Gender, Lifespan and Quality of Life

Gender, Lifespan and Quality of Life

This publication addresses the gender dimensions of peoples lived experience and emphasizes how gender relationships differentially impact on womens and girls as well as mens and boys subjective well-being across the lifespan. It therefore fills a significant gap in the literature on quality of life and subjective well-being. The book brings together research which compares females and males subjective experiences of well-being at various life stages from a variety of countries and regions, particularly focusing on womens subjective well-being. Sex-disaggregation of data on objective conditions of quality of life is now routinely undertaken in many countries of the world. However, despite the burgeoning of objective data on sex differences in life conditions across the world, very little gender analysis is carried out to explain fully such difference and there is still a serious dearth of data on gender differences in subjective experiences of quality of life and well-being. This publication will assist researchers, teachers, service providers and policy makers in filling some of the gaps in currently available literature on the nexus between age and gender in producing differential experiences of subjective wellbeing.

Gender, Lifespan and Quality of Life

Handbook of Social Work Practice with Vulnerable and Resilient Populations

Handbook of Social Work Practice with Vulnerable and Resilient Populations

Why do some people collapse under certain life conditions, while others remain relatively unscathed? What accounts for the marked variations in people’s responses to stress and adversity? The second edition of this groundbreaking how-to guide has been extensively updated to reflect the field’s growing understanding of the importance of resiliency and protective factors — the positive poles of the human experience — and the importance of their role in forming balanced assessments and responsive interventions.

Handbook of Social Work Practice with Vulnerable and Resilient Populations

Dataset Shift in Machine Learning

Dataset Shift in Machine Learning

Dataset shift is a common problem in predictive modeling that occurs when the joint distribution of inputs and outputs differs between training and test stages. Covariate shift, a particular case of dataset shift, occurs when only the input distribution changes. Dataset shift is present in most practical applications, for reasons ranging from the bias introduced by experimental design to the irreproducibility of the testing conditions at training time. (An example is -email spam filtering, which may fail to recognize spam that differs in form from the spam the automatic filter has been built on.) Despite this, and despite the attention given to the apparently similar problems of semi-supervised learning and active learning, dataset shift has received relatively little attention in the machine learning community until recently. This volume offers an overview of current efforts to deal with dataset and covariate shift.

Dataset Shift in Machine Learning

The Art of Writing Reasonable Organic Reaction Mechanisms

The Art of Writing Reasonable Organic Reaction Mechanisms

Intended for students of intermediate organic chemistry, this text shows how to write a reasonable mechanism for an organic chemical transformation. The discussion is organized by types of mechanisms and the conditions under which the reaction is executed, rather than by the overall reaction as is the case in most textbooks. The treatment emphasizes unifying principles, showing how common mechanisms link seemingly disparate reactions. Each chapter discusses common mechanistic pathways and suggests practical tips for drawing them. Worked problems are included in the discussion of each mechanism, and ‘common error alerts’ are scattered throughout the text to warn readers about pitfalls and misconceptions that bedevil students. Each chapter is capped by a large problem set.

The Art of Writing Reasonable Organic Reaction Mechanisms

Cross Disciplinary Biometric Systems

Cross Disciplinary Biometric Systems

Cross disciplinary biometric systems help boost the performance of the conventional systems. Not only is the recognition accuracy significantly improved, but also the robustness of the systems is greatly enhanced in the challenging environments, such as varying illumination conditions. By leveraging the cross disciplinary technologies, face recognition systems, fingerprint recognition systems, iris recognition systems, as well as image search systems all benefit in terms of recognition performance. Take face recognition for an example, which is not only the most natural way human beings recognize the identity of each other, but also the least privacy-intrusive means because people show their face publicly every day. Face recognition systems display superb performance when they capitalize on the innovative ideas across color science, mathematics, and computer science (e.g., pattern recognition, machine learning, and image processing). The novel ideas lead to the development of new color models and effective color features in color science; innovative features from wavelets and statistics, and new kernel methods and novel kernel models in mathematics; new discriminant analysis frameworks, novel similarity measures, and new image analysis methods, such as fusing multiple image features from frequency domain, spatial domain, and color domain in computer science; as well as system design, new strategies for system integration, and different fusion strategies, such as the feature level fusion, decision level fusion, and new fusion strategies with novel similarity measures.

