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Books in Social sciences and humanities

    • The Perception of Poverty

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 156
      • June 28, 2014
      • A.J.M. Hagenaars
      • English
      • Paperback
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      • eBook
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      An attempt to define, measure and explain poverty is presented in this volume by means of a newly developed theoretical model. A combination of theory and empirical application is achieved by using the theoretical model on a sizeable data set derived from an extensive survey conducted in eight European countries. The nature of poverty is thereby empirically defined (and not a priori) as being the income level at which households feel that their income is just between sufficient and insufficient.An aggregate poverty index, associated with this poverty line definition, is calculated for each country and for subgroups within each country.Conclusions for social policy are drawn, describing which groups are at especially high risk of entering poverty, and who therefore need more specific policies. It is also discussed to what extent economic growth will eliminate poverty and which alternative measures are available.
    • Electronic Warfare

      • 1st Edition
      • June 28, 2014
      • Don E. Gordon
      • English
      • Paperback
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      Electronic Warfare: Element of Strategy and Multiplier of Combat Power describes how the application of electronic warfare allowed the Allies to multiply combat power during World War II in order to accomplish strategic objectives. This book is composed of eight chapters that also consider how the United States had best prepare a strategy to fight on the battlefield with electronic warfare. After briefly presenting the history of electric warfare equipment, this book goes on exploring the technologies of cryptology and microwave radar, and their significance in the battle. These topics are followed by a chapter focusing on the accomplishments of the German surface fleet. The succeeding chapters demonstrate the power of German army with their U-boats, and cruisers, Scheer, Lutzow, Hipper, and Prinz Eugen. The final chapter looks into the issues of preparedness, the cost of defense, the role of technology, political and economic appraisal, and the need to multiply combat power quickly and inexpensively.
    • Speech and Language

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 3
      • June 28, 2014
      • Norman J. Lass
      • English
      • Paperback
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      • eBook
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      Speech and Language: Volume 3, Advances in Basic Research and Practice is a compendium of papers that discusses theories, clinical issues, and pathology of language and speech. Some papers discuss theories of phonological development, the encoding/decoding system of language, and the application of phonological universals in speech pathology. Other papers deal with the role of the speech-language clinician, a psychological framework for speech perception, and the formulation of a model for biomechanical analysis of velopharyngeal structure and function. Several papers analyze speech control mechanisms in skilled and non-skilled speakers, the rationale for the delayed auditory feedback (DAF) treatment program, and biofeedback in relation to speech pathology. One paper cites a study of Williams (1974) that shows strategies used in learning a new phonetic system depend upon whether the speaker is still within the critical period for language learning or already well beyond it. The paper notes that if adults can ignore their previously learned sound system and be childlike again in their freedom to experiment and be sensitivity to their own results, then they can achieve supra-segmental and segmental nuances of a new language. The compendium can prove helpful for linguists, ethnologists, psychologists, speech therapists, researchers in linguistics or communications, and general readers interested in speech or learning issues.
    • Models and Methods in Multiple Criteria Decision Making

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 23
      • June 28, 2014
      • G. Colson + 1 more
      • English
      • Paperback
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      This volume is devoted to models and methods in multiple objectives decision making. The importance of the multiple dimensions of decision making was first recognised during the 1960s and since then progress has been made in that theoretical or application oriented contributions may now be categorized under two main headings:- Multiattribute Decision Making (MADM) which concerns the sorting, the ranking or the evaluation of objects of choice according to several criteria and Multiobjective Decision Making (MODM) which deals with the vector optimization in mathematical programming. The above are also presented in the context of various applications, namely banking, environment, health, manpower, media, portfolio and traffic control, resulting in a book for a wide variety of readers.
    • Speech and Language

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 9
      • June 28, 2014
      • Norman J. Lass
      • English
      • Paperback
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      • eBook
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      Speech and Language: Advances in Basic Research and Practice, Volume 9 is a collection of contributions that discuss a broad range of topics on speech and language processes and pathologies. This volume contains seven contributions covering a wide array of topics on speech and language. It covers topics on speech development and production in normal and hearing-impaired speakers; integrated speech and language instruction for the hearing-impaired adolescent; and laryngectomee rehabilitation. Also discussed are subjects on sensory and motor changes during development and aging; the phonetic structure of errors in the perception of fluent speech; and the multiple meanings of phoneme and their confusions. Linguists, speech pathologists, and researchers on language development will find the book very insightful and informative.
    • Price Expectations in Rising Inflation

