Skip to main content
Elsevier

North Holland

  • Handbook of Defense Economics

    • 1st Edition
    • T. Sandler + 1 more
    • English
    This Handbook provides a self-contained survey of the current state of defense economics in the form of chapters prepared by leading specialists on various aspects in the field. The volume summarizes not only received results but also newer developments, from recent journal articles and discussion papers. Theoretical analysis, econometric techniques, and policy issues are addressed. The chapters fall into two essential categories: surveys and conceptual studies. Survey chapters present a synthesis, interpretation, and evaluation of the literature for particular subfields of defense economics, whereas the conceptual chapters elucidate the analysis of specific topics. Both types of chapters provide directions for future research. As with other volumes in the Handbooks in Economics series, this Handbook will be a definitive source, reference, and teaching supplement for use by professional researchers and advanced graduate students.For more information on the Handbooks in Economics series, please see our home page onhttp://www.elsevie...

  • Handbook of Combinatorics Volume 2

    • 1st Edition
    • Bozzano G Luisa
    • English

  • Changes in Sensory Motor Behavior in Aging

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 114
    • A.-M. Ferrandez + 1 more
    • English
    Recently, studies on aging processes and age-related changes in behavior have been expanding considerably, probably due to the dramatic changes observed in the demographics. This increase in the overall age and proportion of elderly people has heightened the severity of problems associated with the safety and well-being of elderly persons in everyday life. Many researchers working on motor control have thus focused more intensely on the effects of age on motor control. This new avenue of research has led to programs for alleviating or delaying the specific sensory-motor limitations encountered by the elderly (e.g. falls) in an attempt to make the elderly more autonomous.The aggregation of studies from different perspectives is often fascinating, especially when the same field can serve as a common ground between researchers. Nearly all contributors to this book work on sensory-motor aging; they represent a large range of affiliations and backgrounds including psychology, neurobiology, cognitive sciences, kinesiology, neuropsychology, neuropharmacology, motor performance, physical therapy, exercise science, and human development. Addressing age-related behavioral changes can also furnish some crucial reflections in the debate about motor coordination: aging is the product of both maturational and environmental processes, and studies on aging must determine how the intricate interrelationships between these processes evolve. The study of aging makes it possible to determine how compensatory mechanisms, operating on different subsystems and each aging at its own rate, compensate for biological degenerations and changing external demands. This volume will contribute to demonstrating that the study of the aging process raises important theoretical questions.

  • Diffraction Physics

    • 3rd Edition
    • J.M. Cowley
    • English
    The first edition of this highly successful book appeared in 1975 and evolved from lecture notes for classes in physical optics, diffraction physics and electron microscopy given to advanced undergraduate and graduate students. The book deals with electron diffraction and diffraction from disordered or imperfect crystals and employed an approach using the Fourier transform from the beginning instead of as an extension of a Fourier series treatment.This third revised edition is a considerably rewritten and updated version which now includes all important developments which have taken place in recent years.

  • Progress in Optics

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 34
    • English
    This volume presents a review of the research in several areas of modern optics written by experts well-known in the international scientific community. The first chapter discusses properties and methods of production and detection of coherent superpositions of macroscopically distinguishable states of light (the so-called Schrodinger cat states). Chapter two deals with the phase-shift method, which originated in the 1930s, for the analysis of potential-scattering problems in atomic and nuclear physics. Recently this approach has been applied to wave propagation in one-dimensional inhomogeneous media. Chapter three is concerned with the statistical properties of dynamic laser speckles that arise from scattering objects with rough surfaces undergoing translation and rotation. A moving phase-screen model is employed, which gives a relatively simple formulation of the theory and a clear picture of the time-varying speckle phenomenon. The fourth chapter presents a review of the more important theoretical and experimental results relating to optics of multilayer systems with randomly rough boundaries. The significant theoretical approaches which make it possible to interpret experimental data involving such systems are described, and relevant methods for optical characterization of systems of this kind are outlined. The last chapter presents an account of a theory of the photon transport through turbid media.

