Search results for ""author various"

Professor Philip McCann has contributed to a revival of regional and urban economics. His ideas and research have stimulated views about how regions and cities grow, and also how they can be better governed. He offers here another major contribution to improved regional policy design. By its scale and scope, EU regional policy reform merits a thorough and enlightening analysis such as this. This is an important book by one of the finest scholars in the field.'- Joaquim Oliveira Martins, Head of OECD Regional Policy Division, France'Geographical economics has come a long way in the past two decades. It has generated new ways of thinking about how to improve development in less-favoured cities and regions, in the context of a commitment to enjoying the advantages of trade and the mobility of people and knowledge. Philip McCann's magisterial analysis of one of the most ambitious efforts ever undertaken in this area - the EU Cohesion Policy - argues powerfully for a new way forward based on respecting the different starting points of cities and regions and mobilizing their potential, and yet doing so with rigorous respect for efficiency and openness.'- Michael Storper, London School of Economics, UKThe regional and urban development policy of the European Union, or more precisely, EU Cohesion Policy, is undergoing change. This development is driven by the enormous transformations in European regions and by shifts in thinking and analysis. The issues raised by the changes to regional and urban development policy in Europe span many academic disciplines and build on different research methodologies. A broad approach is required in order to address these issues and this book explicitly incorporates insights from a range of different disciplines.After examining the major regional and urban features of the European economy and discussing the analytical underpinnings of the current re-design to EU Cohesion Policy, the book also aims to provide a road map of the various EU regional and urban data-sources which are available to researchers and policy-makers. This volume is aimed at all economists, geographers, regional scientists, spatial planners, transportation scientists, sociologists, urban studies researchers, environmental scholars, political scientists and policy-analysts who are interested in regional and urban issues.Contents: Preface 1. The Backdrop to EU Cohesion Policy Debates: Europe 2020 and the Post-Crisis Economy 2. The Regional and Urban Economies of the European Union 3. The Logic and Workings of EU Cohesion Policy 4. A Reformed EU Cohesion Policy 5. Innovation, Regions and the Case for Regional Innovation Policies 6. Smart Specialisation and European Regions 7. Conclusions on the Reforms to the Regional and Urban Policy in the European Union Bibliography Index

Read more less

This collection is an inspiration and a delight for those advocates fighting for access to knowledge in the 21st century. The work highlights a number of 21st century challenges - including the obstacles of restrictive licensing; the barriers and obstacles of intellectual property; and the threats posed by international trade agreements. This collection provides a toolbox of policy solutions to deal with such hazards. The work highlights how information and knowledge can be unlocked through open access licensing, progressive intellectual property law reform, and fair trade.'- Matthew Rimmer, Australian Research Council, ANU College of Law and the Australian Centre for Intellectual Property in Agriculture'In a knowledge economy, access to information and knowledge takes on an ever-increasing role. But certain knowledge outputs are protected by exclusive intellectual property rights, which in one way or another restrict access to some information. It is therefore timely to examine these access issues in greater detail. The fact that this volume offers such a detailed analysis is its greatest strength. The in-depth analysis of all these aspects makes this a truly fascinating book!'- Paul Torremans, University of Nottingham, UK'This is an important book that brings together leading scholars from Europe and the United States to explore the access challenge in intellectual property law. It reframes the debate by focusing on the critical role of timely access to information in innovation-based economies. Well worth the read.'- Michael W. Carroll, American University Washington College of Law, USMassive quantities of information are required to fuel the innovation process in a knowledge-based economy; a requirement that is in tension with intellectual property (IP) laws. Against this backdrop, leading thinkers in the IP arena explore the 'access challenge' of the 21st century, framed as the tension between the interest in the free flow of information and the fragmentation of knowledge resulting from strong IP laws.In some areas this tension seems to resolve in a shift of IP laws in the direction of greater openness, whether due to new business models, improved legal tools or access-friendly interpretations of existing laws. The book's chapters explore the challenges encountered by this 'opening' process from various perspectives, including:- open access to public sector and scientific research data- enhanced use of licensing- reshaping the contours of individual IP laws- inclusion of new stakeholders in the IP debate- challenges to the information flow in the international arena.In identifying some of the core IP-related challenges to the process of adapting to the knowledge needs of the new economy, this book will provide an enlightening read for academics, policymakers and lawyers concerned with IP laws and the flow of knowledge.Contributors: J. Axhamn, D. Beldiman, D.L. Burk, E. Ellyne, C. Geiger, L. Guibault, R. Kampf, M. Marzetti, M. Ricolfi, I. Schneider, M. Senftleben, A. Stazi, P. Yu

Read more less

John Darnielle describes Master of Reality through a fictional character, a fifteen-year-old boy being held in an adolescent psychiatric centre in southern California in 1985.John Darnielle describes "Master of Reality" in the voice of a fifteen-year-old boy being held in an adolescent psychiatric centre in southern California in 1985. Adolescents in treatment are often required to keep a journal, and they write letters by the dozens: to their parents, to their friends on the outside, to the nurses who confiscate their belongings, to the teachers back at school who've offered them an outlet for their creativity. Our narrator has arrived in treatment with a Walkman and some tapes that are precious to him, only to have them taken away on the ground that their content is part of his greater problem.His various writings, aimed mainly at getting his tapes and Walkman back, will explain how Black Sabbath differs from their Satan-worshipping popular image, and how Master of Reality is an overtly Christian album, which it is. Our narrator will try to explain Black Sabbath like an emissary from an alien race describing his culture to his captors: passionately, patiently, and lovingly. This album has a genuinely remarkable historical status: as a touchstone for the directionless, and as a common coin for young men and women who felt shut out of the broader cultural economy.It'd be hard to overstate Ozzy Osbourne's totemic status among adolescents in the early eighties. His public image, cobbled together by his audience from occasional mainstream press mentions and niche magazine coverage, made him a nearly perfect sponge for the aggressive feelings of frustrated young men around the world. To this audience, who continue to occupy a an enormous if ghostly position on the margins, the early Black Sabbath albums were accepted classics in a genre whose lack of real status only served to indicate its true value.This, for me, is one of the places where the music does its most interesting work: when it becomes a tool in the hands of its listeners, and when the process of explaining it becomes part of its essence. This was never truer than in the mainstream metal subcultures of the eighties, where album titles served as passwords to a more accepting world. "Master of Reality", from its Christian heart right down to its ultimately incomprehensible title, is the perfect candidate for illuminating these undersung passageways."33 1/3" is a series of short books about a wide variety of albums, by artists ranging from James Brown to the Beastie Boys. Launched in September 2003, the series now contains over 50 titles and is acclaimed and loved by fans, musicians and scholars alike.

Read more less

The present volume is the fifth publication of a Frontinus-conference edited by Gilbert Wiplinger as a BABESCH supplement volume on historical water science. At the place of activity of Sextus Iulius Frontinus as curator aquarum and the capital of the Roman Empire it was probably one of the most important and challenging events of this congress series. For the first time a new path was taken, as the organizer and publisher wanted to approach the topic water from the artistic side. This was realized in the opening lecture with the presentation of a novel in which Frontinus plays the main character and a photo exhibition at the Austrian Historical Institute about the integration of the Aqua Claudia and the Aqua Anio Novus in the new building of the waterworks of Limburg (Holland). In eight sections 33 contributions are published in this volume. The first section deals with the different approaches to the topic of water. The second section is dedicated to the award of the Frontinus Medal to Hubertus Manderscheid, who was honoured during the conference for his fundamental research on the history of ancient water supply over many decades. The third section is dedicated to the aqueducts of Rome. After a general introduction, Colle Papese in Tivoli, the Aqua Alsietina and the distribution of the Aqua Claudia and Anio Novus within the city were discussed. The next section was devoted to aqueducts and water supply outside of Rome, presenting Pompeii, Tauromenion (Italy), Spalato (Croatia), Parion, the Şirince Aqueduct of Ephesus, Syedra (Turkey), Gerasa (Jordan), Sepphoris (Israel) and the pre-desert areas along the African Limes. The topic of the fifth section are toilets and baths: the toilets of Rome, the latrines of the baths of Caracalla, public baths in Late Antique Rome and the Roman baths of Parion (Turkey). Fountains was the topic of the sixth section with supply devices and water effects in Roman Imperial nymphaea, a fountain of a triclinium near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, fountains in the Terrace Houses of Ephesus and the multi-sensory effects of water in Roman and Late Antique elite houses. The seventh section deals with hydraulic engineering: Frontinus' quinaria, the Nîmes aqueduct and castellum and planning and building an aqueduct without the use of surveying instruments. In the last section various topics were summarized with the feeling of water in Trajanian times, downdrains in Ostia and water machines in Medieval Arabic texts. The conference programme was impressively complemented by several full-day and half-day excursions. It offered the opportunity to visit monuments that are otherwise not accessible to the public. Once again it became clear that neither a lecture, nor a publication or pictures can replace the encounter with real archaeological findings. The presentation of new research results on ancient hydraulic engineering and the enhancement of knowledge by visiting comparative examples on site is the declared aim of this conference series.

Read more less

This book provides a clear analysis of the multi-level impacts of the existing international law regime related to genetic resources on developing countries. It does so through a cogent exposition of the different areas of the law pertaining to genetic resources that are relevant and impact on people's rights and livelihoods. Its focus on equity is a welcome addition to the literature.'- Philippe Cullet, University of London, UK'Camena Guneratne's thought-provoking book critically evaluates the clash between the private property approach to genetic resources embedded in international intellectual property conventions, and the competing values embedded in a variety of other conventions and laws. She contests key assumptions behind intellectual property regimes supporting genetic commerce, distinguishing the genetic 'commons' from other types of resource. This book provides a comprehensive scholarly dealing with the topics noted in its title, but also should increase debate about policy failures in responding to the risks to the underprivileged of the instruments we use to pursue our economic interests of the majority.'- Paul Martin, University of New England, Australia'This is a wonderful book. All to often in the quest to preserve biodiviersity, we forget that the equation of equity hs to be the forefront of the debates on sustainable development. Dr. Guneratne rectifies this mistake.This linkage between biodiversity, politics and international law is of such a high calibre, that it is likely that this work will become a key text for students and scholars alike.'- Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato, New ZealandThis book examines current developments in international law which regulate the uses of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, and the various property regimes which are applied to these resources by these international agreements.In the current context of the global food crisis, the development and stability of national agricultural systems is an urgent concern, particularly among developing countries. This stability, and national food security, will potentially be threatened if these countries are unable to have free access to agricultural crop plants. This book analyses a range of international agreements including the recently adopted Nagoya Protocol and demonstrates that in their current implementation they favor private ownership of these resources rather than free access. The book takes the position that this is inherently inequitable and these resources should be maintained in the public domain.This book will be of use to a wide range of readers from students and scholars to those working in the fields of trade and intellectual property, human rights, environmental conservation and advocacy on international issues. It contains a rigorous legal analysis of current international law development on the issue based on the negotiations which have taken place in the relevant forums, and will therefore be particularly useful to lawyers and legal scholars. It is also written in an uncomplicated style which makes it readily accessible to non-lawyers and the case studies and empirical data used throughout the book adds to its interest.

Read more less

Included in the Financial Times best books of 2020 selection'For those who fear the worst for the sport they love, this is like cool, clear water for a man dying of thirst. It's barnstorming, coruscating stuff, and as fine a book about the game as you'll read for years' Mail on Sunday'Charming . . . a threnody for a vanished and possibly mythical England' Sebastian Faulks, Sunday Times'Lyrical . . . [Henderson's] pen is filled with the romantic spirit of the great Neville Cardus . . . This book is an extended love letter, a beautifully written one, to a world that he is desperate to keep alive for others to discover and share. Not just his love of cricket, either, but of poetry and classical music and fine cinema' The Times (best summer books)'To those who love both cricket and the context in which it is played, the book is rather wonderful, and moving' Daily Telegraph'Philip Larkin's line 'that will be England gone' is the premise of this fascinating book which is about music, literature, poetry and architecture as well as cricket. Henderson is that rare bird, a reporter with a fine grasp of time and place, but also a stylist of enviable quality and perception' Michael ParkinsonNeville Cardus once said there could be no summer in England without cricket.The 2019 season was supposed to be the greatest summer of cricket ever seen in England. There was a World Cup, followed by five Test matches against Australia in the latest engagement of sport's oldest rivalry. It was also the last season of county cricket before the introduction in 2020 of a new tournament, The Hundred, designed to attract an audience of younger people who have no interest in the summer game.In That Will Be England Gone, Michael Henderson revisits much-loved places to see how the game he grew up with has changed since the day in 1965 that he saw the great fast bowler Fred Trueman in his pomp. He watches schoolboys at Repton, club cricketers at Ramsbottom, and professionals on the festival grounds of Chesterfield, Cheltenham and Scarborough. The rolling English road takes him to Leicester for T20, to Lord's for the most ceremonial Test match, and to Taunton to watch an old cricketer leave the crease for the last time. He is enchanted at Trent Bridge, surprised at the Oval, and troubled at Old Trafford.'Cricket,' Henderson says, 'has always been part of my other life.' There are memories of friendships with Ken Dodd, Harold Pinter and Simon Rattle, and the book is coloured throughout by a love of landscape, poetry, paintings and music. As well as reflections on his childhood hero, Farokh Engineer, and other great players, there are digressions on subjects as various as Lancashire comedians, Viennese melancholy and the films of Michael Powell.Lyrical and elegiac, That Will Be England Gone is a deeply personal tribute to cricket, summer and England.

