Skip to main content

Books in Social sciences and humanities

Introduction to Environmental Forensics
3rd Edition
July 30, 2014
Brian L. Murphy + 1 more
English
The third edition of Introduction to Environmental Forensics is a state-of-the-art reference for the practicing environmental forensics consultant, regulator, student, academic, and scientist, with topics including compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA), advanced multivariate statistical techniques, surrogate approaches for contaminant source identification and age dating, dendroecology, hydrofracking, releases from underground storage tanks and piping, and contaminant-transpor... modeling for forensic applications. Recognized international forensic scientists were selected to author chapters in their specific areas of expertise and case studies are included to illustrate the application of these methods in actual environmental forensic investigations. This edition provides updates on advances in various techniques and introduces several new topics.
Advanced Topics in Forensic DNA Typing: Interpretation
1st Edition
July 28, 2014
John M. Butler
English
Advanced Topics in Forensic DNA Typing: Interpretation builds upon the previous two editions of John Butler’s internationally acclaimed Forensic DNA Typing textbook with forensic DNA analysts as its primary audience. Intended as a third-edition companion to the Fundamentals of Forensic DNA Typing volume published in 2010 and Advanced Topics in Forensic DNA Typing: Methodology published in 2012, this book contains 16 chapters with 4 appendices providing up-to-date coverage of essential topics in this important field. Over 80 % of the content of this book is new compared to previous editions.
Library Instruction Design
Learning from Google and Apple
1st Edition
July 25, 2014
Di Su
English
The design philosophies of Google and Apple represent different approaches to new product design. Google's model features bottom-up and data-driven decision-making processes, while Apple's model is to design and build products top-down. Library instruction program design may learn from these differing but complementary approaches. Inspired by Google’s and Apple’s success, Library Instruction Design details how library instruction program design may learn from the philosophy of product design in the business world. In designing library instruction, a Google-philosophy approach teaches what the user wants to know while an Apple-philosophy approach teaches what the librarian thinks the user needs to learn. These two design philosophies aim at different teaching objectives reflecting library and information science education in modern society. The book is divided into five sections, with opening sections covering library instruction, the philosophy of library instruction design and design philosophy from different angles. Later sections discuss applying Google’s model and applying Apple’s model.
Radical Information Literacy
Reclaiming the Political Heart of the IL Movement
1st Edition
July 25, 2014
Andrew Whitworth
English
What would a synthetic theory of Digital, Media and Information Literacy (DMIL) look like? Radical Information Literacy presents, for the first time, a theory of DMIL that synthesises the diversity of perspectives and positions on DMIL, both in the classroom and the workplace, and within the informal learning processes of society. This title is based on original analysis of how decisions are made about the relevance of information and the other resources used in learning, showing how society has privileged objective approaches (used in rule-based decision making) to the detriment of subjective and intersubjective perspectives which promote individual and community contexts. The book goes on to analyse the academic and popular DMIL literature, showing how the field may have been, consciously or unwittingly, complicit in the ‘objectification’ of learning and the disempowerment of individuals and communities. Alternative ways of conceiving the subject are then presented, towards a reversal of these trends.
The Evolution of the US-Japan Alliance
The Eagle and the Chrysanthemum
1st Edition
July 24, 2014
Matteo Dian
English
The US-Japan alliance has contributed significantly towards the development of the Japanese security strategy. The Evolution of the US-Japan Alliance explores developments in the alliance between the US and Japan and analyzes the transformation of the Japanese security strategy from 1960 to 2013. It also describes the rise and the decline of Japanese pacifism and of the Yoshida Doctrine, the post war security strategy. Moreover, this book highlights how the end of the Cold War forced Japan to rethink its security strategy and post war pacifism. Japan has abandoned its identity of “peaceful nation”, turning itself into a “normal national”, drawing closer to the United States.
Collective Choice and Social Welfare
1st Edition
Volume 11
July 24, 2014
A.K. Sen
English
This book is concerned with the study of collective preference, in particular with the relationship between the objectives of social action and the preferences and aspirations of society's members. Professor Sen's approach is based on the assumption that the problem of collective choice cannot be satisfactorily discussed within the confines of economics. While collective choice forms a crucial aspect of economics, the subject pertains also to political science, the theory of the state, and to the theory of decision procedures. The author has therefore used material from these disciplines, plus philosophical aspects from ethics and the theory of justice.
