bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Pleistocene Amphibians and Reptiles in Britain and Europe
Authors: Holman J. Alan
Published: November 2020

The Pleistocene epoch or Ice Age, an extended period of advancing and retreating ice sheets, is characterized by striking climatic oscillations and sea level fluctuations. This age saw the rise and spread of humans and a great extinction of large mammals by the end of the epoch; in fact, the world today is essentially the product of dramatic changes that took place in the Pleistocene. This book, a companion to the author's Pleistocene Amphibians and Reptiles in North America, discusses the Pleistocene amphibians and reptiles in Britain and the European continent eastward through present-day Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Yugoslavian republics, and Greece. The book begins with a general discussion of the Pleistocene in Britain and Europe with an emphasis on regional terms used to define Pleistocene chronological events. Next, a look at the pre-Pleistocene herpetofauna of the study area sets the stage for a discussion of Pleistocene herpetofauna. A significant section of the book consists of a "bestiary," a series of annotated taxonomic accounts of Pleistocene herpetological taxa from the region. Following this is the interpretive section, beginning with a discussion of herpetological species as paleoenvironmental indicators and continuing with an analysis of herpetological population adjustments to Pleistocene events in Britain and Europe, and then with a discussion of extinction patterns in the region. Finally, the author compares Pleistocene herpetological events in Europe with those in North America. This volume and its companion together provide an up-to-date and comprehensive review of Pleistocene herpetofaunas across a significant portion of the Northern Hemisphere.
Properties and Management of Smectitic Soils
Authors: Juo Anthony S. R. , Franzluebbers Kathrin
Published: November 2020

Smectitic soils of the tropics are medium- to fine-textured alluvial soils containing moderate to large amounts (20% or more) of smectite, a shrinking and swelling clay mineral, in the clay fraction. Small to moderate amounts of other layer silicate minerals, such as illite, chlorite, vermiculite, and kaolinite, are also present in the clay fraction. Smectitic soils have moderate to high values of CEC (10-50 cmol/kg of soil), high base saturation, and high water-retention capacity. These soils are usually developed on alluvial materials rich in basic cations, especially Mg. Smectitic soils commonly occur on alluvial plains in river valleys and deltas as well as in inland depressions. In the wetter tropics, large areas of smectitic soils are found in tropical Asia, especially Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar (Burma). These young alluvial soils are rich in nutrient-bearing weatherable minerals, such as micas, feldspars, and hornblende. Smectitic soils on the alluvial plains and inland valleys have a shallow groundwater table, and some soils are flooded during the rainy season. Thus, they are best suited for rice cultivation. For example, in the flood plains along the Mekong and Chao Phraya rivers of the Indo- China peninsula, mineral-rich deposits from annual flooding are able to maintain relatively high rice yields with little or no additional nutrient inputs. Smectitic soils occurring in seasonally flooded coastal mangrove swamps are known as acid sulfate soils. These soils are used for cultivation of swamp rice and floating rice during the rainy season, depending upon the depth of flooding by fresh water. In drier regions, clayey smectitic soils (mainly Vertisols) often exhibit large cracks during the dry season and become very sticky and difficult to work with during the rainy season. In the drier tropics, large areas of clayey smectitic soils are found in central India, central Sudan, southern Ghana, and in the Lake Chad region of central Africa. Clayey smectitic soils are usually found in the inland depressions scattered throughout the drier regions of West, East and Central Africa. Because of their high chemical fertility, these soils are important soils for cropping and grazing in the drier tropics.
Isotope Hydrology
Authors: Criss Robert E.
Published: November 2020

