bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The International Organization of Credit
Authors: Germain Randall D.
Published: February 2010

In this book, Randall Germain explores the international organization of credit in a changing world economy. At the centre of his analysis is the construction of successive international organisations of credit, built around principal financial centres (PFCs) and constituted by overlapping networks of credit institutions, mainly investment, commercial, and central banks. A critical historical approach to international political economy (IPE) allows Germain to stress both the multiple roles of finance within the world economy, and the centrality of financial practices and networks for the construction of monetary order. He argues that the private global credit system which replaced Bretton Woods is anchored unevenly across the world's three principal financial centres: New York, London, and Tokyo. This balance of power is irrevocably fragmented with respect to relations between states, and highly ambiguous in terms of how power is exercised between public authorities and private financial institutions.
A Guide to First-Passage Processes
Authors: Redner Sidney
Published: February 2010

First-passage properties underlie a wide range of stochastic processes, such as diffusion-limited growth, neuron firing and the triggering of stock options. This book provides a unified presentation of first-passage processes, which highlights its interrelations with electrostatics and the resulting powerful consequences. The author begins with a presentation of fundamental theory including the connection between the occupation and first-passage probabilities of a random walk, and the connection to electrostatics and current flows in resistor networks. The consequences of this theory are then developed for simple, illustrative geometries including the finite and semi-infinite intervals, fractal networks, spherical geometries and the wedge. Various applications are presented including neuron dynamics, self-organized criticality, diffusion-limited aggregation, the dynamics of spin systems and the kinetics of diffusion-controlled reactions. First-passage processes provide an appealing way for graduate students and researchers in physics, chemistry, theoretical biology, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, operations research and finance to understand all of these systems.
Statistical Analysis in Climate Research
Authors: Storch Hans von , Zwiers Francis W.
Published: February 2010

Climatology is, to a large degree, the study of the statistics of our climate. The powerful tools of mathematical statistics therefore find wide application in climatological research. The purpose of this book is to help the climatologist understand the basic precepts of the statistician's art and to provide some of the background needed to apply statistical methodology correctly and usefully. The book is self contained: introductory material, standard advanced techniques, and the specialised techniques used specifically by climatologists are all contained within this one source. There are a wealth of real-world examples drawn from the climate literature to demonstrate the need, power and pitfalls of statistical analysis in climate research. Suitable for graduate courses on statistics for climatic, atmospheric and oceanic science, this book will also be valuable as a reference source for researchers in climatology, meteorology, atmospheric science, and oceanography.
Knowledge and Practice in English Medicine, 1550–1680
Authors: Wear Andrew
Published: February 2010

This is a major synthesis of the knowledge and practice of early modern English medicine in its social and cultural contexts. The book vividly maps out some central areas: remedies (and how they were made credible), notions of disease, advice on preventive medicine and on healthy living, and how surgeons worked upon the body and their understanding of what they were doing. The structures of practice and knowledge examined in the first part of the book came to be challenged in the later seventeenth century, when the 'new science' began to overturn the foundation of established knowledge. However, as the second part of the book shows, traditional medical practice was so well entrenched in English culture that much of it continued into the eighteenth century. Various changes did however occur, which set the agenda for later medical treatment and which are discussed in the final chapter.
An Introduction to Mathematical Cosmology
Authors: Islam J. N.
Published: February 2010

This book provides a concise introduction to the mathematical aspects of the origin, structure and evolution of the universe. The book begins with a brief overview of observational and theoretical cosmology, along with a short introduction to general relativity. It then goes on to discuss Friedmann models, the Hubble constant and deceleration parameter, singularities, the early universe, inflation, quantum cosmology and the distant future of the universe. This edition contains a rigorous derivation of the Robertson-Walker metric. It also discusses the limits to the parameter space through various theoretical and observational constraints, and presents a new inflationary solution for a sixth degree potential. This book is suitable as a textbook for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students. It will also be of interest to cosmologists, astrophysicists, applied mathematicians and mathematical physicists.
Global Capital, Political Institutions, and Policy Change in Developed Welfare States
Authors: Swank Duane
Published: February 2010

This book argues that the post-1970 rise in international capital mobility has not contributed to the retrenchment of developed welfare states. Nor has globalization reduced the revenue-raising capacities of governments and undercut the political institutions that support the welfare state. Rather, institutional features of the polity and the welfare state determine the extent to which the economic and political pressures associated with globalization produce welfare state retrenchment. In systems characterized by electoral institutions, social corporatist interest representation and policy-making, centralized political authority, and social insurance-based program structures, pro-welfare state interests are favored. In nations characterized by majoritarian electoral institutions, pluralist interest representation and policy-making, decentralization of policy-making authority, and liberal program structure, the economic and political pressures attendant on globalization are translated into rollbacks of social protection. Globalization has had least impact on large welfare states of Northern Europe and most effect on small welfare states of Anglo nations.
The Winning Message
Authors: Simon Adam F.
Published: February 2010

