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Expanding Horizons in Bioethics
What are the resources and needs, the strengths and the vulnerabilities of patients, of society, or of nature? How do we evaluate the societal potential of scientific discovery? It is fairly well assured that we are influencing the terms of existence of many inhabitants of this planet, from flora to fauna to humans. Moreover, history has shown that while technologies can be used neutrally, they can be (and have been) used to the great benefit – or the great detriment – of human life and the fate of the world as a whole. How various types of knowledge and technological ability will be deployed is up to us, individually and collectively. How such information and ability should be deployed, and for what reasons, are questions at the core of bioethical inquiry. These are the "expanding horizons in bioethics" to which this volume refers. This volume is comprised of fourteen essays. It is a rare gathering of scholarly opinion, featuring well-known experts from a diversity of disciplines. The topics addressed are of immediate concern to the public. The essays ask questions about human nature, genetic technologies, reproductive rights, human subjects research, and environmental issues – all in provocative and challenging new ways. Yet the themes that emerge throughout the volume are of enduring interest to anyone concerned about the interactions of scientific development, ethics, and society. This volume is of interest to students and teachers of bioethics and related topics, as well as to professionals working in these disciplines.
Evidence-based school development in changing demographic contexts
This book features a school development model (Arizona Initiative for Leadership Development and Research – AZiLDR) that offers a roadmap for schools to navigate the complexities of continuous school development. Filled with processes that balance evidence-based values with democratic, culturally responsive values, this book offers strategies to mediate the tensions and to address school culture, context and values, leadership capacity, using data as a source of reflection, curricular and pedagogical activity, and strengths-based approaches to meeting the needs of culturally diverse students.
Evaluating clinical research : All that glitters is not gold
The objective of this book is to make its readers better informed and more critical consumers of clinical research to help them recognize the strengths and the weaknesses of scientific publications. In doing so, the reader will be able to distinguish patient-important and methodologically sound studies from those having limitations in design, conduct and interpretation.
EU Accession - Financial Sector Opportunities and Challenges for Southeast Europe
A distinguished international group of central bankers, commercial bankers, entrepreneurs, academic advisors, policymakers, and representatives of development finance organizations and donor agencies, brought together by KfW, examines in this book the future of financial sector development in Southeast Europe. They explore ways to strengthen the banking sector in Southeast Europe, further promote SMEs, and improve access to financial services in the region. Experts and decision-makers assess the opportunities and challenges presented by the EU accession process and Basel II, and offer candid insight into the expanding role of the private sector in developing the financial landscape. The perspectives presented in this book will prompt discussion and intellectual exchange that will serve as a new starting point for further successful cooperative initiatives.
Ethnocultural Perspectives on Disaster and Trauma : Foundations, Issues, and Applications
In this pioneering volume, experts on individual and collective trauma experience, posttraumatic stress and related syndromes, and emergency and crisis intervention – share knowledge and insights on the cultural context of working with ethnic and racial minority communities during disasters. In each chapter, emotional, psychological, and social needs as well as communal strengths and coping skills that arise in disasters are documented for major minority groups in the United States including specific chapters on African Americans, Native Americans, Arab Americans, Asian Indians, Chinese Americans, Caribbean Americans, Latin Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Vietnamese Americans
Environmental History of the Rhine-Meuse Delta : An ecological story on evolving human–environmental relations coping with climate change and sea-level rise
This book presents the environmental history of the Delta of the lowland rivers Rhine and Meuse, an ecological story on evolving human–environmental relations coping with climate change and sea-level rise. It offers a combination of in-depth ecology and environmental history, dealing with exploitation of land and water, the use of everything nature provided, the development of fisheries and agriculture, changes in biodiversity of higher plants, fish, birds, mammals and invasive exotics. It is the first comprehensive book written in English on the integrated environmental history of the Delta, from prehistoric times up to the present day. It covers the l- acy of human intervention, the inescapable fate of reclaimed, nevertheless subs- ing and sinking polders, ‘bathtubs’ attacked by numerous floods, reclaimed in the Middle Ages and unwittingly exposed to the rising sea level and the increasing amplitude between high and low water in the rivers. The river channels, constricted and regulated between embankments, lost their flood plains, silted up, degraded and incised. Cultivation of raised bog deposits led to oxidation and compacting of peat and clay, resulting in progressive subsidence and flooding; arable land had to be changed into grassland and wetland. For millennia muscular strength and wind and water powers moulded the country into its basic form. From 1800 onwards, acceleration and scaling up by steam power and electricity, and exponential popu- tion growth, resulted in the erection of human structures ‘fixed forever’, and severe pressure on the environment.
