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Books in Arts and humanities

Elsevier's Arts and Humanities titles encompass a rich spectrum of scholarship that explores human culture, history, philosophy, and creative expression. These works offer deep insights into language, literature, visual arts, and critical theory, supporting the academic community in understanding diverse perspectives and cultural legacies. Designed for scholars, educators, and students, this collection bridges classic studies with contemporary issues, fostering a deeper appreciation and knowledge of the human experience.

  • Proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on MACHINE LEARNING

    June 22–25, 1987 University of California, Irvine
    • 1st Edition
    • May 12, 2014
    • Pat Langley
    • English
    Proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on Machine Learning provides careful theoretical analyses that make clear contact with traditional problems in machine learning. This book discusses the key role of learning in cognition. Organized into 39 chapters, this book begins with an overview of pattern recognition systems of necessity that incorporate an approximate-matching process to determine the degree of similarity between an unknown input and all stored references. This text then describes the rationale in the Protos system for relegating inductive learning and deductive problem solving to minor roles in support of retaining, indexing and matching exemplars. Other chapters consider the power as well as the appropriateness of exemplar-based representations and their associated acquisition methods. This book discusses as well the extensions to the way a case is classified by a decision tree that address shortcomings. The final chapter deals with the advances in machine learning research. This book is a valuable resource for psychologists, scientists, theorists, and research workers.

  • Eyes and Education

    • 1st Edition
    • May 12, 2014
    • Vernon H. Smith + 1 more
    • English
    Eyes and Education is an account of the basic facts about eye defects in childhood and their effect on children's education and development. More specifically, it describes some of the ways in which abnormalities of vision may cause difficulty in children learning to read and write. The treatment and management of visually impaired children while at school are also considered. Comprised of six chapters, this book begins with an overview of the structure and function of the visual organs, followed by a discussion on how to recognize eye defects and help to treat them. The next chapter explains how vision is measured, along with the use of eyeglasses to correct refractive errors in school children. Tips that may help the school teacher to help his/her pupils wear their glasses to the best advantage are given. The reader is then introduced to educational problems associated with common visual defects such as squint, color vision, and word blindness; common causes of sore eyes; and diagnosis of visual defects in the classroom. This monograph is written primarily for teachers, school nurses, and students training to be teachers.

  • A Woman's Pleasure Trip in Somaliland

    • 1st Edition
    • May 12, 2014
    • Frances Swayne
    • English
    A Woman's Pleasure Trip in Somaliland provides a detailed and descriptive account of how a woman could pleasantly spend three winter months in a country where many of the fancied necessaries of a civilized life are absent. Organized into eight chapters, this book begins with an overview of the geographical description of Somaliland. This text then describes her arrival at Aden. Other chapters consider the Somalis' natural way of ascertaining the time. This book discusses as well Somalis' belief in the theory that mosquitos give fever, which was commented on in printed reports on Somaliland some years before medical science took the matter up. The final chapter deals with the author's concluding remarks about the exceptional attention, consideration, and willing service that she had experienced during her three month's stay in Somaliland. This book is a valuable resource for readers who are interested to learn about Somaliland and its people.

  • Protecting Historic Architecture and Museum Collections from Natural Disasters

    • 1st Edition
    • May 12, 2014
    • Barclay G. Jones
    • English
    Protecting Historic Architecture and Museum Collections from Natural Disasters serves as a useful guide for professionals engaged in the preservation of cultural heritage, whether structures or artifacts. This book discusses how to prevent losses to the cultural heritage of structures and artifacts through more knowledgeable protection, prevention, and emergency response. Organized into six sections encompassing 26 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the mechanisms for preserving and protecting the heritage. This text then examines the threats of destruction by the natural elements such as decay, air pollution, subsidence, and other forms of attrition. Other chapters consider the social functional and economic values of the buildings and museum objects. This book discusses as well the natural disaster policies within a society. The final chapter deals with the enlistment of the private sector in dealing with catastrophes rising out of fire, earthquake, flood, and other natural disasters. This book is a valuable resource for conservation specialists, archivists, private collectors, dealers, curators, and librarians.

  • Scientific Uncertainty, and Information

    • 1st Edition
    • May 12, 2014
    • Leon Brillouin
    • English
    Scientific Uncertainty and Information focuses on the validation of theories developed in physics, chemistry, biology, and other fields of science. The book first elaborates on thermodynamics, statistics, and information and the importance of scientific laws. Discussions focus on the importance and value of theories, empirical and theoretical laws, scientific laws and negentropy, principles of thermodynamics, entropy and value, negentropy, and energy degradation, and thermodynamics and information theory. The text then ponders on mathematical theorems and physical theories, imagination and invention in a theory, and causality and determinism. The manuscript underscores the weaknesses and limitations of mechanics and Poincare and the shortcomings of the Hamilton-Jacobi method for classical or quantized mechanics. Topics include the discussion of a simple example with two variables; degeneracy conditions and the possibility of finding a Hamilton-Jacobi transformation function; approximations for nondegenerate systems; methods of analytical dynamics for separated variables; and the objective world and the problem of determinism. The publication is a dependable reference for researchers interested in the validation of theories in science.