This study breaks new ground in investigating candidate behavior in American electoral campaigns. It centers on a question of equal importance to citizens and scholars: how can we produce better political campaigns? The project takes an innovative approach to answering this question by bringing together critical and empirical methods as well as game theory in a sophisticated yet readable text. The answer comes in four parts. First, Simon develops the idea of dialogue as a standard for evaluating political campaigns. Second, he shows that candidates' self-interest in winning leads them to avoid dialogue, that is substantive campaign discourse. Third, he demonstrates the beneficial effects produced by the little dialogue that actually occurs. Fourth, he pinpoints the forces responsible for these rare occurrences. The major lesson of this work is that campaign reform under its present guise will not bring about the more substantive campaigns that the public desires.
Hobbes, Locke, and Confusion's Masterpiece
Authors: Harrison Ross
Published: February 2010

In this major 2003 study of the foundations of modern political theory the eminent political philosopher Ross Harrison explains, analyzes, and criticizes the work of Hobbes, Locke, and their contemporaries. He provides a full account of the turbulent historical background that shaped the political, intellectual, and religious content of this philosophy. The book explores such questions as the limits of political authority and the relation of the legitimacy of government to the will of its people in non-technical, accessible prose that will appeal to students of philosophy, politics, theology and history.
Homicide in the Biblical World
Authors: Barmash Pamela
Published: February 2010

Homicide in the Biblical World analyses the treatment of homicide in the Hebrew Bible and demonstrates that it is directly linked to the unique social structure and religion of ancient Israel. Close parallels between biblical law and ancient Near Eastern law are evident in the laws of the ox that gored and the pregnant woman who is assaulted, but, when the total picture of the process by which homicide was adjudicated comes into view, what is most noticeable is how little of it is similar to ancient Near Eastern law. This book reconstructs biblical law from both legal texts and narrative texts and analyses both the law collections and documents from actual legal cases from the ancient Near East.
The Green and the Brown
Authors: Uekoetter Frank
Published: February 2010

This study provides the first comprehensive discussion of conservation in Nazi Germany. Looking at Germany in an international context, it analyses the roots of conservation in the late nineteenth century, the gradual adaptation of racist and nationalist thinking among conservationists in the 1920s and their indifference to the Weimar Republic. It describes how the German conservation movement came to cooperate with the Nazi regime and discusses the ideological and institutional lines between the conservation movement and the Nazis. Uekoetter further examines how the conservation movement struggled to do away with a troublesome past after World War II, making the environmentalists one of the last groups in German society to face up to its Nazi burden. It is a story of ideological convergence, of tactical alliances, of careerism, of implication in crimes against humanity, and of deceit and denial after 1945. It is also a story that offers valuable lessons for today's environmental movement.
Rationality and the Ideology of Disconnection
Authors: Taylor Michael
Published: February 2010

A powerful and provocative critique of the foundations of Rational Choice theory and the economic way of thinking about the world, written by a former leading practitioner. The target is a dehumanizing ideology that cannot properly recognize that normal people have attachments and commitments to other people and to practices, projects, principles, and places, which provide them with desire-independent reasons for action, and that they are reflective creatures who think about what they are and what they should be, with ideals that can shape and structure the way they see their choices. The author's views are brought to bear on the economic way of thinking about the natural environment and on how and when the norm of fair reciprocity motivates us to do our part in cooperative endeavors. Throughout, the argument is adorned by thought-provoking examples that keep what is at stake clearly before the reader's mind.
Who Believes in Human Rights?
Authors: Dembour Marie-Bénédicte
Published: February 2010

Many people believe passionately in human rights. Others - Bentham, Marx, cultural relativists and some feminists amongst them - dismiss the concept of human rights as practically and conceptually inadequate. This book reviews these classical critiques and shows how their insights are reflected in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. At one level an original, accessible and insightful legal commentary on the European Convention, this book is also a groundbreaking work of theory which challenges human rights orthodoxy. Its novel identification of four human rights schools proposes that we alternatively conceive of these rights as given (natural school), agreed upon (deliberative school), fought for (protest school) and talked about (discourse school). Which of these concepts we adopt is determined by particular ways in which we believe, or do not believe, in human rights.
Quantum Field Theory of Non-equilibrium States
Authors: Rammer Jørgen
Published: February 2010

