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Books in Social sciences and humanities

Sustainable Development
Constraints and Opportunities
1st Edition
October 22, 2013
Mostafa Kamal Tolba
English
Sustainable Development: Constraints and Opportunities contains a selection of the author's speeches made between 1982 and 1986. During this 5-year period knowledge of environment-developm... relationships has grown considerably, and this evolving perception can be discerned in his statements spanning those years. Taken together, the common thread binding all the speeches is the fact that long-term development can only be achieved through sound environmental management, that is, sustainable development, which is the title of this book. The speeches included in this volume were delivered in the author's capacity as the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). They thus cover primarily broad areas of interest of UNEP's programs and policies. Key topics discussed include environmental protection; disarmament and the environment; environmental information for engineers; the impact of human settlements on the environment; environmental management in the Gulf; the causes, effects, and prevention of desertification; and the environmental impact assessment process.
Disturbed Behavior in the Elderly
1st Edition
October 22, 2013
A.G. Awad + 2 more
English
Disturbed Behavior in the Elderly provides information pertinent to the needs of those giving care as well as of the elderly themselves. This book presents relevant topics of contemporary psychiatric importance. Organized into four parts encompassing 11 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the clinical, administrative, and interpersonal problems posed by the elderly patient with disturbed behavior. This text then examines the rational management of disturbing behavior among the elderly in health care and other residential settings. Other chapters consider the use of medications and psychotropic drugs in old age. This book discusses as well the great value of drug therapy in alleviating the sufferings of the elderly and helping them restore the equilibrium that has been disturbed by aging, physical disability, and shrinking socio-economic network around them. The final chapter deals with staff burnout, job stress, and low morale in dealing with the elderly. This book is a valuable resource for geriatric psychiatrists and caregivers.
Current Topics in Clinical and Community Psychology
Volume 1
1st Edition
October 22, 2013
Charles D. Spielberger
English
Current Topics in Clinical and Community Psychology, Volume 1 reviews advances in clinical and community psychology. Topics covered include theory and research in areas such as psychological assessment of intelligence, personality, and abnormal behavior; psychotherapy, broadly defined to include counseling and behavior modification; and psychophysiological and neurological determinants of personality and psychopathology. Comprised of five chapters, this volume first illustrates how reinforcement and modeling techniques can enable psychologists to function effectively as mental health consultants and agents of social change in an institution for delinquent children. The second chapter describes a unique program designed to prevent emotional dysfunction in school children by combining effective therapeutic intervention with relevant research and evaluation. The third chapter challenges the relevance of psychological research that does not take into account the relationship between the experimenter and his subjects, and instead demonstrates the impact of experimenter self-disclosure on the responses given to psychological tests and on subjects' behavior in psychology experiments. The fourth chapter proposes a behaviorally oriented model for the assessment of positive mental health and describes a successful application of this model in the assessment of the competence of college freshmen. The final chapter relates research on human psychophysiology to problems of psychological assessment and psychotherapy that are of central concern to clinical psychologists. This book should prove useful to practicing clinical and community psychologists, graduate and undergraduate students of psychology, and members of other mental health professions.
Ritual Brotherhood in Renaissance Florence
1st Edition
October 22, 2013
E. A. Hammel
English
Ritual Brotherhood in Renaissance Florence investigates the meaning of fraternity in terms of the ritual relations created in religious brotherhoods or confraternities during that period. The book focuses on the sociability of the confraternity as revealed in the patterns of membership and in forms of ceremony. Florence's confraternities serve as a vehicle for examining the relationship between ritual behavior and social organization. The text discusses the ways in which Florentines use forms of ritual to define, protect, and alter their relations with one another. The book reviews the social relations in Renaissance Florence through the structure of social relations, the politics of amity or enmity, and social relations in relation to economic exchange. Social organization and ritual actions include confraternal organization, membership, symbolic fraternity, and the rites of community. The book explores the company of San Paolo in the fifteenth century where the confraternity offers an introduction to the nature of citywide community, its republican institutions, and its civic values. The book also examines traditional confraternities in crisis, the nature of the disruptions that leads to the emergence of new confraternal organizations and values. In the sixteenth-century, confraternities reveal major departures in ideology, ritual, and social organization. They have also introduced the principles of hierarchy into confraternal membership, as well as a new ethic of obedience. The book will prove delightful reading for sociologists, historians studying Florentine society, and researchers interested in the history of religious brotherhood and confraternities.
Habitat: Human Settlements in an Urban Age
1st Edition
October 22, 2013
Angus M. Gunn
English
Habitat: Human Settlements in an Urban Age discusses the man-made environment and its physical setting, focusing on the urban slums of the world and rural hinterlands that caused the slums. Each chapter of this book deals with a specific issue, and the study of each issue is concluded with three questions—one answerable from the text, a second raising value questions for discussion, and a third extending the study beyond the documentation available in this text. Numerous maps, statistical charts, photographs, and end table of facts and figures are also provided to further assist in the investigation process. Topics elaborated in this text include the rural-urban system; urban frontier; rural stagnation; population; poor and rich; hazards of the environment; energy crisis; shelter for the urban millions; and planning for tomorrow. This publication is intended for secondary and tertiary students, but is also a good reference for individuals researching on the issues of habitat or human settlement.