  • Analyses of Concept Learning

    • 1st Edition
    • May 12, 2014
    • Herbert J. Klausmeier + 1 more
    • English
    Analyses of Concept Learning covers the papers presented at a Conference on Analyses of Concept Learning, sponsored by the Research and Development Center for Learning and Re-education of the University of Wisconsin, held in October 1965. The book focuses on efficient learning for children, youth, and adults, including concept learning, problem solving, and progresses in cognitive abilities. The selection first offers information on the formal analysis of concepts, psychological nature of concepts, and analysis of concepts from the point of view of the structure of intellect. The text then examines the relationships between concept learning and verbal learning and meaningfulness and concept. Discussions focus on linguistic analysis of nonsense syllables, linguistic concepts as determiners of meaningfulness, stimulus selection and stimulus bias, response learning and associative learning, and implicit associative responses. The book takes a look at the learning of principles, developmental approach to conceptual growth, and learning in adulthood. Topics include consistency in mental abilities, comparison with long-range trends in stability of mental functions, anxiety derived from conflicts over learning, motivation to maximize similarity to a model, and the scientific meaning of concept. Meaningful reception learning and the acquisition of concepts and a model for the analysis of inquiry are also discussed. The selection is a vital reference for researchers interested in concept learning.

  • Aspects of Learning and Memory

    • 1st Edition
    • May 12, 2014
    • Derek Richter
    • English
    Aspects of Learning and Memory provides information pertinent to the fundamental aspects of learning and memory. This book discusses the various problems of memory. Organized into eight chapters, this book begins with an overview of the different kinds of learning. This text then discusses the concept of memory, which is extended to include the capacity to retain learned skills, such as reading, wring, or driving a car. Other chapters consider the mechanism by which humans recall the past is frequently a process of matching a present image with a past image. This book discusses as well the physiological mechanisms associated with learning and memory, which involve the establishment of neuronal patterns that can be reactivated at a later date when remembrance occurs. The final chapter deals with complexity of changes involved in learning. This book is a valuable resource for psychologists, clinical neurologists, pathologists, and scientists working in different fields of research.

  • Late Eighteenth Century European Scientists

    Volume 2
    • 1st Edition
    • May 12, 2014
    • R. C. Olby
    • English
    Late Eighteenth Century European Scientists is an account of the remarkable progress made by European scientists at the close of the eighteenth century in the fields of chemistry, electricity, astronomy, and botany. Seven scientists are profiled: Jean Lamarck, Joseph Koelreuter, Antoine Lavoisier, Henry Cavendish, Alessandro Volta, James Watt, and William Herschel. In choosing these scientists, the book emphasizes the following considerations: the need to be representative, to show the contrast between those whose work is primarily experimental and those whose work is speculative, and to include a subject which shows the reaction of science on technology and of technology on society. Comprised of seven chapters, this book begins with Lamarck, whose views, particularly on physics and chemistry, furnish a picture of traditional science during the mid-eighteenth century. The first chapter looks at his life, writings, and work in fields ranging from meteorology and geology to botany, zoology, and evolution. The next chapter focuses on Koelreuter and his experiments on pollen, ovule, pollination, fertilization, and hybridization. The discussion then turns to Cavendish, Herschel, and Volta, who have been included in this monograph primarily because they employed observation and experiment so successfully and as a result made important discoveries. Lavoisier has been chosen on account of his genius for looking at well-known facts and fresh discoveries from a new point of view. Watt has been selected in order to show the technological and sociological difficulties that are involved in applying a new source of power to industry and commerce. This book will be of interest to both students and scientists.

  • Computer Simulation in Human Population Studies

    • 1st Edition
    • May 12, 2014
    • Bennett Dyke + 1 more
    • English
    Computer Simulation in Human Population Studies contains the proceedings of a conference held at Pennsylvania State University on June 12-14, 1972, under the sponsorship of the Social Science Research Council. The conference provided a forum for discussing the application of computer simulation techniques to human population studies and organized topics around four themes: anthropology and social systems; genetics and adaptive systems; demography; and simulation methodology. Comprised of 23 chapters, this volume begins with an analysis of two tests of computer microsimulation: the effect of an incest taboo on population viability, and the effect of age differences between spouses on the skewing of their consanguineal relationships. The reader is then introduced to computer simulation of incest prohibition and clan proscription rules in closed, finite population; an empirical perspective on simulation models of human population; and models applicable to geographic variation in humans. Subsequent chapters deal with the role of co-adapted sets in the process of adaptation; simulation of human reproduction; and the mathematics of population simulation models. This book will be of interest to anthropologists, geneticists, biologists, computer scientists, mathematicians, and social scientists.

  • Iatrophilosophers of the Hellenic States

    • 1st Edition
    • May 12, 2014
    • John Precope
    • English
    Iatrophilosophers of the Hellenic States distinguishes the iatrophilosophers from the manual practitioners and from the educated amateur or theoretical researcher. This book discusses the intrusion of philosophy into medicine, which was the first background of the scientific spirit amongst the Greeks. Organized into five parts encompassing 30 chapters, this book begins with an overview of several great priest-physicians or religious healers, including Linus, Orpheus, Musaeus, and Asclepius. This text then describes the great men that earned the title of "wise". Other chapters consider Thales, who gained the title "wise" in the time of the Athenian archon Damusius. This book discusses as well several men of a speculative turn of mind, known as dialecticians or sophists. The final chapter deals with Aristotle, the famous iatrophilospher who flourished during the time the Hellenic States had remained free or independent. This book is a valuable resource for readers whose interests span a variety of fields.

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