Read more less

The phrase “an animal a thousand miles miles long,” attributed to Aristotle, refers to a sprawling body that cannot be seen in its entirety from a single angle, a thing too vast and complicated to be knowable as a whole. For Leath Tonino, the animal a thousand miles long is the landscape of his native Vermont. Tonino grew up along the shores of Lake Champlain, situated between Vermont’s Green Mountains and New York’s Adirondacks. His career as a nature and travel writer has taken him across the country, but he always turns his eye back on his home state. “All along,” he writes, “I’ve been exploring various parts of the animal, trying to make a prose map of its body—not to understand it in a conclusive or definitive way but rather to celebrate it, to hint at its possibilities.” This fragmented yet deep search is the overarching theme of the twenty essays in The Animal One Thousand Miles Long. Tonino posits that geography, natural history, human experience, and local traditions, seasons, and especially atypical outings—on skis, bicycles, sleds, and boogie boards—can open us to a place and, simultaneously, open a place to us. He looks closely at what he calls "huge-small" Vermont, but his underlying mission is to demonstrate our collective need to better understand the meaning of place, especially the ones we call home and think we know best. From Laredo to Jackson Hole, San Francisco to Burlington, his sensibility is applicable to us all. In his signature piece, “Seven Lengths of Vermont,” he traverses the length of the state in seven different ways—a twenty-day hike, 500 miles on bicycle, a thirty-six-ride hitchhiking tour, 260 miles in a canoe, ten days swimming Lake Champlain, a three-week ski trek, and a two-hour “vast and fast” flyover. He plots each route with blue ink on maps strung across his office. “Each inky thread was an animal a thousand miles long,” he writes. “Vermont appeared before me as a menagerie.” What Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods did for the Appalachian Trail and Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence did for the South of France, Tonino's affinity for the land he calls home gives a new perspective on the Green Mountain State. His infectious love of the outdoors, the ground of everyday life, should inspire us to explore the places just outside our own front door.

Read more less

If your doorstep were a trailhead, how would you experience your city? With this newfound freedom, you might head in a new direction, walk to a restaurant in an area you’ve never explored, begin to savour your daily walk to work, or set out with a daypack to the city edges for fresh air and nature. Despite the known health benefits of routine walking, many people don’t have pleasant, safe places to walk. Too often, street networks have barriers - cul-de-sacs, freeways, or busy, dangerous-to-cross, arterials. Many lack sidewalks at all. There is a clear need for high-quality, readily accessible pedestrian infrastructure in and around urban areas. In Beyond Greenways: The Next Step for City Trails and Walking Routes, greenways expert Robert Searns makes a case for walking infrastructure that serves a more diverse array of people. He builds on the legacy of boulevards, parkways, and greenways to introduce a next generation of more accessible pathways, wide enough for two people to stroll together, that stitch together urban and suburban areas. With more trails built near neighbourhoods that haven’t had access to them, more people can get around on foot, in town or further out. Searns lays out practical advice on how to plan and design them, garner community support, and get them built. Drawing inspiration from the US and abroad, he introduces two models - grand loop trails and town walks. Grand loop trails are regional-scale, 20 to 350-mile systems that encircle metro areas, running along the edges where city meets countryside. Town walks are shorter- 2 to 6-mile routes in cities. Throughout, Searns presents examples that embody these ideals, from Tucson’s Turquoise Trail, created by just two people with an idea and some left-over blue paint the city had, to a more deluxe 5-mile loop in Denver, to the Louisville Loop Trail in Kentucky, a nearly complete 100-mile grand loop. He also envisions these trails in new places across North America. Planners, trail advocates, community leaders and those who just want closer-in places to hike or walk will find the tools they need to develop successful and affordable plans, including how to envision them to fit various settings and strategies for implementation. Now is the time to think beyond greenways, to pursue a legacy of accessible pedestrian routes for this, and future, generations.

Read more less

This research aims to make an original and advanced contribution to state-of-the-art sky models. It focuses on high-resolution sky radiance and luminance models given their essential importance in a host of scientific and engineering applications. For example, improved sky radience and luminance models can be used to improve the design and operation of energy-efficient and sustainable buildings. All these applications require high-fidelity information on spatial and temporal distribution of solar irradiance and illuminance on building surfaces. The empirical basis for related decision-making processes is, however, rather limited: Available measured data - collected by typical weather stations - is typically restricted to global horizontal irradiance. Few research-class climatic monitoring stations also record the diffuse component of solar irradiance. This research will therefore examine a number of such models in detail and explore both improvement possibilities of existing models and the potential for alternative modeling approaches in future developments. Specifically, this research aims at developing accurate high-resolution sky radiance and sky luminance models for the city of Vienna. In order to generate sky radiance maps, the diffuse radiation component of the global horizontal irradiance should be typically derived based on proper diffuse fraction models. Accordingly, this research starts with an attempt to improve the existing diffuse fraction models. When both diffuse and direct horizontal irradiance data are available, the existing models intended for the sky radiance generation can be comprehensively evaluated and further developed to arrive at a more reliable locally verified sky radiance distribution model. In addition to sky radiance distribution maps, which greatly support the design of buildings' solar energy systems, sky luminance maps are needed to support the design of buildings' daylighting systems. However, to generate sky luminance maps from sky radiance maps, appropriate luminous efficacy information is required, which is not available from typical weather stations. Therefore, this research shall also explore methods with various degrees of resolution to derive illuminance data based on more broadly available global irradiance data. Solid high-resolution empirical data is needed not only to evaluate the existing models, but also to develop and validate new models. For this purpose, I will deploy our existing monitoring facility to systematically collect both typical weather station data and additional information concerning the diffuse component of the global horizontal irradiance, global horizontal illuminance, vertical irradiance, as well as detailed sky luminance and radiance distributions.

Read more less

My Family and Other Animals is the bewitching account of a rare and magical childhood on the island of Corfu by treasured British conservationist Gerald Durrell, beautifully repackaged as part of the Penguin Essentials range.'What we all need,' said Larry, 'is sunshine...a country where we can grow.''Yes, dear, that would be nice,' agreed Mother, not really listening. 'I had a letter from George this morning - he says Corfu's wonderful. Why don't we pack up and go to Greece?''Very well, dear, if you like,' said Mother unguardedly. Escaping the ills of the British climate, the Durrell family - acne-ridden Margo, gun-toting Leslie, bookworm Lawrence and budding naturalist Gerry, along with their long-suffering mother and Roger the dog - take off for the island of Corfu.But the Durrells find that, reluctantly, they must share their various villas with a menagerie of local fauna - among them scorpions, geckos, toads, bats and butterflies.Recounted with immense humour and charm My Family and Other Animals is a wonderful account of a rare, magical childhood.'Durrell has an uncanny knack of discovering human as well as animal eccentricities' Sunday Telegraph'A bewitching book' Sunday TimesGerald Durrell was born in Jamshedpur, India, in 1925. He returned to England in 1928 before settling on the island of Corfu with his family. In 1945 he joined the staff of Whipsnade Park as a student keeper, and in 1947 he led his first animal-collecting expedition to the Cameroons. He later undertook numerous further expeditions, visiting Paraguay, Argentina, Sierra Leone, Mexico, Mauritius, Assam and Madagascar. His first television programme, Two in the Bush¸ which documented his travels to New Zealand, Australia and Malaya was made in 1962; he went on to make seventy programmes about his trips around the world. In 1959 he founded the Jersey Zoological Park, and in 1964 he founded the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust. He was awarded the OBE in 1982. Encouraged to write about his life's work by his brother, Durrell published his first book, The Overloaded Ark, in 1953. It soon became a bestseller and he went on to write thirty-six other titles, including My Family and Other Animals, The Bafut Beagles, Encounters with Animals, The Drunken Forest, A Zoo in My Luggage, The Whispering Land, Menagerie Manor, The Amateur Naturalist and The Aye-Aye and I. Gerald Durrell died in 1995.

Read more less

This extraordinary book proposes a new theory of colonization and of its economic effects in leading to continued underdevelopment of formerly colonized countries. It brilliantly attributes those effects to a simple source: colonial monopolization that systematically affected consumers, labor, and related industries, creating a structure of domination that continues today. The book is comparable to Thomas Piketty's best-selling Capital in the 21st Century, but substantially goes beyond and is deeper than Piketty because it explains the economic and structural forces leading to increasing inequality. The book also shows that these same forces are affecting modern economies which will inhibit development into the future. It should be read by all interested in the economic and social effects of colonialism as well as by all interested in the economic future of the world.'- George L. Priest, Yale Law School, US'This bold, original and learned book proposes what might be termed a global, interdisciplinary theory of poverty. It identifies the cause of under-development of impoverished economies in the structural concentration of economic power inherited from their colonial past, then goes on to show how various fields of knowledge (economics, but also law, philosophy and the social sciences) still work today to support the same monopolistic socio-economic structures. Drawing lessons from this analytical framework, it offers a series of ideas for transformative action. In this respect, it provides highly instructive - if sobering - reading while also offering a remarkable methodological model for future research on issues which might be described as global justice.'- Horatia Muir Watt, Sciences Po, Paris, FranceThis ambitious analysis is centered on the evolution of economic structures in colonized economies, showing the effects of these structures on today's global reality for all economies, whether they are considered 'developed or 'underdeveloped.'With a comprehensive scope encompassing economic structures and their influence on the growth of nations from past to present, Calixto Salomão Filho delves into issues of development, economic structures, social problems, monopolies, globalization, and poverty. This book features a unique combination of economic and legal analysis of development, including the examination of underdevelopment trends based on monopoly growth and the triple drain effects of monopolies on national economies. The result is an illuminating study of historical restriction and exploitation and its impact on present day markets around the world.Monopolies and Underdevelopment will capture the interest of scholars and readers of the economic theory of development, economic history of underdeveloped countries, and law and development; as well as those involved in Latin American and South Asian studies, international comparative law, and legal history.

Read more less

This expertly illustrated atlas has been the go-to reference in veterinary orthopedic surgery for nearly 50 years and remains the premier resource for small animal surgical procedures. As in prior editions, Piermattei's Atlas of Surgical Approaches to the Bones and Joints of the Dog and Cat, 5th Edition is teeming with highly detailed drawings that illustrate a wide range of surgical approaches. This edition also features six all new surgical approaches and three approaches which have been expanded to illustrate the modifications required when performing orthopedic surgery on the cat. In addition to updated images throughout, fifty-five brand new illustrations accompany the new surgical approaches. As many will attest, Piermattei's Atlas is an invaluable reference that no small animal surgeon should be without. "In summary, if you still don't have a previous edition of Piermattei's atlas of surgical approaches to the bones and joints of the dog and cat on your bookshelves, this is a must have. If you already have a previous edition, the difference between the 4th and 5th are not big, but there are a few additions that will still make it a worthwhile buy." Reviewed by: Benito De La Puerta, Ldo, Cert SAS Dip ECVS, UK Date: July 2014 Step-by-step procedures walk you through proper positioning, anatomic landmarks, potential dangers, and increasing exposure. Primary indications listed for each surgical approach help you quickly determine which approach is most appropriate for a particular surgery. Consistent format features text on the left side and illustration plates on the right, for quick access to key information. High-quality drawings created by an expert medical artist provide exceptional clarity, realism, and detail. Cross-references throughout the text make it easy to compare surgical approaches for the same body area. Full pages dedicated to each plate allow you to more easily view anatomical parts and approaches. NEW! Six all-new approaches to surgical procedures have been added to the text. They include: Approach to the Lumbosacral Intervertebral Disk and Foramen Through a Lateral Transilial Osteotomy Approach to the Medial Region of the Shoulder Joint Minimally Invasive Approach to the Shaft of the Humerus Approach to the Lateral Aspect of the Hemipelvis Minimally Invasive Approach to the Shaft of the Femur Minimally Invasive Approach to the Shaft of the Tibia NEW! Expanded coverage of modifications required when performing orthopedic surgery on the cat include: Approach to the Lateral Aspect of the Humeral Condyle and Epicondyle in the Cat Approach to the Craniodorsal Aspect of the Hip Joint Through a Craniolateral Incision in the Cat Approach to the Shaft of the Femur in the Cat NEW! Updated images provide a better picture of various surgical approaches.

