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Books in Social sciences and humanities

  • Mathematics for Stability and Optimization of Economic Systems

    • 1st Edition
    • May 10, 2014
    • Yasuo Murata
    • Karl Shell
    • English
    Economic Theory and Mathematical Economics: Mathematics for Stability and Optimization of Economic Systems provides information pertinent to the stability aspects and optimization methods relevant to various economic systems. This book presents relevant mathematical theorems sufficient to develop important economic systems, including Leontief input–output systems, Keynesian dynamic models, the Ramsey optimal accumulation systems, and von Neumann expanding economic systems. Organized into two parts encompassing nine chapters, this book begins with an overview of useful theorems on matrices, eigenvalue problems, and matrices with dominant diagonals and P-matrices. This text then explores the linear transformations on vector spaces. Other chapters consider the Hawkins–Simon theorem concerning non-negative linear systems. This book discusses as well the dual linear relations and optimization methods applicable to inequality economic systems. The final chapter deals with powerful optimal control method for dynamical systems. This book is a valuable resource for mathematicians, economists, research workers, and graduate students.
  • Household and Economy

    Welfare Economics of Endogenous Fertility
    • 1st Edition
    • May 10, 2014
    • Marc Nerlove + 2 more
    • Karl Shell
    • English
    Household and Economy: Welfare Economics of Endogenous Fertility deals with welfare economics and the socially optimal population size, as well as the social consequences of individual choice with respect to family size within each generation. The general equilibrium implications of endogenous fertility for a number of issues of population policy are discussed. In addition to their own consumption, the number of children and the utility of each child is assumed to enter the utility function of the parents. Comprised of 10 chapters, this volume begins with a review of social welfare criteria for optimal population size and the static theory of optimal population size, optimal population growth with exogenous fertility, and the theory of endogenous fertility. The reader is then introduced to the basic principles of welfare economics and the economics of externalities, followed by a summary of the traditional theory of household behavior. Subsequent chapters focus on optimal population size according to various social welfare criteria; real and potential externalities generated by the endogeneity of fertility; and the principal alternative reason for having children: to transfer resources from the present to support the future consumption of parents in old age. The book concludes by assessing the implications of endogenous fertility for within-generation income distribution policies and reflecting on the directions in which future research may be fruitful. This monograph will be of value to economists, social scientists, students of welfare economics, and those who wish to understand the contribution of economic analysis to an improved understanding of population policy.
  • Learning Strategies

    • 1st Edition
    • May 10, 2014
    • Harold F. O'Neil
    • English
    Learning Strategies describes a program of research in learning strategies initiated by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 1976. The goal of the program is to improve learning, decrease training time, and reduce training costs by developing and evaluating instructional materials designed to teach basic intellectual and affective skills. This book records the program's progress and suggests further avenues for research. Comprised of eight chapters, this book begins with an overview of the theoretical underpinnings of the teaching and learning approaches to the improvement of education, followed by a discussion on DARPA's preliminary work on an empirically based learning-strategy training program as well as its efforts to expand and modify the program. In order to provide an intellectual foundation for this program, several fields are surveyed for potential learning strategies, namely, cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, behavioral modification, and motor learning. An instructional systems development approach for learning strategies is also proposed. The final chapter deals with models of evaluation extant in education and training and discusses the specific application of transactional evaluation to the DARPA Learning Strategies Research Program. This monograph should be of interest to students, teachers, and educational psychologists.
  • NIH: An Account of Research in Its Laboratories and Clinics

    • 1st Edition
    • May 10, 2014
    • DeWitt Stetten
    • English
    NIH: An Account of Research in Its Laboratories and Clinics contains collected accounts of the Intramural Research Program, as they happened in the laboratories and clinics, in various installations of the National Institutes of Health across the U.S.A. One paper discusses the etiology of schizophrenia which notes that, based on evidence and expanded adoption studies by Ketty, Rosenthal, and Wender, genetic factors actually contribute to the development of the disease. In developing countries, schizophrenia follows a more benign course. Some papers describe bacteriology, mycology, viral hepatitis, basic immunology, clinical immunology, and the development of enzymology. Researchers studying proteins elucidate on the synthesis and folding of protein chains, protein conformation and dynamics, the semisynthesis and protein function, as well as on sequence analysis and collagen research. Other papers describe the breaking of the genetic code, the progress made from the genetic code to beta thalassemia, to investigations of genetic diseases (such as galactosemia, gout, Lesch-Nyhan disease, mucopolysaccharide storage disease, and sickle cell disease). One paper notes the contribution of the intramural clinical research program of the National Cancer Institute to cancer therapy with emphasis in cancer chemotherapy. Professors in pharmacology, practitioners of general medicine, specialists or researchers dealing with microchemistry, toxicology, drug therapy, or oncology will find the collection valuable.
  • Shawnee Minisink

    A Stratified Paleoindian–Archaic Site in the Upper Delaware Valley of Pennsylvania
    • 1st Edition
    • May 10, 2014
    • Charles W. McNett
    • English
    Studies in Archaeology: Shawnee Minisink: A Stratified Paleoindian-Archaic Site in the Upper Delaware Valley of Pennsylvania focuses on the excavation of the Shawnee Minisink and its connection with the lifestyles of the earliest inhabitants of North America. The selection first offers information on the Upper Delaware Valley Early Man Project, early history of archaeological research at the Shawnee Minisink Site, and methodology and research design at the Shawnee Minisink Site. Discussions focus on data recovery design, evaluation of methodology, research context, and goals. The text then examines the biophysical conditions of the Upper Delaware Valley; aboriginal subsistence and site ecology as interpreted from microfloral and faunal remains; and artifact morphology and chronology at the Shawnee Minisink Site. The book takes a look at myth, reality, and the Upper Delaware Valley, Paleoindian artifact form and function at Shawnee Minisink, and Paleoindian to early archaic transition at the Shawnee Minisink Site. Topics include environmental setting, lithic analysis results, secondary modifications, hafting, endscraper distributional pattern, analytic technique and procedure, and paleoecological reconstruction. The selection is a dependable reference for archeologists wanting to conduct further studies on the Shawnee Minisink Site.
  • Monkeys as Perceivers