No substance exemplifies the principles of isotope distribution better than water. Water is practically ubiquitous at the Earth’s surface, where it undergoes phase transitions, interacts with minerals and the atmosphere, and participates in complex metabolic processes essential to life. The isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen undergo large fractionations during these processes, providing a multiple isotopic tracer record of diverse phenomena. In the hydrologic cycle, hydrogen and oxygen isotope ratios provide conservative tracers, uniquely intrinsic to the water molecule, that elucidate the origin, phase transitions, and transport of H2O. In particular, the isotope data associated with these processes are amenable to theoretical modeling using the laws of physical chemistry. The characteristics of the principal reservoirs of natural waters on Earth are provided in the following sections. The distinct characters of these different reservoirs are very clearly shown on graphs where the δD values are plotted against those of δ18O. The oceans constitute 97.25% of the hydrosphere, cover 70% of the Earth’s surface to a mean depth of 3.8 km, and have an enormous total volume of 1.37 × 109 km3. This large reservoir has strikingly uniform isotopic concentrations, with almost all samples having δ18O = 0 ± 1 and δD = 0 ± 5 per mil relative to SMOW (Craig and Gordon, 1965). Values outside these ranges are almost invariably confined to surface waters that have salinities that differ from the normal value of 3.5 wt. %. These varations are generally attributable to evaporation, formation of sea ice, or addition of meteoric precipitation that may occur by direct rainfall, by river inflow, or by melting of icebergs. The latter effect was clearly documented by Epstein and Mayeda (1953) in the surface waters of the North Atlantic, where the isotopic variations were strongly correlated with variations in salinity. In detail, the deep waters of different ocean basins have distinct values of δ18O and salinity. Thus, the δ18O values of deep waters from the North Atlantic (ca. +0.05‰), Pacific (-0.15‰), and Antarctic (-0.40‰) oceans are distinct, and careful measurements can be used to infer details of oceanic circulation patterns (Craig and Gordon, 1965).
Characteristics of Continental Margins
Authors: Symonds Philip A. , Moore Gregory F.
Published: November 2020

Two major types of morphological features dominate the surface of the Earth—the continents and the oceans, the latter being by far the most significant in that they cover about 71% of the surface. These features are separated by the coastline, which is a transitory boundary. A much more fundamental subdivision of the Earth's surface is in terms of geological provinces composed of either continental or oceanic lithosphere (crust and uppermost mantle), each with their own characteristic lithological, geochemical, and physical properties. The continental margin is the zone separating the thin oceanic crust of the deep ocean basins from the thick continental crust. Continental margins underlie about 28% of the oceans, with the transition from continental to oceanic crust commonly occurring beneath the outer part of continental margins. Thus, a substantial proportion of continental crust (about 20%) lies beneath the oceans. The boundary between these crustal provinces marks the real physical outer edge of the prolongation of the continent beneath the ocean. It is this boundary that is commonly viewed as the absolute natural limit of a claim that a coastal state can make for sovereign rights to explore and exploit the natural resources of the deep seabed and subsoil. The geomorphological and geological characteristics of a continental margin are a function of its tectonic, magmatic, and sedimentary history. Continental margins can differ greatly in their dimensions and style depending on their age and their tectono-magmatic and depositional setting. Important province boundaries, such as the continent-ocean boundary (COB), are always difficult to define with any accuracy on a map because of their complexity and transitional nature. Given this, and the development of legal thought over the last 50 years on defining the various marine jurisdictional zones, it is little wonder that the definition of the outer limit of the seabed and subsoil resource regime on continental margins, the "legal" continental shelf, is a complex blend of legal, geomorphological, geological, and geodetic concepts that can be confusing even to experts in the individual fields.
Systematic Detection of Protein Structural Motifs
Authors: Tomii Kentaro , Kanehisa Minoru
Published: November 2020