Read more less

Paul E. Hoffman's Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, 1860- 1919 is a highly detailed analysis of LSU's beginnings and early development, starting well before it first opened its doors in Pineville, Louisiana, in 1860. Hoffman reveals how political and ideological contests in areas of governance, curriculum, finances, discipline (the ""military feature""), and student life influenced the early identity and development of the school, shaping and laying the groundwork for the university we recognize today.The institution's first name- the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy- reflected its contested character: part imitation of the Virginia Military, part true military academy, and part classical college. The school was renamed Louisiana State University in 1870 after graduating its first class. When the land-grant university created at New Orleans in 1874 merged with LSU in 1877, the school became Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College. The new disagreements about the character of the institution did not resolve until 1919.At the turn of the twentieth century, new challenges led to the establishment of a law school, the admittance of women for the first time, the organization of the institution into distinct colleges, and demands to emphasize on-campus agricultural instruction. Hoffman shows that President Thomas D. Boyd, faced with flat, inadequate state funding for the university as a whole, moderated those demands until 1918. Then the wartime emphasis on agricultural production, various federal programs that encouraged enrollment in LSU's College of Agriculture, and a critical shortage of space on the downtown campus worked together to prompt the purchase of Gartness Plantation, the site of the current campus, but without any funds or immediate plans for its development. Hoffman's study ends in the spring of 1919. By then, the school had largely resumed its prewar rhythms in academic and extracurricular areas. The ROTC program, begun in 1917, was again in place, transforming LSU into the ""Ole War Skule"" of living memory. With most of its struggles over its identity resolved, LSU was poised to resume the growth that World War I had interrupted and that, with the development of the ""new"" campus, would characterize the school during the next twenty years of its history. This first fully documented history of LSU in its early years contributes to a broader understanding of the growth of both LSU itself and American higher education, showing how fiscal realities and contested ideas about higher education during the post- Civil War era shaped university development.

Read more less

An analysis of the methods of Solomonic magic from the 7th to the 19th century as found in the Hygromanteia and Key of Solomon. This volume is about the methods of magic used in 7th century Egyptian Alexandria and how they have been passed via the Greek grimoires of Byzantium (the Hygromanteia), to the manuscripts of the Latin Clavicula Salomonis and its English incarnation as the Key of Solomon. Jewish techniques like the use of pentacles, oil and water skrying were added along the way, but Solomonic magic (despite its name) remained basically a classical Greek form of magic. Amazingly, this transmission has involved very few changes: the 'technology' of magic has remained firmly intact. The emphasis is upon specific magical techniques such as the invocation of the gods, the binding of demons, the use of the four demon Kings, the construction of a circle and lamen (for protection of the magician). The requirements of purity, sexual abstinence, and fasting have changed little in the last 2000 years. The concrete reasons for that are explained. The difference between amulets, talismans and phylacteries or lamens is outlined along with their methods of construction. Examples of magical circles have been taken from many sources and their construction and development traced out. Practical considerations such as choice of incense, the timing of the cutting of the wand, utilisation of rings and statues, use of the Table of Evocation, or the acquisition of a familiar spirit are explained. The structure of a Solomonic evocation puts into perspective the reasons for each step, the use of thwarting angels, achieving invisibility, sacrifice, love magic, treasure finding, and the binding, imprisoning and licensing of spirits. The facing directions and timing of evocations have always been crucial, and these too have remained consistent. By examining the way these same methods were used again and again in the various periods, minor omissions in magical practice can be observed and repaired. This book is thus a follow-on from Techniques of Graeco-Egyptian Magic. This volume investigates precise methods used by magicians from the magicians' own handbooks rather than from the opinions of theologians, historians, anthropologists or legislators. The emphasis is on what magicians did and why. Tools used by magicians in 7th century Alexandria, 15th century Constantinople and 19th century London are very much the same. Detailed comparisons are made chapter by chapter with 70 illustrations of magical equipment like the wand, the sword, wax and clay images and magical gems, drawn from a wide range of manuscripts and reproduced with detailed analysis. Literally hundreds of manuscripts in libraries across Europe have been read and checked to ensure this is the most detailed analysis of Solomonic magic, from the inside, ever penned.

Read more less

The federal government is today facing the largest fiscal challenge since World War II. The fundamental question before the nation is whether the fiscal course the government is on can continue. In Entitlement Spending: Our Coming Fiscal Tsunami, David Koitz argues that it is not a Democratic or Republican problem; it is an American problem. As it comes ever closer, he contends, the need for political convergence becomes ever more pressing. Written so as to make the issues understandable to nonexperts, the book is designed to raise public awareness of the urgency to act by clarifying misconceptions and presenting the facts on the impending economic crisis driven by the federal government's enormous spending on entitlement programs. Although Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are idolised as pillars of the nation's safety net, he shows why those programs are in fact the largest drivers of our looming fiscal problem. He explains how, if an effective remedy is to emerge, those programs must contribute heavily to the changes lawmakers consider and offers various policy directions for reining in their spending. Koitz suggests, for instance, that increasing out-of-pocket spending by health care consumers may be the only effective way to sensitise both medical providers and patients to the costs of care, contending that, regardless of how this may affect utilisation or medical practices, major limits are needed in Medicare and Medicaid expenditures because they have become unaffordable. Whether by raising the Medicare eligibility age above sixty-five, imposing higher deductibles and co-payments, or converting Medicare to a program supporting the purchase of health insurance in the private market, the program's expenditures must be reined in and the expectations of future Medicare recipients balanced against the risks of a governmental debt calamity. For Social Security, he says, the public must understand that much of the system's financial problems are due to the large gains in longevity since the system's inception in the 1930s and the much larger lifetime benefits now being paid to current retirees and projected to be paid to future generations. Social Security too, he contends, needs major constraints, many of which have long lingered and are well understood on Capitol Hill; what is lacking is political courage. He emphasises that the nation's long-term economic outlook is now predicated on issuing an unsustainable amount of debt and that for policy makers to ignore that condition and the things creating it, or to pass the buck to future generations to make the hard choices, is simply irresponsible. He concludes "it's not courage to make clear what for decades was opaque. It's not courage to act responsibly and do what's seemingly hard. It's statesmanship. It's about the real job of legislating.

Read more less

'This book is pretty life-changing – encouraging, optimistic, rich with information. It got me off the sofa.' Jeremy Vine'This is such a lovely, ambitious, fascinating book. Essential lockdown reading. It allows us to reimagine our world and our bodies: we can move more.' Dr Xand van Tulleken, TV presenter What is the 'miracle pill', the simple lifestyle change with such enormous health benefits that, if it was turned into a drug, would be the most valuable drug in the world? The answer is movement and the good news is that it's free, easy and available to everyone. Four in ten British adults, and 80% of children, are so sedentary they don’t meet even the minimum recommended levels for movement. What’s going on? The answer is simple: activity became exercise. What for centuries was universal and everyday has become the fetishised pursuit of a minority, whether the superhuman feats of elite athletes, or a chore slotted into busy schedules. Yes, most people know physical activity is good for us. And yet 1.5 billion people around the world are so inactive they are at greater risk of everything from heart disease to diabetes, cancer, arthritis and depression, even dementia. Sedentary living now kills more people than obesity, despite receiving much less attention, and is causing a pandemic of chronic ill health many experts predict could soon bankrupt the NHS. How did we get here? Daily, constant exertion was an integral part of humanity for millennia, but in just a few decades movement was virtually designed out of people’s lives through transformed workplaces, the dominance of the car, and a built environment which encourages people to be static. In a world now also infiltrated by ubiquitous screens, app-summoned taxis and shopping delivered to your door, it can be shocking to realise exactly how sedentary many of us are. A recent study found almost half of middle-aged English people don’t walk continuously for ten minutes or more in an average month. At current trends, scientists forecast, the average US adult will expend little more energy in an average week than someone who spent all their time in bed. This book is a chronicle of this very modern and largely unexplored catastrophe, and the story of the people trying to turn it around. Through interviews with experts in various fields - doctors, scientists, architects and politicians - Peter Walker explores how to bring more movement into the modern world and, most importantly, into your life. Forget the gym, introducing quick and easy lifestyle changes can slow down the ageing process and even reverse many illnesses and increase mental wellbeing.

Read more less

Large corporations like IBM and Oracle are using Excel dashboards and reports as a Business Intelligence tool, and many other smaller businesses are looking to these tools in order to cut costs for budgetary reasons. An effective analyst not only has to have the technical skills to use Excel in a productive manner but must be able to synthesize data into a story, and then present that story in the most impactful way. Microsoft shows its recognition of this with Excel. In Excel, there is a major focus on business intelligence and visualization. Data Visualization with Excel Dashboards and Reports fills the gap between handling data and synthesizing data into meaningful reports. This title will show readers how to think about their data in ways other than columns and rows. Most Excel books do a nice job discussing the individual functions and tools that can be used to create an "Excel Report". Titles on Excel charts, Excel pivot tables, and other books that focus on "Tips and Tricks" are useful in their own right; however they don't hit the mark for most data analysts. The primary reason these titles miss the mark is they are too focused on the mechanical aspects of building a chart, creating a pivot table, or other functionality. They don't offer these topics in the broader picture by showing how to present and report data in the most effective way. What are the most meaningful ways to show trending? How do you show relationships in data? When is showing variances more valuable than showing actual data values? How do you deal with outliers? How do you bucket data in the most meaningful way? How do you show impossible amounts of data without inundating your audience? In Data Visualization with Excel Reports and Dashboards, readers will get answers to all of these questions. Part technical manual, part analytical guidebook; this title will help Excel users go from reporting data with simple tables full of dull numbers, to creating hi-impact reports and dashboards that will wow management both visually and substantively. This book offers a comprehensive review of a wide array of technical and analytical concepts that will help users create meaningful reports and dashboards. After reading this book, the reader will be able to: Analyze large amounts of data and report their data in a meaningful way Get better visibility into data from different perspectives Quickly slice data into various views on the fly Automate redundant reporting and analyses Create impressive dashboards and What-If analyses Understand the fundamentals of effective visualization Visualize performance comparisons Visualize changes and trends over time

Read more less

A century ago, Vienna and Budapest were the capital cities of the western and eastern halves of the increasingly unstable Austro-Hungarian empire and scenes of intense cultural activity. Vienna was home to such figures as Sigmund Freud, Gustav Klimt, and Hugo von Hofmannsthal; Budapest produced such luminaries as Bela Bartok, Georg Lukacs, and Michael and Karl Polanyi. However, as Peter Hanak shows in these vignettes of Fin-de-Siecle life, the intellectual and artistic vibrancy common to the two cities emerged from deeply different civic cultures. Hanak surveys the urban development of the two cities and reviews the effects of modernization on various aspects of their cultures. He examines the process of physical change, as rapid population growth, industrialization, and the rising middle class ushered in a new age of tenements, suburbs, and town planning. He investigates how death and its rituals--once the domain of church, family, and local community--were transformed by the commercialization of burials and the growing bureaucratic control of graveyards. He explores the mentality of common soldiers and their families--mostly of peasant origin--during World War I, detecting in letters to and from the front a shift toward a revolutionary mood among Hungarians in particular. He presents snapshots of such subjects as the mentality of the nobility, operettas and musical life, and attitudes toward Germans and Jews, and also reveals the striking relationship between social marginality and cultural creativity. In comparing the two cities, Hanak notes that Vienna, famed for its spacious parks and gardens, was often characterized as a "garden" of esoteric culture. Budapest, however, was a dense city surrounded by factories, whose cultural leaders referred to the offices and cafes where they met as "workshops." These differences were reflected, he argues, in the contrast between Vienna's aesthetic and individualistic culture and Budapest's more moralistic and socially engaged approach. Like Carl Schorske's famous Fin-de-Siecle Vienna, Hanak's book paints a remarkable portrait of turn-of-the-century life in Central Europe. Its particular focus on mass culture and everyday life offers important new insights into cultural currents that shaped the course of the twentieth century. Originally published in 1998. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Read more less

This volume is a collection of the Nobel lectures delivered by the prizewinners, together with their biographies and the presentation speeches by Nobel Committee members for the period 2006-2010. The criterion for the Physics award is to the discoverer of a physical phenomenon that changed our views, or to the inventor of a new physical process that gave enormous benefits to either science at large or to the public. The biographies are remarkably interesting to read and the Nobel lectures provide detailed explanations of the phenomena for which the Laureates were awarded the Nobel Prize.Aspiring young scientists as well as more experienced ones, but also the interested public will learn a lot from and appreciate the geniuses of these narrations.List of prizewinners and their discoveries:(2006) to John C Mather and George F Smoot “for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation”The very detailed observations that the Laureates have carried out from the COBE satellite have played a major role in the development of modern cosmology into a precise science.(2007) to Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg “for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance”Applications of this phenomenon have revolutionized techniques for retrieving data from hard disks. The discovery also plays a major role in various magnetic sensors as well as for the development of a new generation of electronics. The use of Giant Magnetoresistance can be regarded as one of the first major applications of nanotechnology.(2008) to Yoichiro Nambu “for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics“, and to Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa “for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature”Why is there something instead of nothing? Why are there so many different elementary particles? The Laureates presented theoretical insights that give us a deeper understanding of what happens far inside the tiniest building blocks of matter.(2009) to Charles Kuen Kao “for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication“, and to Willard S Boyle and George E Smith “for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit — the CCD sensor”Kao's discoveries have paved the way for optical fiber technology, which today is used for almost all telephony and data communication. Boyle and Smith have invented a digital image sensor — CCD, or charge-coupled device — which today has become an electronic eye in almost all areas of photography.(2010) to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov “for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene”The Laureates have shown that a thin flake of ordinary carbon, just one atom thick, has exceptional properties that originate from the remarkable world of quantum physics.

