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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.

  • Categories of Human Learning

    • 1st Edition
    • May 12, 2014
    • Arthur W. Melton
    • English
    Categories of Human Learning covers the papers presented at the Symposium on the Psychology of Human Learning, held at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor on January 31 and February 1, 1962. The book focuses on the different classifications of human learning. The selection first offers information on classical and operant conditioning and the categories of learning and the problem of definition. Discussions focus on classical and instrumental conditioning and the nature of reinforcement; comparability of the forms of human learning; conditioning experiments with human subjects; and subclasses of classical and instrumental conditioning. The text then takes a look at the representativeness of rote verbal learning and centrality of verbal learning. The publication ponders on probability learning, evaluation of stimulus sampling theory, and short-term memory and incidental learning. Topics include short-term retention, stimulus variation experiments, reinforcement schedules and mean response, systematic interpretations, and methodological approaches. The book then examines the behavioral effects of instruction to learning, verbalizations and concepts, and the generality of research on transfer functions. The selection is highly recommended for psychologists and educators wanting to conduct studies on the categories of human learning.
  • The Versatility of Kinship

    Essays Presented to Harry W. Basehart
    • 1st Edition
    • May 12, 2014
    • Linda S Cordell + 1 more
    • English
    Studies in Anthropology: The Versatility of Kinship focuses on the dynamics involved in the special class of interpersonal ties that bind individuals to others. The selection first offers information on the variant usage in American kinship, uses of kinship in Kwaio, Solomon Islands, and incest and kinship structure. Discussions focus on incest categories in Cachama and Mamo, childhood bonds and adult residence, kinship with the dead, kinship, social identities, and behavior, and models of relatedness. The text then explores the biological, linguistic, and cultural aspects of the Hopi-Tewa system of mating in First Mesa, Arizona and the Navajo exogamic rules and preferred marriages. The publication ponders on the Kpelle negotiation of marriage and matrilateral ties and kinship and descent in the ethnic reassertion of the Eastern Creek Indians. Topics include social and cultural history, genealogy as social instrument, crystallization of the Eastern Creek community, Kpelle marriage and matrilateral ties, ethnographic background, and the negotiation of marriage and matrilateral ties. The selection is a valuable reference for anthropologists, sociologists, and readers interested in the dynamics of kinship.
  • International Relations and Legal Cooperation in General Diplomacy and Consular Relations

    Published under the Auspices of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law under the Direction of Rudolf Bernhardt
    • 1st Edition
    • May 12, 2014
    • Sam Stuart
    • English
    Encyclopedia of Public International Law, 9: International Relations and Legal Cooperation in General, Diplomacy, and Consular Relations focuses on international relations and legal cooperation in general, including diplomacy and consular relations. The publication first offers information on the international aspects of administrative law, the Asian-African Legal Consultative Committee, Atlantic Charter (1941), Bandung Conference (1955), and the international regulation on broadcasting. The text also examines the international protection of children, coded communications, international conferences and congresses, consular jurisdiction, treaties, and relations, and international criminal law. Discussions focus on bilateral consular agreements, establishment of consular relations, privileges and immunities, legal situation, historical evolution of legal rules, and protection for children in special situations. The manuscript ponders on wildlife protection, international regulation on the use of water, waste disposal, unjust enrichment, transfrontier pollution, tourism, terrorism, and international regulation on telecommunications. Topics include principles governing international telecommunication, space telecommunications, special legal problem on terrorism, touristic relations between states, historical evolution of transfrontier pollution, international consequences of water use, and global, regional, and bilateral treatises on wildlife protection. The publication is a vital source of data for researchers interested in international relations and legal cooperation in general, as well as diplomacy and consular relations.
  • Machine Learning Methods for Planning

    • 1st Edition
    • May 12, 2014
    • Steven Minton
    • English
    Machine Learning Methods for Planning provides information pertinent to learning methods for planning and scheduling. This book covers a wide variety of learning methods and learning architectures, including analogical, case-based, decision-tree, explanation-based, and reinforcement learning. Organized into 15 chapters, this book begins with an overview of planning and scheduling and describes some representative learning systems that have been developed for these tasks. This text then describes a learning apprentice for calendar management. Other chapters consider the problem of temporal credit assignment and describe tractable classes of problems for which optimal plans can be derived. This book discusses as well how reactive, integrated systems give rise to new requirements and opportunities for machine learning. The final chapter deals with a method for learning problem decompositions, which is based on an idealized model of efficiency for problem-reduction search. This book is a valuable resource for production managers, planners, scientists, and research workers.
  • Mendelian Inheritance in Man

    Catalogs of Autosomal Dominant, Autosomal Recessive, and X-Linked Phenotypes
    • 1st Edition
    • May 12, 2014
    • Victor A. McKusick
    • English
    Mendelian Inheritance in Man: Catalogs of Autosomal Dominant, Autosomal Recessives, and X-Linked Phenotypes presents catalogs in connection with the genetics of the X chromosome. This book provides a catalog of dominant phenotypes and covers other entries, including anomalous hemoglobin, red cell antigenic types, leukocyte types, and serum protein types. This book begins with an overview of how to use the catalogs wherein two classes of entries have been made in each of the catalogs. This text then explains that each entry consists of three parts, namely, the preferred designation, a brief description of the phenotype with genetic information, and key references. This book discusses as well that in the case of recessives, manifestations in heterozygotes are usually listed. The reader is also introduced to the definition of dominant and recessive used in the preparation of the catalogs. This book is a valuable resource for experimental geneticists, physicians, and research workers.
  • Fundamentals of Learning and Memory