Environmental health impacts of transport and mobility
Transport and mobility are essential parts of the current organization of society. Complex activities are interwoven in such a way that problems occurring from the actual process of constant movement cannot be separated, as they are so tightly interconnected. This book examines the health effects of transport and mobility by addressing the major issues related to the subject and analyzing their consequences. Thus not only are air pollution, noise, and sedentarism and its related endocrine problems discussed, but topics such as jet-lag, accidents and violent displacement are also addressed. The strength of this book over others in the field lies in its multidisciplinary approach to the issues by a number of experts in different scientific fields who are documenting the health effects of transport and mobility. Moreover, it enhances the understanding of the issues by integrating information from different geographical regions.
Engineering mechanics 2 : Strength of materials : An introduction with many examples
Provides students with a clear introduction and to enable them to formulate and solve engineering problems in this field. For this purpose, the book provides a number of examples. The Contents : Introduction to linear elasticity – Plane stress state – Bars – Beams – Beam deflections – Shear stresses in beams – Torsion – Energy methods – Buckling of bars
Enabling Semantic Web Services : The Web Service Modeling Ontology
Service-oriented computing has become one of the predominant factors in current IT research and development. Web services seem to be the middleware solution of the future for highly interoperable distributed software solutions. In parallel, research on the Semantic Web provides the results required to exploit distributed machine-processable data. To combine these two research lines into industrial-strength applications, a number of research projects have been set up by organizations like W3C and the EU. After a brief presentation of the underlying basic technologies and standards of the World Wide Web, the Semantic Web, and Web Services, they detail all the elements of WSMO from basic concepts to possible applications in e-commerce, e-government and e-banking, and they also describe its relation to other approaches like OWL-S or WSDL-S.
Employability revisited : Strengths- and life-phase-oriented human resource management
One of the most pressing issues in current and future human resource management is the inclusion of strengths and life stages within human resource structures. This book examines in a multi-perspective, innovative and participatory way the conditioning factors for persistent stereotyping processes in the context of age and work. Levers for change as well as the circular model for optimizing or implementing life-phase oriented human resource management are presented. It also offers practical assistance for corporate leaders and human resources managers for the implementation of a strength-oriented human resources management.
Elite Sales Strategies : A Guide to Being One-Up, Creating Value, and Becoming Truly Consultative
This guidebook suggests putting yourself in a “one-up” position, where you, as the salesperson, come to a client in a position of authority and strength, where you yourself are qualified to offer nuanced and helpful advice to companies that have put themselves in a “one-down” position, whether that be by bad decision-making, poor understanding of the marketplace, or bad luck. At its heart, this book suggests you find the advantages that you can provide that will, in turn, help your client become “one-up” themselves in their own field and ensure they achieve the better results they need.
Elder care center = دار ﻟﺮﻋﺎﻳﺔ اﻟﻤﺴﻨﻴﻦ وﻓﻖ ﻣﻌﻴﺎر جديد
مركز رعاية المسنين، قبل كل شيء، هو ملاذ للراحة والطمأنينة. إنه مكان يلتقي فيه كبار السن بالأطفال، حيث يمتزج عمق التصميم المعماري بالبعد الإنساني، محولاً اليتم إلى جسر للتواصل، ومخففاً من وطأة الوحدة. يعزز المشروع مفهوم الاندماج، انطلاقاً من الإيمان بأن الشيخوخة لا تعني الانعزال عن العالم، بل تعني التفاعل معه بكرامة وشمولية. Elder Care center above all, a space of comfort and reassurance. It’s a place where the elderly meet with children, where the architectural depth merges with the human dimension. turning orphan hood into a bridge for connection and filling the void of loneliness. the project strengthens the concept of integration, operating from the belief that aging doesn’t mean detachment from the world, but rather a dignified and inclusive engagement with it.
Econometrics
This textbook teaches some of the basic econometric methods and the underlying assumptions behind them. It also includes a simple and concise treatment of more advanced topics in spatial correlation, panel data, limited dependent variables, regression diagnostics, specification testing and time series analysis. Some of the strengths of this book lie in presenting difficult material in a simple, yet rigorous manner. Each chapter has a set of theoretical exercises as well as an empirical illustration using a real economic application.