Read more less

Make the best use of measurement approaches that gauge social behaviorHere is a state-of-the-art examination of various approaches to measuring and assessing client functioning and specific aspects of clients’ social environments. It examines numerous age groups and ethnic populations and makes use of cutting-edge methodologies in its examinations of measuring depression in children, measuring the neighborhood from a child’s perspective, measuring and assessing family functioning, measuring spirituality, and measuring psychosocial problems in seriously mentally ill families. Helpful tables in each chapter make complex information easy to access and understand.Inside Approaches to Measuring Human Behavior in the Social Environment you’ll find: a psychometric evaluation of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Childhood Diagnoses (KID-SCID) (with 4 tables) a clinical/psychometric perspective on using self-rating scales for assessing severely mentally ill individuals (with a chapter appendix and 2 tables) vital information on assessing the influence of tradition upon Chinese elders in order to provide culturally sensitive services (with 4 tables) a report on the psychometric properties of the Rap Music Attitude and Perception (RAP) Scale, an instrument designed to measure attitudes toward and perceptions of rap music (with 6 tables) a report on the assessment of self-esteem in people with severe mental illness (with 2 figures and 4 tables) a qualitative study of fourth and fifth graders’ views of the neighborhoods they live in (with 5 figures and 2 tables) an NIMH- and USDHHS-funded study examining the reliability and validity of the Preschool Symptom Self-Report (PRESS) which measures depression in maltreated young children (with 4 tables) a study of advances designed to improve the reliability/validity of the North Carolina Family Assessment Scale (NCFAS) as it relates to placement and the prediction of future placement within the context of Intensive Family Preservation Services (IFPS) (with 1 figure and 7 tables) conformatory factor analyses of the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS) (with 3 figures and 4 tables) a report illustrating the development and empirical testing of the Spiritual Strategies Scale (SSS)a measure of spiritual supports used by older adults in managing challenges in their lives (with 4 tables) an examination of the validity of college students’ responses to the Scale for the Identification of Acquaintance Rape Attitudes (SIARA), a measure designed to assess attitudes believed to be supportive of sexual violence within dating relationships (with 3 figures and 5 tables) Approaches to Measuring Human Behavior in the Social Environment is vital reading for master’s and PhD level social workers, psychologists, counselors, marriage and family therapists, psychiatrists, and researchers in these fields.

Read more less

Otfried Hans Freiherr von Meusebach chose a life of hardship and freedom in Texas rather than a life of comfort and influence in his native Germany, where he had lived his formative years within a framework of unconstitutional government. In 1845 the young liberal relinquished his hereditary German title, left behind his close family ties and his various intellectual and political associations, and arrived in Texas as John O. Meusebach, commissioner-general for the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants. His background enabled him to assume an enlightened leadership of fellow immigrants who were pouring in from Germany. Lacking adequate financial backing, he nevertheless led the settling of some five thousand people in a land that was largely occupied by Indians. Irene Marschall King presents the full sweep of Meusebach's vigorous life: Meusebach as the young liberal in Germany, as the colonizer in the 1840s, as a Texas senator and, later, an observer of the Civil War, and as a Texan who devoted his later years to bringing the Texas soil to fruition—all set against a background of the immigration movement and frontier life. "Freedom is not free; it is costly," Meusebach believed. In Texas he found for himself and others freedom worth the price he paid. Rich in historic detail, King's story recounts the founding of Fredericksburg, the crippling effect of the Mexican War upon the mass of immigrants huddled in illness on the coast, the signing of the Indian Treaty, which opened to settlement over three million acres of land, and the final collapse of the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants. Also depicted is the colonists' influence on the land—the gardens and orchards of south central Texas, the "Easter Fires" that blaze on the hills surrounding Fredericksburg, the mixture of German custom with American necessity that created a unique culture. Throughout the narrative Mrs. King presents a fascinating cast of characters: the noble Prince Solms, who tries to establish a German military outpost in Texas; Henry Fisher, who attempts by devious methods to control the colonists and their land and finally incites a mob which tries to hang Meusebach; Philip Cappes, a special commissioner and Meusebach's assistant, who plots through intriguing correspondence with Count Castell, the executive secretary in Germany, to overthrow Meusebach; and the colorful and courageous Indian fighter and Texas Ranger, Colonel Jack Hays. Primarily, however, this is the story of a man who found strength in his family's motto, "Perseverance in Purpose," and gave of his energies to build Texas.

Read more less

With expert advice and helpful exercises, this charmingly designed, interactive workbook will help you find a path toward a calmer, happier daily life. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a psychological intervention program that teaches you various techniques to help you redirect away from your anxious mind and into the moment. While you can’t control what emotions come up in any given moment, you can control how you choose to respond to those emotions and thoughts, and to other people. With Finding Your Balance, you can express your feelings in a safe and constructive way. Stress, worry, and anxiety can make it hard to enjoy your days, and these feelings tend to build up over time. This useful workbook is a colorful, friendly guide that’s written to be straightforward and easily accessible, with the warm, caring feel of a guided journal. Inside, you’ll find a simple toolkit for reducing your anxiety, no matter where it pops up, including: Learn to separate yourself from your anxious thoughts Break unhelpful thought patterns Practice how to confront and manage your fears Find strategies for focusing on the present moment Practice techniques to keep anxiety at bay for the long haul Accompanied by engaging, inspirational illustrations, this guided workbook offers writing prompts, meditations, tracking exercises, and more—giving a gentle, eye-opening introduction to scientifically proven techniques to reduce anxiety in everyday life. With so much of our lives and contact going digital, the Guided Workbooks offer an intimate way to nurture your connection with yourself and the people around you. An entertaining way to get off your screen, the pages in these guided prompt books are great for writers and first-timers alike. Each workbook offers content around a different, compelling theme, filled with thoughtful questions, inspiration for composition, and interactive prompts to learn about yourself and the world around you. Beautifully designed on high-quality paper stock and full of mindful prompts, channel your inspiration as you put pen to paper to learn more about what inspires you. Other books in the series include:The Adulting Workbook, Finding Your Authentic Self, Stop Overthinking, 52 Weeks to Better Mental Health, 5-Minute Productivity Workbook, 3-Minute Positivity Workbook, The Anti-Anxiety Journal, Manifest Your Intentions, 369 Laws of Attraction Guided Workbook, Tarot: A Guided Workbook to Unlock and Explore Your Magical Intuition and Astrology: A Guided Workbook to Understand and Explore the Wisdom of the Universe.

Read more less

Accepting that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to controlling drinking, the latest edition of this bestselling book will help you assess your drinking and determine whether moderation or abstinence is the best path for you.For decades, the standard treatment for people struggling with alcohol consumption has focused on convincing them to admit that they are an alcoholic, to stop drinking entirely, and to enter into a program, most commonly Alcoholics Anonymous. But in his more than thirty-five-year career as an addiction specialist working with people who want to change their drinking habits, Michael S. Levy has found that the routes to behavioral change actually vary. And although abstinence is the successful route for many people, others can moderate their drinking on their own or with professional help. In this practical, effective, and compassionate book, Levy helps people take control of their alcohol problem by teaching them how to think about and address their drinking habits. Beginning with a set of self-assessments that reveal whether the reader's use of alcohol is creating problems, Levy explains the causes of problem drinking, discusses the growing recognition of the various ways an alcohol use disorder can show itself, and talks about why it is so difficult to change. Offering advice for choosing between moderating your drinking or abstaining altogether, he also touches on coping with slipups, fighting helplessness and the fear of failure, and knowing when moderation is not achievable. The book is unique in that instead of telling people what they need to do, it meets people at their stage of change and level of readiness to change and helps them decide for themselves what they need to do. Drawing on the latest scientific evidence, this new edition includes• a chapter on the concept of self-medication—a useful but at times overused idea;• a chapter on the concurrent use of drugs (particularly cannabis) during recovery;• an exploration of modern strategies for dealing with drinking, including technology (apps that count drinks, for example) and medications that curb alcohol consumption; • reflections on the use of stigma;• communication strategies for individuals seeking to share their struggle with others;• an exploration of common triggers;• additional worksheets and tips to achieve success; • further material about self-help programs; and • insights about the dark side of addiction treatment.Ultimately, Take Control of Your Drinking empowers people to tackle their drinking problem and gives them the freedom to do so in a way that fits with their own lifestyle and values. This book is useful for anyone who may find that they are drinking too much, for the loved ones of such people, and for clinicians who want to broaden their skills when working with people who struggle with alcohol.

Read more less

This study traces and analyses the evolution of domestic space in Maltese vernacular and ‘polite’ houses from medieval to contemporary times. The houses under review range from humble buildings of modest size, materials and design, like farmhouses or those for the less affluent towndwellers, to buildings of grand design, like townhouses and palazzi. Owing to the complex nature of the Maltese houses a combination of enquires and a variety of sources was necessary to achieve a holistic picture. This included fieldwork in different parts of the islands, extensive research work in local archives, libraries and museums, an analysis of a sample of literary sources, national censuses and works-of-art, as well as methods of spatial analysis (Space Syntax). One of the major achievements obtained in this research concerns the development of the native dwelling. The field surveys and archival research have demonstrated that the evolution of the native dwelling was very much influenced by the political, social and economic changes that occurred locally during the period under review. In particular, it was observed that architectural and stylistic changes in the elite houses occurred at a faster rate to suit fashion, in line with what occurred in other European countries, while changes in peasant houses were slower and more sporadic as these adhered to their vernacular idiom for a longer time. Houses often served as a symbol of class and social status. The dwelling’s size and architectural style, the configuration of domestic space as well as the house furniture and contents were among the main indicators which, between the late Medieval Period and the first half of the 20th century, distinguished a wealthy from a poor dwelling. Class distinction did not occur only between houses, but also within the same building, especially in the elite dwellings. Gender was also another important aspect which directly affected the upper middle and elite Maltese houses, particularly at a time when men and women had fixed roles in society. However, the restricted space by which the lower class houses were normally characterized permitted instead the mixing of genders in work and leisure. A major shift in the relationship between the family and the house occurred in the second half of the 20th century, when the social and demographic changes of this period brought more balance between the social classes. Through the available evidence, particularly the national censuses, works-of-art, literary sources and travelogues, it was also possible to acquire knowledge about various aspects related to dining fashions, dress code, health and education in the Maltese houses. The results obtained from our Space Syntax investigations have been instrumental to acquire new knowledge and to understand better the social logic of space underpinning Maltese dwellings and settlements.

