive and accessible text to the theory and applications of digital signal processing (DSP). The applications of DSP are pervasive and include multimedia systems, cellular communication, adaptive network management, radar, pattern recognition, medical signal processing, financial data forecasting, artificial intelligence, decision making, control systems and search engines. This book is organised in to three major parts making it a coherent and structured presentation of the theory and applications of digital signal processing. A range of important topics are covered in basic signal processing, model-based statistical signal processing and their applications. Part 1: Basic Digital Signal Processing gives an introduction to the topic, discussing sampling and quantization, Fourier analysis and synthesis, Z-transform, and digital filters. Part 2: Model-based Signal Processing covers probability and information models, Bayesian inference, Wiener filter, adaptive filters, linear prediction hidden Markov models and independent component analysis. Part 3: Applications of Signal Processing in Speech, Music and Telecommunications explains the topics of speech and music processing, echo cancellation, deconvolution and channel equalization, and mobile communication signal processing. Covers music signal processing, explains the anatomy and psychoacoustics of hearing and the design of MP3 music coder Examines speech processing technology including speech models, speech coding for mobile phones and speech recognition Covers single-input and multiple-inputs denoising methods, bandwidth extension and the recovery of lost speech packets in applications such as voice over IP (VoIP) Illustrated throughout, including numerous solved problems, Matlab experiments and demonstrations Companion website features Matlab and C++ programs with electronic copies of all figures. This book is ideal for researchers, postgraduates and senior undergraduates in the fields of digital signal processing, telecommunications and statistical data analysis. It will also be a valuable text to professional engineers in telecommunications and audio and signal processing industries.

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The eagerly anticipated sequel to the highly acclaimed Vita Nostra takes readers to the next stage in Sasha Samokhina’s journey in a richly imagined world of dark academia in which grammar is magic—and not all magic is good.In Vita Nostra, Sasha Samokhina, a third-year student at the Institute of Special Technologies, was in the middle of taking the final exam that would transform her into a part of the Great Speech. After defying her teachers’ expectations, Sasha emerges from the exam as Password, a unique and powerful part of speech. Accomplished and ready to embrace her new role, she soon learns her powers threaten the old world, and despite her hard work, Sasha is set to fail.However, Farit Kozhennikov, Sasha’s dark mentor, finds a way to bring her out of the oblivion and back to the Institute for his own selfish purposes. Subsequently, Sasha must correct her mistakes before she is allowed to graduate and is forced to do what few are asked and even less achieve: to succeed and reverberate—becoming a part of the Great Speech and being one of the special few who dictate reality. If she fails, she faces a fate far worse than death: the choice is hers. Years have passed around the Institute—and the numerous realities that have spread from Sasha’s first failure—but it is only her fourth year of learning what role she will play in shaping the world. Her teachers despise and fear her, her classmates distrust her, and a growing love—for a young pilot with no affiliation to the school—is fraught because a relationship means leverage, and Farit won’t hesitate to use it against her.Planes crash all the time. Which means Sasha needs to rewrite the world so that can’t happen...or fail for good.

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AMLS : Advanced Medical Life Support est le cours de référence pour les praticiens préhospitaliers en matière d’évaluation médicale avancée et de traitement des affections médicales les plus courantes. Enseigné à travers le monde depuis 1999, l’AMLS a été le premier programme de formation des SMU à aborder de manière exhaustive la meilleure façon de gérer les patients en situation de détresse médicale. Créée par la National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT) et approuvée par la National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP), l’AMLS met l’accent sur l’utilisation de la procédure d’évaluation AMLS. Cet outil d’évaluation essentiel permet aux praticiens préhospitaliers de diagnostiquer rapidement les patients malades et d’initier une gestion effi cace sur le terrain. Cette troisième édition de l’AMLS comprend un tout nouveau contenu sur la pharmacologie (chapitre 11), la septicémie (chapitre 12) et les urgences en matière de santé mentale (annexe C). L’AMLS est le seul manuel approuvé à être utilisé dans le cadre du cours de réanimation médicale avancée de la NAEMT. Son contenu médical est constamment révisé et mis à jour pour refl éter les connaissances et les pratiques actuelles, fondées sur des preuves. La philosophie de l’AMLS est centrée sur l’utilisation de la pensée critique pour évaluer les patients et établir des protocoles de prise en charge. Une approche précise de l’évaluation d’un patient Sur le terrain, chaque seconde compte. La méthode d’évaluation AMLS fournit une approche systématique de l’évaluation d’un patient malade qui permet aux praticiens préhospitaliers d’établir un diagnostic précis et rapide. Solutions technologiques dynamique Le contenu de référence associe une conception pédagogique solide à une interface conviviale pour offrir aux enseignants et aux étudiants une experience d’apprentissage réellement interactive et attrayante avec : • Le manuel AMLS du cours sous format eBook qui renforce les concepts clés présentés dans le cours