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 152
      • June 28, 2014
      • I. Visco
      • English
      • Paperback
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      It is claimed in this book that expectations should not necessarily be treated as unobservable variables and that there is much to be learned from survey data. A unique data set is examined, the output of surveys conducted twice a year since 1952, among informed Italian businessmen and economic experts. The predictive accuracy, rationality and determinants of inflation expectations are investigated, following an extensive analysis of measurement issues.The estimate of inflation expectations are evaluated for both wholesale and consumer price changes, comparing them with those held by respondents to other surveys for different countries and with the forecasts generated by alternative predictors of the inflation process. The expectations considered in the study are shown to be remarkably accurate, anticipating all major price changes, even if during the years of high and rising inflation which have followed the first oil crisis they appear to underestimate on a number of occasions the inflation rates actually experienced, as the alternative predictors also do.An accurate testing of the rational expectations hypothesis is conducted, rejecting it over the entire sample period but not for the period of mild, but variable inflation which preceded the first oil crises.It is shown that a mixed adaptive-regressive model, with both error-learning and return-to-normality components adapts very well to the data considered in this study and that inflation expectations are also influenced by an uncertainty component which affects the adaptive coefficient. Furthermore, regression towards normality is slowed down when industrial capacity is utilized above normal, and vice-versa. Many other issues such as the dispersion of individual answers, the problems of aggregation and measurement error are also considered and an extensive bibliography of other works where use is made of direct information on expectations, is included.
    • Behavior of Nonhuman Primates

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 1
      • June 28, 2014
      • Allan M. Schrier + 2 more
      • English
      • Paperback
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      Behavior of Nonhuman Primates: Modern Research Trends, Volume I focuses on studies on the dynamics of behavior of nonhuman primates. The selection first offers information on discrete-trial training techniques and stimulus variables and discrimination-learn... sets. Discussions focus on the characteristics of learning-set behavior, procedural variables, basic learning-set procedures, renaissance of contiguity, border cues and additivity, and contiguity and automation. The text then ponders on hypothesis behavior and delayed-response problem, including variations of the delayed-response problem; delayed response and discrimination learning contrasted; and the hypothesis model and its application to the object-discriminatio... experiment. The manuscript examines associative problems and operant conditioning. Topics include discriminative behavior, similarity and dissimilarity problems, alternation problems, discrimination reversal problems, discrimination problems, and behavior controlled by aversive stimuli. The text is a valuable reference for researchers interested in the behavior of nonhuman primates.
    • Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 6
      • June 28, 2014
      • English
      • eBook
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      Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, Volume 6 is a collection of papers dealing with the study of man's ancestors in antiquity. One paper compares archaeology in Europe and in North America where turn-of-the-century archaeologists, both professionals and amateurs, have contributed to the development of the science. Their contribution has led to an institutional sense of delineating professionals and amateurs in archaeological science and, more substantially, in matters of defining stone tools, cultural occupations, and cultural change. Another paper discusses large-scale stylistic trait distribution in broad terms related to archaeology, sociology, and geography. A model of cultural evolution simplifies anthropological concept of cultural complexity into inequality and heterogeneity, which are measurable variables to test hypotheses of cultural evolution. One paper cites the case of the Maya as subsistence and complex societies to show the diversity of Maya agriculture and other subsistence subsystems. One paper notes that the concepts and theory which archaeologists are using tend to be more sophisticated than their ability to provide samples of observations for testing. The collection is suitable for professional or amateur archaeologists, anthropologist, sociologists, and researchers interested in pre-historical times and cultures.
    • Regiomontanus: His Life and Work

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 1
      • June 28, 2014
      • E. Zinner + 1 more
      • English
      • Paperback
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      The 500th anniversary of Regiomontanus's birth has occasioned this depiction of his life and work. It is the first English translation of Ernst Zinner's monumental biography, plus a number of specially-written supplementary articles which help paint a more comprehensive picture of the current state of knowledge about Regiomontanus. The articles show the high regard in which the biography is still held by the community of scholars doing work on the mathematics of the Renaissance.Zinner's biography is a mine of information about early printing, astrolabes, tables of eclipses and the world of Henry of Langenstein, Johann of Gmunden, Georg Peuerbach, Cardinal Bessarion, Nicholas of Cusa and the extraordinary itinerant scholar, Johannes Müller of Königsberg — Regiomontanus. His contributions to mathematics are discussed (for example, he may have discovered the fifth and sixth perfect numbers) as well as the mysteries surrounding his life and death.
    • Incest: A Biosocial View

      • 1st Edition
      • June 28, 2014
      • MOST
      • English
      • Paperback
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      • eBook
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      Incest: A Biosocial View focuses on the sociobiological theory of incest and compares it with other theoretical approaches to the problem. The argument made in this book is that the existence of culture does not lead to the exemption of Homo sapiens from the evolutionary process. Instead, it creates a coevolutionary process, of which the evolution of incest avoidance in human beings is the simplest, yet most instructive, example. Comprised of 11 chapters, this volume begins with an introduction to the problem of incest, followed by a discussion on the sociobiological theory in general and some important methodological issues. Epigenetic rules and the importance of reproduction are considered, along with inclusive fitness and kin selection; kinship altruism (nepotism); reciprocal altruism; mate selection and parental investment, parent-child and sibling conflict; aggression and social order; and the biosocial view of culture. The next three chapters survey the theories and empirical findings that led to the sociobiological theory of incest, with particular reference to the views of Edward Westermarck as well as the kibbutz and the sim-pua. The propositions of the sociobiological theory of incest are then outlined. The book concludes by summarizing the classic theories of incest and synthesizing them in light of the sociobiological theory. This monograph is relevant to psychoanalysts, sociologists, biologists, anthropologists, and psychologists studying the problem of incest.