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Books in Social sciences and humanities

  • Method in the Madness

    Research Stories You Won’t Read in Textbooks
    • 1st Edition
    • Keith Townsend + 1 more
    • English
    Method in the Madness is presented as a companion to researchers investigating the complex world of work. Rather than a ‘How to’ text on performing research, this book presents a record of experiences. Research so often evolves in the field or the planning stages and a successful researcher need to be aware of serendipitous opportunities as they arise and how to solve problems as they occur. The book comprises an introduction written by the editors followed by thirteen chapters written by different contributors. The introduction draws together the disparate experiences that follow and discusses the ways in which the contributors, all of whom are respected researchers, dealt with and learned from the research experience. In the following chapters, the contributors describe and reflect on the research process, the challenges they met during their research and the lessons learned. The style varies, but includes narratives, anecdotes and descriptions of individuals’ experiences as research was designed and carried out and the results generated.

  • Health Systems Policy, Finance, and Organization

    • 1st Edition
    • Guy Carrin + 3 more
    • English
    This volume is unique in its systematic approach to these three pillars of health systems analysis will give readers of various backgrounds authoritative material about subjects adjacent to their own specialties. Assembling such comparative materials is usually an onerous task because so many programs possess their own vocabularies, goals, and methods. This book will provide common grounds for people in programs as diverse as economics and finance, allied health, business and management, and the social sciences, including psychology.

  • The Law of Emergencies

    Public Health and Disaster Management
    • 1st Edition
    • Nan D. Hunter
    • English
    The Law of Emergencies discusses the legal framework for disaster response and emergency management. The book engages with and debates some of the most important Constitutional issues of our time, such as the tension between civil liberties and national security. It also examines how the law of emergencies plays out in the context of real life emergencies where individuals often have to make split-second decisions. It analyzes legal authority at the federal, state and local levels, placing the issues in historical context but concentrating on contemporary questions. This book includes primary texts, reader-friendly expository explanations, and sample discussion questions. Prior knowledge of the law is not necessary in order to use and understand this book. The contents are organized into 13 substantive chapters plus two additional chapters with problem sets, making the book especially easy to use for a separate course focused on law. The book leads students through the process of understanding both what the law requires and how to analyze issues for which there is no clear legal answer. It features materials on such critical issues as how to judge the extent of Constitutional authority for government to intervene in the lives and property of American citizens. At the same time, it also captures bread-and-butter issues such as responder liability and disaster relief methods. No other book brings these components together in a logically organized, step by step fashion. The book also features case studies of high-risk scenarios including pandemic flu, together with charts and text boxes for clarification. This book will be of interest to graduate and undergraduate students studying the major legal principles underlying emergency management and homeland security policy and operations; professionals in EM and HS; and private-sector risk managers.

  • The Future of the Academic Journal

    • 1st Edition
    • Bill Cope + 1 more
    • English
    Examines current issues in journals publishing and reviews how the industry will develop over the next few years. With contributions from leading academics and industry professionals, the book provides an authoritative and balanced view of this fast-changing area. There are a variety of views surrounding the future of journals and these are covered using a range of contributors. Online access is now taken for granted - 90 per cent of journals published are now available online, an increase from 75 per cent in 2003.

  • Fatal Accidents

    How Prosperity and Safety Are Linked
    • 1st Edition
    • J. F. Lancaster
    • English
    Accidents are generally regarded as unexpected events that do not fall into any regular pattern. Such is not the case. Analysis of the historical records of accident mortality rates in general, and specifically in industry and transport, shows that they diminish with the passage of time in an ordered fashion, although we are not consciously aware of this fact.In his challenging book Fatal Accidents, the author, in order to explain this paradox, proposes a model of human behaviour in which the reduction in fatal accident rates results from a development of skill, such that the population becomes progressively more adept at avoiding mishaps. Such changes are subconsciously and collectively regulated by the population concerned – for example, by drivers in the case of road transport – and are made possible by advances in science and technology. A similar model is applicable to the reduction of general mortality rates, to economic growth and to population growth. The future cannot be predicted, but at present safety is improving at a satisfactory rate.