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This book is an approach, in the wider theoretical considerations on scientific research and study, of issues relating to energy resources and energy security and, at the same time, it is a case study on Eastern Mediterranean energy security. The Mediterranean has been known since ancient times as a large semi-enclosed sea, surrounded by more than two states as it lies between three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa. However, developments in the 21st century have necessitated viewing it conceptually as a distinct "new" region with specific characteristics. Comprised by Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Turkey, Italy the region is assuming increased significance in world affairs. More specifically, the region of the Eastern Mediterranean is currently of vital importance for the EU, due to several prospects and challenges, such as migration flows, energy, security and sustainability of the region. The individual objectives are the recognition of energy actions and resources, forms of energy, energy security and in general, all actions at the energy level mentioned in the specific area. Research this study will focus on the qualitative method to the subject. The structure of the present study was developed as follows: The Preface provides a general presentation of the topic. The first chapter presents an overview of eastern Mediterranean and energy issues. The second chapter reports on energy resources and it focuses on energy security and its basic principles. The third chapter is about energy and security. The fourth Chapter offers discussion on European Union's energy policy development and on the EU interests, strategy and policy regarding the Eastern Mediterranean region. The fifth chapter presents the changes in the East Mediterranean energy map and data on geopolitical chessboard. The last chapter presents the conclusions. A useful tool in completing this study was the understanding of the delicate ethnocultural and religious synthesis of the region, the current challenges and underlying controversies, considering the interlinked nature of interests and the importance of cross-border affiliations. All the findings of the study demonstrate certain dimensions of a reality, which are expected to be dynamic, creating risk but also future opportunities. The main finding of the study points out not only the strong correlation between energy, power, economics and politics but also the increased dependence of the latter two on the former, thus creating a hotbed of tensions, rivalries, and conflicts every time the existing relationship between economy and energy are destabilized. The shifting to energy sources, which are safe and eco-friendly, is a one-way process, the only means of survival and safe development for humanity. Generating energy based on economic, safe, cost-efficient and renewable criteria is the current ecological and technological challenge if, firstly, the vast interests in the energy sector are dealt with successfully. Finally, this book will be of key interest to scholars and students, for researchers in the fields of Energy Economics, Policy, and Security, Energy Law, Business, Regulation and Policy, Geopolitics, who aim to have a better understanding of the current trends or research in the relevant fields, for professionals in EU politics and foreign policy, energy policy and security, and more broadly to security studies, European politics and international relations and newcomers in the profession of energy security, and for policymakers who intend to apply the collective knowledge included into this volume into policy and decision -making.

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This textbook is an introduction to microwave engineering. The scope of this book extends from topics for a first course in electrical engineering, in which impedances are analyzed using complex numbers, through the introduction of transmission lines that are analyzed using the Smith Chart, and on to graduate level subjects, such as equivalent circuits for obstacles in hollow waveguides, analyzed using Green’s Functions. This book is a virtual encyclopedia of circuit design methods. Despite the complexity, topics are presented in a conversational manner for ease of comprehension. The book is not only an excellent text at the undergraduate and graduate levels, but is as well a detailed reference for the practicing engineer. Consider how well informed an engineer will be who has become familiar with these topics as treated in High Frequency Techniques: (in order of presentation) Brief history of wireless (radio) and the Morse codeU.S. Radio Frequency AllocationsIntroduction to vectorsAC analysis and why complex numbers and impedance are usedCircuit and antenna reciprocityDecibel measureMaximum power transferSkin effectComputer simulation and optimization of networksLC matching of one impedance to anotherCoupled ResonatorsUniform transmission lines for propagationVSWR, return Loss and mismatch errorThe Telegrapher Equations (derived)Phase and Group VelocitiesThe Impedance Transformation Equation for lines (derived)Fano's and Bode's matching limitsThe Smith Chart (derived)Slotted Line impedance measurementConstant Q circles on the Smith ChartApproximating a transmission line with lumped L's and C'sABCD, Z, Y and Scattering matrix analysis methods for circuitsStatistical Design and Yield Analysis of productsElectromagnetic FieldsGauss's LawVector Dot Product, Divergence and CurlStatic Potential and GradientAmpere's Law and Vector CurlMaxwell's Equations and their visualizationThe LaplacianRectangular, cylindrical and spherical coordinatesSkin EffectThe Wave EquationThe Helmholtz EquationsPlane Propagating WavesRayleigh FadingCircular (elliptic) PolarizationPoynting's TheoremEM fields on Transmission LinesCalculating the impedance of coaxial linesCalculating and visualizing the fields in waveguidesPropagation constants and waveguide modesThe Taylor Series ExpansionFourier Series and Green's FunctionsHigher order modes and how to suppress themVector Potential and Retarded PotentialsWire and aperture antennasRadio propagation and path lossElectromagnetic computer simulation of structuresDirectional couplersThe Rat Race HybridEven and Odd Mode Analysis applied to the backward wave couplerNetwork analyzer impedance and transmission measurementsTwo-port Scattering Parameters (s matrix)The Hybrid Ring couplerThe Wilkinson power dividerFilter design: Butterworth, Maximally flat & Tchebyscheff responsesFilter QDiplexer, Bandpass and Elliptic filtersRichard's Transformation & Kuroda’s IdentitiesMumford's transmission line stub filtersTransistor Amplifier Design: gain, biasing, stability, and conjugate matchingNoise in systems, noise figure of an amplifier cascadeAmplifier non-linearity, and spurious free dynamic rangeStatistical Design and Yield Analysis

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Gnathia ware is a painted Hellenistic type of ware with yellow, red and white decorations on the black surface of the vessels. Due to a decoration technique simpler than that on the previous Red-figure vases, Gnathia ware became the most widespread type of Hellenistic ware, and also the first type of south Italian ware that was exported in large quantities outside of the main area of production. Gnathia ware takes its name from ancient Gnathia, today Egnazia (a town on the Adriatic coast between Bari and Brindisi) in south-east Italy, where it was first discovered in 1845. The aims of this study are fourfold: to present Gnathia ware on the East Adriatic coast, to define local Issaean Gnathia production from manufacturing to distribution (including the typology of shapes and decorations), to identify other pottery workshops along the East Adriatic coast and, finally to understand the trade and contacts in the Adriatic during the Hellensitic period. Although the aims of the study may seem ambitious, once all of the material was gathered into a single study, it provided sufficient information to set the objective. It is noteworthy that the study presents the current state of research, so additional work needs to be done. However, work on the default task and the information obtained by the analysis of Gnathia and related ware facilitated greater insight into the history of the Adriatic area in the Hellenistic period. Further, the provenance of the material allowed for the reconstruction of contacts in the Adriatic and neighbouring regions. The questions of contacts and trade may seem peripheral to the main objective of the study, i.e., Gnathia and related ware, but they are vital to an understanding of the historical context of this area. So an additional aim of the study is to open up the East Adriatic region to scholars who are studying the history and economy of the Mediterranean basin in the Hellenistic period.

