الصفحة 40
الصفحة 40
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 and efficiency considerations of public higher education
It has become part of the conventional wisdom in the economics of education that subsidies to higher education have a regressive distributional effect. Given that relatively more children from wealthier families enroll in higher education, many economist assume that these subsidies to higher education have an unwanted distributional impact. This volume presents new empirical evidence for the cross-sectional point of view and provides an analytical framework for the longitudinal perspective. The present volume also analyzes the equity and efficiency effects of widely-discussed funding reforms and proposes a voluntary graduate tax.
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
Enzymes and drugs
Enzyme dysfunction, an essential catalyst for the smooth running of biochemical reactions and the maintenance of vital processes, is at the root of many pathologies that have paved the way for the development of numerous drugs. Aimed at pharmacists, biologists, biochemists, doctors, veterinarians, medicinal chemists and students from a wide range of disciplines, Enzymes and Drugs brings together, for the first time, extensive documentation highlighting the relationships between a large number of drugs and enzymes. The book also highlights new prospects for therapeutic discoveries offered by enzyme targeting. Numerous applications have been developed thanks to strategies for studying enzyme inhibition or activation, as well as the development of allosteric effectors, presented with their advantages and disadvantages. Various rare diseases, known as "orphan" diseases, have resulted from enzyme deficiency or absence. For their treatment, the introduction of substitute enzymes has led to major therapeutic advances.
Enzyme-Catalyzed Synthesis of Polymers
New polymers have been developed and "old" polymers have been generated using novel synthetic strategies. This book contains seven chapters that cover in great deatail the use of enzymes to synthesize a range of polymers. It also makes use of a large number of examples to summarize the salient features of the enzymatic reactions and resulting polymeric properties.
Environments for Multi-Agent Systems ; 1st International Workshop, E4MAS, 2004, New York, NY, July 19, 2004, Revised Selected Papers
The modern ?eld of multiagent systems has developed from two main lines of earlier research. Its practitioners generally regard it as a form of arti?cial intelligence (AI). Some of its earliest work was reported in a series of workshops in the US dating from1980,revealinglyentitled,“DistributedArti?cialIntelligence,”andpioneers often quoted a statement attributed to Nils Nilsson that “all AI is distributed. ” The locus of classical AI was what happens in the head of a single agent, and much MAS research re?ects this heritage with its emphasis on detailed modeling of the mental state and processes of individual agents. From this perspective, intelligenceisultimatelythepurviewofasinglemind,thoughitcanbeampli?ed by appropriate interactions with other minds. These interactions are typically mediated by structured protocols of various sorts, modeled on human conver- tional behavior. But the modern ?eld of MAS was not born of a single parent. A few - searchershavepersistentlyadvocatedideasfromthe?eldofarti?ciallife(ALife). These scientists were impressed by the complex adaptive behaviors of commu- ties of animals (often extremely simple animals, such as insects or even micro- ganisms). The computational models on which they drew were often created by biologists who used them not to solve practical engineering problems but to test their hypotheses about the mechanisms used by natural systems. In the ar- ?cial life model, intelligence need not reside in a single agent, but emerges at the level of the community from the nonlinear interactions among agents. - cause the individual agents are often subcognitive, their interactions cannot be modeled by protocols that presume linguistic competence.
Environmental valuation with discrete choice experiments : Guidance on design, implementation and data analysis
This book offers up-to-date advice and practical guidance on how to undertake a discrete choice experiment as a tool for environmental valuation. It discusses crucial issues in designing, implementing and analysing choice experiments. Compiled by leading experts in the field, the book promotes discrete choice analysis in environmental valuation through a more solid scientific basis for research practice. Instead of providing strict guidelines, the book helps readers avoid common mistakes often found in applied work. It is based on the collective reflections of the scientific network of researchers using discrete choice modelling in the field of environmental valuation (www.envecho.com).
Environmental Security in Harbors and Coastal Areas : Management Using Comparative Risk Assessment and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis
This book explores the challenges facing coastal areas during the next few decades and the difficult decisions needed to prevent a repeat of the past. Establishing, maintaining or enhancing a sense of environmental security in different coastal regions and improving the management of critical infrastructure will require (i) matching human demands with available environmental resources; (ii) recognition of environmental security threats and infrastructure vulnerabilities; and, (iii) identification of the range of available options for preventing and/or minimizing natural disasters, technological failures, and/or terror actions. This book emphasizes beliefs that the convergence of seemingly disparate viewpoints and often uncertain and limited information is possible only by using one or more available risk assessment methodologies and decision-making tools such as multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA).
Environmental Policy Instruments for Conserving Global Biodiversity
If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. —Mark 9:23 The current, unprecedented loss of global biodiversity as a result of anthropo genic interference in the world's ecosystems is affecting human well-being across the globe with increasing severity. It therefore represents a major chal lenge in international environmental policymaking. With the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the community of states has recognized the in creasing importance of preserving biodiversity. Given the extensive context of biodiversity loss and preservation, this study focuses on two issues, which are at the center of the public discussion regarding the objectives of conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity, and that are addressed by specific policy instruments. The first issue is the regulation of cross-border trade in genetic information and genetic resources. Here, the question is whether the commercial use of genetic information derived from bio diversity can create incentives for its preservation. The second issue involves the conservation of biodiversity through the protection of ecologically valuable eco systems from human use.