Cross Disciplinary Biometric Systems

The Catalyzing Mind

The Catalyzing Mind

How do we understand and explain phenomena in psychology? What does the concept of causality mean when we discuss higher psychological functions and behavior? Is it possible to generate laws in a psychological and behavioral sciencelaws that go beyond statistical regularities, frequencies, and probabilities? An international group of authors compare and contrast the use of a causal model in psychology with a newer modelthe catalytic model. The Catalyzing Mind: Beyond Models of Causality proposes an approach to the qualitative nature of psychological phenomena that focuses on the psychological significance and meaning of conditions, contexts, and situations as well as their sign-mediating processes. Contributors develop, apply, and criticize the notion of a catalyzing mind in hopes of achieving conceptual clarity and rigor. Disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, semiotics and biosemiotics are used for an interdisciplinary approach to the book. Research topics such as history and national identity, immigration, and transitions to adulthood are all brought into a dialogue with the concept of the catalyzing mind. With a variety of disciplines, theoretical concepts, and research topics this book is a collective effort at an approach to move beyond models of causality for explaining and understanding psychological phenomena.

The Catalyzing Mind

Machina Carnis

Machina Carnis

Originally published in 1971, this is an account of the centuries of experiment and speculation that have led to our understanding of how muscles work. The book traces all the developments in the field since 1600 and devotes special attention to the breakthroughs made in the last century. It considers the nature of the muscle machine and its fuel, as well as the intricate regulation of energy supply under different conditions. It also examines the very varied kinds of muscle and the effects of some diseases on their structure and function. Finally it shows how the energy metabolism first elucidated for the mechanical work of muscle has been found to explain most of the other kinds of work done by cells, as in light production, secretion, ionic transport and electrical discharge. The biochemistry of muscle, carbohydrate metabolism and phosphorylations was the author’s chosen field of research for over forty years.

Machina Carnis

Small Animal Clinical Diagnosis by Laboratory Methods - Fifth Edition

Small Animal Clinical Diagnosis by Laboratory Methods - Fifth Edition

A quick guide to appropriately selecting and interpreting laboratory tests, Small Animal Clinical Diagnosis by Laboratory Methods, 5th Edition helps you utilize your in-house lab or your specialty reference lab to efficiently make accurate diagnoses without running a plethora of unnecessary and low-yield tests. It provides answers to commonly asked questions relating to laboratory tests, and solutions to frequently encountered problems in small animal diagnosis. For easy reference, information is provided by clinical presentation and abnormalities, and includes hundreds of tables, boxes, key points, and algorithms. This edition, now in full color, is updated with the latest advances in laboratory testing methods and diagnostic problem solving. Written by noted educators Dr. Michael Willard and Dr. Harold Tvedten, this book may be used as an on-the-spot guide to specific problems or conditions as well as a reference for more detailed research on difficult cases.

Small Animal Clinical Diagnosis by Laboratory Methods - Fifth Edition

Starting to Read ECGs

Starting to Read ECGs

This book is book aims to provide the beginner with a concise, practical and systematic guide to interpreting ECGs. It will serve not only as a starter text but also as an immediate bedside reference manual. Starting to Read ECGs: The Basics begins with fundamentals such as how to perform, record and interpret a normal ECG before progressing onto more complex topics, including what effects anatomical abnormalities of the heart, cardiac and non-cardiac conditions can have on the ECG. Each chapter has been supplemented with a multitude of images and diagrams to illustrate points and ease understanding, and concludes with both a summary of key points to reinforce knowledge and a quiz for reflective learning.

Starting to Read ECGs

Spinal Injuries and Conditions in Young Athletes

Spinal Injuries and Conditions in Young Athletes

Spinal Injuries and Conditions in Young Athletes provides a comprehensive, in-depth review of the mechanisms and management of back injuries and problems occurring in this ever-growing and active population. Led by Dr. Lyle Micheli and his co-editors, an award-winning group of orthopedists discusses and explores common adolescent spine injuries and procedures, in addition to breakthroughs in gene therapy, tissue engineering, and complex operations. As spine surgery is among the most complex and challenging procedures performed in orthopedics, special considerations and procedures are required in pediatric populations. Since many corrective surgeries run the risk of arthritis later in life, particular efforts must be made in young populations to prevent future injury in a child’s adolescence and young adulthood while maximizing return-to-play potential. Chapters cover acute spinal injuries, concussions, overuse injuries, spinal malformations, tumors, infections and inflammatory diseases across the range of athletics, including swimming and combat sports. Spinal Injuries and Conditions in Young Athletes provides an immeasurable guide for back surgery in pediatric populations and will be a go-to resource for practitioners and residents in pediatric orthopedics and sports medicine.

