An Introduction to Health Policy

An Introduction to Health Policy

Based on the current climate of our nation s finances and healthcare spending, it is clear that young doctors and medical students are likely to see a dramatic transformation of the manner in which America offers medical care to its citizens over the course of their careers. As such, it is pivotal that the next generation of America s leaders on the front lines of medicine develop a sense of where healthcare has evolved from and future potential directions of change. An Introduction to Health Policy: A Primer for Physicians and Medical Students is the first of its kind: a book written by doctors for doctors in order to allow busy physicians and medical students to quickly develop an understanding of the key issues facing American healthcare. This book seeks to efficiently and effectively educate physicians and medical students in a clinical context that they can understand on the past, present, and potential future issues in healthcare policy and the evolution of American healthcare. The reader will walk away from the book with the ability to discuss the fundamental issues in American healthcare with ease.

An Introduction to Health Policy

Mobile Computer Usability

Mobile Computer Usability

This book explains how mobile computer usability is shaped by the increasing integration of personal circumstances in organization. It represents an attempt to conceptualize an alternative model of mobile computer usability. It is motivated by the authors conviction that we do not yet have an adequate understanding of this concept because we have not taken seriously the transformation of human personality by the co-evolution of organization and ICTs. The author argues that the transformation has resulted in a human personality whose personal and organizational activities are characterized by strong continuities between them. This characterization reflects a new kind of personality of the worker, and is a critical determinant of mobile computer usability. The word organizational is used to describe this kind of personality hence an alternative organizational personality perspective on mobile computer usability. This perspective suggests that a mobile computer is more usable to a person than another one because of its satisfaction of both his personal and organizational motives, which are in turn shaped by the co-evolution of organization, technology and personality.

Mobile Computer Usability

The Evolution of Violence

The Evolution of Violence

This volume is an interdisciplinary exploration of our understanding of the causes and consequences of violence. Represented in its chapters are noted scholars from a variety of fields including psychology, anthropology, law, and literature. The contributions reflect a broad scope of inquiry and diverse levels of analysis. With an underlying evolutionary theme each of the contributors invoke their separate areas of expertise, offering empirical and theoretical insights to this complex subject. The multi-faceted aspect of the book is meant to engender new perspectives that will synthesize current knowledge and lead to a more nuanced understanding of an ever timely issue in human behavior. Of additional interest, is a foreword written by world renowned psychologist, Steven Pinker, and an afterword by noted evolutionary scholar, Richard Dawkins.

The Evolution of Violence

RHEED Transmission Mode and Pole Figures

RHEED Transmission Mode and Pole Figures

This unique book covers the fundamental principle of electron diffraction, basic instrumentation of RHEED, definitions of textures in thin films and nanostructures, mechanisms and control of texture formation, and examples of RHEED transmission mode measurements of texture and texture evolution of thin films and nanostructures. Also presented is a new application of RHEED in the transmission mode called RHEED pole figure technique that can be used to monitor the texture evolution in thin film growth and nanostructures and is not limited to single crystal epitaxial film growth. Details of the construction of RHEED pole figures and the interpretation of observed pole figures are presented. Materials covered include metals, semiconductors, and thin insulators.

RHEED Transmission Mode and Pole Figures

Nanodust in the Solar System

Nanodust in the Solar System

Nanodust and nanometer-sized structures are important components of many objects in space. Nanodust is observed in evolved stars, young stellar objects, protoplanetary disks, and dust debris disks. Within the solar system, nanodust is observed with in-situ experiments from spacecraft. Nanometer-sized substructures are found in the collected cometary and interplanetary dust particles and in meteorites. Understanding the growth and destruction of dust, its internal evolution, as well as the optical properties and the detection of nanoparticles is of fundamental importance for astrophysical research.This book provides a focused description of the current state of research and experimental results concerning nanodust in the solar system. It addresses three major questions: What is nanodust? How was it discovered in the solar system? And how do we interpret the observations? The book serves as a self-contained reference work for space researchers and provides solid information on nanodust in cosmic environments for researchers working in astrophysics or in other fields of physics.

Nanodust in the Solar System

Plastics in Dentistry and Estrogenicity

Plastics in Dentistry and Estrogenicity

This book provides a timely and comprehensive review of our current knowledge of BPA release from dental polymers and the potential endocrinological consequences. After a review of the history and evolution of the issue within the broader biomedical context, the estrogenicity of BPA is explained. The basic chemistry of the polymers used in dentistry is then presented in a simplified and clinically relevant manner. Key chapters in the book carefully evaluate the release of BPA from polycarbonate products and composite resins and the estrogenicity of these materials. Currently available evidence on the potential estrogenic action of dental composities, sealants, and adhesives is presented, and means are suggested by which adverse health effects can be minimized. The entire dental community will find this book to be an excellent source of information on the true risks posed by BPA, and an invaluable aid to safe practice.

