Skip to main content

Books in Social sciences and humanities

  • Evolution of the Human Brain: From Matter to Mind

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 250
    • November 6, 2019
    • English
    Evolution of the Human Brain: From Matter to Mind, Volume 250 in the Progress in Brain Research, series documents the latest developments and insights about the origin and evolution of the human brain and mind. Specific sections in this new release include Evolution and development of the human cerebral cortex, Functional connectivity of the human cerebral cortex, Lateralization of the human cerebral cortex, Life history strategies and the human cerebral cortex, Evolution of the modern human brain, On the nature and evolution of the human mind, Origin and evolution of human cognition, Origin and evolution of human consciousness, and more.
  • Entrepreneurship Trajectories

    Entrepreneurial Opportunities, Business Models, and Firm Performance
    • 1st Edition
    • November 6, 2019
    • Diego Matricano
    • English
    Entrepreneurship Trajectories: Entrepreneurial Opportunities, Business Models, and Firm Performance explores several entrepreneurship trajectories recognized by economists and entrepreneurs. It is not possible to talk about growth paths addressed by entrepreneurial ventures without recalling the business model and the type of entrepreneurial opportunity at their foundations. Diego Matricano assumes that the growth paths addressed by entrepreneurial ventures depend on both effective business models and promising opportunities. This pragmatic guide illuminates the entrepreneurial trajectories linking opportunities, business models, and growth paths, offering complete and nuanced views through its extensive use of case studies.
  • Air Route Networks Through Complex Networks Theory

    • 1st Edition
    • November 6, 2019
    • Jose M. Sallan + 1 more
    • English
    Air Route Networks through Complex Networks Theory connects theory research with network connectivity analysis, providing practitioners with the tools they need to develop more efficient, resilient and profitable air route networks. The book helps airline route planners and executives create more robust route networks that are less vulnerable to disruptions, such as node isolation. The book further explores errors and attacks in complex networks, strategies for detecting critical nodes and cascading failure models to assess and maximize robustness. The book explains how to measure air route network connectivity with complex network representations. Air transport is among the most dynamic and toughest competition industries in today’s global economy. The quality of air route network design is a key strategic factor in an airline’s viability. These robust networks provide for more stable and secure carrier operations vs. those based simply on existing supply and demand volumes. Node-specific and network-specific representations are covered, along with in-depth coverage of connectivity in special and temporal networks. These collective tools serve as a guide for practitioners seeking to apply complex network theory to the airline industry.
  • Measuring Road Safety with Surrogate Events

    • 1st Edition
    • November 5, 2019
    • Andrew Tarko
    • English
    Measuring Road Safety Using Surrogate Events provides researchers and practitioners with the tools they need to quickly and effectively measure traffic safety. As traditional crash-based safety analyses are being undermined by today’s growing use of intelligent vehicular and road safety technologies, crash surrogates--or near misses--can be more effectively used to measure the future risk of crashes. This book advances the idea of using these near-crash techniques to deliver quicker and more adequate measurements of safety. It explores the relationships between traffic conflicts and crashes using an extrapolation of observed events rather than post-crash data, which is significantly slower to obtain. Readers will find sound estimation methods based on rigorous scientific principles, offering compelling new tools to better equip researchers to understand road safety and its factors.
  • Spatial Analysis Using Big Data

    Methods and Urban Applications
    • 1st Edition
    • November 2, 2019
    • Yoshiki Yamagata + 1 more
    • English
    Spatial Analysis Using Big Data: Methods and Urban Applications helps readers understand the most powerful, state-of-the-art spatial econometric methods, focusing particularly on urban research problems. The methods represent a cluster of potentially transformational socio-economic modeling tools that allow researchers to capture real-time and high-resolution information to potentially reveal new socioeconomic dynamics within urban populations. Each method, written by leading exponents of the discipline, uses real-time urban big data to solve research problems in spatial science. Urban applications of these methods are provided in unsurpassed depth, with chapters on surface temperature mapping, view value analysis, community clustering and spatial-social networks, among many others.
  • Behavioral Forensics