Read more less

This book aims to reflect the digital transformation of Chinese education toward smart education comprehensively and accurately. It is the first systematic summary of the progress of smart education in China. The book believes that smart education is a new education form in the digital era and is essentially distinct from education forms in the industrial era. This new education form is innovative in five dimensions. First is the new core concept. Smart education is not only a concrete action concerning people’s well-being, but also a vital strategy concerning national plans. Through technology empowerment and data drive, it empowers educational reform in all aspects, systematically constructs a new relationship between education and society, provides suitable education for each learner, and makes the aptitude-based teaching that we have been dreaming of for thousands of years a reality. For the first time in history, smart education helps to reach the full alignment between individual development and societal development. Second is the new system structure. Smart education will break through the boundaries of school education, drive the diversified combination of various education types, resources, and elements, promote the collaboration of school, family, and society in education, and build a high-quality, individualized lifelong learning system that is available for anyone anywhere anytime. Third is the new teaching paradigm. Smart education will integrate physical, social, and digital spaces to create new learning scenarios and promote human–technology integration, and cultivate cross-grade, cross-class, and cross-discipline learning communities across time and space to organically combine large-scale education with individualized cultivation. Fourth is the new educational content. Smart education will focus on developing all-round education, establishing digital knowledge graphs based on systematic logics of knowledge points, and innovating content presentation methods to make learning a wonderful experience and help learners develop higher-order thinking skills, comprehensive innovation capability, and lifelong learning ability. Fifth is the new education governance. With data governance at the core and digital intelligence technology as the driver, smart education will boost the holistic reengineering of education administration and business processes and enhance the modernization of the education governance system and governance capacity. This book is intended for teachers, education administrators, education policymakers, education researchers, and parents concerned about education innovation and development, as well as people from all walks of life who have aspirations for the education industry. It can also serve as a reference for international organizations and education research institutions of all countries to promote the joint exploration of the development path of smart education and create a better future for the world’s mutual development through educational reform.

Read more less

If you are looking for the definitive resource to help you measure your students’ achievement, your search is over. PE Metrics: Assessing Student Performance Using the National Standards & Grade-Level Outcomes for K-12 Physical Education, Third Edition, aligns with SHAPE America’s National Standards and Grade-Level Outcomes for K-12 Physical Education, was created by SHAPE America and its writing team, and was reviewed by researchers and teachers with expertise in assessment. The result is a text that you can use with confidence as you help develop physical literacy in your students. Written for physical educators, administrators, and curriculum writers (and for physical education majors and minors), this latest edition offers the following: • 130 ready-to-use assessments for kindergarten through grade 12 (65 elementary, 43 middle school, and 22 high school) • Worksheets, checklists, and rubrics that support the assessments • Guidance on creating your own assessments for any lesson or unit These assessments are aligned with the three SHAPE America lesson planning books for elementary, middle, and secondary school and dovetail with SHAPE America’s The Essentials of Teaching Physical Education. The assessments can be used as they are, or you can modify them or use them as samples in creating assessments that are best suited to your needs. PE Metrics, now in a four-color design, is organized into four main parts: Part I introduces the purpose and uses of assessment, how to develop an assessment plan, and the various types of assessments and tools you can use. Part II contains sample assessments for students in grades K-5, focusing on fundamental motor skills; as such, the elementary-level assessments center heavily on Standard 1. In part III, the emphasis shifts to middle school assessments, with a concentration on Standard 2 and on the categories of dance and rhythms, invasion games, net/wall games, fielding/striking games, outdoor pursuits, aquatics, and individual-performance activities. Part IV offers sample assessments for high school students, with a priority on providing evidence of the knowledge and skills students will need to remain active and fit after they leave high school. This resource provides a comprehensive, performance-based assessment system that enables you to incorporate assessment into every facet of your teaching, create assessments that are unique to your program, and measure your students’ performance against the grade-level outcomes. The assessments are process focused and are designed to measure multiple constructs as well as provide meaningful feedback to students—ultimately helping them to develop holistically across all three learning domains (psychomotor, cognitive, and affective). PE Metrics will help you instill in students the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to enjoy a lifetime of healthful physical activity.

Read more less

Environmental Impact Statements focuses on the roles of the variousparticipants in the EIS review process. Whether you are an EISauthor or reviewer, member of a public agency, a private sectorconsultant, a developer, environmental activist, or privatecitizen, understanding your own role and the roles of others in theprocess will increase your effectiveness, reduce duplication ofeffort, and save time and money. This hands-on guide offers a unique, comprehensive approach topreparing, managing, and reviewing an EIS. It chronicles thepreparation process step by step, from kickoff meeting throughfinal submission and, unlike other books, it integrates technicaldiscussions on the regulatory environment and impact analysis intothe planning chronology instead of treating them independently. Thebook's combined emphasis on process and interaction of rolesenables participants to adapt each step to their own federal orstate EIS projects. Author Diori Kreske explains all concepts needed to understand theEIS process and presents them first at an introductory level andlater in greater detail. In the first half of the book sheintroduces readers to the EIS process, defines the roles andresponsibilities of major participants, and discusses the processin relation to federal and state requirements and court decisions.Then Kreske concentrates on the nuts and bolts of preparing andmanaging an EIS. She describes how to build an EIS team, establishthe statement's framework, manage the preparation process,determine when and how to involve the public, and write and reviewEISs. Whatever your role in the EIS process, and wherever your interestslie, this invaluable resource will help you develop a clearunderstanding of your responsibilities within the definedrequirements and ensure that the process will be more effective inaccomplishing its stated purpose: to reduce the negative impacts ofour actions on the environment. Environmental Impact Statements is the first book to approach thepreparation and management of the EIS process through the roles andresponsibilities of process participants. It enables participantsto reduce conflicts, avoid duplication of effort, and mostimportantly, produce a more useful EIS. This invaluable bookprovides a step-by-step guide to preparing an EIS that can bereadily adapted to any state or federal EIS project. It also: * Explains major participants' roles and how their responsibilitiesand goals can be effectively integrated into the process * Describes the responsibilities and perspectives of both thepublic and private sectors * Gives how-to advice on preparing and managing the EIS process * Offers suggestions on how EIS teams can streamline the processand reduce time, effort, and paperwork * Provides case studies that illustrate the preparation andmanagement of EISs * Includes numerous illustrations, an extensive list of acronyms,and appendices useful in preparing EISs, including NEPA and CEQregulations For anyone involved in the EIS process, this unique resource willmake you a more effective participant and help you produce a moreaccurate, reliable, and effective EIS.

Read more less

An interdisciplinary, multifaceted look at feminist engagements with governance across the global North and global SouthGovernance Feminism: Notes from the Field brings together nineteen chapters from leading feminist scholars and activists to critically describe and assess contemporary feminist engagements with state and state-like power. Gathering examples from North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, it complements and expands on the companion volume Governance Feminism: An Introduction. Its chapters argue that governance feminism (GF) is institutionally diverse and globally distributed—emerging from traditional sites of state power as well as from various forms of governance and operating at the grassroots level, in the private sector, in civil society, and in international relations. The book begins by confronting the key role that crime and punishment play in GFeminist projects. Here, contributors explore the ideological and political conditions under which this branch of GF became so robust and rethink the carceral turn. Other chapters speak to another face of GFeminism: feminists finding, in mundane and seemingly unspectacular bureaucratic tools, leverage to bring about change in policy and governance practices. Several contributions highlight the political, strategic, and ethical challenges that feminists and LGBT activists must negotiate to play on the governmental field. The book concludes with a focus on feminist interventions in postcolonial legal and political orders, looking at new policy spaces opened up by conflict, postconflict, and occupation.Providing a clear, cross-cutting, critical lens through which to map developments in feminist governance around the world, Governance Feminism: Notes from the Field makes sense of the costs and benefits of current feminist realities to reimagine feminist futures. Contributors: Libby Adler, Northeastern U; Aziza Ahmed, Northeastern U; Elizabeth Bernstein, Barnard College; Amy J. Cohen, Ohio State U; Karen Engle, U of Texas at Austin; Jacob Gersen, Harvard U; Leigh Goodmark, U of Maryland; Aeyal Gross, Tel Aviv U; Aya Gruber, U of Colorado, Boulder; Janet Halley, Harvard U; Rema Hammami, Birzeit U, Palestine; Vanja Hamzić, U of London; Isabel Cristina Jaramillo-Sierra; Prabha Kotiswaran, King’s College London; Maleiha Malik, King’s College London; Vasuki Nesiah, New York U; Dianne Otto, Melbourne Law School; Helen Reece; Darren Rosenblum, Pace U; Jeannie Suk Gersen, Harvard U; Mariana Valverde, U of Toronto.

Read more less

The progress of today's science and technology encounters an increasing demand for finer and more efficiently performing materials with properties superior over those of current and hence ageing devices. Whether this is concerned with electronics or drug delivery, cancer diagnostics or alternative energy sources, the search for means of miniaturizing the existing materials or devising fundamentally new components with higher capacities appears to be relentless. A saving solution to this is widely proposed as the design and fabrication of nanostructures, molecular architectures with dimensions featured below 100 nm. Replicating Nature's designs faithfully reproduced over millions of years provides perhaps the most straightforward route to success. Nature offers examples of nanodefined self-assemblies in virtually all levels of biological organization. However explicit guidance to the fabrication of functional or specialist nanostructures is of paramount importance. Nanotechnology is often referred to as building nanoscale structures from bottom up. However, while it is visually clear what is at "up" little is given and understood what is at the "bottom". This new book gives the notion of and provides rules for building nanostructures from basics - the very bottom. The main objective of this publication is to bring together contemporary approaches for designing nanostructures that employ naturally derived self-assembling motifs as synthetic platforms. The book has been written to satisfy the demands that motivate the search for and principles that prove to help the design of novel nanostructures. The overall goal is to compile the existing understanding of rules that govern biomolecular self-assembly into a practical guide to molecular nanotechnology. It is written in the shape of a review referenced as fully as permissible within the context of biomolecular design, which forms a general trend throughout. The volume is composed of three core chapters focusing on three prominent topics of applied nanotechnology where the role of nanodesign is predominant. The three key areas from which popular highlights can be drawn are: -employing the genetic repository, DNA, for creating various geometric nanoscale objects and patterns -the empirical pursuit of an artificial virus, a magic bullet in gene therapy -designing artificial extracellular matrices for regenerative medicine Specific applications that arise from designed nanoscale assemblies as well as fabrication and characterization techniques are of secondary importance and whenever they appear serve as progress and innovation highlights. The book takes an unconventional approach in delivering material of this kind. It does not lead straight to applications or methods as most nanotechnology works tend to do, but instead it focuses on the initial and primary aspect of "nano" rather than on "technology". Nanodesign is unique in its own field - illustrations are essential and the cohort of brilliant bioinspired designs reported to date form a major part of the publication. In addition, key bibliographic references are covered as fully as possible. A special appendix giving a short list of leading world laboratories engaged in bioinspired nanodesign is also included.

Read more less

Uncertain Swimmer is the second monograph on the work of British artist Jonathan Wateridge (b. 1972, Lusaka, Zambia), presenting around eighty paintings and works on paper made between 2019 and 2022. Following on from the bodies of work Enclave and Expatria (2016–18), Uncertain Swimmer develops the artist’s interest in modes of representation and the legacies of twentieth-century modernist painting through a visual and social exploration of the motif of the pool, depicting swimmers and sunbathers, often by night. Far from being an escapist environment of aspiration and privilege, Wateridge imbues the pool with a disquieting atmosphere, creating a cumulative feeling of unease and ennui among those present, now seemingly unsure of their world.The publication charts a marked evolution in the artist’s style from the realism of his earlier paintings with complex multi-figure compositions to more solitary, gestural and expressive works. His masterly application of paint takes new forms in the beautiful, curious and often haunting paintings and works on paper showcased here. Art historian and curator Marco Livingstone’s essay considers the change from Wateridge’s naturalistic paintings to the flattened, reduced shapes, forms and lines of the modernism- and abstraction-infused pieces he is making today. Francis Bacon, Edvard Munch and Paul Cézanne are among numerous art historical influences cited by Livingstone, who ruminates on the identity of the people in Wateridge’s portraits and the mercurial spaces they occupy, examining how Wateridge’s current critical preoccupations have transitioned from the autobiographical to more formal concerns.In the featured conversation between Wateridge and fellow painter Caroline Walker, the two artists discuss their overlapping experiences studying painting at Glasgow, as well as Wateridge’s fourteen-year break from painting until 2005. He eventually returned to the medium when he realised it excited him more than anything else. Wateridge elaborates on his fascinating painting process, staging shoots in studios with hired actors and using elements from the photographs in the paintings, often over a period of years. On his canvases, he will scrape back the paint and reapply it, frequently taking pictures of the paintings in their various stages; he will then print the photographs and draw over them to continue working out what he will do with the final paintings. For Wateridge, a painting works when it stops failing, and he embraces unforeseen conclusions.Jonathan Wateridge has recently exhibited with the Hayward Gallery, London; Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, New York and Brussels; TJ Boulting, London; Galerie Haas, Zurich; Pace Gallery and HENI, London. Wateridge's art is in the collections of institutions worldwide, including Aïshti Foundation, Lebanon; Pinault Foundation, Venice; the Saatchi Collection, London; the Rennie Collection, Vancouver; and Simmons & Simmons, London. He has been featured in publications such as The Sunday Times, The Independent, Fad Magazine, Artforum and Artnet. Wateridge is represented by Nino Mier Gallery.