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In this heartfelt tale about enduring hope amid the suffering of the Great Depression, Sean Dietrich—also known as Sean of the South—weaves together a tale featuring a cast of characters ranging from a child preacher, a teenage healer, and two migrant workers who give everything they have for their chosen family.When fifteen-year-old Marigold becomes pregnant during the Great Depression, she is rejected by her family and forced to fend for herself. She is arrested while trying to steal food and loses her baby in the forest, turning her whole world upside down. She’s even more distraught upon discovering she has an inexplicable power to heal, making her a sought-after local legend.Meanwhile, middle-aged migrant workers Vern and Paul discover a violet-eyed baby abandoned in the woods and take it upon themselves to care for her. The men continue their search for work and soon pair up with a poverty-stricken widow, plus her two children, and the misfit family begins taking care of each other.As survival brings this chosen family together, a young boy finds himself without a friend to his name as the dust storms rage across Kansas. Fourteen-year-old Coot, a child preacher, is on the run from his abusive tent-revival pastor father with thousands of stolen dollars—and the only thing he’s sure of is that Mobile, Alabama, is his destination.In a sweeping saga with a looming second world war, these stories intertwine in surprising ways, reminding us that when the dust clears, we can still see the stars. Stand-alone Southern historical fiction set during the Great Depression Book length: approximately 98,000 words Includes discussion questions for book clubs Also by Sean Dietrich: The Incredible Winston Browne

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What can we know about the everyday experiences of Christians during the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries? How did non-elite men and women, enslaved, freed, and free persons, who did not renounce sex or choose voluntary poverty become Christian? They neither led a religious community nor did they live in entirely Christian settings. In this period, an age marked by “extraordinary” Christians—wonderworking saints, household ascetics, hermits, monks, nuns, pious aristocrats, pilgrims, and bishops—ordinary Christians went about their daily lives, in various occupations, raising families, sharing households, kitchens, and baths in religiously diverse cities. Occasionally they attended church liturgies, sought out local healers, and visited martyrs’ shrines. Barely and rarely mentioned in ancient texts, common Christians remain nameless and undifferentiated. Unfinished Christians explores the sensory and affective dimensions of ordinary Christians who assembled for rituals. With precious few first-person accounts by common Christians, it relies on written sources not typically associated with lived religion: sermons, liturgical instruction books, and festal hymns. All three genres of writing are composed by clergy for use in ritual settings. Yet they may also provide glimpses of everyday Christians’ lives and experiences. This book investigates the habits, objects, behaviors, and movements of ordinary Christians by mining festal preaching by John Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory of Nyssa, and Romanos the Melodist, among others. It also mines liturgical instructions to explore the psalms and other songs performed on various feast days. “Unfinished,” then, connotes the creativity and agency of unremarkable Christians who engaged in making religious experiences: the “Christian-in-progress” who learns to work with material and bring something into being; the artisans who attended sermons; and, more widely, the bearers of embodied knowing.

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NOMINATED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2022 'Superbly insightful' - FourFourTwo ‘Hugely enjoyable.’ - Henry Winter, Chief Football writer, The Times 'A brilliant read.' - Jamie Carragher ------ Complex, overlooked and misunderstood, football’s centre-halves rarely take centre-stage. Leo Moynihan’s long overdue celebration of this much-maligned position explores the unique mindset and last-ditch, bone-crunching tackles of the traditionally bruising hard man, hell-bent on destroying glory. Football is often romanticised as ‘The Beautiful Game’. If that’s true, then the game’s centre-half might be considered the unsightly pimple on the end of its otherwise perfectly formed nose. The stopper is the last line of defence, the big man with small ideas, the lump who lumps it. Thou Shall Not Pass (from a command England captain Terry Butcher shouted before every match) celebrates the football position where brutal characters are loved for their hard-hitting tackles and bruising mentality, and yet laughed at for their apparent lack of skill. Covering the long and illustrious history of the centre-half, Thou Shall Not Pass takes the reader into the muddy penalty area frequented by our protagonists, into their domain. The places they head the ball, the places where they tackle, the places in which they will stop at nothing to stop a forward. What makes a defender approach the game the way they do? What makes them different from those whose sole purpose is flair? Featuring exclusive interviews – including those with Virgil van Dijk, Jamie Carragher, Terry Butcher, Mark Lawrenson, Darren Moore, Steph Houghton, Tony Adams, Frank Leboeuf and Dion Dublin – and packed with rich and highly entertaining anecdotes, the book explores all aspects of the position and investigates the mentality of those who ply their trade there.

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ABC of Transfusion ABC of Transfusion Blood services and Transfusion Medicine have become more clinical, scientific, well organised and consolidated over the last 20 years. More is known about the real frequency and aetiology of the hazards of blood transfusions. The ABC of Transfusion is a well-established introduction for all staff working in blood services, blood transfusion departments, surgical units and intensive care, and all prescribers and users of blood. It is a comprehensive, highly regarded guide to all the practical aspects of blood transfusion, including the various complications that can arise. This fourth edition of ABC of Transfusion includes five new chapters on all the latest issues including pre-transfusion testing, vCJD, stem cell transplantation, immunotherapy, and appropriate use of blood – reflecting the fact that transfusion medicine has been revolutionised. Useful as a practical guide, a refresher or for quick reference, it covers allessential transfusion matters and is an ideal source of information for all health professionals involved with safe and efficient use of blood. About the ABC series The new ABC series has been thoroughly updated, offering a fresh look, layout and features throughout, helping you to access information and deliver the best patient care. The newly designed books remain an essential reference tool for GPs, GP registrars, junior doctors and those in primary care, designed to address the concerns of general practitioners and provide effective study aids for doctors in training. Now offering over 40 titles, this extensive series provides you with a quick and dependable reference on a range of topics in all the major specialities. Each book in the new series now offers links to further information and articles, and a new dedicated website provides you with even more support. The ABC series is the essential and dependable source of up-to-date information for all practitioners and students in general practice.

