bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Interventions aimed at addressing unplanned hospital readmissions in the U.S.: A systematic review
Authors: Ferdinand Alva O. , Cheon Ohbet , Bako Abdulaziz T. , Kash Bita A.
Published: December 2018

One of the policy mechanisms aimed at improving population health through health care delivery is the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) as outlined in the Affordable Care Act. Although numerous procedural and behavioral interventions have been implemented, the empirical evidence of the efficacy of these interventions is mixed and specific to certain patient segments. This review aimed to systematically assess studies of hospital interventions to reduce 30-day readmissions for specific diseases and populations. Following the PRISMA review checklist, searches were conducted from January 2000 to August 2018 in the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases using terms such as “patient readmission”, “readmit” and “re-hospitalization” in conjunction with disease terms such as “asthma”, “chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)” and “pneumonia”. Of 3,806 articles identified, 45 were included after a 3-step inclusion process. The age group most frequently considered among the studies was the 65 age cohort. Multidisciplinary collaborative interventions were most frequently effective for the subset of elderly, female, Caucasian, and heart failure patients. Interventions involving patient or family education delivered before and after care were most effective for racial minority, elderly, COPD, and heart failure patients. Telephone follow-up, tele-homecare, and medication reconciliation were largely found to be successful in reducing readmissions. Major gaps exist in identifying successful interventions for reducing 30-day readmissions among patients who sought treatment for sepsis, stroke, and replacement of the hip or knee. Our findings indicate an opportunity for researchers to further study, and for healthcare organizations to implement, more well-informed interventional strategies to reduce readmissions.
The Use of the Communicative Language Teaching Approach to Improve Students’ Oral Skills
Authors: Toro Vanessa , Camacho-Minuche Gina , Pinza-Tapia Eliana , Paredes Fabian
Published: December 2018

The purpose of this study is to determine the use of the Communicative Language Teaching approach in the English classroom and the strategies and resources used by the teachers to improve students’ oral skills. The participants were 6 English teachers and 105 students enrolled in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades at a public elementary school in the city of Loja, located at the southern part of Ecuador. A mixed method approach was applied in this study. In order to collect the data, a questionnaire was given to the English teachers and class observations were carried out. The results obtained throughout this study reveal that modeling, repetition, pair and group work are the main strategies used by teachers to help students develop communicative competences. These strategies were frequently used but still not enough to promote active participation during classes. It is important to highlight that there is a variety of strategies besides the ones previously mentioned that can be incorporated to offer students more opportunities to orally produce the language. Additionally, teachers provide different kinds of feedback such as metalinguistic feedback and elicitation as a way to help students improve their oral skills.
The Impact of Student-Centered Instruction on EFL Learners’ Affect and Achievement
Authors: Kassem Hassan M.
Published: December 2018

This study explored the relative effect of student- and teacher-centered instruction on EFL freshmen’s affect (anxiety, motivation, attitude, autonomy, self-efficacy and beliefs about English and its learning) and achievement. Two classes of English department freshmen at Shaqra University, KSA participated in the study. Students in the two classes completed a questionnaire probing the target affective variables. An independent t-test proved that the two classes were homogenous in affective variables before the treatment. The treatment class was taught according to student-centered instruction for an academic year. The control class was taught the same courses according to the conventional teacher-centered instruction. The students completed the questionnaire probing their affect. A composite mark of final exam marks of three courses was used as an index of achievement. Analyses of independent sample t-test proved that the treatment class outperformed the control class in all affective variables (except for instrumental motivation) and achievement.
Adult Migrants with Little or no Formal Education: Language and Literacy Learning
Authors: Young-Scholten Martha , Kreeft Peyton Joy
Published: December 2018

Some adult migrants and refugees have no home language literacy, because they have attended little or no school in their home country. There are few studies of the literacy development of these adult learners and limited professional development for teachers who work with them. Recent research, and the formation of the LESLLA organization, are bringing about a shift in research focus, practitioner training, and researcher and practitioner engagement. This article reviews research on literacy development of children and adults learning a second language and describes three projects focused on literacy development for this adult learner population.
Teach Spanish as a second language to students of Early Childhood Education: Challenges and methodological guidelines
Authors: Asensio Pastor Margarita I.
Published: December 2018