Historical Geography of England and Wales
1st Edition
October 22, 2013
Robert A. Dodgshon + 1 more
English
This text has been designed to cover all aspects and phases of the historical geography of England and Wales in a single volume. In its substantially revised and enlarged form, the treatment of standard themes has been completely re-written to take account of recent work and shifts in viewpoint while its overall coverage has been extended to embrace newer themes like symbolic landscapes and the geography of the inter-war period. Its comprehensiveness and freshness of approach ensure its continuing value and success as a text.
How to Find Out About Patents
The Commonwealth and International Library: Libraries and Technical Information Division
1st Edition
October 22, 2013
Frank Newby
G. Chandler
English
How to Find Out About Patents presents a basic knowledge of patent matters and provides a few facts regarding patent law and procedures. This book provides a description of the literature available for finding out about patents followed by a comprehensive consideration of the techniques used to obtain any desired information from this. Organized into 15 chapters, this book starts with an overview of the procedure and the requirements of obtaining a patent wherein the inventor usually goes to a patent agent who drafts a patent specification and files this at the Patent Office. This text then explains the patent specification, which is the fundamental document of patent literature and is a statement of the nature of the invention. Other chapters consider the main value of the Patent Journal to industry, which is indispensable as a record of any week's activity at the Patent Office. The final chapter deals with the establishment of a patents department in an industrial company's organization. This book is a valuable resource for professional patent agents.
Making Better Places
Urban Design Now
1st Edition
October 22, 2013
Richard Hayward
English
Making Better Places: Urban Design Now discusses how to make better places: how monotonous or rich urban development can be, how appropriate to traffic requirements urban improvements are, or how sustainable an urban design approach can be to existing and future urban dispersal. The book reviews the gap existing between the various environmental disciplines leading to the emergence of urban design; as well as the gap between the rhetoric and practical achievements of urban design. The practice of urban design entails the premise that environments are to be created and transformed to provide the most opportunities for the largest number of people. By using an urban tissue plan, the urban developmental planner can produce and evaluate site development appraisal and design proposals. The book also provides an abstract perspective that considers built forms as a set of signs to provide a mechanism which shows the modification of urban space. The text also addresses the issue of urban change in established centers, the urban fringe and beyond, as well as cites four examples of exploration by intervention. The book can prove beneficial to urban planners, sociologists, and policy makers involved in urban and social development.
Program Evaluation in Social Research
1st Edition
October 22, 2013
Jonathan A. Morell
English
Program Evaluation in Social Research presents a plan for developing evaluation into a form of applied social research that is not only methodologically sound, but also relevant to the problems of society and built on a technological (as opposed to a scientific) model. This book views evaluation as applied, relevant social research and as social technology and assesses its validity and usefulness. This monograph is comprised of eight chapters and begins with an assessment of the consequences of program evaluation for the conduct of social research and for society at large, and how evaluation can be made into a method of generating practical and powerful suggestions for planning successful social programs. The concept of ""outcome evaluation"" is also organized into meaningful categories which can be used for the intelligent planning of appropriate evaluation activities. The reader is then introduced to the types of evaluation that are carried out, the relative merits of each type, and how to optimize the validity and utility of each type. Evaluation as a technological, rather than a scientific, pursuit is also discussed. The remaining chapters focus on the frictions that arise during the implementation of program evaluation; program evaluation as a profession; and how evaluation can be developed into a relevant and powerful method of guiding the course of social innovations. This text will be a useful resource for sociologists, social scientists, and social researchers.
Emotions and Bodily Responses
A Psychophysiological Approach
1st Edition
October 22, 2013
James L McGaugh
English
Emotions and Bodily Responses: A Psychophysiological Approach is an introduction to the principles of psychophysiology as they relate to bodily responses and emotions. The emphasis is on the study of human subjects and on those bodily responses (heart rate, blood pressure, blood volume, electrodermal responses, muscle tension, brain waves) that can be measured from the periphery of the body without the use of invasive techniques. Comprised of nine chapters, this book begins with an overview of some basic physiological principles and recording techniques, followed by a discussion on some of the types of stimuli that cause changes in bodily responses. Subsequent chapters explore individual differences in personality and emotional factors and relate them to differences in physiological responses; how differences in bodily responses are related to the major forms of psychopathology; the link between bodily responses and behavioral performance; and general states such as sleep and stress in relation to bodily responses. Bodily responses that accompany psychosomatic illnesses are also considered, along with the modification of bodily responses by various learning techniques, including Pavlovian conditioning and biofeedback training. The final chapter is devoted to the application of bodily responses to the detection of deception. This monograph is written for students, clinicians, and researchers who would like to become familiar with the basic methods, data, and concepts that relate bodily responses to emotional states.

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