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The half-century before the Civil War was beset with conflict over equality as well as freedom. Beginning in 1803, many free states enacted laws that discouraged free African Americans from settling within their boundaries and restricted their rights to testify in court, move freely from place to place, work, vote, and attend public school. But over time, African American activists and their white allies, often facing mob violence, courageously built a movement to fight these racist laws. They countered the states’ insistences that states were merely trying to maintain the domestic peace with the equal-rights promises they found in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They were pastors, editors, lawyers, politicians, ship captains, and countless ordinary men and women, and they fought in the press, the courts, the state legislatures, and Congress, through petitioning, lobbying, party politics, and elections. Long stymied by hostile white majorities and unfavorable court decisions, the movement’s ideals became increasingly mainstream in the 1850s, particularly among supporters of the new Republican party. When Congress began rebuilding the nation after the Civil War, Republicans installed this vision of racial equality in the 1866 Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment. These were the landmark achievements of the first civil rights movement. Kate Masur’s magisterial history delivers this pathbreaking movement in vivid detail. Activists such as John Jones, a free Black tailor from North Carolina whose opposition to the Illinois “black laws” helped make the case for racial equality, demonstrate the indispensable role of African Americans in shaping the American ideal of equality before the law. Without enforcement, promises of legal equality were not enough. But the antebellum movement laid the foundation for a racial justice tradition that remains vital to this day.

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Update your skill set for ES 6 and 7 with the ultimate JavaScript guide for pros Professional JavaScript for Web Developers is the essential guide to next-level JavaScript development. Written for intermediate-to-advanced programmers, this book jumps right into the technical details to help you clean up your code and become a more sophisticated JavaScript developer. From JavaScript-specific object-oriented programming and inheritance, to combining JavaScript with HTML and other markup languages, expert instruction walks you through the fundamentals and beyond. This new fourth edition has been updated to cover ECMAScript 6 and 7 (also known as ES2015 and ES2016) and the major re-imagination and departure from ES 5.1; new frameworks and libraries, new techniques, new testing tools, and more are explained in detail for the professional developer, with a practical focus that helps you put your new skills to work on real-world projects. The latest—and most dramatic—ES release is already being incorporated into JavaScript engines in major browsers; this, coupled with the rise in mobile web traffic increasing demand for responsive, dynamic web design, means that all web developers need to update their skills—and this book is your ideal resource for quick, relevant guidance. Get up to date with ECMAScript 6 and 7, new frameworks, and new libraries Delve into web animation, emerging APIs, and build systems Test more effectively with mocks, unit tests, functional tests, and other tools Plan your builds for future ES releases Even if you think you know JavaScript, new ES releases bring big changes that will affect the way you work. For a professional-level update that doesn't waste time on coding fundamentals, Professional JavaScript for Web Developers is the ultimate resource to bring you up to speed.

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Over the decade or so since the global financial crisis rocked EU financial markets and led to wide-ranging reforms, EU securities and financial markets regulation has continued to evolve. The legislative framework has been refined and administrative rulemaking has expanded. Alongside, the Capital Markets Union agenda has developed, the UK has left the EU, and ESMA has emerged as a decisive influence on EU financial markets governance. All these developments, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic, have shaped the regulatory landscape and how supervision is organized. EU Securities and Financial Markets Regulation provides a comprehensive, critical, and contextual account of the intricate rulebook that governs EU financial markets and its supporting institutional arrangements. It is framed by an assessment of how the regime has evolved over the decade or so since the global financial crisis and considers, among other matters, the post-crisis reforms to key legislative measures, the massive expansion of administrative rulemaking and of soft law, the Capital Markets Union agenda, the development of supervisory convergence as the means for organizing pan-EU supervision, and ESMA's role in EU financial markets governance. Its coverage extends from capital-raising and the Prospectus Regulation to financial market intermediation and the MiFID II/MiFIR and IFD/IFR regimes, to the new regulatory regimes adopted since the global financial crisis (including for benchmarks and their administrators), to retail market regulation and the PRIIPs Regulation, and on to the EU's third country regime and the implications of the UK's departure from the EU. This is the fourth edition of the highly successful and authoritative monograph first published as EC Securities Regulation. Heavily revised from the third edition to reflect developments since the global financial crisis, it adopts the in-depth contextual and analytical approach of earlier editions and so considers the market, political, institutional, and international context of the regulatory and supervisory regime.

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Silk fabrics woven with gold thread, predominantly produced in Italy, were depicted frequently in Renaissance painting, both in costumes and as backdrops for important figures. These painted textiles carried an economic and social significance that a contemporary audience would have recognised as part of the message conveyed by the picture. Gold brocade and Renaissance painting focuses on examples from Italy and the southern Netherlands , dating from the fourteenth to the early seventeenth centuries. Setting aside traditional notions of the hierarchy of the major and minor arts, the book treats gold brocade and painting equally as exponents of the special segment of Renaissance material culture that was art. The fabrics rendered in painting reflected the tradition of actual weaving, but only to an extent, as many gold brocades were painted from imagination. Gold brocades were much more expensive than paintings; hence the two media functioned in different contexts. Gold brocade was an important element in the display of wealth and status at grand courts, while painting often formed the only affordable substitute for courtly splendour for the socially ambitious but less affluent urban upper-middle class. Their value and cultural role also meant that gold-brocaded textiles could be included in paintings both in praise of luxury and as a condemnation of it - sometimes in one and the same work. Gold brocade and Renaissance painting examines the skills artists developed for representing these lavish textiles. It uses a wide range of documents (from inventories and account books to letters, poems, educational treatises and sermons) to compare the economic value of gold brocade and painting, clarify the conditions of their use, and interpret the different messages given by brocades in different pictures. Primarily, however, the book deals with the distinction between fact and fiction, imagination and reality in the world shown in Renaissance paintings.