This article focuses on the teaching of Spanish as SL to immigrant children and / or children of immigrants already born in Spain and who are enrolled in Early Childhood Education. It is an educational level increasingly relevant in the teaching-learning of Spanish as SL for which not all teachers are prepared. This teacher must respond to the curricular requirements of this level of education and, at the same time, teach Spanish in a context where Spanish speakers and Spanish language learners live together. In this sense, this work intends to collaborate in offering theoretical-practical reflections that help the teachers of Early Childhood Education to develop this work.
Solving Equations: Exploring Instructional Exchanges as Lenses to Understand Teaching and Its Resistance to Reform
Authors: Buchbinder Orly , Chazan Daniel I. , Capozzoli Michelle
Published: December 2018

Many research studies have sought to explain why NCTM's vision for mathematics classrooms has not had greater impact on everyday instruction, with teacher beliefs often identified as an explanatory variable. Using instructional exchanges as a theoretical construct, this study explores the influence of teachers' institutional positions on the solving of equations in algebra classrooms. The experimental design uses surveys with embedded rich-media representations of classroom interaction to surface how teachers appraise correct solutions to linear equations where some solutions follow suggested textbook procedures for solving linear equations and others do not. This paper illustrates the feasibility of studying teaching with rich-media surveys and suggests new ways to support changes in everyday mathematics teaching.
Othering, identity formation and agency
Authors: Jensen Sune Qvotrup
Published: December 2018

The article examines the potentials of the concept of othering to describe identity formation among ethnic minorities. First, it outlines the history of the concept, its contemporary use, as well as some criticisms. Then it is argued that young ethnic minority men in Denmark are subject to intersectional othering, which contains elements of exoticist fascination of the other. On the basis of ethnographic material, it is analysed how young marginalized ethnic minority men react to othering. Two types of reactions are illustrated: 1) capitalization on being positioned as the other, and 2) refusing to occupy the position of the other by disidentification and claims to normality. Finally, it is argued that the concept of othering is well suited for understanding the power structures as well as the historic symbolic meanings conditioning such identity formation, but problematic in terms of agency.
Researcher-participant positioning and the discursive work of categories: Experiences from fieldwork in the mental health services
Authors: Ringer Agnes
Published: December 2018

This paper reports on methodological experiences from an ethnographic study in psychiatric institutions in Denmark. Drawing on a poststructural framework and newer discussions within qualitative research that view methodological problems as sources of data, the paper analyzes how the challenges encountered in the fieldwork were indicative of discursive norms within the mental health services. It is argued that the multiple ways the researcher was positioned by participants revealed that the categories “patient” and “staff” were produced as polarized binaries with little leverage for negotiating positions in between. At the same time, it is shown that the patients find ways to resist the objectifying practices of the researcher as well as of the mental health services. The conclusions are discussed against recent attempts within the mental health services to promote a more patient-centered approach and involve patients in the treatment.
Estudio sobre las concepciones de un grupo de docentes de Educación Primaria sobre la creatividad
Authors: Benito Patricia , Palacios Alfredo
Published: December 2018

En este artículo se presenta una investigación descriptiva sobre las concepciones de un grupo de 171 docentes de Educación Primaria sobre la creatividad. En concreto, se indaga sobre las creencias en torno a la naturaleza de la creatividad, su importancia en la educación y los beneficios que aporta, tanto individual como socialmente. El objetivo principal es ver si las creencias se corresponden con la investigación actual sobre creatividad o por el contrario, reflejan concepciones ya obsoletas. De igual modo se les ha preguntado sobre aquellas metodologías que son consideradas más efectivas para su desarrollo. Como instrumento, se ha usado un cuestionario tipo Likert, seguido de dos preguntas abiertas. Los resultados indican que la mayoría del profesorado considera la creatividad como muy importante, aunque persisten ciertas creencias basadas en una concepción mitológica del hecho creativo. Igualmente resulta escaso el conocimiento de metodologías pedagógicas que se pueden implementar para el desarrollo creativo.
El cine como herramienta pedagógica para fomentar la reflexión crítica en el aula
Authors: Arcoba María Dolores
Published: December 2018

Reseña de:
García Raffi, J. V. y Jardón, P. (Coords.) (2018). Identidades, cine y educación. València: Tirant Humanidades.
Educación artística para fomentar la investigación en cine y audiovisuales
Authors: Huerta Ricard , Domínguez Ricardo
Published: December 2018

