Self-Evolvable Systems

Self-Evolvable Systems

This monograph presents key method to successfully manage the growing complexity of systems where conventional engineering and scientific methodologies and technologies based on learning and adaptability come to their limits and new ways are nowadays required. The transition from adaptable to evolvable and finally to self-evolvable systems is highlighted, self-properties such as self-organization, self-configuration, and self-repairing are introduced and challenges and limitations of the self-evolvable engineering systems are evaluated.

Self-Evolvable Systems

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

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

Psychology of Religion

Psychology of Religion

In the past four decades or so, the so-called psychology of religion after having been deemed extinct, impossible or unlikely has risen to prominence again: the number of publications is rapidly growing, an impressive secondary literature (handbooks, introductions, etc.) is available already, infrastructure has been developed (a number of new journals devoted to the subject have been founded, organizations have been established, increasingly funding is going to the area), attracting many new researchers. Organizations like the American Psychological Association are now publishing in the field of psychology of religion (and its Div. 36 [psych of rel] with almost 3,000 members is already midsized among the APA-divisions). This book documents this re-emergence and development.

Psychology of Religion

Evolutionary Games in Complex Topologies

Evolutionary Games in Complex Topologies

There are many examples of cooperation in Nature: cells cooperate to form tissues, organs cooperate to form living organisms, and individuals cooperate to raise their offspring or to hunt. However, why cooperation emerges and survives in hostile environments, when defecting would be a much more profitable short-term strategy, is a question that still remains open. During the past few years, several explanations have been proposed, including kin and group selection, punishment and reputation mechanisms, or network reciprocity. This last one will be the center of the present study. The thesis explores the interface between the underlying structure of a given population and the outcome of the cooperative dynamics taking place on top of it, (namely, the Prisoner’s Dilemma Game). The first part of this work analyzes the case of a static system, where the pattern of connections is fixed, so it does not evolve over time. The second part develops two models for growing topologies, where the growth and the dynamics are entangled.

Evolutionary Games in Complex Topologies

Sustainable Urban Planning

Sustainable Urban Planning

Sustainable Urban Planning introduces the principles and practices behind urban and regional planning in the context of environmental sustainability. Its publication reflects a growing recognition in the fields of planning and environmental studies that cities, where the majority of humans now live, need to be developed in a sustainable way.

Sustainable Urban Planning

Library Data

Library Data

Numerical evidence is everywhere and how best to handle and leverage it is a growing concern in the academic world in general and the academic library world in particular. Libraries are not only storehouses and key contacts for library patrons in accessing numbers, but are also collectors and users of their own data, which is integral to the functioning of the library itself.

Library Data

Chance Meeting

Chance Meeting

Growing up trapped by her father’s wealth, awkward Ty Stannard found freedom on horseback. A talented equestrian, she yearned to ride as well as her idol, champion Steve Sheppard. Worshiping the handsome Kentuckian, she treasures the lucky medallion he gives her the day they chance to meet. But then a nasty fall changes everything, and Ty is forced to leave her dreams behind.

Chance Meeting

NASAs Scientist-Astronauts

NASAs Scientist-Astronauts

Mounting pressure in the early 1960s from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to study ways of expanding the role of astronauts to conduct science on future space missions led to NASA??’s conclusion that flying scientifically trained crewmembers would generate greater returns from each mission. NASA and industry studies continued investigating possibilities that could lead to the eventual creation of the first space stations using surplus Apollo hardware, through the Apollo Applications Programme (AAP). There was also a growing interest within the military to create their own manned space station programme, conducting on-orbit experiments and research with strategic advantages for national security. In October 1964 the Soviets launched Voskhod 1 whose 3-man crew were identified as the first ???scientific passengers??? in space. A few days later NASA and the NAS had completed joint studies into the possibility of using scientists in the manned space programme, and invited scientists to apply for astronaut training. In selecting the first group of scientist-astronauts, NASA had one firm requirement; any person accepted into the programme would have to qualify as a military jet pilot. While the second group of scientists were completing their academic, survival and flight training programme, the remaining members of the first scientist-astronaut group were involved in supporting the developing Apollo Applications programme and the Apollo lunar programme.

NASAs Scientist-Astronauts

Resource Recovery and Recycling from Metallurgical Wastes

Resource Recovery and Recycling from Metallurgical Wastes

Resource recovery and recycling from millions of tons of wastes produced from industrial activities is a continuing challenge for environmental engineers and researchers. Demand for conservation of resources, reduction in the quantity of waste and sustainable development with environmental control has been growing in every part of the world.

Resource Recovery and Recycling from Metallurgical Wastes

Self-Evolvable Systems

Self-Evolvable Systems

This monograph presents key method to successfully manage the growing complexity of systems where conventional engineering and scientific methodologies and technologies based on learning and adaptability come to their limits and new ways are nowadays required. The transition from adaptable to evolvable and finally to self-evolvable systems is highlighted, self-properties such as self-organization, self-configuration, and self-repairing are introduced and challenges and limitations of the self-evolvable engineering systems are evaluated.

Self-Evolvable Systems

Living Feminism

Living Feminism

In this rich, evocative and challenging book, Chilla Bulbeck examines the impact of feminism on ordinary Australian women. She argues that this has been significant, even for those women who shun feminism. The lives of sixty women of various ages and backgrounds, whose own words make up much of this book, are set against broader changes in society since the 1950s. Bulbeck explores: growing up, education, work, marriage, motherhood and sexuality. Partly a history of feminism, the book also considers feminism’s relevance beyond the white middle class.