Quantum field theory is the application of quantum mechanics to systems with infinitely many degrees of freedom. This 2007 textbook presents quantum field theoretical applications to systems out of equilibrium. It introduces the real-time approach to non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and the quantum field theory of non-equilibrium states in general. It offers two ways of learning how to study non-equilibrium states of many-body systems: the mathematical canonical way and an easy intuitive way using Feynman diagrams. The latter provides an easy introduction to the powerful functional methods of field theory, and the use of Feynman diagrams to study classical stochastic dynamics is considered in detail. The developed real-time technique is applied to study numerous phenomena in many-body systems. Complete with numerous exercises to aid self-study, this textbook is suitable for graduate students in statistical mechanics and condensed matter physics.
Survival Analysis for Epidemiologic and Medical Research
Authors: Selvin Steve
Published: February 2010

This practical guide to survival data and its analysis for readers with a minimal background in statistics shows why the analytic methods work and how to effectively analyze and interpret epidemiologic and medical survival data with the help of modern computer systems. The introduction presents a review of a variety of statistical methods that are not only key elements of survival analysis but are also central to statistical analysis in general. Techniques such as statistical tests, transformations, confidence intervals, and analytic modeling are presented in the context of survival data but are, in fact, statistical tools that apply to understanding the analysis of many kinds of data. Similarly, discussions of such statistical concepts as bias, confounding, independence, and interaction are presented in the context of survival analysis and also are basic components of a broad range of applications. These topics make up essentially a 'second-year', one-semester biostatistics course in survival analysis concepts and techniques for non-statisticians.
Religion and War Resistance in the Plowshares Movement
Authors: Nepstad Sharon Erickson
Published: February 2010

As the nuclear arms race exploded in the 1980s, a group of U.S. religious pacifists used radical nonviolence to intervene. Armed with hammers, they broke into military facilities to pound on missiles and pour blood on bombers, enacting the prophet Isaiah's vision: 'Nations shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.' Calling themselves the Plowshares movement, these controversial activists received long prison sentences; nonetheless, their movement grew and expanded to Europe and Australia. In this book, Sharon Erickson Nepstad documents the emergence and international diffusion of this unique form of high-risk collective action. Drawing on interviews, original survey research, and archival data, Nepstad explains why some Plowshares groups have persisted over time while others have struggled or collapsed. Comparing the U.S. movement with less successful Plowshares groups overseas, Nepstad reveals how decisions about leadership, organization, retention, and cultural adaptations influence movements' long-term trajectories.
The Philosophy of Mind
Authors: Smith Peter , Jones O. R.
Published: February 2010

This is a straightforward, elementary textbook for beginning students of philosophy. The general aim is to provide a clear introduction to the main issues arising in the philosophy of mind. Part I discusses the Cartesian dualist view which many find initially appealing, and contains a careful examination of arguments for and against. Part II introduces the broadly functionalist type of physicalism which has Aristotelian roots. This approach is developed to yield accounts of perception, action, belief and desire, and the emerging theory of the mind is compared at each stage with rival historical and contemporary views. In Part III the functionalist approach is further explored in giving analyses of sensation, thought and freedom of will. The discussions throughout are exceptionally clear, and the writing uncomplicated, to make available to the students a wealth of detailed argument in the philosophy of mind.
Jesus' Call to Discipleship
Authors: Dunn James D. G.
Published: February 2010

The latest book in the Understanding Jesus Today series deals with the role of discipleship in Christianity. James Dunn explores the original meaning of discipleship in the early church and then discusses what discipleship should mean for Christians today. The evidence in the Gospels regarding the requirements of discipleship, including the beliefs and daily character of the life of a disciple, are explored and a firm basis upon which a tradition of discipleship can be defined is found. Important questions addressed are: to whom was Jesus's call to discipleship primarily directed; what were the characteristics of the community of disciples that formed around Jesus in His lifetime and how has the character of that community, which has become the Christian Church, changed over time; how does modern discipleship measure up against discipleship in the early Church? The book is based on the best of current scholarship but is written at a popular level.
Supervenience and Mind
Authors: Kim Jaegwon
Published: February 2010

Jaegwon Kim is one of the most pre-eminent and most influential contributors to the philosophy of mind and metaphysics. This collection of essays presents the core of his work on supervenience and mind with two sets of postscripts especially written for the book. The essays focus on such issues as the nature of causation and events, what dependency relations other than causal relations connect facts and events, the analysis of supervenience, and the mind-body problem. A central problem in the philosophy of mind is the problem of explaining how the mind can causally influence bodily processes. Professor Kim explores this problem in detail, criticises the nonreductionist solution of it, and offers a modified reductionist solution of his own. Both professional philosophers and their graduate students will find this an invaluable collection.
Information Seeking in Electronic Environments
Authors: Marchionini Gary
Published: February 2010