Las tendencias actuales en Educación Artística incorporan de manera decisiva el manejo de la imagen. Fotografía, video, cine, videojuegos, TIC, y audiovisuales en general, forman parte de un entramado amplio y diverso de posibilidades de creación y difusión de las imágenes. El profesorado de educación en artes está utilizando las imágenes de diferentes formas, y lo que necesitamos es impulsar la investigación sobre estos nuevos usos de la imagen en el ámbito educativo de las artes. Cuando hablamos de imagen no nos referimos únicamente a los usos de las TIC por parte del alumnado y el profesorado, sino que estamos hablando de la posibilidad de investigar desde la propia imagen, con las imágenes, como demuestras las tendencias de las A/R/Tography (Irwin y O’Donoghue, 2012), de la ABR Arts Based Research (Rose, 2016) y de ABER Arts Based Educational Research (Rolling, 2017). Así las cosas, debemos prestar atención a todos los nuevos modelos de investigación en los cuales la imagen forma parte de las posibilidades de indagación y justificación científica en materia de arte y educación (Hernández, 2013).
Créditos
Authors: Domínguez Ricardo
Published: December 2018

Créditos EARI9
Indexing It All
Authors: Day Ronald E.
Published: December 2018

A critical history of the modern tradition of documentation, tracing the representation of individuals and groups in the form of documents, information, and data.

In this book, Ronald Day offers a critical history of the modern tradition of documentation. Focusing on the documentary index (understood as a mode of social positioning), and drawing on the work of the French documentalist Suzanne Briet, Day explores the understanding and uses of indexicality. He examines the transition as indexes went from being explicit professional structures that mediated users and documents to being implicit infrastructural devices used in everyday information and communication acts. Doing so, he also traces three epistemic eras in the representation of individuals and groups, first in the forms of documents, then information, then data.

Day investigates five cases from the modern tradition of documentation. He considers the socio-technical instrumentalism of Paul Otlet, “the father of European documentation” (contrasting it to the hermeneutic perspective of Martin Heidegger); the shift from documentation to information science and the accompanying transformation of persons and texts into users and information; social media's use of algorithms, further subsuming persons and texts; attempts to build android robots—to embody human agency within an information system that resembles a human being; and social “big data” as a technique of neoliberal governance that employs indexing and analytics for purposes of surveillance. Finally, Day considers the status of critique and judgment at a time when people and their rights of judgment are increasingly mediated, displaced, and replaced by modern documentary techniques.
Carbon Capture and Storage
Authors: Faure Michael Gebert , Partain Roy A.
Published: December 2018

A theoretical and practical analysis of the complex liability issues raised by carbon capture and storage systems for containing greenhouse gases.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems inject highly compressed carbon dioxide gas deep into geological formations in order to contain the gas, and its harmful effects on the planet, for the foreseeable future and beyond—for centuries or even millennia. Used effectively, CCS could lessen the impact of climate change while carbon-free energy sources are developed. And yet CCS is not widely deployed. In this book, Michael Faure and Roy Partain offer a theoretical and practical discussion of one of the main obstacles to CCS adoption: complex liability and compensation issues.

Faure and Partain point out that current liability rules are unclear in their application to CCS. Causation is complicated, and the timeline of hundreds of years goes beyond the lifetimes of people or corporations. Examining the subject from legal and economic perspectives, they consider whether rules of civil liability can govern CCS risk; how a liability system might address the open-ended timeline; what role public and private regulatory measures could play; and whether compensation should be provided from public or private resources. They investigate the utility of different forms of insurance and of such financial tools as guarantees, deposits, and catastrophe bonds. They offer not only a rigorous framework for assessing policy but also a summary of policy recommendations they develop from their findings.
Climate of Capitulation
Authors: Thomson Vivian E.
Published: December 2018

How power is wielded in environmental policy making at the state level, and how to redress the ingrained favoritism toward coal and electric utilities.

The United States has pledged to the world community a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 26–28 percent below 2005 levels in 2025. Because much of this reduction must come from electric utilities, especially coal-fired power plants, coal states will make or break the U.S. commitment to emissions reduction. In Climate of Capitulation, Vivian Thomson offers an insider's account of how power is wielded in environmental policy making at the state level. Thomson, a former member of Virginia's State Air Pollution Control Board, identifies a “climate of capitulation” in state government—a deeply rooted favoritism toward coal and electric utilities in states' air pollution policies.

Thomson narrates three cases involving coal and air pollution from her time on the Air Board. She illuminates the overt and covert power struggles surrounding air pollution limits for a coal-fired power plant just across the Potomac from Washington, for a controversial new coal-fired electrical generation plant in coal country, and for coal dust pollution from truck traffic in a country hollow. Thomson links Virginia's climate of capitulation with campaign donations that make legislators politically indebted to coal and electric utility interests, a traditionalistic political culture tending to inertia, and a part-time legislature that depended on outside groups for information and bill drafting. Extending her analysis to fifteen other coal-dependent states, Thomson offers policy reforms aimed at mitigating the ingrained biases toward coal and electric utilities in states' air pollution policy making.
Agency, Democracy, and Nature
Authors: Brulle Robert J.
Published: December 2018