It is widely believed that the prediction of the 3D structure of a protein from its amino acid sequence is important because the structure will help understand the function. As the number of protein structures resolved is increasing, most predictive methods have become based on the knowledge of the repertoire of 3D folds taken by actual proteins. We must emphasize, however, that this type of structure prediction, or fold recognition, concerns the overall folding of the polypeptide chain. Since two similar folds could be due to entirely different sequences and even two similar sequences could have different functions, it is unlikely that successful fold recognition will uncover any functional clue that cannot otherwise be obtained by sequence analysis alone. In contrast to the global feature of 3D folds, the concept of structural motifs or local structures is far more important in understanding protein function. It has been revealed that there are common local folding patterns that appear in many proteins of globally different structures and that are involved in conserved function. In addition, the local sequence patterns associated with these local structures are also often conserved, though the whole sequences can be quite different. At the supersecondary structure level there are, for example, βαβ -unit, EF hand, and helix-turn-helix motifs. Various dehydrogenases have a common structural motif called Rossman fold, which is composed of two consecutive βαβ -units, and most of those proteins also have the sequence motif GxGxxG around the nucleotide binding region (Wierenga and Hol, 1983; Wierenga et al., 1986). The EF hand consisting of the helix-loop-helix structure (Tufty and Kretsinger, 1975) occurs in many calcium-binding domains, and the residues that participate in ligand binding are well conserved. The helix-turn-helix motif that involves about 20 residues appears in a class of DNA-binding domains, and glycine tends to be conserved at a special position in the turn whose conformation corresponds to the left-handed helix. A number of known sequence motifs are registered in the motif libraries such as PROSITE (Bairoch and Bucher, 1994) that compile the relationships between sequence patterns and functions.
Princeton in the Nation's Service
Authors: Kemeny P. C.
Published: November 2020

This book argues against the conventional idea that Protestantism effectively ceased to play an important role in American higher education around the end of the 19th century. Employing Princeton as an example, the study shows that Protestantism was not abandoned but rather modified to conform to the educational values and intellectual standards of the modern university. Drawing upon a wealth of neglected primary sources, Kemeny sheds new light on the role of religion in higher education by examining what was happening both inside and outside the classroom, and by illustrating that religious and secular commitments were not neatly divisible but rather commingled.
Discrete-time Dynamic Models
Authors: Pearson Ronald K.
Published: November 2020

Fueled by advances in computer technology, model-based approaches to the control of industrial processes are now widespread. While there is an enormous literature on modeling, the difficult first step of selecting an appropriate model structure has received almost no attention. This book fills the gap, providing practical insight into model selection for chemical processes and emphasizing structures suitable for control system design.
Exceptions to the Legal Requirements: Emergency, Waiver, Therapeutic Privilege, and Compulsory Treatment
Authors: Berg Jessica W. , Appelbaum Paul S. , Lidz Charles W. , Parker Lisa S.
Published: November 2020

In the preceding chapter we spoke of the requirement for informed consent in absolute terms, as something that was an invariable component of medical decision making. Over the years, courts have come to recognize that there are a number of situations in which physicians are permitted to render treatment without patients’ informed consent. Even under the earlier simple consent requirement, consent to treatment was not required in all situations. There are different kinds of situations in which requiring disclosure and obtaining consent could be detrimental to the patient, such as in an emergency or when the disclosure itself would harm the patient, and therefore in these situations informed consent is not required. Patients may also waive, or give up, the right to be informed and/or to consent. Here the concern is not with promoting health values but with promoting autonomy. Informed consent may also be dispensed with in a fourth set of cases, those of legally required treatment, in which the harm from requiring informed consent is not necessarily to the patient (or the patient alone) but to other important societal interests (e.g., civil commitment of the dangerous mentally ill—see Chapter 11—or forced treatment of patients with infectious disease). In addition, informed consent requirements are modified when a patient is incompetent (see Chapter 5). Each of these exceptions contains the potential for undermining the values sought to be implemented by the informed consent doctrine: self-determination and informed decision making. Exceptions that are too broadly defined and applied are a threat to these values. On the other hand, these exceptions are an important vehicle for the interjection into the decisionmaking process of another set of values, society’s interest in promoting the health of individuals. When judiciously defined and applied, the exceptions accord health-related values their due. However, the exceptions can be, and sometimes have been, defined so broadly as to dilute, if not dissolve, the fundamental duties imposed by the doctrine and to undermine its essential purpose of assuring patient participation in medical decision making (1).
Consent Forms: Documentation and Guidance
Authors: Berg Jessica W. , Appelbaum Paul S. , Lidz Charles W. , Parker Lisa S.
Published: November 2020