Significant amounts of our time and energy are devoted to creating, managing, and avoiding information. Computers and telecommunications technology have extended our regard for information and are driving changes in how we learn, work, and play. One result of these developments is that skills and strategies for storing and retrieving information have become more essential and more pervasive in our culture. This book considers how electronic technologies have changed these skills and strategies and augmented the fundamental human activity of information seeking. The author makes a case for creating new interface designs that allow the information seeker to choose what strategy to apply according to their immediate needs. Such systems may be designed by providing information seekers with alternative interface mechanisms for displaying and manipulating multiple levels of representation for information objects.
Information Seeking in Electronic Environments is essential reading for researchers and graduate students in information science, human-computer interaction, and education, as well as for designers of information retrieval systems and interfaces for digital libraries and archives.
William Empson: Essays on Renaissance Literature
Authors: Empson William
Published: February 2010

This collection of William Empson's essays on Elizabethan and Jacobean drama is the second volume of his writings on Renaissance literature. Edited with an introduction by the leading Empson scholar John Haffenden, the contents range from famous essays on The Spanish Tragedy, Volpone, The Alchemist and The Duchess of Malfi to a sprightly piece on Elizabethan spirits. In addition, there are previously unpublished essays which revisit critical controversies, and a magnificent, provocative study of A Midsummer Night's Dream which ventures a major new reading of the play. 'I am attracted by the notion of a hearty indifference to one's own and other people's feelings, when a fragment of the truth is in question,' Empson stated. The incomparable Empson here fights his own critical corner with unequalled zest, intelligence and insight.
The Search for Political Community
Authors: Lichterman Paul
Published: February 2010

This book challenges the myth that Americans' emphasis on personal fulfilment necessarily weakens commitment to the common good. Drawing on extensive participant-observation with a variety of environmentalist groups, Paul Lichterman argues that individualism sometimes enhances public, political commitment and that a shared respect for individual inspiration enables activists with diverse political backgrounds to work together. This personalised culture of commitment has sustained activists working long-term for social change. The book contrasts 'personalised politics' in mainly white environmental groups with a more traditional, community-centred culture of commitment in an African-American group. The untraditional, personalised politics of many recent social movements invites us to rethink common understandings of commitment, community, and individualism in a post-traditional world.
Cabinet Decisions on Foreign Policy
Authors: Hill Christopher
Published: February 2010

Although Parliament is the principal source of authority in the British political system, it is the Cabinet which stands at the pinnacle of government. Yet what actually happens at Cabinet meetings? How are decisions made, particularly in the arena of foreign policy? Such questions have hitherto been largely overlooked by both historians and political scientists. In this book, Dr Christopher Hill presents a detailed case-study of the British government and foreign policy, during the dramatic period from the Munich Conference of 1938 to the German invasion of the Soviet Union three years later. Using extensive archival material, he examines how far the strong personalities of Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill respectively were really able to dominate their Cabinets in an area of policy where Prime Ministers have traditionally been supposed to exercise considerable freedom. This analysis concentrates on six decisions that were of key importance in committing Britain to the war which began in September 1939 but which changed so sharply in character in June 1940 with the fall of France. An original study of foreign policymaking at the highest level, this book will be widely read by international relations specialists while historians will welcome the close-textured account of key episodes of this period. It will also reinvigorate debates among political scientists on the nature of Cabinet government.
Uncertain Knowledge
Authors: Dolby R. G. A.
Published: February 2010

What is science? How is scientific knowledge affected by the society that produces it? Does scientific knowledge directly correspond to reality? Can we draw a line between science and pseudo-science? Will it ever be possible for computers to undertake scientific investigation independently? Is there such a thing as feminist science? In this book the author addresses questions such as these using a technique of 'cognitive play', which creates and explores new links between the ideas and results of contemporary history, philosophy, and sociology of science. New ideas and approaches are applied to a wide range of case studies, many of them from controversial and contested science. This book will be of interest to historians and sociologists of science, to anyone interested in science studies, and to educated general readers with an interest in the history, philosophy, and social context of science.
Ocean Atmosphere Interaction and Climate Modeling
Authors: Kagan Boris A.
Published: February 2010