Durability and sustainability of concrete: case studies for concrete exposures
Provides practicing engineers with a step by step approach for making durable concrete with optimum use of the local materials available within the various regions of the United States. It further includes actual concrete mixture proportions for high performance concrete for strength and durability under various aggressive environments based on the author’s experience in the field, and support this with illustrative case studies.
Distributed Consensus in Multi-vehicle Cooperative Control : Theory and Applications
Distributed Consensus in Multi-vehicle Cooperative Control develops distributed consensus strategies designed to ensure that the information states of all vehicles in a network converge to a common value. This approach strengthens the team, minimizing power consumption and the deleterious effects of range and other restrictions.
Digital Libraries : International Collaboration and Cross-Fertilization; 7th International Conference on Asian Digital Libraries, ICADL 2004, Shanghai, China, December 13-17, 2004, Proceedings
The International Conference on Asian Digital Libraries (ICADL) is an annual international forum that provides opportunities for librarians, researchers and experts to exchange their research results, innovative ideas, service experiences and state-- the-art developments in the field of digital libraries. Building on the success of the first six ICADL conferences, the 7th ICADL conference hosted by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the Shanghai Library in Shanghai, China aimed to further strengthen the academic collaboration and strategic alliance in the Asia- Pacific Region in the development of digital libraries.
Development of geopolymer from pond ash-thermal power plant waste : Novel constructional materials for civil engineers
Demonstrates how to utilize fly ash/pond ash (waste materials from thermal power plants) to produce a novel material called 'Geopolymer' (GP). Red mud, slags, etc., are mixed with fly ash to produce GP with enhanced strength. As shown in a few European countries, GP can replace cement, and some permanent structures constructed with GP are now appearing in a few advanced countries. GP, and geopolymer concrete, is considered suitable for the construction of roads, buildings, etc., and will eventually, fully or partially, replace cement.
Design of steel-concrete composite structures using high-strength materials
Design of Steel-Concrete Composite Structures Using High Strength Materials provides guidance on the design of composite steel-concrete structures using combined high-strength concretes and steels. The book includes a database of over 2,500 test results on composite columns to evaluate design methods, and presents calculations to determine critical parameters affecting the strength and ductility of high-strength composite columns. Finally, the book proposes design methods for axial-moment interaction curves in composite columns. This allows a unified approach to the design of columns with normal- and high-strength steel concrete materials.
Design of Reinforced Concrete Buildings for Seismic Performance : Practical Deterministic and Probabilistic Approaches
Presents an elegant, simple and theoretically coherent design framework. Required strength is determined on the basis of an estimated yield displacement and desired limits of system ductility and drift demands. A simple deterministic approach is presented along with its elaboration into a probabilistic treatment that allows for design to limit annual probabilities of failure. The design method allows the seismic force resisting system to be designed on the basis of elastic analysis results, while nonlinear analysis is used for performance verification. Detailing requirements of ACI 318 and Eurocode 8 are presented. Students will benefit from the coverage of seismology, structural dynamics, reinforced concrete, and capacity design approaches, which allows the book to be used as a foundation text in earthquake engineering.
Design of Observational Studies
This book introduction to statistical inference in observational studies and a detailed discussion of the principles that guide the design of observational studies. An observational study is an empiric investigation of effects caused by treatments when randomized experimentation is unethical or infeasible. Observational studies are common in most fields that study the effects of treatments on people, including medicine, economics, epidemiology, education, psychology, political science and sociology. The quality and strength of evidence provided by an observational study is determined largely by its design. Design of Observational Studies is organized into five parts. Chapters 2, 3, and 5 of Part I cover concisely many of the ideas discussed in Rosenbaum’s Observational Studies. Part II discusses the practical aspects of using propensity scores and other tools to create a matched comparison that balances many covariates, and includes an updated chapter on matching in R. In Part III, the concept of design sensitivity is used to appraise the relative ability of competing designs to distinguish treatment effects from biases due to unmeasured covariates. Part IV discusses evidence factors and the computerized construction of more than one comparison group. Part V discusses planning the analysis of an observational study, with particular reference to Sir Ronald Fisher’s striking advice for observational studies: "make your theories elaborate."