As suggested in Chapter 8, there are multiple reasons that obtaining informed consent is mistakenly considered to be a discrete event occurring at a particular moment in a patient’s medical career, rather than a process that is (or should be) an integral part of the patient’s healthcare experience. Perhaps the most common reason for this mistaken view is that the consent form has become the symbol of informed consent. Some physicians, in fact, equate informed consent with a patient’s signature on the form. “Consenting the patient” has become a too familiar shorthand for seeking the patient’s authorization of treatment; behaviorally, “consenting the patient” often amounts merely to obtaining the patient’s signature, rather than facilitating an informed, voluntary decision. One critic observes that “with informed consent having its roots in the law, it is not surprising that the idea was implemented through legalistic approaches” and that, therefore, the pursuit of patient autonomy has “achieved an ethics in practice that revolves around the signing and filing of pieces of paper” . Informed consent is a process, not a form—without the process, the form is just a piece of paper. In the absence of the elements of informed consent, a signed consent form is largely worthless. If appropriate disclosure was not made, if the form’s signatory was not competent to understand the disclosure and make a decision, if the signatory signed the form but did not make a decision or understand what she signed, or if her signature was unduly pressured—the signed consent form will not serve any purpose. The continued focus on forms rather than the physician-patient interaction led one commentator to suggest that “instead of improving . . . consent forms, we should abolish consent forms—prohibit them by legal fiat as necessary” (2). Other commentators regard them as necessary evils (3). We believe that both of these positions are, at least, exaggerations. Properly designed, appropriately employed consent forms might be more than necessary evils. They could actually modestly enhance the informed consent process and promote its goals.
“Laws” and “Theories” in Chemistry Do Not Obey the Rules
Authors: Christie Maureen , Christie John R.
Published: November 2020

Most philosophers’ discussions of issues relating to “laws of nature” and “scientific theories” have concentrated heavily on examples from classical physics. Newton’s laws of motion and of gravitation and the various conservation laws are often discussed. This area of science provides very clear examples of the type of universal generalization that constitutes the widely accepted view of what a law of nature or a scientific theory “ought to be.” But classical physics is just one very small branch of science. Many other areas of science do not seem to throw up generalizations of nearly the same breadth or clarity. The question of whether there are any laws of nature in biology, or of why there are not, has often been raised (e.g., Ghiselin, 1989; Ruse, 1989). In the grand scheme of science, chemistry stands next to physics in any supposed reductive hierarchy, and chemistry does produce many alleged laws of nature and scientific theories. An examination of the characters of these laws and theories, and a comparison with those that arise in classical physics, might provide a broader and more balanced view of the nature of laws and theories and of their role in science. From the outset, we should very carefully define the terms of our discourse. The notion of laws of nature has medieval origin as the edicts of an all-powerful deity to his angelic servants about how the functioning of the world should be arranged and directed. It may be helpful to distinguish three quite different senses in which laws of nature are considered in modern discussions. On occasion, the discussion has become sidetracked and obscure because of conflation and confusion of two or more of these senses. In the first, or ontological, sense, laws of nature may be considered as a simply expressed generalization about the way an external world does operate. Laws of nature are often seen as principles of the way the world works. They are an objective part of the external world, waiting to be discovered. The laws that we have and use may be only approximations of the deeper, true laws of nature.
Realism, Reduction, and the “Intermediate Position”
Authors: Scerri Eric R.
Published: November 2020

The editors of this volume have asked me to write something about reduction because I have been focusing on this issue in my research for some time. Rather than rehashing any previously published ideas, I want to consider a new aspect of this question—or at least one that is new to me. I will draw liberally on the work of my thesis grandfather, the chemist, Fritz Paneth. I use the term somewhat unusually, because Paneth was not the person who advised my own advisor Heinz Post but was, in fact, his natural father, from whom Heinz presumably developed an interest in the philosophical aspects of science. I will touch on such areas as realism, including naive realism, the nature of the periodic system, metaphysical aspects of chemistry, and, as suggested by the editors, the reduction of chemistry. Of course, nobody likes to be referred to as a naive anything, and not surprisingly, some chemists are quick to react if it is suggested that they tend to adopt a naively realistic attitude in their work. Nevertheless, I think it is true that chemists are often realists, naive or otherwise, and this may not be such a bad thing, as I will try to explain. The question hinges on the extent to which such realistic views are maintained and in what context they may or may not be appropriate. Broadly speaking, chemists are frequently accused of unwarranted realism by physicists for taking chemical models too literally. Whereas no chemist nowadays believes that tiny springs connect the atoms in a molecule, such denials of models are less prevalent when it conies to hybridization, electronic configurations, and atomic orbitals. Chemistry professors may well begin by declaring that these are approximate concepts, but they frequently fail to emphasize that, from the point of view of physics, they are strictly incorrect or, philosophically speaking, are nonreferring terms.
Phenotypic Plasticity
Authors: Pigliucci Massimo
Published: November 2020