Read more less

Al-Kitaab: Part One develops skills in standard Arabic while providing additional material in both colloquial and classical Arabic. With new video material and revised and updated text and exercises, the bound-in and revised DVD supersedes both the former CD audio set and video DVD previously available only as separate items-making this singular volume a comprehensive whole for those immersed in the early and intermediate stages of learning Arabic. Providing approximately 150 contact hours of college-level instruction, parts of this revised edition are updated with contemporary selections for reading comprehension. The organization of the chapters has been adapted to reflect the most current pedagogical developments. Audio tracks for vocabulary sections now allow students to hear a new word followed by a sentence using it in context with previously acquired vocabulary and grammatical structures, enabling students to build new vocabulary skills while reviewing old material. The basic texts have been refilmed with a new cast of actors. The DVD also contains substantially more material that exposes the learner to Egyptian Arabic: students have the options of seeing and hearing the video of each lesson in both Modern Standard Arabic and Egyptian colloquial Arabic. In addition, a short dialogue in Egyptian colloquial Arabic appears at the end of each lesson. New video materials also feature interviews with Egyptians (subtitled in English) about various aspects of Arab culture, such as gender issues, fasting in the Muslim and Christian traditions, social clubs and their significance, and more. FEATURES OF PART ONE, Second Edition: develops all language-related skills including reading, listening, speaking, writing, and cultural knowledge; immediately incorporates extensive use of authentic materials for reading, listening, and grammatical practice, thus relating abstract grammatical concepts to practical skills; presents narrative-based content through audio and video media rather than written text to develop meaning-focused language processing skills, utilizing two main characters and their extended families; develops reading skills through the use of composed texts derived from the main narrative and authentic texts from newspapers and journals; and, introduces grammar using spiraling and inference, challenging students to discover the grammar of the language by means of analogy, problem solving, and educated guessing. It also reinforces grammar and vocabulary through extensive classroom and homework exercises that provide constant review and expand to challenge students as their skills develop; introduces students to Egyptian colloquial through scenes based on the main narrative to promote the use of shared vocabulary and structure of the two registers to increase listening comprehension skills; and, contains Arabic-English and English-Arabic glossaries and reference charts as well as a new grammar index.

Read more less

The Adams Family Correspondence, L. H. Butterfield writes, “is an unbroken record of the changing modes of domestic life, religious views and habits, travel, dress, servants, food, schooling, reading, health and medical care, diversions, and every other conceivable aspect of manners and taste among the members of a substantial New England family who lived on both sides of the Atlantic and wrote industriously to each other over a period of more than a century.” These volumes are the first in the estimated twenty or more in Series 2 of The Adams Papers.Including about six hundred letters to and from various members of the family, the Adams Family Correspondence begins with a series of hitherto unpublished courtship letters between John Adams and Abigail Smith. The weekly and sometimes daily reports by Adams of what was going on in the Continental Congress during the years 1774–1777 are a far fuller and franker record than has been available before. His wife’s letters in reply recount her difficulties in raising a family of young children and operating a farm while war went on not far from her doorstep, refugees inundated Braintree, local epidemics raged, prices soared, and goods and labor became ever scarcer. We learn for the first time that amid these distractions Abigail lost a baby daughter, that getting herself and four children inoculated against smallpox was an agonizing ordeal of months in 1776, that after Burgoyne’s defeat at Saratoga she wrote a long, lecturing letter to her single relative who had chosen the Loyalist side, and that her comments on blundering politicos, lax generals, and unpatriotic neighbors were more frequent and incisive than has been supposed.Thinking her letters too careless and too intimate for preservation, Abigail Adams pleaded at the end of one of them, written a couple of months before the Declaration of Independence was voted and while British warships hovered within range of her house, “I wish you would burn all my Letters.” To which John Adams replied, “The conclusion of your Letter made my Heart throb, more than a Cannonade would. You bid me burn your Letters. But I must forget you first.”So he faithfully kept hers, she kept his, and they both kept their children’s. Their grandson Charles Francis Adams chose some of these for publication in a succession of small editions in the nineteenth century, but he was highly selective, and he discreetly pruned away from the letters that he printed much that is both revealing and engaging. Here, as is the practice with all the Adams documents in this edition, every letter used is given in full. The second of these first volumes ends in March 1778 with John Adams on a Continental frigate bound for his first diplomatic mission in Europe, accompanied by his ten-year-old son, John Quincy.

Read more less

An estimated 2 billion people around the world watched the catastrophic destruction of the World Trade Center. The enormity of the moment was immediately understood and quickly took on global proportions. What has been less obvious is the effect on the locus of the attacks, New York City, not as a seat of political or economic power, but as a community; not in the days and weeks afterward, but over months and years. New York after 9/11 offers insightful and critical observations about the processes set in motion by September 11, 2001 in New York, and holds important lessons for the future. This interdisciplinary collection brings together experts from diverse fields to discuss the long-term recovery of New York City after 9/11. Susan Opotow and Zachary Baron Shemtob invited experts in architecture and design, medicine, health, community advocacy, psychology, public safety, human rights, law, and mental health to look back on the aftereffects of that tragic day in key spheres of life in New York City. With a focus on the themes of space and memory, public health and public safety, trauma and conflict, and politics and social change, this comprehensive account of how 9/11 changed New York sets out to answer three questions: What were the key conflicts that erupted in New York City in 9/11’s wake? What clashing interests were involved and how did they change over time? And what was the role of these conflicts in the transition from trauma to recovery for New York City as a whole? Contributors discuss a variety of issues that emerged in this tragedy’s wake, some immediately and others in the years that followed, including: PTSD among first responders; conflicts and design challenges of rebuilding the World Trade Center site, the memorial, and the museum; surveillance of Muslim communities; power struggles among public safety agencies; the development of technologies for faster building evacuations; and the emergence of chronic illnesses and fatalities among first responders and people who lived, worked, and attended school in the vicinity of the 9/11 site. A chapter on two Ground Zeros –in Hiroshima and New York – compares and historicizes the challenges of memorialization and recovery. Each chapter offers a nuanced, vivid, and behind-the-scenes account of issues as they unfolded over time and across various contexts, dispelling simplistic narratives of this extended and complicated period. Illuminating a city’s multifaceted response in the wake of a catastrophic and traumatic attack, New York after 9/11 illustrates recovery as a process that is complex, multivalent, and ongoing.

Read more less

Praise for The Online Advertising Playbook "Finally, someone has documented all we know about online advertising and how to do it right. As much as this confirms that online advertising really works, we know that marketers don't always get it right. The ARF's The Online Advertising Playbook provides critical insight on what sticks and what doesn't in online advertising and marketing." —Greg Stuart, CEO and President, Interactive Advertising Bureau and coauthor of What Sticks "The Online Advertising Playbook's principles, case studies, and strategic insights equip marketers with the best knowledge available. It will help your online advertising achieve the full range of marketing objectives, from lead generation and customer acquisition to driving trial and loyalty." —Tim Kopp, Vice President, Global Interactive Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company "To grow interactive marketing from here we need to institutionalize our wisdom and experience about what works. This book explains, in a disciplined way, what marketers have learned from a decade of massive change." —Ted McConnell, Interactive Innovation Director, Procter & Gamble "The Online Advertising Playbook is a milestone in the maturation of interactive advertising, but also an invaluable go-to guide for managers trying to make smart decisions with their advertising budgets." —Van Riley, Vice President of Research, AOL "The best marketing communication is spawned from what I call 'informed intuition.' After reading The Online Advertising Playbook, I am far better informed on how to optimize the online channel in our advertising and promotional programs. It's a perfect blend of case studies and research-backed learning." —Rod DeVar, Manager, Advertising and Promotion, United States Postal Service "Savvy marketers should take advantage of The Online Advertising Playbook's findings and principles to get real results." —Chris Theodoros, Director of Industry Relations, Google "A work of wisdom and rigor in the digital space that is as relevant for the newbie as it is for the digerati." —Mike Donahue, Executive Vice President, American Association of Advertising Agencies "This is a must-read for any marketing executive involved in online advertising. It's high time that a book looks at online advertising in the context of an integrative promotional strategy, one meant to set objectives, establish creative strategies, and measure results. The book nicely ties the various components of online advertising to relevant case studies, and the emphasis on measurement and results is refreshing. Not only is it relevant for marketing executives, it would also be a good basic text for any Internet advertising course and a good adjunct to any Internet marketing course." —Henry Assael, Professor of Marketing, Stern School of Business, New York University

Read more less

Addresses Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) as a technique for sensitivity-enhancement in solid-state NMR spectroscopy This comprehensive handbook is a compendium of the current state-of-the art of high field Dynamic Nuclear Polarization—from long-proven, early developments, up to today’s hot topics. It covers all the relevant subjects that have made a direct or indirect contribution toward advancing this field, and focuses on topics such as: the theory behind the effects seen within DNP; instrumentation required for carrying out DNP; and specific applications of DNP including protein monitoring, catalysis, nanoparticles, biological and clinical studies. Development and application of techniques that have indirectly contributed to advancing MAS DNP NMR, such as DNP experiments on static solids within microwave resonant structures, and high-field EPR, are also examined. Handbook of High Field Dynamic Nuclear Polarization is presented in three sections—Theoretical Aspects, DNP Development (instrumentation / radical / sample), and DNP NMR Applications. The first section offers chapters on; solid and cross effect DNP; thermal mixing; Overhauser; and dissolution DNP. The second looks at: microwave technology, gyrotron, and IOE; homebuilt and commercial DNP spectrometers; and glassing vs. solvent-free DNP. The final section provides information on; amyloid, membrane, and nanocrystalline proteins; metals, and surface enhanced DNP; pharmaceuticals; nanoparticles; and much more. Covers one of the biggest developing fields in magnetic resonance Relevant to students, academics, and industry within the physical, materials, medical, and biochemical sciences An excellent starting point and point-of-reference for researchers in the field Edited by a widely respected team with contributions from key researchers in the NMR community Part of the eMagRes Handbook Series Handbook of High Field Dynamic Nuclear Polarization is an ideal reference for all researchers and graduate students involved in this complex, interdisciplinary field. About eMagRes Handbooks eMagRes publishes a wide range of online articles on all aspects of magnetic resonance in physics, chemistry, biology and medicine. The existence of this large number of articles, written by experts in various fields, is enabling the publication of a series of eMagRes Handbooks on specific areas of NMR and MRI. The chapters of each of these handbooks will comprise a carefully chosen selection of eMagRes articles. In consultation with the eMagRes Editorial Board, the eMagRes Handbooks are coherently planned in advance by specially-selected Editors, and new articles are written to give appropriate complete coverage. The handbooks are intended to be of value and interest to research students, postdoctoral fellows and other researchers learning about the scientific area in question and undertaking relevant experiments, whether in academia or industry. Have the content of this Handbook and the complete content of eMagRes at your fingertips! Visit: www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/ref/eMagRes

Read more less

This volume in Biblical Theology for Life series dives deeply into the topic of human violence. Before exploring what the Bible says about violence, Old Testament scholar Helen Paynter sets out the contours for the study ahead by addressing the various definitions of violence and the theories of its origins, prevalence, and purpose. What is violence? Is there such a thing as "natural violence"? Is violence a human or social construct or can we describe natural phenomena as violent? How does the concept of violence relate to the concept of evil? Violence is everywhere; is it escapable? How do we resist violence?Having queued up the questions, Paynter takes us to the Bible for answers. Starting with the creation narratives in Genesis considered in comparison with the ancient Near Eastern myths and moving to the conquest of Canaan--the most problematic of biblical narratives--she investigates how these deep myths speak to the origins of human violence and its consequences. The prevalence of violence through biblical history is inescapable. Scripture reveals the hydra-like nature of human violence, investigating types of violence including but not limited to: structural violence, verbal violence, sexual violence, violence as public /political act, racialised violence, including "othering." Through the voices of the prophets and then in the teaching of Jesus, the Bible reveals that the seeds of violence exist within every human heart. Even though we see evidence of resistance movements in the Bible, such as the responses to attempted genocide in Exodus and Esther, it is only on the cross that an absorption of violence by God takes place: a defeat of violence by self-sacrifice. Along the way, Paynter considers other relevant biblical themes, including the apocalypse, "crushing the serpent's head," and the concept of divine vengeance, culminating in the resurrected Christ's lack of vengeance against those who did him to death. In light of the New Testament, we will consider how the first Christians responded to the structural violence of slavery and patriarchy and how they began to apply Jesus' redemptive, non-vengeful theology to their own day.The book concludes by discussing of what this means for Christians today. For many of us who live without routine encounters with or threats of violence, we must consider our responsibility in a world where our experience is the exception. With attention to the multi-headed hydra that is violence and the concealed structures of violence in our own Western society, Paynter challenges readers to consider their own, perhaps inherited, privilege and complicity. The question of how we regard "others," both as individuals and as societies, is a deeply relevant and urgent one for the church: The church can and should be a wholly non-othering body. So what implications does this have for the church and, for example, Black Lives Matter or the rampant xenophobia in our society or immigration and global migration issues? How do we resist evil? What does it mean to turn the other cheek when the cheek that has been slapped is not our own? How do we resist the monster without becoming the monster?

