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Books in Social sciences and humanities

Sociocultural Dimensions of Language Change
1st Edition
Ben G. Blount + 1 more
English
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.
Portfolio Theory
With Application to Bank Asset Management
1st Edition
Giorgio P. Szegö
Karl Shell
English
Portfolio Theory: With Application to Bank Asset Management provides information pertinent to the fundamental aspects of the management of bank assets and liabilities. This book presents the mean-variance approach to obtain many analytical results and a complete insight into the portfolio selection problem. Organized into 16 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the formalization of decision-making under uncertainty. This text then presents the construction and complete analysis of a Markowitz-type portfolio selection model. Other chapters consider the problems of portfolio selection in an inflationary or multicurrency environment. This book discusses as well an approximate technique for constructing a diagonal model at the cost of increasing by one the number of investments and the number of constraints. The final chapter deals with the study of the portfolio selection problem and to the analysis of the properties of the efficient set of the mean variance criterion. This book is a valuable resource for economists.
The Unity of the Senses
Interrelations Among the Modalities
1st Edition
Lawrence E. Marks
Edward C. Carterette + 1 more
English
Academic Press Series in Cognition and Perception: The Unity of the Senses: Interrelations Among the Modalities focuses on the perceptual processes, approaches, and methodologies involved in studies on the unity of the senses. The publication first elaborates on the doctrines of equivalent information, analogous sensory attributes and qualities, and common psychophysical properties. Discussions focus on discrimination, sensitivity, sound symbolism, intensity, brightness, and cross-modal perception of size, form, and space. The text then examines the doctrine of neural correspondences and sound symbolism in poetry, including sound and meaning, analogue and formal representation, vowel symbolism in poetry, coding perceptual information, coding sensory attributes, and evolution and development. The manuscript takes a look at synesthetic metaphor in poetry, as well as unity of the senses and synesthetic metaphor, warm and cool colors, synesthetic metaphors of odor and music, metaphorical imperative, and the music of Conrad Aiken. The publication is a valuable source of data for researchers interested in the unity of the senses.
Microeconomics
A Modern Treatment
1st Edition
R. Shone
Karl Shell
English
Microeconomics: A Modern Treatment focuses on modern approaches to microeconomics. Alternative systems are discussed including input-output analysis as against neoclassical production theory. The theory of choice and the preference and utility approaches to consumer theory are also considered, along with linear and nonlinear theories of production, the theory of market demand and supply, and welfare economics. Comprised of 11 chapters, this book begins with an introduction to economic science and its propositions, as well as the importance of establishing a clearly defined set of postulates on which the whole edifice of economic knowledge rests. The discussion then turns to the theory of choice and the preference and utility approaches to consumer theory; neoclassical as opposed to modern consumer choice; production theory and the production set of the economy; and the theory of market demand and supply. Subsequent chapters deal with the theory of exchange and general equilibrium; welfare economics; and stability and introductory dynamics. This monograph will be of value to economists and those interested in microeconomics.
Nonhuman Primates and Medical Research
1st Edition
Geoffrey H. Bourne
English
Nonhuman Primates and Medical Research focuses on the contributions of nonhuman primates to biomedical research. The selection first elaborates on monkeys and yellow fever, cell cultures, and tuberculosis and bacterial infection. Discussions focus on bacterial diseases, tuberculosis, radiobiology, antibody formation and pharmacologic studies, cell-culture media and methods, the rhesus monkey and early history of yellow fever research, and monkeys and yellow fever in the future. The text then elaborates on virus research, models for investigation in parasitology, and primates as organ donors in transplantation studies in man. The manuscript examines the importance of monkeys for the study of malignant tumors in man; use of primates in cardiovascular research; and humanlike diseases in anthropoid apes. Topics include etiology of humanlike disease in anthropoid apes, atherosclerosis, historical aspects of primate research, selection of a suitable primate, and preeclampsia. The text also ponders on primate studies and human evolution and mental retardation. The selection is a valuable reference for researchers interested in the contributions of nonhuman primates to biomedical research.
The Hamiltonian Approach to Dynamic Economics
1st Edition
David Cass + 1 more
English
The Hamiltonian Approach to Dynamic Economics focuses on the application of the Hamiltonian approach to dynamic economics and attempts to provide some unification of the theory of heterogeneous capital. Emphasis is placed on the stability of long-run steady-state equilibrium in models of heterogeneous capital accumulation. Generalizations of the Samuelson-Scheinkman approach are also given. Moreover, conditions are sought on the geometry of the Hamiltonian function (that is, on static technology) that suffice to preserve under (not necessarily small) perturbation the basic properties of the Hamiltonian dynamical system. Comprised of eight essays, this book begins with an introduction to Hamiltonian dynamics in economics, followed by a discussion on optimal steady states of n-sector growth models when utility is discounted. Optimal growth and decentralized or descriptive growth models in both continuous and discrete time are treated as applications of Hamiltonian dynamics. Theproblem of optimal growth with zero discounting is considered, with emphasis on a steepness condition on the Hamiltonian function. The general problem of decentralized growth with instantaneously adjusted expectations about price changes is also analyzed, along with the global asymptotic stability of optimal control systems with applications to the theory of economic growth. This monograph will be of value to mathematicians and economists.