Plastics in Dentistry and Estrogenicity

Conformal Invariance

Conformal Invariance

Conformally invariance has proven spectacularly useful for the understanding of two-dimensional phase transitions of classical systems at equilibrium. This volume presents an introduction to non-local observables such as loops and interfaces. It is explained how they arise from specific physical contexts and how to use conformal invariance to determine their properties. Stochastic Loewner Evolution represents an important conceptual advance, whose consequences provoked considerable interest by physicists and mathematicians alike. In this book, after an introductory chapter on the elements of conformal invariance, both the conceptual foundations of Stochastic Loewner Evolution as well as extensive numerical tests will be described. This is followed by applications to geometric phase transitions such as percolation or polymer systems, with particular attention to surface effects. The informal style of the book makes its contents accessible to graduate students and non-specialist readers from other fields.

Conformal Invariance

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

In the Beginning

In the Beginning

‘Applying extensive original sources and social movement theory, Lienesch begins with fundamentalism, describing how early twentieth-century fundamentalists worked to form a collective identity, to develop their own institutions, and to turn evolution from an idea into an issue. He traces the emerging antievolution movement through the 1920s, examining debates over Darwinism that took place on college campuses and in state legislatures throughout the country. With fresh insights and analysis, Lienesch retells the story of the 1925 Scopes monkey trial and reinterprets its meaning. In tracking the movement from that time to today, he explores the rise of creation science in the 1960s, the alliance with the New Christian Right in the 1980s, and the development of the theory of intelligent design in our own time. He concludes by speculating on its place in the politics of the twenty-first century.

In the Beginning

Heterogeneous Ferroelectric Solid Solutions

Heterogeneous Ferroelectric Solid Solutions

The book deals with perovskite-type ferroelectric solid solutions for modern materials science and applications, solving problems of complicated heterophase/domain structures near the morphotropic phase boundary and applications to various systems with morphotropic phases. In this book domain stateinterface diagrams are presented for the interpretation of heterophase states in perovskite-type ferroelectric solid solutions. It allows to describe the stress relief in the presence of polydomain phases, the behavior of unit-cell parameters of coexisting phases and the effect of external electric fields. The novelty of the book consists in (i) the first systematization of data about heterophase states and their evolution in ferroelectric solid solutions (ii) the general interpretation of heterophase and domain structures at changing temperature, composition or electric field (iii) the complete analysis of interconnection domain structures, unit-cell parameters changes, heterophase structures and stress relief.

Heterogeneous Ferroelectric Solid Solutions

Concentration Analysis and Applications to PDE

Concentration Analysis and Applications to PDE

Concentration analysis provides, in settings without a priori available compactness, a manageable structural description for the functional sequences intended to approximate solutions of partial differential equations. Since the introduction of concentration compactness in the 1980s, concentration analysis today is formalized on the functional-analytic level as well as in terms of wavelets, extends to a wide range of spaces, involves much larger class of invariances than the original Euclidean rescalings and has a broad scope of applications to PDE. This book represents current research in concentration and blow-up phenomena from various perspectives, with a variety of applications to elliptic and evolution PDEs, as well as a systematic functional-analytic background for concentration phenomena, presented by profile decompositions based on wavelet theory and cocompact imbeddings.

Concentration Analysis and Applications to PDE

The Lost World of Genesis One

The Lost World of Genesis One

In this astute mix of cultural critique and biblical studies, John H. Walton presents and defends twenty propositions supporting a literary and theological understanding of Genesis 1 within the context of the ancient Near Eastern world and unpacks its implications for our modern scientific understanding of origins. Ideal for students, professors, pastors and lay readers with an interest in the intelligent design controversy and creation-evolution debates, Walton’s thoughtful analysis unpacks seldom appreciated aspects of the biblical text and sets Bible-believing scientists free to investigate the question of origins.

The Lost World of Genesis One

Nations and Nationalism since 1780

Nations and Nationalism since 1780

Nations and Nationalism since 1780 is Eric Hobsbawm’s widely acclaimed and highly readable enquiry into the question of nationalism. Events in the late twentieth century in Eastern Europe and the Soviet republics have since reinforced the central importance of nationalism in the history of the political evolution and upheaval. This second edition has been updated in light of those events, with a final chapter addressing the impact of the dramatic changes that have taken place. Also included are additional maps to illustrate nationalities, languages and political divisions across Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Nations and Nationalism since 1780