    • 1st Edition
    • May 10, 2014
    • Roger T. Davis
    • Leonard A. Rosenblum
    • English
    Primate Behavior: Developments in Field and Laboratory Research, Volume 3: Monkeys as Perceivers illustrates some general procedures for studying nonverbal perceiving in monkeys. This book takes into account the environment that was present when the monkeys were evolving their basic patterns of behavior in order to describe monkeys as perceivers. The topics include the general requirements for a description of nonverbal perception, inferences about attention, and complex conflicting cues of space. The interpretation of spatial discontiguity, alternative ways to measure detour performance, and methodological problems in specifying form are also described. This publication likewise covers the confusion errors in short-term memory and color perception. This volume is suitable for biologists and researchers interested in monkeys as perceivers.
  • Montague Grammar

    • 1st Edition
    • May 10, 2014
    • Barbara H Partee
    • English
    Montague Grammar is a collection of papers that discusses Richard Montague's work on the syntax and semantics of natural languages. The papers examine the applications of Montague's theory to problems of syntax and semantics, and compares Montague's approach to other theories of language. One paper describes the features in Montague's "The Proper Treatment of Quantification in Ordinary English" (PTQ), namely, the grammatical categories and lexicon, the rules most similar to CF-rules, and the treatment of quantification. Another paper presents mechanisms to Montague's grammatical framework which will allow a variety of English constructions—especi... those involving sentence embedding. The paper discusses syntactic rules, such as noun phrases, verb phrases, subject-predicate sentences, variable binding, abstracts, verbs taking infinitive complements, the copula, participles. One paper describes a fragment of English that is a variation and extension of the fragment presented in Montague. It also analyses adjectival phrases, three-place and other kinds of verbs, the passive voice, reflexive pronouns, and sentences using the dummy subject "it." Another paper proposes rules, syntactics, and semantics for use in nonrestrictive clauses in a Montague grammar. One paper analyzes factives, their semantic and syntactic properties using the work of Kiparsky and Kiparsky (1971). Montague's "Universal Grammar" (UG) invokes expositions of Montague syntax, Cooper syntax, theorems on conversion process, semantic interpretation, semantic equivalence of the two systems, and interpretive semantics. The collection is intended for readers of Montague, as well as for linguists, philosophers, and students of language.
  • Introductory Macroeconomics

    • 2nd Edition
    • May 10, 2014
    • Michael Veseth
    • English
    Introductory Macroeconomics, Second Edition deals with national economic issues, such as unemployment, inflation, the aggregate demand-aggregate supply model of macroeconomics, government economic policy, exchange, rates, international trade, and finance. The book examines national economic problems, economic goals, the role markets play in the economy, price control, unemployment, and inflation. By using the Phillips curve trade-off, the text notes that inflation increases the demand for labor. In the long term, according to the long-run Phillips curve, increased inflation does not actually lessen unemployment levels (known as the natural unemployment rate hypothesis). The text also examines whether minimum wage laws are necessary (to fight poverty, prevent exploitation) or cause poverty (in which the imposition of minimum wage results in lower demand for unskilled labor). The book notes that politics and unions favor minimum wage laws. The poor, uneducated, and unskilled laborers are left out. The text also tackles goals and trade-offs: for example, that economic growth suffers from both inflation and unemployment, or the trade-off that preventing unemployment only results in worse inflation problems. Economists, sociologists, professors in economics, or policy makers involved in economic and social development will find the text valuable.
  • Social Program Implementation

    Quantitative Studies in Social Relations
    • 1st Edition
    • May 10, 2014
    • Walter Williams + 1 more
    • English
    Quantitative Studies in Social Relations: Social Program Implementation provides information pertinent to implementation problems in social policy areas. This book discusses the greatest difficulty in devising better social programs. Organized into five parts encompassing 12 chapters, this book begins with an overview of implementation problems in federally funded programs. This text then focuses on the social agency where the many bureaucratic problems in multilayered structure clearly illustrate crucial implementation issues. Other chapters consider the structure and incentive systems of public schools as they relate to the adoption of innovations and to their implementation in the schools. This book discusses as well the idea of planned variation from the perspective of a model sponsor. The final chapter deals with crucial impediment to improving complex operating programs, policy analysis, and experimentation in social policy areas. This book is a valuable resource for policy planners, administrators, and analysts. Researchers engaged in social policy studies will also find this book useful.
  • Theory of Microeconomics

    • 1st Edition
    • May 10, 2014
    • Trout Rader
    • English
    Theory of Microeconomics provides information pertinent to the fundamental aspects of microeconomics. This book covers a variety of topics, including economic theory, resource allocation, production transformations, producer efficiency, utility functions, consumer efficiency, and trade efficiency. Organized into four parts encompassing 11 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the definition of economics and provides several views of the significance of theory in economics. This text then examines the role of mathematics in economic theory and discusses the mathematical background for the theory of production. Other chapters consider the formal structure of economics, which is elaborated and compared with the theory of resource allocations and with classical mechanics. This book discusses as well the properties of production, the neoclassical model of production, and the problem of producer efficiency. The final chapter deals with capital goods and financial assets. This book is a valuable resource for professional economists and graduate students in economics.