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Books in Social sciences and humanities

  • Cathedrals of Learning

    Great and Ancient Universities of Western Europe
    • 1st Edition
    • August 9, 2016
    • Blaise Cronin
    • English
    Cathedrals of Learning: Great and Ancient Universities of Western Europe provides a conspectus of the great Western European universities, pithily tells their life stories, showcases their architectural heritage, and describes the art, literary, and natural history collections they have accumulated over the centuries. This book profiles the ancient universities and their distinctive organizational cultures, reveals their customs, ceremonies, and traditions, their quirks and quiddities, recounts their complicated histories, describes their architectural wonders (libraries, museums, anatomy theaters, botanical gardens) and treasures (rare manuscripts, antiquities, paintings, and objects d’art of all kinds), and introduces their famous alumni, distinguished scholars, Nobel Prize-winning scientists, and famously eccentric personalities. It is a book for scholars, researchers, and anyone interested in these ancient institutions that remain centers of learning in the contemporary world.
  • Quality Activities in Center-Based Programs for Adults with Autism

    Moving from Nonmeaningful to Meaningful
    • 1st Edition
    • August 9, 2016
    • Dennis H. Reid + 1 more
    • English
    Quality Activities in Center-Based Programs for Adults with Autism: Moving from Nonmeaningful to Meaningful describes what constitutes meaningful versus nonpurposeful activities for adults with autism and other severe disabilities in a classroom or center-based program. Then this step-by-step guide presents an evidence-based process for changing nonpurposeful activities, using behavior analytic research and application. The goal is to help ensure adults with autism and other severe disabilities are engaged in week-day activities that truly enhance their income-earning capacity, independence with life skills, day-to-day enjoyment, and overall dignity.
  • Self-Regulation and Ego Control

    • 1st Edition
    • August 8, 2016
    • Edward R. Hirt + 2 more
    • English
    Self-Regulation and Ego Control examines the physiological effects of depletion, the effects of psychological variables in self-control depletion effects, the role of motivational and goal states on self-control depletion effects, and a number of cognitive perspectives on self-control exertion. This insightful book begins with an introduction of self-control theories, ego depletion phenomena, and experimental examples of research in self-control, and concludes by delineating more inclusive and comprehensive models of self-regulation that can account for the full spectrum of findings from current research. In recent years, researchers have had difficulty identifying the underlying resources responsible for depletion effects. Moreover, further research has identified several psychological and motivational factors that can ameliorate depletion effects. These findings have led many to question assumptions of the dominant strength model and suggest that capacity limitations alone cannot account for the observed effects of depletion. Self-Regulation and Ego Control facilitates discourse across researchers from different ideological camps and advances more integrated views of self-regulation based on this research.
  • Local Government and Strategic Choice

    An Operational Research Approach to the Processes of Public Planning
    • 2nd Edition
    • August 3, 2016
    • J.K. Friend + 1 more
    • English
    Local Government and Strategic Choice, Second Edition is the result of a study of policy-formation in the City Council of Coventry during a four-year period. This edition is a reappraisal of the earlier edition, with an emphasis on ""connective planning."" Part I describes the planning strategies made in an urban setting. This part explains the City and the City Council, organization of the local authority, decision-making mechanisms, developmental planning including land use, school system planning, and cross-departmental planning. Part II is a study of city planning as a process of strategic choice that has been altered in many different ways depending on the purpose. This part also discusses the problems encountered in the planning process such as the existence of organization boundaries in the government sector. Part III deals with a fictional case that relates the uncertainties and political realities of decision-making in an urban setting. The case studies cover land allocation and development, tax, and traffic issues. Part IV discusses organizational challenge and also touches in some way on the future organizational structure of local governments. This text then explains the need for ""connective planning"" of how individuals build flexible networks among decision-making agencies to serve the various interests of both the private and government sectors. This book is suitable for sociologists, city administrators and officials, local government officials, heads of government agencies, and heads of planning and engineering departments of local government units.
  • Handbook of Frontier Markets

    The African, European and Asian Evidence
    • 1st Edition
    • August 2, 2016
    • Panagiotis Andrikopoulos + 2 more
    • English
    Handbook of Frontier Markets: The European and African Evidence provides novel insights from academic perspectives about the behavior of investors and prices in several frontier markets. It explores finance issues usually reserved for developed and emerging markets in order to gauge whether these issues are relevant and how they manifest themselves in frontier markets. Frontier markets have now become a popular investment class among institutional investors internationally, with major financial services providers establishing index-benchmarks for this market-category. The anticipation for frontier markets is optimistic uncertainty, and many people believe that, given their growth rates, these markets will be economic success stories. Irrespective of their degrees of success, The Handbook of Frontier Markets can help ensure that the increasing international investment diverted to them will aid in their greater integration within the global financial system.
  • Handbook of Frontier Markets