Thermodynamics of Materials with Memory

Thermodynamics of Materials with Memory

This is a work in four parts, dealing with the mechanics and thermodynamics of materials with memory, including properties of the dynamical equations which describe their evolution in time under varying loads. The first part is an introduction to Continuum Mechanics with sections dealing with classical Fluid Mechanics and Elasticity, linear and non-linear. The second part is devoted to Continuum Thermodynamics, which is used to derive constitutive equations of materials with memory, including viscoelastic solids, fluids, heat conductors and some examples of non-simple materials. In part three, free energies for materials with linear memory constitutive relations are comprehensively explored. The new concept of a minimal state is also introduced. Formulae derived over the last decade for the minimum and related free energies are discussed in depth. Also, a new single integral free energy which is a functional of the minimal state is analyzed in detail. Finally, free energies for examples of non-simple materials are considered. In the final part, existence, uniqueness and stability results are presented for the integrodifferential equations describing the dynamical evolution of viscoelastic materials. A new approach to these topics, based on the use of minimal states rather than histories, is discussed in detail. There are also chapters on the controllability of thermoelastic systems with memory, the Saint-Venant problem for viscoelastic materials and on the theory of inverse problems.

Thermodynamics of Materials with Memory

Robotic Urology

Robotic Urology

Robotic surgery is in a phase of worldwide rapid evolution. Data from many centers indicate that urologists are achieving equivalent, or better, operative outcomes using a robotic laparoscopic interface compared with their open results. Patients benefit from quicker convalescence, less pain, and shorter hospital stays. The multi-authored international text covers the robotic operative procedures in urology that are routinely performed today and still in evolution. It focuses on robotic radical prostatectomy and includes robotic procedures for the kidney, adrenal gland, and urinary bladder. The most essential steps are depicted in illustrations. This book should contribute to the support of new robotic teams and continue to popularize robotic urology.

Robotic Urology

Rethinking Logic

Rethinking Logic

This volume examines the limitations of mathematical logic and proposes a new approach to logic intended to overcome them. To this end, the book compares mathematical logic with earlier views of logic, both in the ancient and in the modern age, including those of Plato, Aristotle, Bacon, Descartes, Leibniz, and Kant. From the comparison it is apparent that a basic limitation of mathematical logic is that it narrows down the scope of logic confining it to the study of deduction, without providing tools for discovering anything new. As a result, mathematical logic has had little impact on scientific practice. Therefore, this volume proposes a view of logic according to which logic is intended, first of all, to provide rules of discovery, that is, non-deductive rules for finding hypotheses to solve problems. This is essential if logic is to play any relevant role in mathematics, science and even philosophy. To comply with this view of logic, this volume formulates several rules of discovery, such as induction, analogy, generalization, specialization, metaphor, metonymy, definition, and diagrams. A logic based on such rules is basically a logic of discovery, and involves a new view of the relation of logic to evolution, language, reason, method and knowledge, particularly mathematical knowledge. It also involves a new view of the relation of philosophy to knowledge. This book puts forward such new views, trying to open again many doors that the founding fathers of mathematical logic had closed historically.

Rethinking Logic

Biology - Sixth Edition

Biology - Sixth Edition

BIOLOGY is an authoritative majors textbook with evolution as a unifying theme. In revising the text, McGraw-Hill has consulted extensively with previous users, noted experts and professors in the field. It is distinguished from other texts by its strong emphasis on natural selection and the evolutionary process that explains biodiversity.

Biology - Sixth Edition

Openness, Economic Growth and Regional Disparities

Openness, Economic Growth and Regional Disparities

Substantial disparities across different Chinese regions are one of the most prominent features in Chinas development process. This book investigates the mechanisms through which openness affects regional economic growth and interregional disparities in China. Based on the latest data and employing a variety of panel data regression techniques, it provides readers with new findings that shed light on the effects of openness on Chinas regional economic growth and the evolution of the countrys interregional disparities.

Openness, Economic Growth and Regional Disparities

The Motor Car

The Motor Car

This book is an introduction to automotive engineering, to give freshmen ideas about this technology. The text is subdivided in parts that cover all facets of the automobile, including legal and economic aspects related to industry and products, product configuration and fabrication processes, historic evolution and future developments.

The Motor Car

Advanced Gate Stacks for High-Mobility Semiconductors

Advanced Gate Stacks for High-Mobility Semiconductors

Will nanoelectronic devices continue to scale according to Moores law? At this moment, there is no easy answer since gate scaling is rapidly emerging as a serious roadblock for the evolution of CMOS technology. Channel engineering based on high-mobility semiconductor materials (e.g. strained Si, alternative orientation substrates, Ge or III-V compounds) could help overcome the obstacles since they offer performance enhancement. There are several concerns though. Do we know how to make complex engineered substrates (e.g. Germanium-on-Insulator)? Which are the best interface passivation methodologies and (high-k) gate dielectrics on Ge and III-V compounds? Can we process these materials in short channel transistors using flows, toolsets and know how similar to that in Si technology? How do these materials and devices behave at the nanoscale? The reader will get a clear view of what has been done so far, what is the state-of-the-art and which are the main challenges ahead before we come any close to a viable Ge and III-V MOS technology.

Advanced Gate Stacks for High-Mobility Semiconductors