Social sciences and humanities print books and ebooks | Elsevier

Philosophy and Archaeology

1st Edition
June 28, 2014
Merrilee H. Salmon
English
Paperback
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eBook
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Studies in Archaeology: Philosophy and Archaeology presents the circumstances under which archeological hypotheses can be considered confirmed or disconfirmed. This book discusses the role of analogy in archeological reasoning, particularly in ascribing functions to archeological items. Organized into seven chapters, this book begins with an overview of the relationship between archeology and philosophy. This text then examines the importance of laws for archeology and discusses some essential features of law statements. Other chapters consider the strong claims for the hypothetico–deductiv... method of confirmation in various works by archeologists. This book discusses as well the different uses of analogical reasoning in archeology and provides a discussion of the structure of analogical arguments, criteria for evaluating them, and their relations to the Bayesian arguments for confirmation. The final chapter deals with several issues related to the development of a theory of archeology. This book is a valuable resource for archeologists and philosophers.

Scientific Uncertainty, and Information

1st Edition
May 12, 2014
Leon Brillouin
English
Paperback
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eBook
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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.

Schools & Persistent Absentees

1st Edition
June 28, 2014
D. Galloway
English
Paperback
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Hardback
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eBook
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Drawing on an extensive study of persistent absentees, their families and their schools, David Galloway explores the prevalence of absence from schools and the underlying causes. He shows that a majority of poor attendees remain at home with their parents' knowledge, and often with their consent, and argues that the disadvantaged circumstances of many of the families concerned is of little relevance to teachers unless they also recognize how the pupils and their families view what the school has to offer. Using his experience as a teacher, educational psychologist and researcher, he demonstrates that school attendance cannot be usefully considered in isolation from the life and work of the school as a whole.

The Titius-Bode Law of Planetary Distances

1st Edition
May 17, 2014
Michael Martin Nieto
D. Ter Haar
English
Paperback
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eBook
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The Titius-Bode Law of Planetary Distances: Its History and Theory is a 15-chapter book that first discusses the prehistory of the Law from Kepler to Kant. The next chapter details the formulation of the Titius-Bode Law. Subsequent chapters describe the Law's early successes and failures, early modifications of the Law, the Blagg-Richardson formulation, and the significance of the Law with respect to the origin of the solar system. Other chapters discuss the theories of all types that have been proposed to explain the ""classical Titius-Bode Law"", i.e. the geometric progression.

Dental Anthropology

1st Edition
May 15, 2014
D. R. Brothwell
English
Paperback
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eBook
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Symposia of the Society for the Study of Human Biology, Volume V: Dental Anthropology is a collection of papers that covers the application of dental pathology in the context of anthropology. The book presents 15 studies that cover various human dental variables and relates to different anthropological factors. The dental variables considered in the articles include tooth morphology; occlusion and malocclusion of primate teeth; morphogenesis of deciduous molar pattern in man; and double-rooted human lower canine teeth. The text also covers topics about race specific dental traits such as radiographic study of the Neanderthal teeth from Krapina; crown characters of the deciduous dentition of the Japanese-American hybrids; and analysis of the American Indian dentition. The selection will be of great interest to evolutionary scientists, such as anthropologists and paleontologists.

Evaluation in Education

1st Edition
May 19, 2014
Bruce H. Choppin + 1 more
English
Paperback
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eBook
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Evaluation in Education, Volume 1 is a series of monographs that compiles various studies that cover the methodologies and techniques utilized in evaluating student performance in various educational systems. The first material is a comparative study of the differences in the achievement of overtime between ethnic groups in Israeli elementary school. Next, the book presents a paper about defining educational objectives. The next study discusses the various aspects of a multiple choice type of test. The last article tackles the impact of success and failure on the learner. The text will be of great use to individuals involved in the development and implementation of student evaluation related policies in educational institutions.