In this book Robert Brulle draws on a broad range of empirical and theoretical research to investigate the effectiveness of U.S. environmental groups. Brulle shows how Critical Theory—in particular the work of Jürgen Habermas—can expand our understanding of the social causes of environmental degradation and the political actions necessary to deal with it. He then develops both a pragmatic and a moral argument for broad-based democratization of society as a prerequisite to the achievement of ecological sustainability. From the perspectives of frame analysis, resource mobilization, and historical sociology, using data on more than one hundred environmental groups, Brulle examines the core beliefs, structures, funding, and political practices of a wide variety of environmental organizations. He identifies the social processes that foster the development of a democratic environmental movement and those that hinder it. He concludes with suggestions for how environmental groups can make their organizational practices more democratic and politically effective.
The Taxation of Pensions
Authors: Pestieau Pierre
Published: December 2018

Theoretical and policy perspectives on the taxation of pension, viewed in an international context.

Policy makers and academic researchers have been preoccupied in recent decades with the design of pension schemes and effective pension system reform. Relatively little attention has been given to the taxation of pensions and, more broadly, the provision of retirement income. In this book, experts from a range of countries explore the interconnection. Their contributions are especially timely, given recent demographic and political developments including population aging that lengthens the time between contribution payment and benefit receipt, the mobility of capital and labor brought about by globalization, and the complexity of pension taxation within and between countries.

In shedding light on these issues, the chapters document the various forms of taxation of pension systems; use economic theory to explain both qualitative and quantitative observations; and consider whether the observed interaction of taxation and pensions is efficient. Theoretical overviews are followed by rigorous analyses of pension taxation in specific countries, including Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Contributors Torben M. Andersen, Spencer Bastani, Hazel Bateman, Sören Blomquist, Axel Börsch-Supan, Jorge Miguel Bravo, Gary Burtless, Rafal Chomik, Helmuth Cremer, Carl Emmerson, Csaba Feher, Bernd Genser, Robert Holzmann, Paul Johnson, Alain Jousten, Christian Keuschnigg, Eric Koepcke, George Kudrna, Jukka Lassila, Luca Micheletto, Pierre Pestieau, John Piggott, Christopher Quinn, Tarmo Valkonen, Alan Woodland
Alternative Pathways in Science and Industry
Authors: Hess David J.
Published: December 2018

In Alternative Pathways in Science and Industry, David Hess examines how social movements and other forms of activism affect innovation in science, technology, and industry. Synthesizing and extending work in social studies of science and technology, social movements, and globalization, Hess explores the interaction of grassroots environmental action and mainstream industry and offers a conceptual framework for understanding it. Hess proposes a theory of scientific and technological change that considers the roles that both industry and grassroots consumers play in setting the research agenda in science and technology, and he identifies "alternative pathways" by which social movements can influence scientific and technological innovation. He analyzes four of these pathways: industrial opposition movements, organized against targeted technologies (as in the campaign against nuclear energy); technology- and product-oriented movements, which press for alternatives (as does the organic food movement); localism, which promotes local ownership (as in "buy-local" campaigns); and access pathways, which support a more equitable distribution of resources. Within each pathway, Hess examines reforms in five different areas: agriculture, energy, waste and manufacturing, infrastructure, and finance. The book's theoretical argument and empirical evidence demonstrate the complex pattern of incorporation (of grassroots innovations) and transformation (of alternative ownership structures and the alternative products themselves) that has characterized the relationship of industry and activism. Hess's analysis of alternative pathways to change suggests ways economic organizations could shift to a more just and sustainable course in the twenty-first century.
Analyzing International Environmental Regimes
Authors: Breitmeier Helmut , Young Oran R. , Zürn Michael
Published: December 2018

Regime theory has become an increasingly influential approach to the analysis of international relations, particularly in the areas of international political economy and international environmental politics. The conceptual appeal of the idea of "governance without government"—in which a combination of different organizations and institutions supply governance to address specific problems—reflects a world in which the demand for governance is great but the familiar mechanisms for supplying it are weak. Most research on international regimes employs qualitative methods, often using case studies to develop larger theoretical arguments; but a lack of standardization makes comparative analysis difficult. Analyzing International Environmental Regimes introduces the International Regimes Database (IRD), an important methodological innovation that allows scholars to adopt a quantitative approach to the study of international regimes.