This 1995 text is addressed to advanced students in oceanography, meteorology and environmental sciences, as well as to professional researchers in these fields. It aims to acquaint them with advances in experimental and theoretical investigations of ocean-atmosphere interactions, a rapidly developing field in earth sciences. Particular attention is paid to the scope and perspectives for satellite measurements and mathematical modeling. Approaches to the construction of coupled ocean-atmosphere models (from the simplest one-dimensional to the most comprehensive three-dimensional ones) for the solution of key problems in climate theory are discussed in detail. Field measurements and the results of numerical climate simulations are presented, to help understand the variability arising from various natural and anthropogenic factors.
Dynamics and Modelling of Ocean Waves
Authors: Komen G. J. , Cavaleri L. , Donelan M. , Hasselmann K. , Hasselmann S. , Janssen P. A. E. M.
Published: February 2010

Addresses both fundamental and applied aspects of ocean waves including the use of wave observations made from satellites. More specifically it describes the WAM model, its scientific basis, its actual implementation, and its many applications. This model has been developed by an international group (the Wave Modelling group), and is based on a detailed physical description of air/sea interactions. It is widely used for wave forecasting for meteorological and oceanographic purposes. The three sections of the volume describe the basic statistical theory and the relevant physical processes; the numerical model and its global and regional applications; and satellite observations, their interpretation and use in data assimilation. Written by leading experts, it is a comprehensive guide and reference for researchers and advanced students in physical oceanography, meteorology, fluid dynamics, coastal engineering and physics.
Endogenisation or enclave formation? The development of the Ethiopian cut flower industry
Authors: Melese Ayelech Tiruwha , (Bert) Helmsing A.H.J.
Published: February 2010

This paper examines the evolution of the Ethiopian cut flower industry, illustrating how rapidly a potential comparative advantage can be realised. But the question is to what extent a country benefits from this in the long run, if foreign direct investment is the principal driving force. Will the new industry become an enclave, or will it be accompanied by a process of building local capabilities, a process which we denominate endogenisation? A value chain framework is used to analyse the industry and to develop a number of indicators on the development direction. The cut flower industry in Ethiopia is characterised by a dominant role of Dutch foreign investors, Dutch trade auctions which dominate the export trade, and the Dutch development cooperation which plays an important role in the development of the sector. This raises the question to what extent this triple role of the Dutch contributes to endogenisation or to enclave formation.

We conclude that endogenisation is a two-way process. It depends both on the degree to which FDI has an interest to draw on domestic firms, enter into relationships and share technologies; and on the interest and ability of domestic firms to take up such opportunities, and on the creation of supporting institutions and infrastructures to make this take-up possible. The latter rests largely with government. Endogenisation is taking place to some extent and at a very incipient stage. Dutch FDI has little direct interest to share technologies, but there is joint collective action on non-core activities, notably transport, which constitutes the largest item in the total cost. Dutch cooperative flower auctions are an open and vital trade channel giving Ethiopian flower growers access to international markets. The Ethiopian government has promoted the industry, making available land and low cost finance; and with the assistance of Dutch bilateral cooperation it is creating trade standards and supporting knowledge institutions to train skilled staff. The main challenge is Ethiopian entrepreneurship: many are attracted by the high growth and profitability of the industry and can run a business in Ethiopia, but lack the technical competence to meet growing competition in the industry.
‘We are citizens too’: the politics of citizenship in independent Ghana
Authors: Kobo Ousman
Published: February 2010

This paper examines Ghana's struggle to create a pluralistic nationality that guarantees universal rights to all citizens, including people of foreign origin. A major recipient of colonial labour migrants who considered themselves citizens of Ghana at the time of independence, Ghana provides an excellent case study for exploring the ambiguities and malleability of post-colonial citizenship. Analysing the various ways in which Ghanaian politicians have struggled to redefine the nationality status of descendants of migrants from other parts of West Africa since independence, I argue that the politicisation of Ghana's post-colonial citizenship stems not only from the country's colonial legacy, but also from struggles over diminishing economic resources between the late 1960s and early 1980s that led some indigenous Ghanaians to declare the non-autochthonous population as ‘aliens’ who should be excluded from the benefits of citizenship. Constitutional provisions that recognised citizenship by birth were contested by popular perceptions that only the autochthonous are ‘true’ citizens and are thus the only legitimate beneficiaries of political and economic rights.
The successful Ghana election of 2008: a convenient myth?
Authors: Jockers Heinz , Kohnert Dirk , Nugent Paul
Published: February 2010

Ghana's 2008 election has been hailed by national and international observers as a model for Africa. The perception of success has prevailed despite persistent concerns about an inflated voters' register and electoral fraud perpetrated by the two major parties, the NPP and NDC, in their strongholds in the Ashanti and Volta Regions respectively. Electoral malpractice in Ghana's virtual two-party system could acquire a decisive importance as a ‘third force’, representing an even more important factor than the smaller opposition parties. Unfortunate diplomatic and technocratic biases in election monitoring, combined with a reluctance on the part of the responsible authorities to investigate what appears to be a long history of fraudulent voting, amounts to a dangerous time bomb of unresolved conflict which could detonate in future elections.
What accountability pressures do MPs in Africa face and how do they respond? Evidence from Ghana
Authors: Lindberg Staffan I.
Published: February 2010