    • 2nd Edition
    • May 10, 2014
    • John P. Houston
    • English
    Fundamentals of Learning and Memory, Second Edition provides information pertinent to the basic conditioning processes. This book presents an integration of the fields of animal and human learning. Organized into six parts encompassing 17 chapters, this edition begins with an overview of the definition of learning that encompasses many of the elements of alternative definitions. This text then considers the processes of acquisition, including a detailed discussion of contiguity, practice, and reinforcement. Other chapters include an extensive discussion of issues, problems, and alternative theories within the field of retention. This book discusses as well the problem of transfer, with emphasis on stimulus generation and transfer of training. The final chapter deals with behavior modification as a general method for understanding, altering, and controlling behavior, which differs dramatically from more traditional clinical or therapeutic approaches. This book is a valuable resource for psychologists, behavior therapists, behavior modification theorists, and psychology students.
  • Macroeconomics

    Private and Public Choice
    • 2nd Edition
    • May 10, 2014
    • James D Gwartney + 1 more
    • English
    Macroeconomics: Private and Public Choice discusses the principle of macroeconomics, particularly government expenditure, taxation, public choice theory, and labor markets. The book also covers aggregate supply, fiscal policy, inflation, unemployment, traditional Keynesian theory, low productivity, rapid inflation. The text explains international economics and comparative systems such as the export-import link, export taxes, and foreign finance. It analyzes the existence of trade barriers as being due to domestic protectionism policies, special interest nature of trade restrictions, and economic illiteracy. The book examines the economics of government failure, namely, the collective decision-making process as being both beneficial and limited of public sector economic action. Among the reasons cited for government failure are voter ignorance, inefficient public policy, existence of special interests, imprecise knowledge of consumer preferences, as well as government shortsightedness. The book also examines why government intervention in some activities can be beneficial, for example, weak market competition or monopoly, uninformed consumers, and when conditions of external benefits can be achieved. Economists, sociologists, professors in economics, or policy makers involved in economic and rural development will find the text valuable.
  • Bones

    Ancient Men and Modern Myths
    • 1st Edition
    • May 10, 2014
    • Lewis R. Binford
    • English
    Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myths focuses on bone structures and characteristics, including bone modifications, breakage, processing, and destruction by animals. The publication first elaborates on the transitions to relics to artifacts and monuments to assemblages and middle-range research and the role of actualistic studies, including artifact and assemblage phase and relic and monument phase. The text then takes a look at the patterns of bone modifications produced by nonhuman agents and human modes of bone modification. Discussions focus on breakage related to other forms of bone processing, morphology of bone breakage, chopping and bone breakage as butchering techniques, butchering marks, bone breakage and destruction by animals, tooth marks, and previous approaches to understanding the significance of broken and modified bone. The manuscript ponders on patterns of association stemming from the behavior of man versus that of beast, as well as control collections of animal-structured assemblages; information on kill behavior and comparisons; observations of wolves and their behavior; and studies of assemblage composition caused by beasts. The publication is a valuable source of information for researchers interested in bone structure and modifications.
  • Open Systems Handbook

    • 2nd Edition
    • May 10, 2014
    • Alan R. Simon + 1 more
    • English
    Open Systems Handbook, Second Edition provides an easy-to-read, thorough, and management-oriented explanation of the promises, dangers, and realities of open systems. This edition describes specific products and various open systems that have been updated to reflect the events of the mid-1990s. Emerging open technologies that either didn't exist in 1991 or were in their infancy, such as client/server middleware, are also covered. Topics include the definitions and history of open systems, open systems components, end user interaction points, and elements of open systems software. The general communications hardware, visual application development, models of integration, and advantages of open systems are likewise elaborated. This publication is a good reference for computing professionals and engineers working on open systems.
  • Communication and Affect

    A Comparative Approach
    • 1st Edition
    • May 10, 2014
    • Thomas Alloway + 2 more
    • English
    Communication and Affect: A Comparative Approach examines the communication of affective or emotional feelings from a broad phylogenetic and ontogenetic perspective. The book presents basic research findings and theoretical orientations with regards to affective responses and communication involving humans, machines, chimpanzees, monkeys, dogs, and rodents. Comprised of seven chapters, this volume begins with a discussion on the development of love in primates throughout its entire sequential course, from the mother-infant stage of pious, proper propinquity to the adult stage of seasoned, salacious, seductive success. In all the stages of love, much of the essential social information is supplied by unlearned communications which are rapidly overlaid by a veneer of learning. Subsequent chapters explore attachment and dependence; signs of language in children and chimpanzees; affective aspects of aesthetic communication; the communication of affect and the possibility of human-machine interaction as a dyad; and development of affect in dogs and rodents. This book should be of use to psychologists, linguists, and educators interested in the evolution and development of communication and affect in mammals.