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How do you solve a problem like James Madison? The fourth president is one of the most confounding figures in early American history -- his political trajectory seems almost intentionally inconsistent. He was both for and against a strong federal government. He wrote about the dangers of political parties in the Federalist papers and then helped to found the Republican party just a few years later. And though he has frequently been celebrated as the "father of the constitution," his contributions to our founding document were subtler than many have supposed. This so-called "Madison problem" has occupied scholars for ages.Previous biographies have made sense of Madison's mixed record by breaking his life into discrete periods. But this approach falls short. Madison was, of course, a single person -- a brilliant thinker whose life's work was to forge a stronger Union around principles of limited government, individual rights, and above all, justice. As Jay Cost argues in this incisive new biography, we cannot comprehend Madison's legacy without understanding him as a working politician. We tend to focus on his accomplishments as a statesman and theorist -- but the same ideals that guided his thinking in these arenas shaped his practice of politics, where they were arguably more influential. Indeed, Madison was the original American politician. Whereas other founders split their time between politics and other vocations, Madison dedicated himself singularly to the work of politics and ultimately developed it into a distinctly American idiom.Bringing together the full range of his intellectual life, Cost shows us Madison as we've never seen him before: not as a man with uncertain opinions and inconstant views -- but as a coherent and unified thinker, a skilled strategist, and a key contributor to the ideals that have shaped our history. He was, in short, the first American politician.

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The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman is the gripping first instalment in a remarkable trilogy."Listen. The Sanctuary of the Redeemers on Shotover Scarp is named after a damned lie for there is no redemption that goes on there and less sanctuary."The Sanctuary of the Redeemers is a vast and desolate place - a place without joy or hope. Most of its occupants were taken there as boys and for years have endured the brutal regime of the Lord Redeemers whose cruelty and violence have one singular purpose - to serve in the name of the One True Faith.In one of the Sanctuary's vast and twisting maze of corridors stands a boy. He is perhaps fourteen or fifteen years old - he is not sure and neither is anyone else. He has long-forgotten his real name, but now they call him Thomas Cale. He is strange and secretive, witty and charming, violent and profoundly bloody-minded. He is so used to the cruelty that he seems immune, but soon he will open the wrong door at the wrong time and witness an act so terrible that he will have to leave this place, or die.His only hope of survival is to escape across the arid Scablands to Memphis, a city the opposite of the Sanctuary in every way: breathtakingly beautiful, infinitely Godless, and deeply corrupt. But the Redeemers want Cale back at any price... not because of the secret he now knows but because of a much more terrifying secret he does not.The Left Hand of God is a must read. It is the first instalment in a gripping trilogy by Paul Hoffman. Imagine if Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials met Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose. Fans of epic heroic fiction will love this series.Praise for Paul Hoffman:'This book gripped me from the first chapter and then dropped me days later, dazed and grinning to myself' Conn Iggulden'Tremendous momentum' Daily Telegraph'A cult classic . . .' Daily Express

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The first girl came back.The next might not be so lucky...--------'A real gripper of a read' Peter James 'Masterful, engrossing, twisty' Rosamund Lupton'One of our most exciting crime writers' John Marrs A girl is taken from the streets of Oxford. But it's unlike any abduction DI Fawley's seen before . . . Faith Appleford was attacked, a plastic bag tied over her head, taken to an isolated location . . . and then, by some miracle, she escaped. What's more, when DC Erica Somer interviews Faith, she quickly becomes convinced that Faith knows who her abductor is. Yet Faith refuses to press charges. Without more evidence, it's looking like the police may have to drop the case. But what happens if Faith's attacker strikes again?The fourth twisty, up-all-night thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling Cara Hunter. For fans of Shari Lapena, Claire Douglas and Lisa Jewell.--------What they're saying about Cara Hunter 'Twist follows twist at a breathtaking pace' Daily Mail 'Fantastic...my favourite series ever!' Shari Lapena, Not A Happy Family 'You can almost hear her characters breathing from the page' Jane Corry, We All Have Our Secrets 'Utterly compelling' Nicci French, The Unheard 'A top-notch psychological thriller' JP Delaney, The Perfect Wife 'I was totally gripped and terrified!' Araminta Hall, Hidden Depths 'Hunter has rejuvenated the form' Financial TimesAnd readers are loving this series, too 'All hail the new queen of all things crime' Penny, Netgalley 'Mind-bending brilliance' Kath, Netgalley 'Packed full of twists' Gary, Netgalley 'Definitely for fans of Lisa Gardner, Karin Slaughter and the like' Fiona, Netgalley 'Captivating: full of mystery, tension, moral dilemma . . . outstanding' Peter, Netgalley 'This series just gets better and better' Tina, Netgalley

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Selected as a Doody's Core Title for 2022 and 2023! This new edition was recognized as a highly commended title by the British Medical Association at the 2017 BMA Medical Book Awards . Regarded by both students and instructors, Principles of Pharmacology: The Pathophysiologic Basis of Drug Therapy, 4th Edition , offers an integrated mechanism-based and systems-based approach to contemporary pharmacology and drug development. An easy-to-follow format helps first- and second-year students grasp challenging concepts quickly and efficiently. Each chapter presents a clinical vignette illustrating a therapeutic problem within a physiologic or biochemical system; followed by a discussion of the biochemistry, physiology, and pathophysiology of the system; and concluding with a presentation of the pharmacology of the drugs and drug classes that activate or inhibit the system by interacting with specific molecular and cellular targets. Chapters are integrated into sections that focus on organ systems and therapeutic areas of highest importance. Clear, concise illustrations highlight key points, and drug summary tables offer quick access to essential information.The Fourth Edition features: Comprehensive updates to all chapters, including recently approved drugs Nearly 40 popular and practical Drug Summary Tables with state-of-the-art information on clinical applications, serious and common adverse effects, contraindications, and therapeutic considerations A new chapter on drug transporters , and extensively revised information on drug-receptor interactions, pharmacodynamics, drug toxicity, and pharmacogenomics Key changes to Section 1: Fundamental Principles of Pharmacology, which now provides a comprehensive framework for material in all subsequent chapters Hundreds of meticulously updated and colorized illustrations , including many that are new or substantially modified to highlight new understanding of physiologic, pathophysiologic, and pharmacologic mechanisms