How African politicians, especially legislators, behave on a daily basis is still largely unknown. This article gives a unique empirical account of the daily accountability pressures and the strategies that Members of Parliament (MPs) in Ghana employ in responding to the demands that they face. While literature on political clientelism focuses on explanatory factors like lack of political credibility, political machines capable of effective monitoring, autonomy of brokers, high levels of poverty, and political competiveness, the role of institutions has been overlooked. While the existing literature suggests that political clientelism is an optimal strategy in the context of weak institutions, the present analysis finds that the institution of the office of Member of Parliament in Ghana is strong, but shaped by informal norms in ways that favour the provision of private goods in clientelistic networks. The analysis also points to theoretical lessons on how political clientelism can endogenously undermine the conditions for its own existence.
Bilateral donors and aid conditionality in post-conflict peacebuilding: the case of Mozambique
Authors: Manning Carrie , Malbrough Monica
Published: February 2010

This article examines the role of bilateral donors and conditional aid in Mozambique's successful post-war peace process. The literature on peacebuilding has tended to privilege the role of UN missions in explaining the outcomes of post-civil war peace processes. The important role that bilateral donors may play in determining these outcomes has not been thoroughly studied. In Mozambique, donors with country experience, knowledge of domestic political actors and constraints, and a shared commitment to a successful outcome, were indispensable to the success of the peace process. The article details this engagement, arguing that it was not UNOMOZ alone, but UNOMOZ as supported by the flexible responses of these donors, that provided an effective third-party guarantee of the peace agreement in Mozambique. It briefly discusses the broader implications of this finding for understanding international peacebuilding efforts.
Informal Finance and the Urban Poor: An Investigation of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations in Turkey
Authors: EROĞLU ŞEBNEM
Published: February 2010

This study focuses on the organisation among poor households of rotating savings and credit associations locally known in Turkey as gün. Based on a longitudinal study of 17 households, the research demonstrates the distinctive ability of various güns to operate smoothly under inflationary conditions. Unlike the predominant portrayal of güns as a leisure activity for middle-class women, they are shown to act as a self-welfare instrument whereby poor households acquire the discipline of saving towards both their consumption and investment needs. Contrary to the conventional view, these households are found to use güns in circumstances where formal credit and savings options are available.
Civil taxis and wild trucks: the dialectics of social space and subjectivity inDimanche à Bamako
Authors: Skinner Ryan Thomas
Published: February 2010

This article presents a close reading (or listening) of Amadou & Mariam's 2004 album,Dimanche à Bamako, meaning ‘Sunday in Bamako’, produced ‘by and with’ world music maverick Manu Chao. I consider howDimanche à Bamakomusically renders, through sound and lyrical expression, the tensions of ‘global modernity’ in postcolonial Africa and its diaspora. ‘Global modernity’ refers to the fraught encounter between local actors and the globalised socio-economic conditions in which modern subjects are increasingly embedded. By framing these local and global tensions in the context of a modern African city,Dimanche à Bamakooffers a theoretically sophisticated representation of urban African social space that, while rooted in a particular place (Bamako, Mali) attends to the wider world in which a local sense of place gives way to the wanderlust and anxieties of living and labouring in a globalised world. Through critical application of Lefebvrian and Mande socio-spatial theory and focused analysis of several of the album's tracks, I argue thatDimanche à Bamakoelucidates a dialectic of ‘civility’ and ‘wildness’ that shapes the way social space and subjectivity are conceived, lived, and perceived in urban African communities in an era of global modernity.
Good Samaritans and oblivious cheerleaders: ideologies of Portuguese music journalists towards Portuguese music
Authors: Nunes Pedro
Published: February 2010

This article addresses the ideologies developed by Portuguese music journalists towards Portuguese music in the context of the global crisis in the record industry. Music journalists who were once seen as the good Samaritans in coverage of the national repertoire have to reconcile their duty to cover the national acts with the pressures of a global music industry represented by the multinational record companies. Gathering information from interviews conducted between 2001 and 2003, I trace the perceptions of music journalists on coverage of the national repertoire in a period in which a global crisis in the music sector became noticeable and low airplay of Portuguese music became a matter of concern for agents within the local industry. Two approaches emerge from such a context, one more proactive towards coverage of Portuguese music, the other less interested in allowing the influence of the origin filter to determine the journalists' agenda. I conclude that in these two approaches the traditional opposition between music journalists and the music industry needs to be revised.
Tear down the walls: Jefferson Airplane, race, and revolutionary rhetoric in 1960s rock
Authors: Burke Patrick
Published: February 2010