Living Feminism

Business Ratios and Formulas

Business Ratios and Formulas

Required reading for anyone starting, running, or growing a business, Business Ratios and Formulas, Second Edition puts answers at the fingertips of business managers, with nearly 250 operational criteria and clear, easy-to-understand explanations that can be used right away. The Second Edition includes approximately fifty new ratios and formulas, as well as new chapters covering ratios and formulas for e-commerce and human resources.

Business Ratios and Formulas

Human Landscapes in Classical Antiquity

Human Landscapes in Classical Antiquity

Human Landscapes in Classical Antiquity shows how today’s environmental and ecological concerns can help illuminate our study of the ancient world. The contributors consider how the Greeks and Romans perceived their natural world, and how their perceptions affected society. The effects of human settlement and cultivation on the landscape are considered, as well as the representation of landscape in Attic drama. Various aspects of farming, such as the use of terraces and the significance of olive growing are examined. The uncultivated landscape was also important: hunting was a key social ritual for Greek and hellenistic elites, and ‘wild’ places were not wastelands but played an essential economic role. The Romans’ attempts to control their environment are analyzed.

Human Landscapes in Classical Antiquity

Trends in Business and Economic Ethics

Trends in Business and Economic Ethics

A growing body of academic and business specialists are paying attention to ethical issues in business and economics, drawing on a wide range of different disciplinary and theoretical perspectives. This volume presents important new insights from scholars in economics, philosophy, business ethics and management studies. In addition to providing specific perspectives on particular topics, it presents strategic perspectives on the development of the field. Readers can inform themselves on developments in particular areas, such as social accountability or stakeholder governance; they will also find substantial contributions related to the interfaces of ethics and economics, economics and philosophy, business ethics and political science, and business ethics and management. The collection is a thought-provoking contribution to the development of business and economic ethics as an increasingly important field of academic study.

Trends in Business and Economic Ethics

Multiagent Scheduling

Multiagent Scheduling

Scheduling theory has received a growing interest since its origins in the second half of the 20th century. Developed initially for the study of scheduling problems with a single objective, the theory has been recently extended to problems involving multiple criteria. However, this extension has still left a gap between the classical multi-criteria approaches and some real-life problems in which not all jobs contribute to the evaluation of each criterion.

Multiagent Scheduling

Challenges and Opportunities for the Worlds Forests in the 21st Century

Challenges and Opportunities for the Worlds Forests in the 21st Century

This book tackles the enormously important and complex issues facing the worlds forests today, posed by climate change, conservation objectives, sustainable development needs, and the growing demand for affordable energy, along with analyses of the difficulties and opportunities that these present

Challenges and Opportunities for the Worlds Forests in the 21st Century

A Field Guide to Plants of Costa Rica

A Field Guide to Plants of Costa Rica

At the biological crossroads of the Americas, Costa Rica hosts one of the widest varieties of plants in the wold, with habitats ranging from tidal mangrove swamps, and lowland rainforests, to dry tropical evergreen and deciduous forests. Field Guide to Plants of Costa Rica is a must-have reference guide for beginner and expert naturalists alike. It provides a thorough survey of more than 850 plant species, each entry accompanied by color photos and a concise yet detailed narrative description. Plants are conveniently grouped by the different types of vegetation: palms, tall trees, shrubs, woody vines, herbaceous vines, herbs, grasses and ferns. Along with 1400 color photographs, the guide also includes an illustrated glossary of plant parts, five maps of Costa Rica, and laminated covers for durability in the field. With so much readily accessible information, this book is essential for exploring Costa Rica’s common and conspicuous flora from the plants growing along the roadside to the best natural parks.

A Field Guide to Plants of Costa Rica

Globalization

Globalization

Offers a stimulating introduction to globalization and its varying impacts across, between, and within societies. It is a highly readable book that contributes to a better understanding of the crucial aspects and dimensions of the developments and transformations that go by the name of globalization. – ;’Globalization’ has become the buzz-word of our time. A growing number of scholars and political activists have invoked the term to describe a variety of changing economic, political, cultural, ideological, and environmental processes that are alleged to have accelerated in the last few decades. Rather than forcing such a complex social phenomenon into a single conceptual framework, Manfred Steger presents globalization in plain, readable English as a multifaceted process encompassing global, regional, and local aspects of social life. In addition to explaining the various dimensions of globalization, the author explores whether globalization should be considered a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ thing – a question that has been hotly debated in classrooms, boardrooms, and on the streets.

Globalization

Vodou in Haitian Life and Culture

Vodou in Haitian Life and Culture

This book introduces readers to the practice of Vodou and helps deconstruct and destroy stereotypes which have survived for hundreds of years. The authors in the collection–from Karen McCarthy Brown to Gerdes Fleurant to Leslie Desmangles–are leading scholars in the rapidly growing field of Vodou Studies. Tackling a wide range of Vodou practices and images, the essays within work to introduce readers to the history and practice of this religion, and to correct the fiction of Vodou which has been circulating as fact. The book focuses specifically on the role Vodou plays in Haiti, the country in which it has its strongest following, examining the influence it has on spiritual beliefs, cultural practices, national identity, popular culture, writing and art. By looking in detail at the beliefs and practices in one country, the reader will begin to understand this unique religion and the multiple domains in which it operates.

Vodou in Haitian Life and Culture