Spinal Injuries and Conditions in Young Athletes

Many-Body Boson Systems

Many-Body Boson Systems

Many-body Boson Systems: Half a Century Later offers a modern way of dealing with the problems of equilibrium states of Bose systems. Starting with the variation principle of statistical mechanics and the energy-entropy balance principle as equilibrium criteria, results for general boson systems and models are explicitly derived using simple functional analytic calculus. Bridging the gap between ideas of general theoretical physics and the phenomenological research in the field of Bose systems, this book provides an insight into the fascinating quantum world of bosons. Key topics include the occurrence of BEC and its intimate structural relation with the phenomena of spontaneous symmetry breaking and off-diagonal long range order; the condensate equation; the issue concerning the choice of boundary conditions; solvable versus non-solvable boson models; the set of quasi-free boson states; the role of dissipative perturbations; and the surprising but general relation between general quantum fluctuations and boson systems. Only some knowledge of quantum mechanics and undergraduate algebra and analysis is assumed. This textbook brings students and researchers smoothly from general concepts to vivid applications.

Many-Body Boson Systems

Media and Convergence Management

Media and Convergence Management

Convergence has gained an enormous amount of attention in media studies within the last several years. It is used to describe the merging of formerly distinct functions, markets and fields of application, which has changed the way companies operate and consumers perceive and process media content. These transformations have not only led business practices to change and required companies to adapt to new conditions, they also continue to have a lasting impact on research in this area. This books main purpose is to shed some light on crucial phenomena of media and convergence management, while also addressing more specific issues brought about by innovations related to media, technologies, industries, business models, consumer behavior and content management.

Media and Convergence Management

From Literature to Biterature

From Literature to Biterature

From Literature to Biterature is based on the premise that in the foreseeable future computers will become capable of creating works of literature. Among hundreds of other questions, it considers: Under which conditions would machines become capable of creative writing? Given that computer evolution will exceed the pace of natural evolution a million-fold, what will such a state of affairs entail in terms of art, culture, social life, and even nonhuman rights? Drawing a map of impending literary, cultural, social, and technological revolutions, Peter Swirski boldly assumes that computers will leap from mere syntax-driven processing to semantically rich understanding. He argues that acknowledging biterature as a species of literature will involve adopting the same range of attitudes to computer authors (computhors) as to human ones and that it will be necessary to approach them as agents with internal states and creative intentions. Ranging from the metafiction of Stanislaw Lem to the ‘Turing test’ (familiar to scientists working in Artificial Intelligence and the philosophers of mind) to the evolutionary trends of culture and machines, Swirski’s scenarios lay the groundwork for a new area of study on the cusp of literary futurology, evolutionary cognition, and philosophy of the future.

From Literature to Biterature

Similarity and Modeling in Science and Engineering

Similarity and Modeling in Science and Engineering

The present text sets itself in relief to other titles on the subject in that it addresses the means and methodologies versus a narrow specific-task oriented approach. Concepts and their developments which evolved to meet the changing needs of applications are addressed. This approach provides the reader with a general tool-box to apply to their specific needs. Two important tools are presented: dimensional analysis and the similarity analysis methods. The fundamental point of view, enabling one to sort all models, is that of information flux between a model and an original expressed by the similarity and abstraction Each chapter includes original examples and applications. In this respect, the models can be divided into several groups. The following models are dealt with separately by chapter; mathematical and physical models, physical analogues, deterministic, stochastic, and cybernetic computer models. The mathematical models are divided into asymptotic and phenomenological models. The phenomenological models, which can also be called experimental, are usually the result of an experiment on an complex object or process. The variable dimensionless quantities contain information about the real state of boundary conditions, parameter (non-linearity) changes, and other factors. With satisfactory measurement accuracy and experimental strategy, such models are highly credible and can be used, for example in control systems.