Reinforcement
Behavioral Analyses
1st Edition
R. M. Gilbert + 1 more
English
Reinforcement: Behavioral Analyses covers the proceedings of the 1970 Symposium on Schedule-induced and Schedule-Dependent Phenomena, held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This symposium highlights theoretically inclined papers on reinforcement processes. This text contains 10 chapters and begins with a description of how behavior is induced by various environmental events, especially reinforcing events, as well as the relationship between control by inducing stimuli and reinforceability. The subsequent chapters deal with reinforcement phenomena in terms of preference relations and the conditioned emotional responses in terms of opposing motivational processes. These topics are followed by reviews of schedule-dependent effects of preaversive stimuli and the maintenance of behavior by apparent reinforcers that might be expected to punish, as well as the identification of critical variable that underlie the phenomenon. Other chapters examine the interactions between operant and responded conditioning processes. The final chapters outline the experiments on behavior stream whose hallmark is reinforcement if the absence of specified behavior. These chapters emphasize the analogy between the evolution of species and the modification of behavior. This book will be of value to behaviorists and psychologists.
The Second Paycheck
A Socioeconomic Analysis of Earnings
1st Edition
Alice Nakamura + 1 more
English
The Second Paycheck: A Socioeconomic Analysis of Earnings is a comprehensive analysis of the socioeconomic aspects of earnings, with emphasis on the dynamic labor supply behavior of men and women. The importance of dynamic models in understanding labor supply is highlighted. The impact of children on the dynamic labor supply of men and women, and how changes in marital status affect female labor supply, are also discussed. Comprised of eight chapters, this book begins by considering several reasons why the labor force behavior of married women has become an important topic in the mainstream of the economics literature. The work behavior of married women is examined in the larger context of the work behavior of married and unmarried men and women. Furthermore, a microanalytic simulation approach to behavioral research and forecasting is presented. The behavioral model used in this study is then described. In addition to coefficient estimates, the probabilities of work, expected wage rates and expected hours of work are analyzed. A Heckman-type model of work behavior is also generalized to include unemployment. This monograph is intended for economists, sociologists, students of labor economics, researchers, forecasters, and those from all backgrounds who are interested in understanding or forecasting the employment and earnings behavior of women.
Imagery
Current Cognitive Approaches
1st Edition
Sydney Joelson Segal
English
Imagery: Current Cognitive Approaches focuses on cognitive approaches to the study of imagery. Topics range from the brief image or icon, which serves as the source of storage in short-term memory, to global behavior changes, including hallucinatory imagery under the influence of drugs and hypnotic states. The role of the image in verbal learning and the relationship of the image to both sensory and cognitive aspects of perception are also considered. Comprised of six chapters, this book begins with a discussion on the relationship between imagery and language and a review of some specific evidence pertaining to the psycholinguistic problems of meaning, comprehension, and the learning and retention of verbal material. Subsequent chapters deal with visual perception and the function of iconic storage; different theoretical views on the definition of image; and processing of the stimulus in imagery and perception. The book concludes by analyzing how vivid imagery, "hallucinations", and other alterations in visual perception are produced by LSD and also by suggestions given under hypnosis. This monograph will be of interest to graduate students, teachers, and researchers of cognitive psychology, as well as to clinical psychologists and psychiatrists.
Parmana
Prehistoric Maize and Manioc Subsistence Along the Amazon and Orinoco
1st Edition
Anna Curtenius Roosevelt
English
Parmana: Prehistoric Maize and Manioc Subsistence along the Amazon and Orinoco argues for a reinterpretation of prehistoric subsistence in the Greater Amazonian region of South America. Based on the preliminary results of an archaeological fieldwork in Parmana of the Orinoco basin, Venezuela, the book re-evaluates some of the assumptions made by anthropologists about human adaptation and the development of aboriginal culture in Amazonia. Comprised of six chapters, this volume begins with a review of the theories of five scholars of aboriginal Amazonia in terms of logic and documentation: Julian Steward, Betty Meggers, Robert Carneiro, Donald Lathrap, and Daniel Gross. The next chapter presents an alternative theory, the hypothesis of technological change, and explains its theoretical framework. The demographic theory of cultural evolution is discussed, and its basis in general evolutionary theory is explained. Subsequent chapters focus on the empirical evidence for the hypothesis in studies of tropical resources, with emphasis on the productivity of tropical lowland soils and Amazonian faunal resources as well as the roles of maize and manioc in prehistoric Amazonian subsistence; the physical and biological characteristics of the Parmana region as an environment for prehistoric human adaptation; and the history of subsistence and population growth in prehistoric Parmana. The final chapter suggests possible directions for future research on the development of aboriginal culture in Amazonia. The book is illustrated with numerous maps, tables, and photographs, most of them never published before. This monograph should be of interest to archaeologists and anthropologists.

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