Read more less

This book is an outcome from the International Expo 'Water and Sustainable Development' held in Zaragoza (Spain) in 2008. Support from the Spanish Ministry of Environment, Caja Rioja, Government of Aragon, and the World Bank is acknowledged. 'Few resources will play a more important role in shaping our economic future, or face more daunting challenges, than water. This internationally acclaimed team of experts has produced a first-rate volume that is full of intriguing, practical ideas for meeting those challenges in a rich variety of institutional settings.' Tom Tietenberg, Mitchell Family Professor of Economics, Emeritus, Colby College, USA 'This volume brings together two critical but interrelated dimensions of water challenge, i.e. water pollution, particularly from non-point sources, and water conservation. The editors are well known experts on the subject as are the contributors.' R. Maria Saleth, International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka and Associate Editor, Water Policy 'The profound contribution of this volume is that it brings together various economic concepts and policy dilemmas regarding water shortages, non-point source pollution, efficiency of water use and irrigation technology. Recommended reading for anyone working in the area of water management.' Henk Folmer, University of Groningen and Wageningen University, The Netherlands As countries face deteriorating water and environmental quality as well as water shortages, pollution control and the efficiency of water use become of paramount importance. Agriculture is one of the main non-point polluters of water bodies and irrigation for agriculture is one of the main consumers of water. While it is very hard to regulate pollution from agriculture, attempts have been made via economic and command and control instruments, and also through investments in technologies and ecosystems recovery. Coping with non-point pollution takes the form of both policy intervention and technology development. Likewise it is recognized that irrigation efficiency varies across countries, influenced by both technology and supporting adoption policies. Countries that lead in irrigation technology and supporting policies have certain traits in common. They face very high scarcity and are pushed to find innovative solutions, both technical and policy related. The recent multibillion investments in irrigation technologies in Spain, and similar proposals in Australia, for example, highlight the potential of irrigation technologies to cope with scarcity and water quality degradation. This book reviews all of the above issues, presents experiences in selected countries, and assesses the degree of success of alternative policies for coping with non-point water pollution and improving irrigation efficiency.

Read more less

'This very interesting book explores the issues and approaches that society must take to shift to lower carbon usage in transportation. . . Each expert contributor provides excellent insight into the various facets of contemporary mobility systems and transportation practices to help the reader understand the complexities of transportation and related environmental concerns. Topics include urbanization and transportation in urban areas travel patterns, accessibility to transportation, and financial aspects.'- W.J. Sproule, Choice'In their new book, Moving Towards Low Carbon Mobility, Moshe Givoni and David Banister have succeeded in doing what few edited volumes achieve. They have put together a set of chapters by international experts on a range of topics that link together tightly as a coherent whole.'- Michael Kuby, Journal of Transport Geography'For a thorough and thoughtful perspective on what it will take to de-carbonize cities of the future, this book is a must-read. Technology alone, we are told, will not create the post-carbon city. As important is coming to grips with a complex web of cultural, institutional, financial, and social factors that powerfully shape mobility choices, now and in the future. A balanced, holistic approach that reveals how the many elements of contemporary transport systems work together offers the best hope for achieving more sustainable, less carbon-intensive mobility futures.'- Robert Cervero, University of California, Berkeley, USThe transport sector has been singularly unsuccessful in becoming low carbon and less resource intensive. This book takes an innovative and holistic social, cultural and behavioural perspective, as well as covering the more conventional economic and technological dimensions, to provide a more complete understanding of the mobility and transport system and its progress towards high carbon mobility.The book uses this platform to explore the means to achieve low carbon mobility through outlining alternative pathways, through an investigation of theories of change, and through alternative visions of the low carbon transport city. The book's core message is that the complexity of the mobility and transport system should not encourage inaction, but strong and immediate action. In addition to implementing a wide range of policy measures, the book argues for a fundamental change in 'thinking' when it comes to transport policy, governance and analysis approaches, before low carbon mobility becomes a reality.Bringing together the latest thinking on transport, mobility and the environment, this book will appeal to researchers and students interested in sustainability issues and sustainable transport and transport related areas in particular, including policy makers as well as a more general professional audience.Contributors include: N. Akyelken, M. Al-Chalabi, D. Banister, E. Beyazit, J. Bishop, M. Givoni, R. Hickman, J. Liu, J. Macmillen, J. Markovitch, A. Neves, T. Schwanen, M. Tran

Read more less

Beautifully Said is a female-forward collection of 21 themed chapters of quotes and stories from brilliant, brave, captivating women and girls. Looking for a quote to inspire your daughter, sister, mother, teammate, or friend? Or are you a hand lettering artist looking for poignant subject matter? Beautifully Said is a personal inspiration gallery, organized by topic, spotlighting women and girls who believe, build, champion, coach, compete, design, discover, entertain, explore, give, heal, inspire, invent, laugh, lead, love, overcome, pioneer, preserve, teach, and write.Quotabelle’s first book is a serendipitous result of the startup’s Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. This female-powered company creates products that add missing voices back into history and ensure today’s remarkable thinkers and doers aren’t overlooked going forward. You’ll love seeing quotes by incredible women from bygone eras, like: Frida Kahlo Ella Fitzgerald Harriet Tubman Audrey Hepburn as well as contemporary figures like: Serena Williams Amy Poehler Malala Yousafzai Mindy Kaling and noteworthy up-and-comers, including: Everest-scaling mountaineer Alison Levine Space archaeologist Sarah Parcak Entrepreneur and founder of the first African-American cable network Sheila Johnson Dancer and Boston Marathon bombing survivor Adrianne Haslet-Davis Because sharing ideas and stories is how passions get sparked and role models emerge. Words of encouragement and inspiration from women around the world come together in the Everyday Inspiration series from Rock Point. Follow the journeys of hundreds of strong female leaders from past to present through thoughtful biographies and empowering quotes, and receive advice for how to live a more thoughtful and fulfilling life overall through performing acts of kindness for other or various methods of self-care. The perfect gift for family and friends, these gorgeous hardcovers featuring foiled covers and full-color interiors bring these amazing words of wisdom to life. Other titles in the series include: Grit & Grace; Find Your Glow, Feed Your Soul; Follow Your Bliss, Find Your Calm; and Hello Gorgeous!

Read more less

The definitive textbook for students of wildlife management, now updated to cover the latest techniques, tools, and topics.Wildlife Management and Conservation presents a clear overview of the management and conservation of animals, their habitats, and how people influence both. The relationship among these three components of wildlife management is explained in chapters written by leading experts and is designed to prepare students for careers in which they will be charged with maintaining healthy animal populations. To be successful wildlife professionals, they will need to find ways to restore depleted populations, reduce overabundant, introduced, or pest species, and manage relationships among various human stakeholders. This book gives them the basic knowledge necessary to accomplish these goals.This second edition, which is updated throughout, features several new and expanded topics, including communication in the wildlife profession, fire science, Indigenous models of management and conservation, plant–animal interactions, quantitative analysis of wildlife populations, and a detailed glossary. The book also covers:• Human dimensions of wildlife management• Animal behavior• Predator–prey relationships• Structured decision making• Issues of scale in wildlife management• Wildlife health• Historical context of wildlife management and conservation• Hunting and trapping• Nongame species• Nutrition ecology• Water management• Climate change• Conservation planningThe most widely used foundational text in the field, this is the perfect resource not only for students but also for early career professionals and those in related fields who need to understand the core tenets and tools of wildlife conservation and management.Contributors: C. Jane Anderson, Bart M. Ballard, Warren B. Ballard, John A. Bissonette, Clint Boal, Scott B. Boyle, Leonard A. Brennan, Robert D. Brown, James W. Cain III, Tyler A. Campbell, Michael J. Cherry, Michael R. Conover, Daniel J. Decker, Randall W. DeYoung, Jonathan B. Dinkins, W. Sue Fairbanks, Selma N. Glasscock, James B. Grand, Michael J. Haney, James R. Heffelfinger, Scott E. Henke, Fidel Hernandez, Davie G. Hewitt, C. L. Hoving, David A. Jessup, Heather E. Johnson, Winifred B. Kessler, John L. Koprowski, Paul R. Krausman, William P. Kuvlesky, Jr., Roel R. Lopez, R. W. Mannan, Melissa J. Merrick, L. Scott Mills, Michael S. Mitchell, Michael L. Morrison, Anna M. Muñoz, John F. Organ, Katherine L. Parker, William F. Porter, Shawn J. Riley, Steven S. Rosenstock, Michael C. Runge, Susan P. Rupp, William F. Siemer, Robert J. Steidl, Kelley M. Stewart

Read more less

Here's the fun and easy way to understand all the hype about Skype and make this cool alternative communication system work for you People love Skype because it's fairly simple to use, it's free, it doesn't have advertisements or pop-up screens, and its communications are encrypted and secure. If you want the ability to make free voice calls or want to maximize Skype and get the most out of this free global telephony system, you've come to the right place. All you need to get going with Skype is a computer with Internet access, a headset or microphone -- and this book! Although the technology is simple, it has some complexities when you go beyond making simple calls. Skype For Dummies covers call forwarding, voice mail, and conference calling and explains the use of two very popular and important Skype features: SkypeIn: Receive telephone calls that you can answer through Skype on your computer SkypeOut: Make calls out to regular old telephones from your computer This no-nonsense guide is written in plain English, leaving the jargon at the door. You'll learn to Install and configure Skype on different platforms and various mobile connections Create a contacts list Set up voicemail and call forwarding Use Skype for worldwide conference calls and Skypecasting Enhance Skype with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi wireless, and video Change your Skype menus to a different language Adjust different hardware configurations and add-ons Troubleshoot problems with hardware configurations and other common issues Skype For Dummies provides guidance on using this technology in a business setting, including some implementations that can help reduce support desk costs and automate surveys and interviews. A popular use of Skype is for video calling, and the book shows how you can easily install and configure this can't-miss feature. A dedicated web site keeps the book up to date as Skype adds new features. Additionally, you'll discover ten ways to use Skype to promote your business and ten ways to use Skype at school. With an appendix on multilanguage support and another on tips and tricks, you won't want to Skype anyone until you have your copy of Skype For Dummies in hand.

Read more less

This volume, first in the Yale Research Series of Boswell's journals, covers his emotionally eventful youthful travels through the German and Swiss territories, from mid-June 1764 (after his law studies in Utrecht) to New Year's Day, 1765, when he crossed the Alps for the next stages of his European tour, in Italy, Corsica and France. The volume is the Research Series parallel to Boswell on the Grand Tour: Germany and Switzerland, 1764, ed. F. A. Pottle (1953), whose annotation the editor, Marlies K. Danziger, has greatly deepened, expanded, supplemented and in many cases corrected. In keeping with the editorial policies of the Research Series, it restores Boswell's original spelling, punctuation and paragraphing (and his generally less than perfect French). The editor's detailed notes illuminate the contemporary political and historical context as well as a vast array of contemporary issues, concepts and personalities no longer familiar to modern readers (especially English-speaking ones). As well as the text of the fully-written journal, the volume includes Boswell's personal daily memoranda and his frequently revealing 'Ten Lines a Day' poems; the autobiographical 'Ebauche de ma vie' written for Rousseau, along with its various drafts, outlines, and attendant correspondence; his detailed expense accounts (a window on the fluctuating currencies and erratic economy of a Europe not yet formed into our modern nation-states); and four maps, adapted from contemporary cartographic records, illustrating Boswell's complicated and often arduous itinerary. Boswell's European travels followed his exhilarating stay in London of 1762-1763 and his mostly bleak winter in the United Provinces in 1763-64. Though forever to be best known for his later accounts of his principal biographical subject, Samuel Johnson, Boswell has emerged since the recovery of his private papers as a compelling autobiographer, and here shows his fascination with, and abilities to record with typical liveliness and percipience, men and women across a strikingly diverse social range. The European journal, which Boswell had unfulfilled hopes later in life of revising and publishing in the manner of his Corsican and Hebridean diaries, records the young Scot's quest for experience in hopes of a cosmopolitan broadening, cultural enrichment, and religious and spiritual security, and conversations culminating in his deeply gratifying meetings with Rousseau and Voltaire. At the same time, it documents in close personal detail an unstable Europe rebuilding and restoring itself a little more than a year after the end of the Seven Years' War, a Europe whose quest for stability amid ominous political and religious fluctuation mirrors and parallels the diarist's own.