The IRD is a relational database that makes it possible to compare records on specific aspects of a number of international environmental regimes that are coded using a single, well-defined set of concepts, definitions, and scales. The book first describes the database and discusses a number of methodological, technical, and architectural issues. It then illustrates the use of the IRD as an analytic tool, drawing on the database for descriptive statistics to evaluate theoretical ideas about compliance, decision rules, and the role of knowledge. A CD containing the full IRD data protocol and all the data currently in the database accompanies the book.
Banking on the Environment
Authors: Gutner Tamar L.
Published: December 2018

Multilateral development banks (MDBs) are increasingly expected to address environmental issues in their economic development lending. Yet the banks have been accused of failing to implement their own environmental policies, thereby contributing to environmental degradation in borrowing countries. In this book Tamar Gutner analyzes the environmental policies of three MDBs: the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the European Investment Bank. She compares their performance in Central and Eastern Europe, where the need for economic and environmental reform has been particularly urgent, and where these MDBs are among the largest donors. Gutner finds many obstacles to efforts to "green" the three banks, most notably a mismatch between the environmental mandates and existing patterns of institutional design and incentives. The depth and scope of the banks' green activities reflect the degree of shareholder commitment to environmental issues and how demand-driven the MDB is designed to be. Surprisingly, the World Bank, the most scrutinized and criticized of the three MDBs, has been rather more responsive than its counterparts to its environmental mandate in the region. The discussion is framed by larger explorations of the behavior of international organizations and the sources of their innovation and inertia in addressing new policy issues. Gutner demonstrates the need to examine the impact of different stages of the policy process on new mandates and to incorporate both political and institutional variables when developing theories about the behavior of international institutions.
Beyond Hegel and Nietzsche
Authors: Jurist Elliot L.
Published: December 2018

Are Hegel and Nietzsche philosophical opposites? Can twentieth-century Continental philosophers be categorized as either Hegelians or Nietzscheans? In this book Elliot Jurist places Hegel and Nietzsche in conversation with each other, reassessing their relationship in a way that affirms its complexity. Jurist examines Hegel's and Nietzsche's claim that philosophy and culture are linked and explicates the various meanings of "culture" in their work—in particular, the contrast both thinkers draw between ancient and modern culture. He evaluates their positions on the failure of modern culture and on the need to develop conceptions of satisfied agency. It is Jurist's original contribution to focus on the psychological sensibility that informs the project of both philosophers. Writing in an admirably clear style, he traces the ongoing legacy of Hegel's and Nietzsche's thought in Adorno, Habermas, Honneth, Jessica Benjamin, Heidegger, Derrida, Lacan, and Butler.
Body Language
Authors: Rowlands Mark
Published: December 2018

An argument that activity provides a useful template for thinking about representation and that deeds are themselves representational: our representing of the world consists, in part, in certain sorts of deeds that we perform in the world.

In Body Language, Mark Rowlands argues that the problem of representation—how it is possible for one item to represent another—has been exacerbated by the assimilation of representation to the category of the word. That is, the problem is traditionally understood as one of relating inner to outer—relating an inner representing item to something extrinsic or exterior to it. Rowlands argues that at least some cases of representation need to be understood not in terms of the word but of the deed. Activity, he claims, is a useful template for thinking about representation; our representing the world consists, in part, in certain sorts of actions that we perform in that world. This is not to say simply that these forms of acting can facilitate representation but that they are themselves representational. These sorts of actions—which Rowlands calls deeds—do not merely express or re-present prior intentional states. They have an independent representational status. After introducing the notion of the deed as a "preintentional act," Rowlands argues that deeds can satisfy informational, teleological, combinatorial, misrepresentational, and decouplability constraints—and so qualify as representational. He puts these principles of representation into practice by examining the deeds involved in visual perception. Representing, Rowlands argues, is something we do in the world as much as in the head. Representing does not stop at the skin, at the border between the representing subject and the world; representing is representational "all the way out."

Bradford Books imprint
Capital Flows and Crises
Authors: Eichengreen Barry
Published: December 2018

The implications of capital mobility for growth and stability are some of the most contentious and least understood contemporary issues in economics. In this book, Barry Eichengreen discusses historical, theoretical, empirical, and policy aspects of the effects, both positive and negative, of capital flows. He focuses on the connections between capital flows and crises as well as on those between capital flows and growth.