Security Risk Assessment
Managing Physical and Operational Security
1st Edition
July 22, 2014
John M. White
English
Security Risk Assessment is the most up-to-date and comprehensive resource available on how to conduct a thorough security assessment for any organization. A good security assessment is a fact-finding process that determines an organization’s state of security protection. It exposes vulnerabilities, determines the potential for losses, and devises a plan to address these security concerns. While most security professionals have heard of a security assessment, many do not know how to conduct one, how it’s used, or how to evaluate what they have found. Security Risk Assessment offers security professionals step-by-step guidance for conducting a complete risk assessment. It provides a template draw from, giving security professionals the tools needed to conduct an assessment using the most current approaches, theories, and best practices.
Consumer Durable Choice and the Demand for Electricity
1st Edition
Volume 155
July 22, 2014
J.A. Dubin
English
This book develops the theory of durable choice and utilization. The basic assumption is that the demand for energy is a derived demand arising through the production of household services. Durable choice is associated with the choice of a particular technology for providing the household service. Econometric systems are derived which capture both the discrete choice nature of appliance selection and the determination of continuous conditional demand.Using the National Interim Energy Consumption Survey (NIECS) from 1978, a nested logit model of room air-conditioning, central air-conditioning, space-heating and water heating is estimated. The estimated probability choice model is used to forecast the impacts of proposed building standards for newly constructed single family detached residences. A network thermal model provides unit energy consumptions for alternative heating and cooling systems across time. Monthly billing data matched to NIECS is analyzed permitting seasonal estimation of the demand for electricity and natural gas by households.The theory of price specification for demand subject to a declining rate structure is reviewed and tested. Finally, consistent estimation procedures are used in the presence of possible correlation between dummy variables indicating appliance ownership and the equation error. The hypothesis of simultaneity in the demand system is tested.Conditional moments in the generalized extreme value family are derived to extend discrete continuous econometric systems in which discrete choice is assumed logistic. An efficiency comparison of various two-stage consistent estimation techniques applied to a single equation of a dummy endogenous simultaneous equation system is undertaken and asymptotic distributions are derived for each estimation method.
Foundations of Econometrics
1st Edition
Volume 7
July 22, 2014
Albert Madansky
C. J. Bliss + 1 more
English
Advanced Textbooks in Economics, Volume 7: Foundations of Econometrics focuses on the principles, processes, methodologies, and approaches involved in the study of econometrics. The publication examines matrix theory and multivariate statistical analysis. Discussions focus on the maximum likelihood estimation of multivariate normal distribution parameters, point estimation theory, multivariate normal distribution, multivariate probability distributions, Euclidean spaces and linear transformations, orthogonal transformations and symmetric matrices, and determinants. The manuscript then ponders on linear expected value models and simultaneous equation estimation. Topics include random exogenous variables, maximum likelihood estimation of a single equation, identification of a single equation, linear stochastic difference equations, and errors-in-variables models. The book takes a look at a prolegomenon to econometric model building, tests of hypotheses in econometric models, multivariate statistical analysis, and simultaneous equation estimation. Concerns include maximum likelihood estimation of a single equation, tests of linear hypotheses, testing for independence, and causality in economic models. The publication is a valuable source of data for economists and researchers interested in the foundations of econometrics.
Introduction to Equilibrium Analysis
Variations on Themes by Edgeworth and Walras
1st Edition
Volume 6
July 22, 2014
W. Hildenbrand + 1 more
C. J. Bliss + 1 more
English
Advanced Textbooks in Economics, Volume 6: Introduction to Equilibrium Analysis: Variations on Themes by Edgeworth and Walras focuses on the approaches developed and instituted by Edgeworth and Walras in the study of equilibrium analysis. The book first underscores exchange economies, core of a game, and large economies. Discussions focus on economies with a continuum of agents, Walras equilibrium, prices and demand, balancedness, and commodity space. The manuscript then ponders on limit theorems for the core and existence of competitive equilibria. Topics include equilibria without convexity of preferences, existence of equilibria for economies with convex preferences, individual demand, emergence of prices, asymptotic equal treatment for most, uniform boundedness of core allocations, and limit theorems for type and replica economies. The publication examines continuous, upper, and lower hemi-continuous correspondences, fixed point theorems, and separation of convex sets. The book is a vital source of data for economists and researchers interested in equilibrium analysis.

Related subjects