Read more less

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to the central ideas that underpin deep learning. It is intended both for newcomers to machine learning and for those already experienced in the field. Covering key concepts relating to contemporary architectures and techniques, this essential book equips readers with a robust foundation for potential future specialization. The field of deep learning is undergoing rapid evolution, and therefore this book focusses on ideas that are likely to endure the test of time.The book is organized into numerous bite-sized chapters, each exploring a distinct topic, and the narrative follows a linear progression, with each chapter building upon content from its predecessors. This structure is well-suited to teaching a two-semester undergraduate or postgraduate machine learning course, while remaining equally relevant to those engaged in active research or in self-study.A full understanding of machine learning requires some mathematical background and so the book includes a self-contained introduction to probability theory. However, the focus of the book is on conveying a clear understanding of ideas, with emphasis on the real-world practical value of techniques rather than on abstract theory. Complex concepts are therefore presented from multiple complementary perspectives including textual descriptions, diagrams, mathematical formulae, and pseudo-code.Chris Bishop is a Technical Fellow at Microsoft and is the Director of Microsoft Research AI4Science. He is a Fellow of Darwin College Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Hugh Bishop is an Applied Scientist at Wayve, a deep learning autonomous driving company in London, where he designs and trains deep neural networks. He completed his MPhil in Machine Learning and Machine Intelligence at Cambridge University.“Chris Bishop wrote a terrific textbook on neural networks in 1995 and has a deep knowledge of the field and its core ideas. His many years of experience in explaining neural networks have made him extremely skillful at presenting complicated ideas in the simplest possible way and it is a delight to see these skills applied to the revolutionary new developments in the field.” -- Geoffrey Hinton"With the recent explosion of deep learning and AI as a research topic, and the quickly growing importance of AI applications, a modern textbook on the topic was badly needed. The "New Bishop" masterfully fills the gap, covering algorithms for supervised and unsupervised learning, modern deep learning architecture families, as well as how to apply all of this to various application areas." – Yann LeCun“This excellent and very educational book will bring the reader up to date with the main concepts and advances in deep learning with a solid anchoring in probability. These concepts are powering current industrial AI systems and are likely to form the basis of further advances towards artificial general intelligence.” -- Yoshua Bengio

Read more less

Focusing on nutrition and nutritional therapy from the nurses' perspective, Nutritional Foundations and Clinical Applications: A Nursing Approach, 7th Edition takes a wellness approach based on health promotion and primary prevention It offers guidelines with a human, personal touch, using first-hand accounts to show how nutrition principles apply to patients in real-world practice. This new edition incorporates the most current guidelines and information on key nutrition topics throughout as well as expanded coverage on the role of inflammation in common disease. A favorite of nursing students and instructors, this leading nutrition text promotes healthy diets and shows how nutrition may be used in treating and controlling diseases and disorders. Personal Perspective boxes offer first-hand accounts of interactions with patients and their families, demonstrating the personal touch for which this book is known. Applying Content Knowledge and Critical Thinking/Clinical Applications case studies help you learn to apply nutrition principles to real-world practice situations. Social Issue?boxes?emphasize ethical, social, and community concerns on local, national international levels to reveal the various influences on health and wellness. Teaching Tool boxes include strategies for providing nutrition counseling to patients. Health Debate?boxes prepare you for encountering differing opinions or controversies about food, nutrition, and health concerns. Key terms and a glossary make it easy to learn key vocabulary and concepts. NEW! Completely updated content throughout incorporates the latest dietary guidelines and most current information on topics such as good vs. bad fats, nutrition during pregnancy, microbiota/probiotics/prebiotics, and more. NEW! Cultural Diversity and Nutrition sections in each chapter highlight health issues and eating patterns related to specific ethnic groups to help you approach, interview, and assess patients from diverse populations. NEW! Enhanced coverage of health literacy equips you with strategies for enhancing patient education for those with low literacy skills. NEW! Additional Nursing Approach?boxes?analyze realistic nutrition case studies from the perspective of the nursing process. NEW! Expanded coverage of inflammation highlights its pivotal role in conditions such as obesity, cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

Read more less

The latest in parallel EM solutions with both in-core and out-of-core solvers The solution of complex electromagnetic (EM) problems requires one to address the issues related with numerical accuracy and efficient distribution of the solution procedure over multiple computational nodes. With the advent of multicore processors and high performance computing (HPC) technology, the EM software designers need to know how to add new functionality to computational EM codes so that they can run efficiently on these new processors. Higher Order Basis Based Integral Equation Solver [HOBBIES] presents a road map for the analysis of complex material structures using the high-performance parallel simulation software known as HOBBIES. Focusing on the Method of Moments (MoM), the book features new parallel programming techniques and user-friendly code with superior capabilities for solving challenging EM radiation and scattering problems. It provides readers with complete guidance on how to extend the capability of MoM and achieve faster and more accurate EM analysis and utilize multicore CPUs on desktop computers. Complete with an academic version of the HOBBIES software, this book: Explains the unique features of the higher order basis functions in the solution of integral equations in a MoM context Shows how to generate a properly load balanced parallel computational procedure for MoM matrix filling and matrix equation solving in both in-core and out-of-core implementation Presents a professional graphical users interface (GUI) for generating the geometrical structure based on NURBS modeling Illustrates various automatic meshing procedures based on an a-priori defined error between the actual geometry and the meshed structure Outlines all the key features of the HOBBIES software, including multiple optimization procedures for EM synthesis The bottleneck of traditional MoM arises from the lack of memory in computers for solution of large problems. This is mitigated by using higher order basis functions and out-of-core solver in HOBBIES. HOBBIES has the capability to perform numerically accurate EM simulations using thousands of CPU cores in an HPC environment using a properly load balanced out-of-core solver. In this way, it provides a cost-effective choice for addressing modern engineering and scientific challenges that arise from the extremely complicated real-life applications.

Read more less

This book describes the microbiota of the intertrappean beds in the Chhindwara District, Madhya Pradesh, India. In this work, special emphasis is placed on the microbiota from the Late Cretaceous-Early Palaeocene transition of the central Narmada River region. Recently, the intertrappean beds of the Eastern Deccan Volcanic Province (one of the subprovinces of the Deccan Volcanic Province) have received considerable attention, which resulted in the addition of some significant biotic assemblages to the existing record from the Dindori-Chhindwara area of the province. The biotic assemblages include charophytes, ostracods, foraminiferans, fishes, frogs, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, and mammals. In spite of the recent discoveries, the known fossil record of the Late Cretaceous-Early Palaeocene biota of India is not sufficient and thus does not permit us to speculate on the possible impact of environmental changes triggered by the Deccan volcanic lava flows on the contemporary biota and to precisely document their palaeoecologic, palaeoenvironmental and palaeobiogeographic implications. The recent biotic reports from the intertrappean beds exposed in the Chhindwara region of the Eastern Deccan Volcanic Province clearly indicate that these beds have a vast potential in terms of fossil content, which could reveal new and dissimilar biotic remains when compared to the Western Deccan Volcanic Province. The record of diverse accumulations of freshwater charophytes, brackish to freshwater ostracods, and planktic foraminiferal and fish assemblages from the intertrappean beds of Jhilmili and adjacent areas of Early Danian (P1a) age and lying just north of Chhindwara town and in the heart of peninsular India has intriguing implications for defining the age limits of the basaltic flows. The occurrence of non-marine taxa, for example, algae, molluscs, and vertebrates, associated with brackish water ostracods in the nearby Singpur and Mohgaon Kalan localities of the Chhindwara region, has also raised concerns about the sedimentary environments of these intertrappean beds. The new finds (presented in this book) prove useful for the better understanding of the palaeoecology and palaeoenvironment of the biota and also throw light on various paleobiogeographic models proposed for the northward drifting Indian plate. The microbiotic assemblages of the intertrappean beds of the eastern Deccan volcanic province at District Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh are documented in this book. The microbiota of the central Narmada River region, the charophytes, ostracods, planktic foraminifera, and fishes, receive special attention in this study.

Read more less

As Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc battle it out head-to-head in the most hotly contested championship in years, this in-depth book, with a foreword from Haas team principal Guenther Steiner, tells the story of how the sport evolved into the exhilarating high octane spectacle it is today. The new rules introduced in 2022 signal the greatest change to F1 in a generation, cracking the field wide open and seeing some of the most compelling and competitive races in the last 25 years. Technical changes aimed at levelling the playing field for the teams combined with the sport’s tightening budget cap have made the races closer than ever. There will be more sprint races – trialled in 2021 – and greater fan interest driven by Netflix’s hugely successful ‘Drive to Survive’ series. So, how did we get here? How did F1 become the acknowledged ‘Pinnacle of Motorsport’? Simon Arron and Tony Dodgins have identified the 100 most significant changes to the series since its inception in 1950. Formula One is unrecognizable from its debut season, where drivers raced around on old bomber training aerodrome in Northamptonshire with oil drums to mark the corners and straw bales the only concession to safety. New fans will welcome a complete and highly illustrated guide to the history of F1, while older fans will be able to compare their own views of what were the pivotal moments of change, in a book written by experienced motoring writers with two lifetimes worth of knowledge of the sport. The book will link technical progress with the personalities involved, indeed many of the swiftest changes have come about as a result of accidents or tragedies – the death of Roland Ratzenberger at Imola in 1994, the same weekend as Ayrton Senna, could have been avoided by the HANS safety device. The introduction of the halo saved Romain Grosjean’s life in Bahrain last year, but only came about because of the tragic accident that claimed Jules Bianchi in Japan. Along with changes to circuits and the technology of the cars, this book highlights the commercial changes and the controversies that threatened to split the sport apart - such as the threat of breakaway series proposed at various times by teams. A must-read for completists or for those new to the sport, F1: The Pinnacle is a fascinating insight into one of the most exciting and dangerous sports in the world.

Read more less

Plants, being sessile and autotrophic in nature, must cope with challenging environmental aberrations and therefore have evolved various responsive or defensive mechanisms including stress sensing mechanisms, antioxidant system, signaling pathways, secondary metabolites biosynthesis, and other defensive pathways among which accumulation of osmolytes or osmo-protectants is an important phenomenon. Osmolytes with organic chemical nature termed as compatible solutes are highly soluble compounds with no net charge at physiological pH and nontoxic at higher concentrations to plant cells. Compatible solutes in plants involve compounds like proline, glycine betaine, polyamines, trehalose, raffinose family oligosaccharides, fructans, gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), and sugar alcohols playing structural, physiological, biochemical, and signaling roles during normal plant growth and development. The current and sustaining problems of climate change and increasing world population has challenged global food security. To feed more than 9 billion, the estimated population by 2050, the yield of major crops needs to be increased 1.1–1.3% per year, which is mainly restricted by the yield ceiling. A major factor limiting the crop yield is the changing global environmental conditions which includes drought, salinity and extreme temperatures and are responsible for a reduction of crop yield in almost all the crop plants. This condition may worsen with a decrease in agricultural land or the loss of potential crop yields by 70%. Therefore, it is a challenging task for agricultural scientists to develop tolerant/resistant varieties against abiotic stresses. The development of stress tolerant plant varieties through conventional breeding is very slow due to complex multigene traits. Engineering compatible solutes biosynthesis by deciphering the mechanism behind the abiotic tolerance or accumulation in plants cell is a potential emerging strategy to mitigate adverse effects of abiotic stresses and increase global crop production. However, detailed information on compatible solutes, including their sensing/signaling, biosynthesis, regulatory components, underlying biochemical mechanisms, crosstalk with other signaling pathways, and transgenic development have not been compiled into a single resource. Our book intends to fill this unmet need, with insight from recent advances in compatible solutes research on agriculturally important crop plants.

Read more less