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When United Flight 93, the fourth plane hijacked in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the gash it left in the ground became a national site of mourning. The flight’s 40 passengers became a media obsession, and countless books, movies, and articles told the tale of their heroic fight to band together and sacrifice their lives to stop Flight 93 from becoming a weapon of terror. In Angel Patriots, Alexander Riley argues that by memorializing these individuals as patriots, we have woven them into much larger story of our nation—an existing web of narratives, values, dramatic frameworks, and cultural characters about what it means to be truly American. Riley examines the symbolic impact and role of the Flight 93 disaster in the nation’s collective consciousness, delving into the spontaneous memorial efforts that blossomed in Shanksville immediately after the news of the crash spread; the ad-hoc sites honoring the victims that in time emerged, such as a Parks Department-maintained memorial close to the crash site and a Flight 93 Chapel created by a local Catholic priest; and finally, the creation of an official, permanent crash monument in Shanksville like those built for past American wars. Riley also analyzes the cultural narratives that evolved in films and in books around the events on the day of the crash and the lives and deaths of its “angel patriot” passengers, uncovering how these representations of the event reflect the myth of the authentic American nation—one that Americans believed was gravely threatened in the September 11 attacks. A profound and thought-provoking study, Angel Patriots unveils how, in the wake of 9/11, America mourned much more than the loss of life.

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A scholarly edition of Lockhart's most intricate and sophisticated contribution to the Scottish historical novel Critically-edited text with full scholarly apparatus Comprehensive Introduction that addresses the composition of the novel, the novel's literary and historical contexts, and the novel's critical reception Extensive Explanatory Notes that identify quotations within the novel, the novel's literary, historical, political, cultural, and geographical references, and other key expressions Provides a comprehensive glossary of Scots words, as well as other single words that might not be familiar to the reader Textual notes addressing Lockhart's revisions based on the extant manuscript proof, as well as other publications within Lockhart's lifetime The History of Matthew Wald (1824) is John Gibson Lockhart's fourth and final novel and perhaps his most focused, stylistically successful fiction. The title character tells his own story, which is set in the context of, and carefully interwoven with, the larger historical, social, and political events and circumstances of Scotland in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Matthew Wald exemplifies Lockhart's idea that the novel should portray the 'human mind under the influence of not one, but many of its passions ambition love revenge remorse' and should reflect the historical and social truth of the age. This scholarly edition includes an Introduction that discusses the literary and historical contexts of the narrative and the novel's early reception and textual history. Detailed Explanatory Notes complement the Introduction to provide the modern reader with the resources to re-evaluate Lockhart's place in the history of the Scottish novel and Romantic fiction.

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The Knight, the Cross, and the Song offers a new perspective on the driving forces of crusading in the period 1100-1400. Although religious devotion has long been identified as the primary motivation of those who took the cross, Stefan Vander Elst argues that it was by no means the only focus of the texts written to convince the warriors of Western Christianity to participate in the holy war. Vander Elst examines how, across three centuries, historiographical works that served as exhortations for the Crusade sought specifically to appeal to aristocratic interests beyond piety. They did so by appropriating the formal and thematic characteristics of literary genres favored by the knightly class, the chansons de geste and chivalric romance. By using the structure, commonplaces, and traditions of chivalric literature, propagandists associated the Crusade with the decidedly secular matters to which arms-bearers were drawn. This allowed them to introduce the mutual obligation between lord and vassal, family honor, the thirst for adventure, and even the desire for women as parallel and complementary motivations for Crusade, making chivalric and literary concerns an indelible part of the ideology and practice of holy war. Examining English, Latin, French, and German texts, ranging from the twelfth-century Gesta Francorum and Chanson d'Antioche to the fourteenth-century Krônike von Prûzinlant and La Prise d'Alixandre, The Knight, the Cross, and the Song traces the historical development and geographical spread of this innovative use of secular chivalric fiction both to shape the memory and interpretation of past events and to ensure the continuation of the holy war.

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The essays in this volume are united by their attention to the many ways in which residents of Greece’s southern Argolid peninsula have attempted to shelter, feed, and advance the economic situation of their families over the last three centuries. This work juxtaposes a series of research projects undertaken in various communities, projects that, taken together, have made the southern Argolid the focus of more ethnographic and ethnohistorical study than any other comparable region of Greece. Ethnographic, geographic, historical, and archaeological methodologies are integrated to yield an image of the southern Argolid as a contingent countryside whose boundaries, character, people, and external connections have been reconfigured time and again. Such notions strengthen general reformulations occurring within Greek ethnography and speak directly to archaeological attempts to connect the Greek past and present. This volume, the fourth in a series of books deriving from the Argolid Exploration Project conducted by Stanford University, sets forth the material conditions of rural Greek life as mutable and negotiated in ways that complement archaeological interest in the repeated settlement fluctuations of the Greek past. It also exemplifies recent ethnographic shifts in conceiving other aspects of modern Greek life. The volume replaces assumptions of village longevity with inquiry into what causes settlements to form and grow or to decline. It places idealized inheritance patterns alongside records of actual land transactions. Houses expand, contract, and change over time. The social boundaries among shepherds, farmers, and sailors blur through an exploration of personal occupation histories. In short, the book reexamines and questions many of the categories and concepts by which rural Greece has long been represented.