While the notion of the ‘rock revolution’ of the 1960s has by now become commonplace, scholars have rarely addressed the racial implications of this purported revolution. This article examines a notorious 1968 blackface performance by Grace Slick, lead singer of Jefferson Airplane, to shed light on a significant tendency in 1960s rock: white musicians casting themselves as political revolutionaries by enacting an idealised vision of African American identity. Rock, a form dominated by white musicians and audiences but pervasively influenced by black music and style, conveyed deeply felt but inconsistent notions of black identity in which African Americans were simultaneously subjected to insensitive stereotypes and upheld as examples of moral authority and revolutionary authenticity. Jefferson Airplane's references to black culture and politics were multifaceted and involved both condescending or naïve radical posturing and sincere respect for African American music. The Airplane appear to have been engaged in a complex if imperfect attempt to create a contemporary musical form that reflected African American influences without asserting dominance over those influences. Their example suggests that closer attention to racial issues allows us to address the revolutionary ambitions of 1960s rock without romanticising or trivialising them.
A taxonomy of musical gesture in African American gospel music
Authors: Legg Andrew
Published: February 2010

African American gospel music seems without obvious parallel as a musical and social phenomenon of the twentieth century. It is a powerful musical and ‘spiritual’ expression that is to a larger extent defined by the musical style, vocal techniques and performance practices of one of its central figures: the gospel singer. Although these originally African American gospel vocal techniques and practices have now also significantly influenced the development of contemporary popular music and the broader gospel vocal style, the specific terminology used to describe them lacks precise definition, and also highlights the failure of conventional notation in successfully capturing or representing them.

This article seeks then to firstly define and annotate some of the key descriptive terms commonly applied to African American gospel singing techniques in order that greater consistency and clarity can be achieved in relation to their usage within contemporary popular music research. Secondly, it will also introduce an analytical notational system, accompanied by a series of annotated musical transcriptions, that forms the basis of the author's taxonomy of musical gesture for African American gospel music, and which may provide a framework for comparative analytical research within the field of gospel-inspired contemporary popular music.
The reformer's charter: setting Bloom'sAnxiety of Influencein the context of melodic rock
Authors: Earl Benjamin
Published: February 2010

When a band reforms after a period apart, they offer intertextual observations on their previous releases, and consequently on their generic positioning both in the present, and prior to splitting up. This paper considers how reformed bands deal with the weight and expectation that is caused by their initial, original existence before splitting up. I modify Harold Bloom's theory of poetic influence in order to theorise how a reformed band struggle with the weight of themselves as precursor, including not only analysis of the text itself, but the inter-textual discourses surrounding the work. I argue thatPrincess Alice and the Broken Arrow, a release by the melodic rock band Magnum, showcases the band's struggle to gain subcultural capital in their field, and look at the position-taking strategies they employ to deal with their anxiety of influence as the melodic rock field shifts position relative to the field of large-scale production.
Deforestation and conservation in major watersheds of the Brazilian Amazon
Authors: TRANCOSO RALPH , CARNEIRO FILHO ARNALDO , TOMASELLA JAVIER , SCHIETTI JULIANA , FORSBERG BRUCE RIDER , MILLER ROBERT PRITCHARD
Published: February 2010

Conserving natural vegetation cover is of critical importance for maintaining the ecological integrity and hydrological properties of large river basins (more than 100 000 km2). Recent estimates indicate that more than 700 000 km2 of Brazilian Amazon have already been deforested, and to reduce further losses and preserve the important natural and cultural resources in this region, large conservation areas have been created by the Brazilian government. The present study analysed land cover and land use change in the major watersheds of the Brazilian Amazon, in order to evaluate the current balance between deforestation and conservation of natural areas in the region. The results show that watersheds draining the southern part of the basin have suffered the highest deforestation rates, with the largest losses (8.3–20% of total basin area) occurring in the Madeira, Tapajós, Xingu, Araguaia and Tocantins river basins. Most large watersheds already have significant deforestation in their headwaters, which can affect hydrological functions and ecological sustainability. The greatest allocation of land for conservation was encountered in the Trombetas, Xingu and Negro watersheds, where conservation areas occupied 92.5, 56.9 and 50.6% of the total basin, respectively. While extensive areas of the Amazon biome have been deforested, on the scale of large watersheds there is a positive balance between conservation areas and deforestation, and on average the area delimited by conservation areas is more than three times larger than the deforested areas. An analysis by subwatersheds, however, indicates that certain regions have achieved more critical levels of deforestation, in some situations affecting more than 80% of the subwatersheds.
Antarctic blue ice areas - towards extracting palaeoclimate information
Authors: Sinisalo Anna , Moore John C.
Published: February 2010