Phenotypic plasticity is the property of a genotype to produce different phenotypes in response to different environmental conditions (Bradshaw 1965; Mazer and Damuth, this volume, chapter 2). Simply put, students of phenotypic plasticity deal with the way nature (genes) and nurture (environment) interact to yield the anatomy, morphology, and behavior of living organisms. Of course, not all genotypes respond differentially to changes in the environment, and not all environmental changes elicit a different phenotype given a particular genotype. Furthermore, while the distinction between genotype and phenotype is in principle very clear, several complicating factors immediately ensue. For example, the genotype can be modified by environmental action, as in the case of DNA methylation patterns (e.g., Sano et al. 1990; Mazer and Damuth, this volume, chapter 2). More intuitively, since environments are constantly changed by the organisms that live in them, the genetic constitution of a population influences the environment itself. Perhaps the most intuitive way to visualize phenotypic plasticity is through what is termed a norm of reaction. This genotype-specific function relates the phenotypes produced to the environments in which they are produced. The figure presents a simple example with a population made of three different genotypes experiencing a series of environmental conditions. Genotype 1 yields a low phenotypic value toward the left end of the environmental continuum (say, an insect with small wings at low temperature) but a high phenotypic value at the opposite environmental extreme (say, large wings at high temperature). Genotype 3, however, does the exact opposite, while genotype 2 is unresponsive to environmental changes, always producing the same phenotype regardless of the conditions (within the range of environments considered). Even though the case presented in figure 5.1 is very simple (notice, for example, that the reaction norms are linear, which is unlikely in real situations), several general principles are readily understood following a closer analysis: . . . 1. Let us consider the relationship between phenotypic plasticity and reaction norms. While the two terms are often used as synonyms, they are clearly not. A reaction norm is the trajectory in environment- phenotype space that is typical of a given genotype; plasticity is the degree to which that reaction norm deviates from a flat line parallel to the environmental axis. . . .
MAGICAL Computer Simulation of Mesolithic Foraging
Authors: Lake Mark Winter
Published: November 2020

The MAGICAL (Multi-Agent Geographically Informed Computer AnaLysis) software described in this chapter was designed to integrate two of the most important computational methods used by archaeologists during the last decade: Geographical Information Systems (GIS) (e.g., Allen et al. 1990) and multiagent simulation (e.g., Lake 1995; Mithen 1990). At the outset of model development in 1995, it was recognized that GIS provide archaeologists with a sophisticated means of manipulating spatial data, but offer limited support for modeling change through time. Conversely, multiagent simulation models have allowed archaeologists to study change through time, but have either lacked or had simplistic spatial components. Consequently, the research described here aimed to combine the strengths of GIS and multiagent simulation in one software package so as to better facilitate the quantitative study of spatiotemporal variability in the archaeological record. The MAGICAL software was developed within the broader context of the Southern Hebrides Mesolithic Project (SHMP). This project was established in 1988 by Dr. Steven Mithen (University of Reading) to acquire new data from the Scottish Islands of Islay and Colonsay and, by integrating this with existing data, to develop a regional perspective on the early postglacial settlement of Western Scotland (Mithen and Lake 1996). The construction of a computer simulation model was considered a fundamental part of the postexcavation studies of the SHMP (Lake in press). It was hoped that conceptual models which would otherwise remain largely intuitive could be more rigorously explored by formalizing them into mathematical algorithms, translating those algorithms into computer code, and then running simulation experiments. This chapter describes how the MAGICAL software integrates GIS and multiagent simulation. It does so directly in section one and then by example in sections two, three, and four. Section two discusses the conceptual basis of the SHMP simulation model, and section three describes how this was implemented using the MAGICAL software. Section four presents the results of the SHMP simulations. Note that the SHMP simulation model is discussed primarily as a means of demonstrating the capabilities of the MAGICAL software. Those interested in the wider background to this particular modeling endeavor are urged to consult Mithen (ed., in prep).
Mountain Meteorology
Authors: Whiteman C. David
Published: November 2020

