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Food Price Volatility and Its Implications for Food Security and Policy
This book provides fresh insights into concepts, methods and new research findings on the causes of excessive food price volatility. It also discusses the implications for food security and policy responses to mitigate excessive volatility. The approaches applied by the contributors range from on-the-ground surveys, to panel econometrics and innovative high-frequency time series analysis as well as computational economics methods. It offers policy analysts and decision-makers guidance on dealing with extreme volatility.
Food physics : Physical properties : Measurement and applications
Food Physics deals with the physical properties of food, food ingredients and their measurement. Physical properties of food play a key role in all fields where modern technological processes are applied for the generation of food raw materials and the production of food. The determination of physical properties of food and related products are a pre-requisite for planning, production engineering and automation processes in today’s food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries as well as in all related quality control activities.This book describes the principles of food physics starting with the very basics and focuses on the needs of practitioners without omitting important basic principles.
Food addiction
This approach acknowledges the apparent parallels between substance use disorders and overeating of highly palatable, high-caloric foods. Although this idea seems to be relatively new, research on food addiction actually encompasses several decades, a fact that often remains unrecognized. Scientific use of the term addiction in reference to chocolate even dates back to the 19th century. In the 20th century, food addiction research underwent several paradigm shifts, which include changing foci on anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, obesity, or binge eating disorder. Thus, the purpose of this review is to describe the history and state of the art of food addiction research and to demonstrate its development and refinement of definitions and methodologies
Focusing telescopes in nuclear astrophysics
This volume is the first of its kind on focusing gamma-ray telescopes. Forty-eight refereed papers provide a comprehensive overview of the scientific potential and technical challenges of this nascent tool for nuclear astrophysics. The book features articles dealing with pivotal technologies such as grazing incident mirrors, multilayer coatings, Laue- and Fresnel-lenses - and even an optic using the curvature of space-time. The volume also presents an overview of detectors matching the ambitious objectives of gamma ray optics, and facilities for operating such systems on the ground and in space. The extraordinary scientific potential of focusing gamma-ray telescopes for the study of the most powerful sources and the most violent events in the Universe is emphasized in a series of introductory articles.
Fluent Python : Clear, Concise, and Effective Programming
You’ll learn how to write effective, modern Python 3 code by leveraging its best ideas. Don’t waste time bending Python to fit patterns you learned in other languages. Discover and apply idiomatic Python 3 features beyond your past experience. Author Luciano Ramalho guides you through Python’s core language features and libraries and teaches you how to make your code shorter, faster, and more readable.
Flow Shop Lot Streaming Problems
Lot streaming is a process of breaking a batch of jobs into smaller lots, and then processing these in an overlapping fashion on the machines. This important concept can significantly improve the overall performance of a production process, and thereby make the operation of a manufacturing system lean. Flow Shop Lot Streaming introduces the reader to this significant production process, presents various analysis techniques, and allows the reader to quickly become conversant with the state-of-the-art techniques necessary to embark on new research directions. This text begins with an introduction to and a brief historical perspective of the lot streaming problem, and continues with generic mathematical models for this problem. Flow Shop Lot Streaming presents systematic analysis, algorithms, key ideas and illustrative examples using 2-machine, 3-machine, and the general m-machine flow shop lot streaming problems.
Fitzpatrick's therapeutics : A clinician's guide to dermatologic treatment
It is the gold-standard textbook in dermatology and is designed to be read by practicing clinicians, medical trainees, and skin scientists when they want a complete and extensive overview of any dermatologic topic. Although comprehensive, the patient management sections in Fitzpatrick’s Dermatology are not presented in a format that facilitates easy and quick access for busy practicing clinicians who want to review treatment options at the bedside. The idea for Fitzpatrick’s Therapeutics arose to fill this gap.