  • Cognitive Technology

    In Search of a Humane Interface
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 113
    • J.L. Mey + 1 more
    • English
    In this book the editors have gathered a number of contributions by persons who have been working on problems of Cognitive Technology (CT). The present collection initiates explorations of the human mind via the technologies the mind produces. These explorations take as their point of departure the question What happens when humans produce new technologies? Two interdependent perspectives from which such a production can be approached are adopted:• How and why constructs that have their origins in human mental life are embodied in physical environments when people fabricate their habitat, even to the point of those constructs becoming that very habitat• How and why these fabricated habitats affect, and feed back into, human mental life.The aim of the CT research programme is to determine, in general, which technologies, and in particular, which interactive computer-based technologies, are humane with respect to the cognitive development and evolutionary adaptation of their end users. But what does it really mean to be humane in a technological world? To shed light on this central issue other pertinent questions are raised, e.g.• Why are human minds externalised, i.e., what purpose does the process of externalisation serve?• What can we learn about the human mind by studying how it externalises itself? • How does the use of externalised mental constructs (the objects we call 'tools') change people fundamentally?• To what extent does human interaction with technology serve as an amplification of human cognition, and to what extent does it lead to a atrophy of the human mind?The book calls for a reflection on what a tool is. Strong parallels between CT and environmentalism are drawn: both are seen as trends having originated in our need to understand how we manipulate, by means of the tools we have created, our natural habitat consisting of, on the one hand, the cognitive environment which generates thought and determines action, and on the other hand, the physical environment in which thought and action are realised. Both trends endeavour to protect the human habitat from the unwanted or uncontrolled impact of technology, and are ultimately concerned with the ethics and aesthetics of tool design and tool use.Among the topics selected by the contributors to the book, the following themes emerge (the list is not exhaustive): using technology to empower the cognitively impaired; the ethics versus aesthetics of technology; the externalisation of emotive and affective life and its special dialectic ('mirror') effects; creativity enhancement: cognitive space, problem tractability; externalisation of sensory life and mental imagery; the engineering and modelling aspects of externalised life; externalised communication channels and inner dialogue; externalised learning protocols; relevance analysis as a theoretical framework for cognitive technology.

  • Problem Solving: Methods, Programming and Future Concepts

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 12
    • O.V. German + 1 more
    • English
    Problem solving is the very area of articifical intelligence AI which, probably, will never result in a complete set of formalized theories, in a pragmatic philosphy, or in a "universal" applied discipline. Studying questions concerning this area, encompasses different concepts, models and theories. This volume of the series looks at classifying problems, interpreting them, and the methods of solving them. The final chapter covers future concepts such as universal problem solving approach restoration, weak methods becoming strong, the role of formal logic in future developments, human factors and other paradigms.Different groups of readers such as mathematicians, specialists in computer sciences, and programmers will find this title of interest. Post-graduates and the students specializing in AI and applied mathematics will also find the work useful.

  • Motor Control and Sensory-Motor Integration

    Issues and Directions
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 111
    • D.J. Glencross + 1 more
    • English
    This volume evolved from a workshop which addressed the general area of motor control, and the broader problems of serial organisation and sensory-motor integration of human skills. A number of specific issues are highlighted, including the neural mechanisms and disabilities of sensory-motor integration, planning and programming of action, the dynamics of interlimb coordination, amendment and updating mechanisms, and in particular, perception-action coupling and the representation of action. Underlying much of the volume are the major theoretical issues which include the debate between computational and prescriptive approaches versus the emergent properties and system dynamics approaches. The book represents a diverse approach from such disciplines as psychology, electrical and mechanical engineering, human movement studies, physiotherapy, neurology, and kinesiology.

  • The Self in Infancy

    Theory and Research
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 112
    • P. Rochat
    • English
    The origins of knowledge about the self is arguably the most fundamental problem of psychology. It is a classic theme that has preoccupied great psychologists, beginning with William James and Freud. On reading current literature, today's developmental psychologists and ethologists are clearly expressing a renewed interest in the topic. Furthermore, recent progress in the study of infant and animal behavior, provides important and genuinely new insights regarding the origins of self-knowledge.This book is a collection of current theoretical views and research on the self in early infancy, prior to self-identification and the well-documented emergence of mirror self-recognition. The focus is on the early sense of self of the young infant. Its aim is to provide an account of recent research substantiating the precursors of self-recognition and self-identification. By concentrating on early infancy, the book provides an updated look at the origins of self-knowledge.

  • Handbook of Magnetic Materials

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 9
    • K.H.J. Buschow
    • English
    Volume 9 of the Handbook of Magnetic Materials has a dual purpose, as do the preceding volumes in the series. As a textbook it is intended to be of assistance to those who wish to be introduced to a given topic in the field of magnetism without the need to read the vast amount of literature published. As a work of reference it is intended for scientists active in magnetism research. To this dual purpose, Volume 9 of the Handbook is composed of topical review articles written by leading authorities. In each of these articles an extensive description is given in graphical as well as in tabular form, much emphasis being placed on the discussion of the experimental material in the framework of physics, chemistry and material science.Chapter one presents a general account of the magnetism of heavy-fermion systems. Two novel experimental techniques are described in chapters two and five. Chapter two deals with muon spin rotation and chapter five gives an account of the possibilities offered by photon beam spectroscopy. In both chapters it is shown how these sophisticated experimental methods can be used to obtain experimental information not easily obtainable by conventional experimental methods. Chapter three deals with interstitially modified intermetallic compounds of rare earth and 3d elements. Finally chapter four is concerned with thermodynamic approach to phase transitions and shows how the understanding and description of these magnetic phase transitions can be considerably enriched.

Browse by Publisher