Mountain Meteorology: Fundamentals and Applications offers first an introduction to the basic principles and concepts of mountain meteorology, then goes on to discuss their application in natural resources management. It includes over two hundred beautiful, full-color photographs, figures, and diagrams, as well as observable indicators of atmospheric processes--such as winds, temperature, and clouds--to facilitate the recognition of weather systems and events for a variety of readers. It is ideal for those who spend time in or near mountains and whose daily activities are affected by weather. As a comprehensive work filled with diverse examples and colorful illustrations, it is essential for professionals, scholars, and students of meteorology.
Meteorological Measurement Systems
Authors: Brock Fred V. , Richardson Scott J.
Published: November 2020

This book treats instrumentation used in meteorological surface systems, both on the synoptic scale and the mesoscale, and the instrumentation used in upper air soundings. The text includes material on first- and second-order differential equations as applied to instrument dynamic performance, and required solutions are developed. Sensor physics are emphasized in order to explain how sensors work and to explore the strengths and weaknesses of each design type. The book is organized according to sensor type and function (temperature, humidity, and wind sensors, for example), though several unifying themes are developed for each sensor. Functional diagrams are used to portray sensors as a set of logical functions, and static sensitivity is derived from a sensor's transfer equation, focusing attention on sensor physics and on ways in which particular designs might be improved. Sensor performance specifications are explored, helping to compare various instruments and to tell users what to expect as a reasonable level of performance. Finally, the text examines the critical area of environmental exposure of instruments. In a well-designed, properly installed, and well-maintained meteorological measurement system, exposure problems are usually the largest source of error, making this chapter one of the most useful sections of the book.
The Church on the World's Turf
Authors: Bramadat Paul A.
Published: November 2020

Is it possible for conservative Protestant groups to survive in secular institutional settings? Here, Bramadat offers an ethnographic study of the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) at McMaster University, a group that espouses fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible, women's roles, the age of the earth, alcohol consumption, and sexual ethics. In examining this group, Bramadat demonstrates how this tiny minority thrives within the overwhelmingly secular context of the University.
Effects of Grazing on Vegetation
Authors: Milchunas Daniel G. , Lauenroth William K.
Published: November 2020

Grazing by large native ungulates and semiaridity are the two main forces that have had a large infuence in shaping the current-day structure of the shortgrass steppe ecosystem (Milchunas et al., 1988). With the uplift of the Rocky Mountain chain during the Miocene (approximately one million years ago), forests of the Great Plains were gradually replaced by grasslands (Axelrod, 1985). Large grazing and browsing animals inhabited the Great Plains during the middle to late Pleistocene, as did grasses of the genera Stipa, Agropyron, Oryzopsis, and Elymus (Axelrod, 1985; Stebbins, 1981). Bison occurred both east and west of the Rockies during the Wisconsin glacial period in the latter part of the Pleistocene (Wilson, 1978). During the early Holocene, approximately 10,000 years ago, bison and grasses of the genera Bouteloua, Buchloë, Andropogon or Schizachyrium, and Sorghastrum concomitantly increased throughout the Great Plains (Stebbins, 1981), but bison did not proliferate west of the continental divide (Mack and Thompson, 1982; Van Vuren, 1987). The natural shift in fauna from horses, pronghorn, and camels to bison and wild sheep from Eurasia is thought to have favored the spread of shortgrasses such as Bouteloua and Buchloë (Stebbins, 1981). Furthermore, grassland flora east and west of the Rocky Mountains probably had separate origins (Leopold and Denton, 1987). The shortgrass steppe is unique from other North American semiarid ecosystems in having bison play an important role. Bison did not proliferate west of the Rocky Mountains as they did on the Great Plains to the east. This is due in part to a lack of coincidence in timing of bison lactation and the phenological development of C3 grasses in the more Mediterranean–like climate west of the Rockies, in contrast to the mix of C3 and C4 grasses and pattern of spring–summer precipitation on the Great Plains (Mack and Thompson, 1982). Other explanations for the low numbers of bison west of the Rocky Mountains include physiographic barriers restricting immigration (Kingston, 1932), low p rotein content of forage (Daubenmire, 1985; Johnson, 1951), heavy snowfall as a cause of mortality (Daubenmire, 1985), and low aboveground primary production coupled with disjunct suitable habitat (Van Vuren, 1987). Bison a lso did not prosper in the southwestern United States, nor did a large herbivore fauna develop in South America (Stebbins, 1981).
The Engines of Our Ingenuity
Authors: Lienhard John H.
Published: November 2020