Similarity and Modeling in Science and Engineering

Moon

Moon

The Earth has limited material and energy resources. Further development of the humanity will require going beyond our planet for mining and use of extraterrestrial mineral resources and search of power sources. The exploitation of the natural resources of the Moon is a first natural step on this direction. Lunar materials may contribute to the betterment of conditions of people on Earth but they also may be used to establish permanent settlements on the Moon. This will allow developing new technologies, systems and flight operation techniques to continue space exploration. In fact, a new branch of human civilization could be established permanently on Moon in the next century. But, meantime, an inventory and proper social assessment of Moons prospective energy and material resources is required. This book investigates the possibilities and limitations of various systems supplying manned bases on Moon with energy and other vital resources. The book collects together recent proposals and innovative options and solutions. It is a useful source of condensed information for specialists involved in current and impending Moon-related activities and a good starting point for young researchers.

Moon

Non-thermal Food Engineering Operations

Non-thermal Food Engineering Operations

A number of food engineering operations, in which heat is not used as a preserving factor, have been employed and are applied for preparation (cleaning, sorting, etc.), conversion (milling, agglomeration, etc.) or preservation (irradiation, high pressure processing, pulsed electric fields, etc.) purposes in the food industry. This book presents a comprehensive treatise of all normally used food engineering operations that are carried out at room (or ambient) conditions, whether they are aimed at producing microbiologically safe foods with minimum alteration to sensory and nutritive properties, or they constitute routine preparative or transformation operations. The book is written for both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as for educators and practicing food process engineers. It reviews theoretical concepts, analyzes their use in operating variables of equipment, and discusses in detail different applications in diverse food processes.

Non-thermal Food Engineering Operations

Software Change Management

Software Change Management

Why is it so difficult to change organizations? What does it really take to make process improvement yield measurable results? For more than 30 years, Donald Riefer has been guiding software teams through the technical, organizational, and people issues that must be managed in order to make meaningful process changesand better products. This practical guide draws from his extensive experience, featuring 11 case studies spanning the public and private sectors and even academia. Each case study illuminates the original conditions; describes options and recommendations; details reactions, outcomes, and lessons learned; and provides essential references and resources.

Software Change Management

The Evidence-Based Guide to Antipsychotic Medications

The Evidence-Based Guide to Antipsychotic Medications

The Evidence-Based Guide to Antipsychotic Medications is designed to provide both clinicians and residents with focused, comprehensive, and clinically relevant information regarding the use of antipsychotic medications to treat a broad range of psychiatric conditions — from mood and anxiety disorders to substance abuse, personality disorders, and schizophrenia.

The Evidence-Based Guide to Antipsychotic Medications

Treatment of Pediatric Neurologic Disorders

Treatment of Pediatric Neurologic Disorders

This reference discusses state-of-the-art methods for the management of children with conditions affecting the nervous system-providing over 80 chapters that outline direct, logical approaches to numerous pediatric neurologic disorders using clear tables, algorithms, and figures for quick reference to key material.

Treatment of Pediatric Neurologic Disorders

A Course on Elation Quadrangles

A Course on Elation Quadrangles

The notion of elation generalized quadrangle is a natural generalization to the theory of generalized quadrangles of the important notion of translation planes in the theory of projective planes. Almost any known class of finite generalized quadrangles can be constructed from a suitable class of elation quadrangles. In this book the author considers several aspects of the theory of elation generalized quadrangles. Special attention is given to local Moufang conditions on the foundational level, exploring, for instance, Knarr’s question from the 1990s concerning the very notion of elation quadrangles. All the known results on Kantor’s prime power conjecture for finite elation quadrangles are gathered, some of them published here for the first time. The structural theory of elation quadrangles and their groups is heavily emphasized. Other related topics, such as $p$-modular cohomology, Heisenberg groups, and existence problems for certain translation nets, are briefly touched. This book starts from scratch and is essentially self-contained. Many alternative proofs are given for known theorems. This course contains dozens of exercises at various levels, from very easy to rather difficult, and will stimulate undergraduate and graduate students to enter the fascinating and rich world of elation quadrangles. More accomplished mathematicians will find the final chapters especially challenging. A publication of the European Mathematical Society (EMS). Distributed within the Americas by the American Mathematical Society.

A Course on Elation Quadrangles