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Winner of the 2022 Roland H. Bainton Book Prize from the Sixteenth Century Society & ConferenceIn 1578, a fourteen-foot linen sheet bearing the faint bloodstained imprint of a human corpse was presented to tens of thousands of worshippers in Turin, Italy, as one of the original shrouds used to prepare Jesus Christ’s body for entombment. From that year into the next century, the Shroud of Turin emerged as Christianity’s preeminent religious artifact. In an unprecedented new look, Andrew R. Casper sheds new light on one of the world’s most famous and controversial religious objects.Since the early twentieth century, scores of scientists and forensic investigators have attributed the Shroud’s mysterious images to painterly, natural, or even supernatural forces. Casper, however, shows that this modern opposition of artifice and authenticity does not align with the cloth’s historical conception as an object of religious devotion. Examining the period of the Shroud’s most enthusiastic following, from the late 1500s through the 1600s, he reveals how it came to be considered an artful relic—a divine painting attributed to God’s artistry that contains traces of Christ’s body. Through probing analyses of materials created to perpetuate the Shroud’s cult following—including devotional, historical, and theological treatises as well as printed and painted reproductions—Casper uncovers historicized connections to late Renaissance and Baroque artistic cultures that frame an understanding of the Shroud’s bloodied corporeal impressions as an alloy of material authenticity and divine artifice. This groundbreaking book introduces rich, new material about the Shroud’s emergence as a sacred artifact. It will appeal to art historians specializing in religious and material studies, historians of religion, and to general readers interested in the Shroud of Turin.

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Quantitative Business Valuation A Mathematical Approach for Today's Professionals Essential reading for the serious business appraiser, Quantitative Business Valuation, Second Edition is the definitive guide to quantitative measurements in the valuation process. No other book written on business valuation is as well researched, innovative, and bottom-line beneficial to you as a practitioner. Written by leading valuation and litigation economist Jay B. Abrams, this text is a rigorous and eye-opening treatment filled with applications for a wide variety of scenarios in the valuation of your privately held business. Substantially revised for greater clarity and logical flow, the Second Edition includes new coverage of: Converting forecast net income to forecast cash flow Damages in manufacturing firms Regressing scaled y-variables as a way to control for heteroscedasticity Mathematical derivation of the Price-to-Sales (PS) ratio Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) and Real Options (RO) Analysis Venture capital and angel investor rates of return Lost inventory and lost profits damage formulas in litigation Organized into seven sections, the first three parts of this book follow the chronological sequence of performing a discounted cash flow. The fourth part puts it all together, covering empirical testing of Abrams' valuation theory and measuring valuation uncertainty and error. Parts five to seven round it all out with discussion of litigation, valuing ESOPs and partnership buyouts, and probabilistic methods including valuing start-ups. The resulting work, solidly grounded in economic theory and including all necessary mathematics, integrates existing science into the valuation profession—and develops valuation formulas and models that you will find useful on a daily basis.

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Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation Summer 2010Arc 'Visible Poets' translation series, no. 29My soul is like these threads of spider silk tensed criss-cross between two apple treesRooted in an ancient folk song tradition, Kristiina Ehin's poetry is both universal and deeply personal; her language is direct and simple, yet she expresses herself so vividly that her joys and sorrows become the reader's own. These poems, beautifully translated by Ilmar Lehtpere and selected from her most recent collection, were written over two years, beginning shortly before the birth of her son."Here is a generous, honest imagination: visceral, shamanistic and wise. Kristiina Ehin is a visionary poet with a discerning and distinctive voice, a voice resonant with genuine passion, close to the primordial world of spirts and myths, but also rooted in history and in contemporary life. There is a refreshing lightness and originality to her poems, which are nonetheless poignant. She is able to express strong emotions without being sentimental. Her work has truly haunted me; it has entered the deepest layer of my being with its rare combination of directness and subtle nuances, ancient traditions and modernity." Sujata Bhatt"Ehin's poems are deeply personal, but not in a way that excludes the reader: quite the opposite, they draw the reader in, so that Ehin's life feels like our own, a fascinating glimpse into a different, simpler life lived close to nature. Reading these poems is like a holiday of the best kind: eye-opening, relaxing and different. Ehin's work is rooted in Estonian folk tradition, and music permeates both the forms and the language. I particularly relished her poems about parenthood, for their beauty and tenderness."StrideKristiina Ehin was born in Rapla, Estonia in 1977. She received an M. A. in Comparative and Estonian Folklore from Tartu University in 2004. She has published five volumes of poetry in her native Estonia and has won a number of prizes there, including Estonia's most prestigious poetry prize for her fourth volume, written during a year spent as a nature reserve warden on an uninhabited island off Estonia's north coast. She has also published a book of short stories and has written a play as well. The Drums of Silence (Oleander Press, 2007), a volume of her selected poems in English translation, was awarded the Poetry Society Corneliu M. Popescu Prize for European Poetry in Translation in 2007. Her other books in English translation are Põletades pimedust – Burning the Darkness – An Dorchadas á Dhó (trilingual Estonian-English-Irish selected poems, Coiscéim, 2009), A Priceless Nest (short stories, Oleander Press, 2009), Päevaseiskaja – South-Estonian Fairy Tales (Huma, 2009) and Noorkuuhommik – New Moon Morning (selected poems, Huma, 2007). She is often invited to take part in international arts and literary festivals and her work, poetry and prose, appears regularly in English translation in leading Irish and British literary journals. Her work has been translated into twelve languages. Kristiina's reading at the Ledbury Poetry Festival (July 2010) was one of the highlights of the Festival.Ilmar Lehtpere had a bilingual upbringing in Estonian and English. He is the translator of Kristiina Ehin's The Drums of Silence (Oleander Press, 2007), which was awarded the Poetry Society Corneliu M. Popescu Prize for European Poetry in Translation. He has also translated her play, A Life Without Feathers, and has already started working on her next collection of poems in English. His own poetry has appeared in Estonian and Irish literary journals.Sujata Bhatt was born in Ahmedabad, India, and grew up in Pune, India and in the United States. To date, she has published seven collections of poetry with Carcanet Press. The recipient of numerous awards, such as the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Asia), and the Cholmondeley Award, her latest collection, Pure Lizard, was short-listed for the Forward Poetry Prize and received the German Literature Award, Das neue Buch, in 2008. She has translated poetry from Gujarati and German into English. Her work has been widely anthologised, broadcast on radio and television, and has been translated into more than twenty languages. She is a frequent guest at literary festivals throughout the world. Currently, she lives in Germany with her family.