    Using Applied Behavior Analysis in Psychological Court Evaluations
    • 1st Edition
    • November 1, 2019
    • Douglas Ruben
    • English
    Behavioral Forensics: Using Applied Behavior Analysis in Psychological Court Evaluations presents the first compendia on the application of behavioral principles for the assessment and analysis of criminal behavior in court-ordered psychological evaluations. The book explains criminal motivation, risk behaviors, custody, criminal responsibility, and competence to stand trial. BFA employs principles and techniques of standard behavioral assessment in deducing causal evidence from interview and psychometric data. Sections cover evidence-based concepts and principles of BFA vs. obsolete forensic evaluation models, also including ten case studies that illustrate BFA in pre and post-sentencing evaluations that demonstrate how to determine risk of criminal recidivism or competency. Considering the unprecedented numbers of psychologists turning to forensic work and influx of graduate programs offering degrees in criminal behavior analysis, this book is a timely resource for a variety of readers.
  • Maritime Supply Chains

    • 1st Edition
    • November 1, 2019
    • Thierry Vanelslander + 1 more
    • English
    Maritime Supply Chains breaks the maritime chain into components, consistently relating them to the overall integrated supply chain. The book not only analyzes and provides solutions to frequently encountered problems and key operational issues, it also applies cutting-edge scientific techniques on the maritime supply chain. Sections consider shipping, ports and terminals, hinterland and the issues that intersect different parts of the chain. Readers will find discussions of the various actors at play and how they relate to the overall function of the supply chain. Finally, the book offers solutions to the most pressing problems, thus providing a unique, well-balanced account.
  • Energy and Behaviour

    Towards a Low Carbon Future
    • 1st Edition
    • November 1, 2019
    • Marta Lopes + 2 more
    • English
    Changes to energy behaviour — the role of people and organisations in energy production, use and efficiency — are critical to supporting a societal transition towards a low carbon and more sustainable future. However, which changes need to be made, by whom, and with what technologies are still very much under discussion. This book, developed by a diverse range of experts, presents an international and multi-faceted approach to the sociotechnical challenge of engaging people in energy systems and vice versa. By providing a multidisciplinary view of this field, it encourages critical thinking about core theories, quantitative and qualitative methodologies, and policy challenges. It concludes by addressing new areas where additional evidence is required for interventions and policy-making. It is designed to appeal to new entrants in the energy-efficiency and behaviour field, particularly those taking a quantitative approach to the topic. Concurrently, it recognizes ecological economist Herman Daly’s insight: what really counts is often not countable.  
  • The Sharing Economy and the Relevance for Transport

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 4
    • November 1, 2019
    • English
    The Sharing Economy and the Relevance for Transport, Volume Four in the Advances in Transport Policy and Planning series, assesses both successful and unsuccessful practices and policies from around the world. Individual chapters in this new release include Cars and cities in the sharing economy, The future of public transport within the sharing economy, Sharing vehicles and sharing rides in real time: opportunities for self-driving fleets, Car parking in the future, Car share’s impact and future, Bike Share, and much more.
  • Sticky Creativity

    Post-it® Note Cognition, Computers, and Design
    • 1st Edition
    • November 1, 2019
    • Bo T. Christensen + 2 more
    • English
    Sticky Creativity: Post-It® Note Cognition, Computers, and Design presents the interesting history of sticky notes and how they have become the most commonly used design material in brainstorming, business model generation, and design thinking. The book brings together researchers from psychology, computer science and design in order to understand why and how sticky notes are used, why they work well, and whether sticky notes are replaceable or improvable by a digital counterpart. The book covers psychology, computers and design respectively. From a psychological perspective, cognitive and socio-cognitive theories are used to explain the functions sticky notes serve in idea generation and creative collaboration. Following sections present the findings from three very different computerized instantiations of sticky notes and discuss the challenges and opportunities that arise when trying to digitize sticky notes.