Eichengreen argues that international financial liberalization, like other forms of economic liberalization, can positively affect the efficiency of resource allocation and the rate of economic growth. But analyses of both recent and historical experience also show an undeniable association between capital mobility and crises, especially when domestic institutions are weak and the harmonization of capital account liberalization and other policy reforms is inadequate. In his conclusion, Eichengreen makes suggestions for policy design to maximize the benefits of international financial liberalization while minimizing the risks of financial instability.
Classical General Equilibrium Theory
Authors: McKenzie Lionel W.
Published: December 2018

Although general equilibrium theory originated in the late nineteenth century, modern elaboration and development of the theory began only in the 1930s and 1940s. This book focuses on the version of the theory developed in the second half of the twentieth century, referred to by Lionel McKenzie as the classical general equilibrium theory. McKenzie offers detailed and rigorous treatment of the classical model, giving step-by-step proofs of the basic theorems. In many cases he elaborates on the individual steps to give a fuller understanding of the underlying principles. His goal is to provide readers with a true mastery of the methodology so that they can derive new results that will further enrich their thinking about general equilibrium theory. Special attention is given to the McKenzie model, in which it is not assumed that the number of firms is given but rather that technologies or activities are available to any agents who can supply the resources they require. The McKenzie model is used to establish the turnpike theorems of optimal and competitive capital accumulation.
Consciousness and Persons
Authors: Tye Michael
Published: December 2018

In Consciousness and Persons: Unity and Identity, Michael Tye takes on the thorny issue of the unity of consciousness and answers these important questions: What exactly is the unity of consciousness? Can a single person have a divided consciousness? What is a single person? Tye argues that unity is a fundamental part of human consciousness—something so basic to everyday experience that it is easy to overlook. For example, when we hear the sound of waves crashing on a beach and at the same time see a red warning flag, there is an overall unity to our experience; the sound and the red shape are presented together in our consciousness. Similarly, when we undergo a succession of thoughts as we think something through, there is an experience of succession that unifies the thoughts into a conscious whole. But, Tye shows, consciousness is not always unified. Split-brain subjects, whose corpus callosum has been severed, are usually taken to have a divided or disunified consciousness. Their behavior in certain situations implies that they have lost the unity normal human subjects take for granted; it is sometimes even supposed that a split-brain subject is really two persons. Tye begins his account by proposing an account of the unity of experience at a single time; this account is extended over the succeeding chapters to cover bodily sensations at a single time and perceptual experience, bodily sensations, conscious thoughts, and felt moods at a single time. Tye follows these chapters with a discussion of the unity of experience through time. Turning to the split-brain phenomenon, he proposes an account of the mental life of split-brain subjects and argues that certain facts about these subjects offer support for his theory of unity. Finally, addressing the topic of the nature of persons and personal identity, Tye finds the two great historical accounts—the ego theory and the bundle theory—lacking and he makes an alternative proposal. He includes an appendix on the general representational approach to consciousness and its many varieties, because of the relevance of representationalism to the theory of unity being adanced.

Bradford Books imprint
Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain
Authors: Glimcher Paul W.
Published: December 2018

In this provocative book, Paul Glimcher argues that economic theory may provide an alternative to the classical Cartesian model of the brain and behavior. Glimcher argues that Cartesian dualism operates from the false premise that the reflex is able to describe behavior in the real world that animals inhabit. A mathematically rich cognitive theory, he claims, could solve the most difficult problems that any environment could present, eliminating the need for dualism by eliminating the need for a reflex theory. Such a mathematically rigorous description of the neural processes that connect sensation and action, he explains, will have its roots in microeconomic theory. Economic theory allows physiologists to define both the optimal course of action that an animal might select and a mathematical route by which that optimal solution can be derived. Glimcher outlines what an economics-based cognitive model might look like and how one would begin to test it empirically. Along the way, he presents a fascinating history of neuroscience. He also discusses related questions about determinism, free will, and the stochastic nature of complex behavior.

Bradford Books imprint
Democracy across Borders
Authors: Bohman James
Published: December 2018

An innovative conception of democracy for an era of globalization and delegation of authority beyond the nation-state: rule by peoples across borders rather than by "the people" within a fixed jurisdiction.

Today democracy is both exalted as the "best means to realize human rights" and seen as weakened because of globalization and delegation of authority beyond the nation-state. In this provocative book, James Bohman argues that democracies face a period of renewal and transformation and that democracy itself needs redefinition according to a new transnational ideal. Democracy, he writes, should be rethought in the plural; it should no longer be understood as rule by the people (dêmos), singular, with a specific territorial identification and connotation, but as rule by peoples (dêmoi), across national boundaries. Bohman shows that this new conception of transnational democracy requires reexamination of such fundamental ideas as the people, the public, citizenship, human rights, and federalism, and he argues that it offers a feasible approach to realizing democracy in a globalized world.