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"GRIPPING. ... One of the greatest polar rescue efforts ever mounted." —Wall Street JournalThe riveting true story of the largest polar rescue mission in history: the desperate race to find the survivors of the glamorous Arctic airship Italia, which crashed near the North Pole in 1928.Triumphantly returning from the North Pole on May 24, 1928, the world-famous exploring airship Italia—code-named N-4—was struck by a terrible storm and crashed somewhere over the Arctic ice, triggering the largest polar rescue mission in history. Helping lead the search was Roald Amundsen, the poles’ greatest explorer, who himself soon went missing in the frozen wastes. Amundsen’s body has never been found, the last victim of one of the Arctic’s most enduring mysteries . . .During the Roaring Twenties, zeppelin travel embodied the exuberant spirit of the age. Germany’s luxurious Graf Zeppelin would run passenger service from Germany to Brazil; Britain’s Imperial Airship was launched to connect an empire; in America, the iconic spire of the rising Empire State Building was designed as a docking tower for airships.But the novel mode of transport offered something else, too: a new frontier of exploration. Whereas previous Arctic and Antarctic explorers had subjected themselves to horrific—often deadly—conditions in their attempts to reach uncharted lands, airships held out the possibility of speedily soaring over the hazards. In 1926, the famed Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen—the first man to reach the South Pole—partnered with the Italian airship designer General Umberto Nobile to pioneer flight over the North Pole. As Mark Piesing uncovers in this masterful account, while that mission was thought of as a great success, it was in fact riddled with near disasters and political pitfalls.In May 1928, his relationship with Amundsen corroded beyond the point of collaboration, Nobile, his dog, and a crew of fourteen Italians, one Swede, and one Czech, set off on their own in the airship Italia to discover new lands in the Arctic Circle and to become the first airship to land men on the pole. But near the North Pole they hit a terrible storm and crashed onto the ice. Six crew members were never seen again; the injured (including Nobile) took refuge on ice flows,unprepared for the wretched conditions and with little hope for survival.Coincidentally, in Oslo a gathering of famous Arctic explorers had assembled for a celebration of the first successful flight from Alaska to Norway. Hearing of the accident, Amundsen set off on his own desperate attempt to find Nobile and his men. As the weeks passed and the largest international polar rescue expedition mobilized, the survivors engaged in a last-ditch struggle against weather, polar bears, and despair. When they were spotted at last, the search plane landed—but the pilot announced that there was room for only one passenger. . . .Braiding together the gripping accounts of the survivors and their heroic rescuers, N-4 Down tells the unforgettable true story of what happened when the glamour and restless daring of the zeppelin age collided with the harsh reality of earth’s extremes.

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In the autumn of 1871, Alexis Romanov, the fourth son of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, set sail from his homeland for an extended journey through the United States and Canada. A major milestone in U.S.-Russia relations, the tour also served Duke Alexis's family by helping to extricate him from an unsuitable romantic entanglement with the daughter of a poet. Alexis in America recounts the duke's progress through the major American cities, detailing his meetings with celebrated figures such as Samuel Morse and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and describing the national self-reflection that his presence spurred in the American people. The first Russian royal ever to visit the United States, Alexis received a tour through post-Civil War America that emphasized the nation's cultural unity. While the enthusiastic American media breathlessly reported every detail of his itinerary and entourage, Alexis visited Niagara Falls, participated in a bison hunt with Buffalo Bill Cody, and attended the Krewe of Rex's first Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans. As word of the royal visitor spread, the public flocked to train depots and events across the nation to catch a glimpse of the grand duke. Some speculated that Russia and America were considering a formal alliance, while others surmised that he had come to the United States to find a bride. The tour was not without incident: many city officials balked at spending public funds on Alexis's reception, and there were rumors of an assassination plot by Polish nationals in New York City. More broadly, the visit highlighted problems on the national level, such as political corruption and persistent racism, as well as the emerging cultural and political power of ethnic minorities and the continuing sectionalism between the North and the South. Lee Farrow joins her examination of these cultural underpinnings to a lively narrative of the grand duke's tour, creating an engaging record of a unique moment in international relations.

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"If we continue, we grow old, and this is how it could be for us," writes Renée Rose Shield in her candid and sympathetic account of life in one American nursing home. Drawing on anthropological methods and theory to illuminate institutional life, she probes the sources of the profound sense of unease she found at the place she calls "The Franklin Nursing Home." For fourteen months Shield participated in life at a nursing home in the northeastern United States. She got to know many of the people associated with the home—doctors, nurses, custodians, kitchen workers, administrators, social workers, visiting relatives, and above all, the residents, who emerge in this book as the individuals they are. Sections in which the residents speak poignantly in their own voices are woven throughout her richly detailed observations of everyday routines and events. We see them using guile and humor to get by, struggling to approach the end of their lives with a measure of autonomy and dignity, and we meet an often conscientious and caring staff constrained by conflicting professional perspectives and by the bureaucratic structure in which they work.There are no villains here. Rather, Shield explains how conditions in the nursing home create a difficult and uncomfortable "liminality"—the transition from an accustomed role to a new one-for the residents. In characterizing nursing-home existence, she goes beyond Erving Goffman's classic definition of the "total institution" to show how residents pass from adulthood to death without the comfort of ritual or community support common in rites of passage. In addition to the isolation created by this solitary passage, she finds restrictions on "reciprocity"—the old people are always recipients whose need and obligation to repay are seen as unnecessary and difficult to satisfy. The system encourages their passivity, which deepens their dependency and helps to explain why they are often perceived as children. Offering concrete suggestions for improving the quality of nursing-home life, Uneasy Endings will find a broad audience among those who work with the aged.

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