Environmental impact assessment of recycled wastes on surface and ground waters ; Vol.3 : Engineering modeling and sustainability
The state of the art of the impact assessment of recycled hazardous waste materials on surface and ground waters is presented. The topics include chemodynamics, toxicology, modeling and information systems. The book serves as a practical conceptual guide for those who have professional responsibility for the monitoring, design, management, or conduct of environmental impact assessment. It is believed that the book will prove useful to the reader who, regardless of disciplinary background, wants to examine in greater detail the kinds of interdisciplinary contributions to contemporary decision-making processes that characterize modern impact assessment project development.
Environmental Impact Assessment of Recycled Wastes on Surface and Ground Waters ; Vol.2 : Risk analysis
The state of the art of the impact assessment of recycled hazardous waste materials on surface and ground waters is presented. The topics include chemodynamics, toxicology, modeling and information systems. The book serves as a practical conceptual guide for those who have professional responsibility for the monitoring, design, management, or conduct of environmental impact assessment. It is believed that the book will prove useful to the reader who, regardless of disciplinary background, wants to examine in greater detail the kinds of interdisciplinary contributions to contemporary decision-making processes that characterize modern impact assessment project development.
Environmental Impact Assessment of Recycled Wastes on Surface and Ground Waters ; Vol.1 : Concepts, methodology and cemical analysis
The state of the art of the impact assessment of recycled hazardous waste materials on surface and ground waters is presented. The topics include chemodynamics, toxicology, modeling and information systems. Due to the wealth of information on this topic, the texts of T. Kassim (ed.): Environmental Impact Assessment are published in three separate volumes: vol. 1: Concepts, Methodology and Chemical Analysis; vol. 2: Risk Analysis and vol. 3: Engineering Modeling and Sustainability. The book serves as a practical conceptual guide for those who have professional responsibility for the monitoring, design, management, or conduct of environmental impact assessment. It is believed that the book will prove useful to the reader who, regardless of disciplinary background, wants to examine in greater detail the kinds of interdisciplinary contributions to contemporary decision-making processes that characterize modern impact assessment project development.
Environmental Health in Central and Eastern Europe
Complex chemical mixtures impact our health every day. In the United States, and also in Central and Eastern Europe, there are a number of locations where complex chemical mixtures have been released to environmental media. Although exposure to mixtures is common, minimal information exists to quantify these exposures, or to determine their impact on human or ecological receptors. These proceedings present some of the most current research conducted to quantify complex mixtures in the environment and investigate their potential impact on human health. Many of the manuscripts reported in these proceedings represent the most up-to-date measurements of population exposures in Central and Eastern Europe. These studies are of value to health and environmental professionals around the world as they develop strategies for assessing exposures, remediating contaminated environments, and improving public health.
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.
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
Environmental Challenges in Civil Engineering II
Rports on findings concerning structural material behavior, and new methods and technologies in constructions. A special emphasis is given to sustainable constructions practices, including material recycling and reuse, renovation and restoration of historical building and to those fostering sustainable development of cities and rural areas, and a better integration of buildings with the environment. Offering a good balance of theory and practice, and covering both technical and organizational aspects in civil engineering and architectural projects, this book offers extensive information on solutions and current challenges in construction projects and structural interventions in the context of environmental protection and earthquake prevention.
Environmental and Health Risk Assessment and Management : Principles and Practices
The book covers the essential aspects of environmental and health law, environmental economics, applied statistical and probabilistic methods, fundamental notions of applied epidemiology and toxicology, as well as decision analysis, to provide an integrated overview of how risk assessment and management combine to produce sound societal outcomes. Risk-based methods play a pivotal role in identifying and ranking alternative, sustainable choices, while accounting for uncertainty and variability. Specifically, most reductions in risks require a balancing of the costs and benefits associated with the action to reduce exposure to a hazard and thus risk. This balancing necessarily involves linking exposure and response through causation. Fundamentally, in risk assessment and management, science and law intersect through legal and scientific causation to the point that the failure to provide a sound causal argument can make an otherwise beneficial law or regulation invalid.
Entropy, Search, Complexity
The present volume is a collection of survey papers in the fields of entropy, search and complexity. They summarize the latest developments in their respective areas.More than half of the papers belong to search theory which lies on the borderline of mathematics and computer science, information theory and combinatorics, respectively. Search theory has variegated applications, among others in bioinformatics. Some of these papers also have links to linear statistics and communicational complexity.
Entrepreneurship, the new economy and public policy : Schumpeterian perspectives
Silicon Valley is the most salient example of high-tech industrial clusters. Public policy makers throughout the world would like to learn the secrets of Silicon Valley in order to build their own high-tech economies. The existing literature on ind- trial clusters, which traces back to Marshall (1920), focuses on the way in which ?rms bene?t from locating in a cluster; it suggests that once a cluster comes into existence However, a more important question is how to reach this critical mass in the ?rst place. In contrast to the literature, evidence suggests that entrepreneurs rarely move when they est- lish high-tech start-ups. This contradicts the notion that location choice analyses lead entrepreneurs to a high-tech cluster. A high-tech industrial cluster such as Silicon Valley is characterized by c- centrated entrepreneurship.