  • Semiconductors and the Information Revolution

    Magic Crystals that made IT Happen
    • 1st Edition
    • John W. Orton
    • English
    Semiconductors and the Information Revolution sets out to explain the development of modern electronic systems and devices from the viewpoint of the semiconductor materials (germanium, silicon, gallium arsenide and many others) which made them possible. It covers the scientific understanding of these materials and its intimate relationship with their technology and many applications. It began with Michael Faraday, took off in a big way with the invention of the transistor at Bell Labs in 1947 and is still burgeoning today. It is a story to match any artistic or engineering achievement of man and this is the first time it has been presented in a style suited to the non-specialist. It is written in a lively, non-mathematical style which brings out the excitement of discovery and the fascinating interplay between the demands of system pull and technological push. It also looks at the nature of some of the personal interactions which helped to shape the modern technological world. An introductory chapter illustrates just how dependent we are on modern electronic systems and explains the significance of semiconductors in their development. It also provides, in as painless a way as possible, a necessary understanding of semiconductor properties in relation to these applications. The second chapter takes up the historical account and ends with some important results emerging from the Second World War – including its effect on the organisation of scientific research. Chapter three describes the world-shaking discovery of the transistor and some of the early struggles to make it commercially viable, including the marketing of the first transistor radio. In chapter four we meet the integrated circuit which gave shape to much of our modern life in the form of the personal computer (and which gave rise to a famously long-running patent war!). Later chapters cover the application of compound semiconductors to light-emitting devices, such as LEDs and lasers, and light detecting devices such as photocells. We learn how these developments led to the invention of the CD player and DVD recorder, how other materials were applied to the development of sophisticated night vision equipment, fibre optical communications systems, solar photovoltaic panels and flat panel displays. Similarly, microwave techniques essential to our modern day love of mobile phoning are seen to depend on clever materials scientists who, not for the first time, "invented" new semiconductors with just the right properties. Altogether, it is an amazing story and one which deserves to be more widely known. Read this book and you will be rewarded with a much deeper understanding and appreciation of the technological revolution which shapes so many aspects of our lives.

  • Knowledge and Language

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 39
    • I. Kurcz + 2 more
    • English
    How do people represent their knowledge about the world and use that knowledge for communication? This question is the central theme of this book. Among the aspects discussed in the first three sections are: the relationship between formal, logical descriptions of language, and psychological analyses of language use; how knowledge interacts with language use; and childrens' acquisition of language in different countries. In the last two sections, the topics discussed include the complex relationships between the development, transmission, and comprehension of intention and meaning, the growth of the representation of social knowledge, and the impact acquiring a language (or two languages) has on the development of the child's knowledge structures.

  • Wto Accession and Socio-Economic Development in China

    • 1st Edition
    • Parikshit Basu + 1 more
    • English
    This book reviews how China’s accession to the WTO has impacted upon its education, environment, economic and social outcomes in recent years. It has been argued that China’s rapid growth in output and exports and subsequent accession to WTO has significantly increased income and therefore the well-being of the Chinese population. However, doubts are now being raised that higher income is generated at the cost of deteriorating environmental and social standards which has increasingly affected the health of the Chinese people, especially those who live in major industrial cities. Also, there is a widespread perception that its accession to WTO has significantly increased social shocks, especially among the farming community, and contributed to poor health outcomes among the rural population. These issues are critically analysed in this book by experienced academics from China and Australia.

  • Taking Charge of Your Career

    A Guide for Library and Information Professionals
    • 1st Edition
    • Joanna Ptolomey
    • English
    This book is about rethinking your career in a refreshing and systematic way to take into account your professional and personal goals. The book provides students and information and library professionals (at all levels) with tools and practical steps to making changes in their career. At the heart of the book is a methodology called ‘personal strategic planning’, which allows the reader to work out a baseline for what is important to them in a career and provide techniques and tools for moving forwards.

  • Serial Crime

    Theoretical and Practical Issues in Behavioral Profiling
    • 2nd Edition
    • Wayne Petherick
    • Wayne Petherick
    • English
    Serial Crime, Second Edition, examines serial predatory behavior and is divided into two main parts. Part one deals with behavioral profiling, and covers a variety of critical issues from the history of profiling and the theoretical schools of thought to its treatment in the mainstream media. This updated edition includes new sections on the problems of induction, metacognition in criminal profiling, and investigative relevance. Part two deals more specifically with a number of types of serial crime including stalking, rape, murder, and arson. Chapters on each of these crimes provide definitions and thresholds, and discussions of the offenders, the crime, and its dynamics. Considerations for behavioral profiling and investigations and the development of new paradigms in each area are interwoven throughout. Topics are conceptually and practically related since profiling has typically seen most application in serial crimes and similar investigations. The unique presentation of the book successfully connects the concepts and creates links to criminal behavior across crimes—murder, sexual assault, and arson—something no other title does. The connection of serial behavior to profiling, the most useful tool in discovering behavior patterns, is also new to the body of literature available and serves to examine the ideal manner in which profiling can be used in conjunction with behavioral science to positively affect criminal investigations.

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