Millions of people have listened to John H. Lienhard's radio program "The Engines of Our Ingenuity." In this fascinating book, Lienhard gathers his reflections on the nature of technology, culture, and human inventiveness. The book brims with insightful observations. Lienhard writes that the history of technology is a history of us--we are the machines we create. Thus farming dramatically changed the rhythms of human life and redirected history. War seldom fuels invention--radar, jets, and the digital computer all emerged before World War II began. And the medieval Church was a driving force behind the growth of Western technology--Cistercian monasteries were virtual factories, whose water wheels cut wood, forged iron, and crushed olives. Lienhard illustrates his themes through inventors, mathematicians, and engineers--with stories of the canoe, the DC-3, the Hoover Dam, the diode, and the sewing machine. We gain new insight as to who we are, through the familiar machines and technologies that are central to our lives.
The American West at Risk
Authors: Wilshire Howard G. , Hazlett Richard W. , Nielson Jane E.
Published: November 2020

The American West at Risk summarizes the dominant human-generated environmental challenges in the 11 contiguous arid western United States - America's legendary, even mythical, frontier. When discovered by European explorers and later settlers, the west boasted rich soils, bountiful fisheries, immense, dense forests, sparkling streams, untapped ore deposits, and oil bonanzas. It now faces depletion of many of these resources, and potentially serious threats to its few "renewable" resources. The importance of this story is that preserving lands has a central role for protecting air and water quality, and water supplies--and all support a healthy living environment. The idea that all life on earth is connected in a great chain of being, and that all life is connected to the physical earth in many obvious and subtle ways, is not some new-age fad, it is scientifically demonstrable. An understanding of earth processes, and the significance of their biological connections, is critical in shaping societal values so that national land use policies will conserve the earth and avoid the worst impacts of natural processes. These connections inevitably lead science into the murkier realms of political controversy and bureaucratic stasis. Most of the chapters in The American West at Risk focus on a human land use or activity that depletes resources and degrades environmental integrity of this resource-rich, but tender and slow-to-heal, western U.S. The activities include forest clearing for many purposes; farming and grazing; mining for aggregate, metals, and other materials; energy extraction and use; military training and weapons manufacturing and testing; road and utility transmission corridors; recreation; urbanization; and disposing of the wastes generated by everything that we do. We focus on how our land-degrading activities are connected to natural earth processes, which act to accelerate and spread the damages we inflict on the land. Visit www.theamericanwestatrisk.com to learn more about the book and its authors.
Learning to Live Together
Authors: Hamburg David A. , Hamburg Beatrix A.
Published: November 2020

With a view to deepening our understanding of sources of hatred and prejudice, this book uses a developmental and evolutionary perspective to explore and explain the process by which our beliefs are conveyed to the youngest members of society. Discussing the psychological obstacles to peaceful relations between groups, the authors focus on the developmental processes by which we can work to diminish ethnocentrism, prejudice, and hatred, which children learn from a very early age. Until now, scholarship and practice in international relations have gravely neglected crucial psychological aspects of these terrible problems and have not yet explored the educational opportunities related to them. Addressing these promising lines of inquiry and innovation, this book fosters a more humane and less violent development in childhood and adolescence. