E-science : Open, social and virtual technology for research collaboration
This book shows the breadth and various facets of e-Science, while also illustrating their shared core. Changes in scientific work are driven by the shift to grid-based worlds, the use of information and communication systems, and the existential infrastructure, which includes global collaboration. In this context, the book addresses emerging issues such as open access, collaboration and virtual communities and highlights the diverse range of developments associated with e-Science. As such, it will be of interest to researchers and scholars in the fields of information technology and knowledge management.
ERP Systems and Organisational Change : A Socio-technical Insight
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems are now the backbone of the information systems in public and private sector organisations. This book provides a unique and comprehensive insight into ERP systems, from both a social and a technical viewpoint.
Ergativity : Emerging Issues
This volume presents a collection of papers on the enticing and complex theme of Ergativity. The papers exemplify theoretical depth applied to a wide range of languages, with the majority of papers based on original fieldwork. Ergativity refers to a grammatical pattern in which the logical subject of intransitive clauses and the logical object of transitive clauses share some grammatical features, and in this respect differ from transitive subjects. The shared features are often case and/or agreement, but a variety of other relevant features have also been isolated in the literature.
Equity, Equality and Diversity in the Nordic : Model of Education
Does the Nordic model of education still stand by its original principles and safeguard education for all? This Open Access volume is a carefully crafted collection of chapters that investigate the different aspects of equity, equality and diversity across the education systems in the Nordic countries.
Equity policies in global higher Education : Reducing inequality and increasing participation and attainment
This book discusses and analyses global policies and practices aimed at promoting equity in higher education participation and attainment. Although the massification of higher education systems has facilitated the participation of students from deprived backgrounds, socioeconomic inequalities persist in access to the most prestigious institutions and programmes. Privileged students benefit from a number of advantages in the competition for selective and scarce places: access to information, lower aversion to debt, higher expectations, better previous schooling and higher academic achievement.
EQ-5D value sets
For various reasons, cost benefit analysis is usually rejected in favour of cost-effectiveness or cost-utility analyses, often involving the estimation of the incremental cost per Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) gained (Drummond et al, 2005). The estimation of QALYs gained requires valuations for all relevant health states on a scale anchored at 1 = Full health and 0 = Dead. The EQ-5D is widely used in this context and a number of value sets are available for all the health states generated by the EQ-5D descriptive system. These can be readily applied to health outcomes measured as EQ-5D profiles. EQ-5D has become one of the valuation approaches recommended by several reimbursement authorities and academic bodies in European countries
Epilepsy
Epilepsy has remained a significant social concern and financial burden globally. It is the most common neurological disease of the brain. Around 1% of the people worldwide have epilepsy and this disease affects people of all ages, Although the different types of epilepsy vary greatly, medication appropriate can control seizures in about 70% of patients, Medications are mainstays in controlling epileptic seizures, Partial seizures, which are the most common seizure type in adults, can be effectively controlled by virtually all the standard and newer antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). For the generalized epilepsies, valproate remains the drug of choice.
Environmental Risk Assessment : Quantitative Measures, Anthropogenic Influences, Human Impact
The world is a dirty place and getting dirtier all the time. The reasons for this ever-increasing lack of cleanliness are not hard to find, being basically caused by the actions of the six billion people who inhabit the planet. The needs of the people for air, water, food, housing, clothing, heating, materials, oil, gas, minerals, metals, chemicals, and so forth have, over the centuries, given rise to a variety of environmental problems that have been exacerbated or been newly created by the industrialization of the world, the increase in population, and the increase in longevity of the population. The costs of cleaning even fractions of the known environmental problems are truly enormous, as detailed in the volume Environmental Risk Analysis (I. Lerche and E. Paleologos, 2001, McGraw-Hill). The chances of causing new environmental problems, and their associated costs of clean up, are equally challenging in terms of anthropogenic influences and also of the natural environmental problems that can be triggered by humanity.
Environmental Problems of Central Asia and their Economic, Social and Security Impacts
entral Asia is a developing region with great potential, but there are valid concerns that current resource management practices are not sustainable, particularly with regard to the management of water resources. Recent changes in social structures, accompanied by regional climate change, have caused substantial environmental changes leading to security concerns in the region. As a result, the local economy has been significantly impacted to the extent that the potential for social unrest is of great concern.
Environmental Issues in Latin America and the Caribbean
This book is a non-technical interdisciplinary collection of 12 essays, each of which uses natural or social science methods. The essays analyze a representative set of environmental issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. They consider problems at international, regional, national, and local levels and examine current and historical environmental policy. The essays are organized according to theme and approach into five parts: -conservation challenges; -national policies, local communities, and rural development; -market mechanisms for protecting public goods; -public participation and environmental justice; -the effects of development policies on the environment. Contributors are researchers from Canada, Europe, Latin America, and the United States
Environmental Governance of the Baltic Sea
This edited volume presents a comprehensive and coherent interdisciplinary analysis of challenges and possibilities for sustainable governance of the Baltic Sea ecosystem by combining knowledge and approaches from natural and social sciences. Focusing on the Ecosystem Approach to Management (EAM) and associated multi-level, multi-sector and multi-actor challenges, the book provides up-to-date descriptions and analyses of environmental governance structures and processes at the macro-regional Baltic Sea level.
Environmental Governance in Latin America
The multiple purposes of nature – livelihood for communities, revenues for states, commodities for companies, and biodiversity for conservationists – have turned environmental governance in Latin America into a highly contested arena. In such a resource-rich region, unequal power relations, conflicting priorities, and trade-offs among multiple goals have led to a myriad of contrasting initiatives that are reshaping social relations and rural territories. This edited collection addresses these tensions by unpacking environmental governance as a complex process of formulating and contesting values, procedures and practices shaping the access, control and use of natural resources. Contributors from various fields address the challenges, limitations, and possibilities for a more sustainable, equal, and fair development. In this book, environmental governance is seen as an overarching concept defining the dynamic and multi-layered repertoire of society-nature interactions, where images of nature and discourses on the use of natural resources are mediated by contextual processes at multiple scales.
Environmental change and human security : Recognizing and acting on hazard impacts
This book focuses on the linkage between human and environmental security and takes both a conceptual and a pragmatic approach to complex environmental issues (such as soil erosion, desertification, water degradation, demographic shifts, food security and agricultural prospects, urbanization trends, hazard-induced migrations) that affect human security. The book is the direct outcome of a NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW), sponsored by the Science for Peace and Security Programme (SPS), Salve Regina University, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The book summarizes the collective work of both natural and social science disciplines in regard to how best address, mitigate, adapt, or achieve resilience
Entrepreneurship and innovation : Theory, practice and context, 4th
Provides an overview of the theory, Practice and context of entrepreneurship and innovation at both the industry and firm level. It provides a foundation of ideas and understandings designed to shape the reader’s thinking and behaviour to better appreciate the role of innovation and entrepreneurship in modern economies, And to recognise their own abilities in this regard. The book provides the reader with an overview of these elements and how they combine to create new value in the market.
Entrepreneurship and Business : A Regional Perspective
This book examines the relationship between entrepreneurship, growth and regional aspects of business. The text offers two broad perspectives of entrepreneurship, a historical one and a comparative perspective. In the historical part, several examples of the co-operation between regional aspects and aspects of entrepreneurship are presented. The second part shows different aspects of entrepreneurship in a more and more globalizing world. Networking, the relationship between clusters and business innovation, economic transition and the links between social capital and business competitiveness are some of the topics.
Entrepreneurial Strategy : Starting, Managing, and Scaling New Ventures
This book focuses on explaining differences amongst organizations regarding various attributes, forms, and outcomes. By focusing on the “how” of new venture creation and management to produce well-established organizations, the authors aim to increase our understanding of the antecedents of most management research assumptions. New ventures are the source of most newly created jobs generated in an economy, new industries and markets, innovative products and services, and new solutions to economic, social, and environmental problems. However, most management research assumes a well-established organization as the starting point of their theorizing.
Entertainment-Education Behind the Scenes : Case Studies for Theory and Practice
This book tracks the latest trends in the theory, research, and practice of entertainment-education, the field of communication that incorporates social change messaging into entertaining media. Sometimes called edutainment, social impact television, narrative persuasion, or cultural strategy, this approach to social and behavior change communication offers new opportunities including transmedia and digital formats
Entertainment Computing - ICEC 2005 ; 4th International Conference, Sanda, Japan, September 19-21, 2005, Proceedings
First of all, we appreciate the hard work of all the authors who contributed to ICEC 2005 by submitting their papers. ICEC 2005 attracted 95 technical paper submissions, 8 poster submissions and 7 demo submissions, in total 110. This number is nearly equal to ICEC 2004. Based on a thorough review and selection process carried out by 76 international experts from academia and industry as members of the senior and international program committees, a high-quality program was compiled. The program committee consisted of experts from all over the world: 1 from Austria, 3 from Bulgaria, 2 from Canada, 4 from China, 1 from Finland, 4 from France, 10 from Germany, 1 from Greece, 1 from Ireland, 1 from Israel, 1 from Italy, 26 from Japan, 1 from Korea, 4 from The Netherlands, 1 from New Zealand, 1 from Norway, 1 from Singapore, 1 from Thailand, 4 from the UK, and 8 from the USA. In this number, reviewers are included. The final decision was made at the senior program committee meeting based on three reviewers' feedback, available online via the conference management tool. Through earnest and fair discussion at the meeting, 25 technical papers were accepted as long papers and 32 technical papers were accepted as short papers from 95 submitted technical papers. Moreover, 3 poster papers and 5 demo papers were accepted.
Enhancing Teaching and Learning through Assessment : Deriving an Appropriate Model
Provides a practical guide on the effective use of assessment. It includes the use of assessment tools and pedagogical design that help students deepen their learning. Major issues on assessment and some excellent examples are presented as a useful resource to university teachers in enhancing teaching and students' learning. It will also be found useful by teachers when implementing various assessment methods. School administrators and teaching development professionals will find the book useful when making decisions related to learning and teaching issues in their institutions.
Enhancing Police Integrity
Concludes that enhancing police integrity goes well beyond culling out "bad apple" police officers. Police administrators should focus on four aspects: organizational rulemaking; detecting, investigating and disciplining rule violations; circumscribing the informal "code of silence" that prohibits police from reporting the misconduct of their colleagues; and understanding the influence of public expectations and agency history.



