In his account, Bohman establishes the conceptual foundations of transnational democracy by examining in detail current theories of democracy beyond the nation-state (including those proposed by Rawls, Habermas, Held, and Dryzek) and offers a deliberative alternative. He considers the importance of communicative freedom in the transnational public sphere (including networked communication over the Internet), human rights as the normative basis of transnational democracy, and the European Union as a transnational polity. Finally, he examines the relationship between peace and democracy, concluding that peace requires democratization on interacting state and suprastate levels.
From the Corn Laws to Free Trade
Authors: Schonhardt-Bailey Cheryl
Published: December 2018

The overlapping and interacting forces that caused a Conservative government to repeal the protectionist Corn Laws against its own political principles and economic interests: extensive qualitative and quantitative analysis.

The repeal of Britain's Corn Laws in 1846—one of the most important economic policy decisions of the nineteenth century—has long intrigued and puzzled political scientists, historians, and economists. Why would a Conservative prime minister act against his own party's interests? The Conservatives entered government in 1841 with a strong commitment to protecting agriculture; five years later, the Conservative Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel presided over repeal of the protectionist Corn Laws, violating party principles and undercutting the economic interests of the land-owning aristocracy. Only a third of Conservative members of Parliament supported the repeal legislation and within a month of repeal, Peel's government fell. The Conservatives remained out of power for decades. In this definitive book, Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey examines the interacting forces that brought about the abrupt beginning of Britain's free-trade empire.Using a wide variety of methodological tools to measure both qualitative and quantitative data (including computer-assisted content analysis of thousands of pages of parliamentary debates), Schonhardt-Bailey concludes that economic interests provided the momentum behind repeal, a momentum that overshadowed almost all else. Indeed, as part of a broader momentum of democratic reform, these same interests, left unsatisfied, may easily have snowballed into revolution—as Sir Robert Peel and others feared. But interests alone did not explain why reform rather than revolution emerged in mid-nineteenth century Britain. In order to resolve more fully the long-standing puzzle of repeal, Schonhardt-Bailey traces the overlapping and intertwined forces of interest, ideas, and institutions.
From Newspeak to Cyberspeak
Authors: Gerovitch Slava
Published: December 2018

In this book, Slava Gerovitch argues that Soviet cybernetics was not just an intellectual trend but a social movement for radical reform in science and society as a whole. Followers of cybernetics viewed computer simulation as a universal method of problem solving and the language of cybernetics as a language of objectivity and truth. With this new objectivity, they challenged the existing order of things in economics and politics as well as in science.

The history of Soviet cybernetics followed a curious arc. In the 1950s it was labeled a reactionary pseudoscience and a weapon of imperialist ideology. With the arrival of Khrushchev's political "thaw," however, it was seen as an innocent victim of political oppression, and it evolved into a movement for radical reform of the Stalinist system of science. In the early 1960s it was hailed as "science in the service of communism," but by the end of the decade it had turned into a shallow fashionable trend. Using extensive new archival materials, Gerovitch argues that these fluctuating attitudes reflected profound changes in scientific language and research methodology across disciplines, in power relations within the scientific community, and in the political role of scientists and engineers in Soviet society. His detailed analysis of scientific discourse shows how the Newspeak of the late Stalinist period and the Cyberspeak that challenged it eventually blended into "CyberNewspeak."
Frontiers
Authors: Redclift Michael R.
Published: December 2018

In Frontiers, Michael Redclift examines the relationship between nature and society in frontier areas—contested zones in which rival versions of civil society vie with one another, often over the definition and management of nature itself. Drawing on his own fieldwork and extensive archival research, Redclift presents five cases in which civil societies emerged in frontier areas either to manage common property or to legitimize private holdings: common-pool resource management in the Spanish Pyrenees, European settlement on the forest frontier in nineteenth-century Canada, conflicts over land and water resources in coastal Ecuador, Mayan civil unrest in the Yucatán peninsula, and the encroachment of tourism on the Mexican Caribbean coast.

Redclift describes a dialectical process in frontier regions in which human societies and their environments influence and illuminate one another: the frontier can be seen as a crucible in which both nature and civil institutions develop and "co-evolve." In each of the five case studies, he argues, migration and land settlement gave rise to ideologies of nature that reflected not only the social and ethnic characteristics of the settlers but also the the effects of market forces on the natural environment. In most of these areas the natural environment was transformed by the pressure of the market, especially global markets. Resistance to market pressure created new avenues for political activity and the representation of cultural identity. Frontiers deepens and broadens our understanding of the role of the frontier, which, Redclift argues, needs to be considered within a global context that is of continuing importance today.
Generational Policy
Authors: Kotlikoff Laurence J.
Published: December 2018

How generational policy affects the sustainability of a government's fiscal policy.