We review the current scientific knowledge about Antarctic Blue Ice Areas (BIAs) with emphasis on their application for palaeoclimate studies. Substantial progress has been made since the review by Bintanja (1999), in particular dating the archive of ancient ice found on the surface of BIAs has progressed with advances in 14C measurements, tephrachronology, and geomorphological evidence giving better constraints to more sophisticated ice flow models. Flow modelling also provides information about past changes in ice flow velocities, accumulation rates and ice sheet elevation. The availability of gas composition in vertical cores from BIAs allows matching to well-dated global records of greenhouse gas variability over the last glacial-interglacial cycle and longer. It is clear from the limited number of studies to date that BIAs from different regions have quite different histories of formation and preservation, and that they are intimately linked to the response of their surrounding ice sheets to climate variability on glacial-interglacial time-scales. Looking to the future, climate records from BIAs are expected to provide information on variations in Southern Ocean processes as well as ice sheet evolution within the East Antarctic ice sheet at the thermal transition from cold based to warm based ice.
Digit Ratio (2D:4D) and Behavioral Responses to Everyday Life and Workplace-Related Interpersonal Conflict
Authors: Voracek Martin , Schicker Kerstin
Published: February 2010

Relationships of second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) versus absolute finger length, two putative markers for prenatal vs. pubertal-adolescent testosterone exposure, with specific behavioral responses to interpersonal conflict, as assessed with the Conflict Dynamics Profile (CDP; Davis, Capobianco, & Kraus, 2004), were examined in an adult community sample of 132 men and women. Paralleling related findings for specific types of aggression (namely, reactive and indirect, i.e., social/relational aggression), results showed analogous sex differences for conflict-related behaviors. Specifically, women scored significantly higher than men on the CDP Hot Buttons component, assessing upset in response to workplace-related conflict elicited by problematic behavior of workmates. Among women (but not men), higher Hot Button scores corresponded significantly to higher prenatal testosterone (indexed by lower 2D:4D). Extending previous evidence for associations between 2D:4D and aggression, this suggests possible contributions of prenatal sex-hormonal masculinization to within-sex individual variation in specific types of conflict-related behavior.
Coping with Family Demands Under Difficult Economic Conditions
Authors: Pinquart Martin , Silbereisen Rainer K. , Körner Astrid
Published: February 2010

Utilizing hierarchical linear modeling, we analyzed whether perceived family-related demands associated with social change – and the processes of dealing with these demands – relate to depressive symptoms, and whether these relationships vary by regional economic conditions. The sample comprised 2,519 respondents living in economically healthy versus weak regions of Germany. Results showed that higher levels of perceived family-related demands were associated with higher levels of depression. In addition, higher levels of engagement and lower levels of disengagement in coping with these demands were related to lower levels of depression. Respondents from economically disadvantaged regions reported higher levels of family-related demands, engagement in coping with these demands, and depression. However, the association of family-related demands, engagement, and disengagement with depression was weaker in economically disadvantaged regions. In addition, negative associations of engagement with depression were strongest in individuals who face more demands and live in economically strong regions. The generalizability of the results to work-related demands is discussed.
A new stochastic control approach to multireservoir operation problems with uncertain forecasts
Authors: Wang Jinwen
Published: February 2010

This paper presents a new stochastic control approach (NSCA) for determining the optimal weekly operation policy of multiple hydroplants. This originally involves solving an optimization problem at the beginning of each week to derive the optimal storage trajectory that maximizes the energy production during a study horizon plus the water value stored at the end of the study horizon. Then the derived optimal storage at the end of the upcoming week is used as the target to operate the reservoir. This paper describes the inflow as a forecast‐dependent white noise and demonstrates that the optimal target storage at the end of the upcoming week can be equivalently determined by solving a real‐time model. The real‐time model derives the optimal storage trajectory that converges to the optimal annually cycling storage trajectory (OACST) at the end of a real‐time horizon, with the OACST determined by solving an annually cycling model. The numerical examples with one, two, three, and seven reservoirs are studied in detail. For systems of no more than three reservoirs, the NSCA obtains results similar to those obtained with SDP even using a simple inflow forecasting model AR (1). A hypothetical numerical example with 21 reservoirs is also tested. The NSCA is conceptually superior to the other approaches for problems that are computationally intractable due to the number of reservoirs in the system.