Sociocultural Dimensions of Language Change

1st Edition
May 10, 2014
Ben G. Blount + 1 more
English
Paperback
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eBook
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Sociocultural Dimensions of Language Change focuses on the influence of sociocultural terms on the forms of languages. The selection first underscores the sociocultural dimensions of language change and language evolution and speech style. Discussions focus on the relation of speech style and language evolution, linguistic evidence of language evolution, autonomy of code and style, language contact phenomena, and extension of the concept of language. The book then takes a look at speech and social prestige in the Belizian speech community; Japanese numeral classifiers; and speculations on the growth of ethnobotanical nomenclature. Topics include appearance of varietal names, differentiation and formation of specific names, six universal categories of ethnobotanical nomenclature, salience of speech, and prestige, social success, and language. The publication elaborates on color categorization in West Futunese; creolization and syntactic change in New Guinea Tok Pisin; relexification processes in Philippine Creole Spanish; and the historical and sociocultural aspects of the distribution of linguistic variants in highland Chiapas, Mexico. The selection is a valuable source of data for language experts and researchers interested in the sociocultural dimensions of language change.

The Changing Landscape of China’s Consumerism

1st Edition
July 2, 2014
Alison Hulme
English
Hardback
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Paperback
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eBook
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Consumerism in China has developed rapidly. The Changing Landscape of China's Consumerism looks at the growth of consumerism in China from both a socio-economic and a political/cultural angle. It examines changing trends in consumption in China as well as the impact of these trends on society, and the politics and culture surrounding them. It examines the ways in which, despite needing to "unlock" the spending power of the rural provinces, the Chinese authorities are also keen to maintain certain attitudes towards the Communist Party and socialism "with Chinese Characteristics." Overall, it aims to show that consumerism in China today is both an economic and political phenomenon and one which requires both surrounding political culture and economic trends for its continued establishment. The ways in which this dual relationship both supports and battles with itself are explored through apposite case studies including the use of New Confucianism in the market context, the commodification of Lei Feng, the new Chinese tourist as a diplomatic tool in consumption, the popularity of Shanzhai (fake product) culture, and the conspicuous consumption of China's new middle class.

Public Enterprise Economics

2nd Edition
Volume 23
July 15, 2014
Dieter Bös
C. J. Bliss + 1 more
English
Paperback
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eBook
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Advanced Textbooks in Economics, Volume 23: Public Enterprise Economics: Theory and Application focuses on economics, mathematical economics, and econometrics, including microeconomics, marginal-cost pricing, taxes, and income effects. The manuscript takes a look at the essential parts of public sector pricing models, normative optimum theory, and normative piecemeal theory. Discussions focus on welfare improvements with non-tight constraints, welfare -improving increases of public inefficiency, conditions for optimal prices and quantities, compensating for income effects, and conditions for optimal quality. The book then ponders on marginal-cost pricing, Ramsey pricing, rate of return regulation, and pricing with distributional aims. Topics include comparing distributional and allocative pricing, prices versus taxes, optimum Ramsey policy, influence of Ramsey prices on allocation, distribution, and stabilization, and consequences for allocation, distribution, and stabilization. The publication examines bus and underground services in London, economic theory and empirical analysis, and different approaches towards optimal quality, including empirical studies on bus and underground demand, organizational and political history, and microeconomics of the representative consumer. The book is a valuable source of data for researchers interested in public enterprise economics.

Toward a New Strategy for Development

1st Edition
May 19, 2014
Albert O. Hirschman + 2 more
English
eBook
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Toward a New Strategy for Development: A Rothko Chapel Colloquium is a collection of papers commissioned by the Rothko Chapel and presented at a colloquium held in Houston, Texas on February 3-5, 1977. The colloquium provided a forum for discussing the need for a new strategy for development, with emphasis on needs and programs from the perspectives of the developed countries at the center of the world's economic system and of the developing countries at its periphery, and from the standpoint of different disciplines. Comprised of 10 chapters, this book begins with an introduction to Marxism and its congruence with other neoclassical doctrines such as the Chicago School, followed by a discussion on development economics as well as the conditions that gave rise to the rapidly growing interest in development. The next chapter traces the origins and history of one major body of Latin American ideas on development since the early 1950s: the United Nation's Economic Commission for Latin America. Subsequent chapters explore internal issues of development within countries, with emphasis on urban and rural bias as well as factors that influence regional development policy; the postwar economic experience of the Third World; and the reactions of developed countries to calls for a new international economic order. This monograph will be of interest to economists and sociologists.

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