In these eight 2002 Cairoli Lectures, presented at the Universidad Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Laurence Kotlikoff shows how generational policy works, how it is measured, and how much it matters. Kotlikoff discusses the incidence and measurement of generational policy, the relationship of generational policy to monetary policy, and the vacuity of deficits, taxes, and transfer payments as economic measures of fiscal policy. Kotlikoff also illustrates generational policy's general equilibrium effects with a dynamic life-cycle simulation model and reviews the empirical evidence testing intergenerational altruism and risk sharing. The lectures were delivered as Argentina faced a devastating depression triggered, in large part, by unsustainable generational policy. Throughout the book, Kotlikoff connects his messages about generational policy to the Argentine situation and the Argentine government's policy mistakes.
The Geometry of Multiple Images
Authors: Faugeras Olivier , Luong Quang-Tuan , Papadopoulo Theo
Published: December 2018

This book formalizes and analyzes the relations between multiple views of a scene from the perspective of various types of geometries. A key feature is that it considers Euclidean and affine geometries as special cases of projective geometry.

Over the last forty years, researchers have made great strides in elucidating the laws of image formation, processing, and understanding by animals, humans, and machines. This book describes the state of knowledge in one subarea of vision, the geometric laws that relate different views of a scene. Geometry, one of the oldest branches of mathematics, is the natural language for describing three-dimensional shapes and spatial relations. Projective geometry, the geometry that best models image formation, provides a unified framework for thinking about many geometric problems are relevant to vision. The book formalizes and analyzes the relations between multiple views of a scene from the perspective of various types of geometries. A key feature is that it considers Euclidean and affine geometries as special cases of projective geometry. Images play a prominent role in computer communications. Producers and users of images, in particular three-dimensional images, require a framework for stating and solving problems. The book offers a number of conceptual tools and theoretical results useful for the design of machine vision algorithms. It also illustrates these tools and results with many examples of real applications.
Harmonious Triads
Authors: Jackson Myles W.
Published: December 2018

Historically, music was long classified as both art and science. Aspects of music—from the mathematics of tuning to the music of the celestial spheres—were primarily studied as science until the seventeenth century. In the nineteenth century, although scientists were less interested in the music of the spheres than the natural philosophers of earlier centuries, they remained committed to understanding the world of performing musicians and their instruments. In Harmonious Triads, Myles Jackson analyzes the relationship of physicists, musicians, and instrument makers in nineteenth-century Germany. Musical instruments provided physicists with experimental systems, and physicists' research led directly to improvements in musical-instrument manufacture and assisted musicians in their performances. Music also provided scientists with a cultural resource, which forged acquaintances and future collaborations. Jackson discusses experiments in acoustical vibrations that led to the invention of musical instruments and describes work with adiabatic phenomena that resulted in the improvement of the reed pipe, used by organ builders. He examines the collaborations of physicists and mechanicians aimed at standardizing beat and pitch and considers debates stirred by the standardization of aesthetic qualities. He describes the importance for scientists of choral societies as a vehicle for social life and cultural unity. Finally, he discusses a subject that occupied both physicists and musicians of the era: Could physicists, using the universal principles of mechanics, explain musical skill? Was the virtuosity of a Paganini or a Liszt somehow quantifiable? Jackson's historical consideration of questions at the intersection of music and physics shows us how each discipline helped shape the other.
Imagination and the Meaningful Brain
Authors: Modell Arnold H.
Published: December 2018

The ultimate goal of the cognitive sciences is to understand how the brain works—how it turns "matter into imagination." In Imagination and the Meaningful Brain, psychoanalyst Arnold Modell claims that subjective human experience must be included in any scientific explanation of how the mind/brain works. Contrary to current attempts to describe mental functioning as a form of computation, his view is that the construction of meaning is not the same as information processing. The intrapsychic complexities of human psychology, as observed through introspection and empathic knowledge of other minds, must be added to the third-person perspective of cognitive psychology and neuroscience.

Assuming that other mammals are conscious and conscious of their feelings, Modell emphasizes evolutionary continuities and discontinuities of emotion. The limbic system, the emotional brain, is of ancient origin, but only humans have the capacity for generative imagination. By means of metaphor, we are able to interpret, displace, and transform our feelings. To bolster his argument, Modell draws on a variety of disciplines—including psychoanalysis, cognitive psychology, neurobiology, evolutionary biology, linguistics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind. Only by integrating the objectivity of neuroscience, the phenomenology of introspection, and the intersubjective knowledge of psychoanalysis, he claims, will we be able fully to understand how the mind works.

Bradford Books imprint