    Evidence from Middle East North Africa and International Comparative Studies
    • 1st Edition
    • August 2, 2016
    • Panagiotis Andrikopoulos + 2 more
    • English
    Handbook of Frontier Markets: Evidence from Asia and International Comparative Studies provides novel insights from academic perspectives about the behavior of investors and prices in several frontier markets. It explores finance issues usually reserved for developed and emerging markets in order to gauge whether these issues are relevant and how they manifest themselves in frontier markets. Frontier markets have now become a popular investment class among institutional investors internationally, with major financial services providers establishing index-benchmarks for this market-category. The anticipation for frontier markets is optimistic uncertainty, and many people believe that, given their growth rates, these markets will be economic success stories. Irrespective of their degrees of success, The Handbook of Frontier Markets can help ensure that the increasing international investment diverted to them will aid in their greater integration within the global financial system.
  • Taming the Megalopolis

    A Design for Urban Growth
    • 1st Edition
    • August 1, 2016
    • Lauchlin Currie
    • English
    Taming the Megalopolis: A Design for Urban Growth is a stimulating and provocative text that identifies the imminent problems of human settlement in large emerging cities in developing countries with mixed economies and their possible solution. The book is a written expression of an expert's view on the problem of human settlement that aims to raise discussions, from concerned policymakers, on the identification of the problems and inciting proposals for solutions to the growing problem of human settlement in large emerging cities. The text is divided in two parts: Urban Problems and Solutions. The first part provides the basic definition and aspects of urbanization and the identification of problems of human settlement in urbanized areas. Part II introduces possible measures to solve the problems of urbanization, such as changing the design of metropolitan areas; maintaining ownership in public corporations; capturing rise in land values; and securing relatively full employment for urban workers. Economists, sociologists, urban planners and policymakers, engineers and designers, and people affected by the problems of urbanization will find this book invaluable.
  • An Introduction to the Theory of Plasma Turbulence

    International Series of Monographs in Natural Philosophy
    • 1st Edition
    • July 29, 2016
    • V. N. Tsytovich
    • D. Ter Haar
    • English
    An Introduction to the Theory of Plasma Turbulence is a collection of lectures given by the author at Culham laboratory. The book deals with developments on the theory of plasma turbulence. The author describes plasma properties in the turbulent regions as mostly non-linear in nature, and notes that these properties can be regarded as a universal spectrum independent of any type of instability. The text then discusses the general problems of the theory of plasma turbulence. The author also shows that elementary excitation of ""dressed"" particles have a finite lifetime associated with non-linear interactions. The book then discusses the excitation of ion-sound turbulence using different processes, for example, shock waves; the text also analyzes the kind of non-linear interactions present in such energy transfer. The author also explains the Langmuir plasma oscillations — a typical collective plasma motion that can be excited using different types of mechanism such as an electron beam. The book then describes the electromagnetic properties of turbulent plasma and relates the state of turbulent plasma as a natural occurrence in the universe. The book notes the problem of cosmic rays, not as an energy transfer to faster particles, but as an energy distribution between particles. The text will prove valuable for nuclear physicists, scientists, and academicians in the field of quantum mechanics.
  • Policy Reform in Developing Countries

    • 1st Edition
    • July 29, 2016
    • Bela Balassa
    • English
    Policy Reform in Developing Countries deals with questions of policy reforms in selected countries. This book is a collection of essays describing the application of general principles of policy reforms made in countries with an industrial base, such as Mexico, Portugal, Venezuela, Chile, the Andean Common Market, Egypt, and Korea. Through these essays, the author evaluates the general principles that make up desirable policy reforms in these countries, and describes the application of these principles in various actual situations. One essay presents the reforms needed to improve the system of incentives, which include credit, labor market, and public utility pricing. For example, this book analyzes the tariff reform proposed in Chile and the guidelines for the common external tariff used in the Andean Common Market. Another essay evaluates the role of the manufacturing sector in the economic growth of Portugal, and recommends other strategies for this sector. This book then recommends proposals in the development strategy of Korea for the Fourth Five-Year Plan Period, while one other essay reviews the system of incentives that will serve the objectives of the Fourth Five-Year Plan of this country. This collection of essays is suitable for economic planners, heads of state ministries, academic and non-profit institutions dealing with developmental planning, and students and professors in history and political science.
  • Investigating the Life Sciences

    An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science
    • 1st Edition
    • July 29, 2016
    • G. M. N. Verschuuren
    • English
    A unique introduction to the philosophy of science with special emphasis on the life sciences. Part I presents elementary but fundamental concepts and problems in epistemology and their relation to questions of scientific methodology. Part II deals with case studies from the history of biology which illustrate particular philosophical points while Part III progresses to more complex ideas as on the nature and methodology of science. Part IV discusses the limitations of scientific enquiry and its relations to other systems of knowledge and interpretation.