Fish and Diadromy in Europe (ecology, management, conservation)
This book contains selected papers from an international symposium organised by the Diadfish network held in Bordeaux (France) in 2005. Readers will find up-to-date information on the ecology, ecotoxicology and physiology of several diadromous species (Atlantic salmon, shads, lampreys, eels) and this whole group in Europe. Main impacts are also documented and analysed in case studies, and solutions or remediation actions are presented.
First Responder's Guide to Abnormal Psychology : Applications for Police, Firefighters and Rescue Personnel
Natural disasters. Hostage situations. Terror attacks. During these and other emergency situations, first responders make split-second judgments: evaluating risks, identifying dangerous conditions, and—often the hardest job of all—attending to those distressed and disturbed by their ordeal. First Responder's Guide to Abnormal Psychology gives readers critical insights into the human impact of extreme trauma, and the various levels of mental impairment suffered by both victims and survivors. Renowned trauma experts William Dorfman and Lenore Walker give this book immediate relevance through the use of real-life examples from a wide range of crisis situations. They have also deliberately minimized research citations within the text for greater readability.
Fire properties of polymer composite materials
This book is the first to deal comprehensively with the important topic of the fire behaviour of polymer composite materials. Composites are used in a diverse range of applications, including land and marine transport, aerospace, the chemical industry, and most branches of civil engineering infrastructure. It is our belief that fire behaviour is the single most important factor limiting the wider use of composites in many of these areas. Our aim in producing this volume is therefore to stimulate the work that is needed to overcome this fundamental problem. The first step in such a journey is, of course, to summarise what is presently known, which is what we have attempted here. The book covers all of the key issues on the behaviour of polymer composites in fire.
Finite Mixture and Markov Switching Models
The prominence of finite mixture modelling is greater than ever. Many important statistical topics like clustering data, outlier treatment, or dealing with unobserved heterogeneity involve finite mixture models in some way or other. The area of potential applications goes beyond simple data analysis and extends to regression analysis and to non-linear time series analysis using Markov switching models.It is the first time that the Bayesian perspective of finite mixture modelling is systematically presented in book form. It is argued that the Bayesian approach provides much insight in this context and is easily implemented in practice. Although the main focus is on Bayesian inference, the author reviews several frequentist techniques, especially selecting the number of components of a finite mixture model, and discusses some of their shortcomings compared to the Bayesian approach. The aim of this book is to impart the finite mixture and Markov switching approach to statistical modelling to a wide-ranging community. This includes not only statisticians, but also biologists, economists, engineers, financial agents, market researcher, medical researchers or any other frequent user of statistical models. This book should help newcomers to the field to understand how finite mixture and Markov switching models are formulated, what structures they imply on the data, what they could be used for, and how they are estimated.
Finite element analysis for building assessment : Advanced use and practical recommendations
Existing structures represent a heterogeneous category in the global built environment as often characterized by the presence of archaic materials, damage and disconnections, uncommon construction techniques and subsequent interventions throughout the building history. In this scenario, the common linear elastic analysis approach adopted for new buildings is incapable of an accurate estimation of structural capacity, leading to overconservative results, invasive structural strengthening, added intervention costs, excessive interference to building users and possible losses in terms of aesthetics or heritage values. For a rational and sustainable use of the resources, this book deals with advanced numerical simulations, adopting a practical approach to introduce the fundamentals of Finite Element Method, nonlinear solution procedures and constitutive material models.
Financing public universities : The case of performance funding
"Financing Public Universities" addresses newer practices of resource allocation which tie funding to indicators of performance. The gist of these efforts is to raise the quality of institutional systems. Performance-based budgeting and funding of public universities is part of broader efforts to reform public management, and it is being promoted and implemented by various government agencies around the globe. In particular, European universities with their normally strong governmental ties, or higher education systems molded on European universities, are prime targets of such reforms. Performance funding has made its inroads in attempts to grant university systems managerial autonomy: autonomy was to be granted in exchange for funding modes which are tied to the measurement of performance indicators. Unfortunately, performance-based budgeting or funding measures cannot meet the various expectations: they do not raise the quality of teaching or learning; they do not raise research performance; they take back a great deal of managerial autonomy which is commonly judged to be essential for the well being of higher education institutions, in particular research universities; and they act as automata in place of proper governance and management.
Financial Modeling Under Non-Gaussian Distributions
Practitioners and researchers who have handled financial market data know that asset returns do not behave according to the bell-shaped curve, associated with the Gaussian or normal distribution. Indeed, the use of Gaussian models when the asset return distributions are not normal could lead to a wrong choice of portfolio, the underestimation of extreme losses or mispriced derivative products. Consequently, non-Gaussian models and models based on processes with jumps are gaining popularity among financial market practitioners.
Financial economics and econometrics
Covers financial data and univariate models; asset returns; interest rates, yields and spreads; volatility and correlation; and corporate finance and policy. Each chapter begins with a theory in financial economics, followed by econometric methodologies which have been used to explore the theory. Next, the chapter presents empirical evidence and discusses seminal papers on the topic. Boxes offer insights on how an idea can be applied to other disciplines such as management, marketing and medicine, showing the relevance of the material beyond finance. Readers are supported with plenty of worked examples and intuitive explanations throughout the book, while key takeaways, ‘test your knowledge’ and ‘test your intuition’ features at the end of each chapter also aid student learning.
Financial Compensation for Victims of Catastrophes : A Comparative Legal Approach
Some countries have created a specific fund solution; others follow a generous ad hoc approach whereby large amounts of compensation are made available on an ex post basis. This book shall pay attention to all of these seemingly quite different solutions. Experts from different countries report on the way catastrophes are dealt with in their particular jurisdiction from the angle of tort law, social security, insurance or alternative compensation mechanisms such as compensation funds. Various possible remedies for victims are critically discussed; attention is also paid to the economic analysis of law.
Field Arithmetic ; 3rd ed.
Field Arithmetic explores Diophantine fields through their absolute Galois groups. This largely self-contained treatment starts with techniques from algebraic geometry, number theory, and profinite groups. Graduate students can effectively learn generalizations of finite field ideas. We use Haar measure on the absolute Galois group to replace counting arguments. New Chebotarev density variants interpret diophantine properties. Here we have the only complete treatment of Galois stratifications, used by Denef and Loeser, et al, to study Chow motives of Diophantine statements.
Field Arithmetic ; 2nd ed.
Field Arithmetic explores Diophantine fields through their absolute Galois groups. This largely self-contained treatment starts with techniques from algebraic geometry, number theory, and profinite groups. Graduate students can effectively learn generalizations of finite field ideas. We use Haar measure on the absolute Galois group to replace counting arguments. New Chebotarev density variants interpret diophantine properties. Here we have the only complete treatment of Galois stratifications, used by Denef and Loeser, et al, to study Chow motives of Diophantine statements.Now we know they include valuable Galois extensions of the rationals that present its absolute Galois group through known groups. PAC fields have projective absolute Galois group. Those that are Hilbertian are characterized by this group being pro-free. These last decade results are tools for studying fields by their relation to those with projective absolute group. There are still mysterious problems to guide a new generation: Is the solvable closure of the rationals PAC; and do projective Hilbertian fields have pro-free absolute Galois group (includes Shafarevich's conjecture)?
Fibrogenesis : Cellular and molecular basis
Fibrogenesis: Cellular and Molecular Basis is the first volume to provide a synopsis of the rapid progress that has been documented in fibrogenesis over last couple of years, which significantly enhanced our understanding of the pathomechanisms of fibrotic diseases. Knowledge on molecular and celluar basis of fibrotic diseases has provided opportunities to develop selective and effective gene-based therapeutic options.
Fiber-based Dispersion Compensation
Dispersion management is a critical design criterion that characterizes the performance of an optical network, and has impacted almost every aspect of the physical layer of an optical transmission line. The past 10 years have seen an explosion in the variety of device effects exploited to obtain optimal performance from dispersion compensators, and this is the first book that deals exclusively with this technology.
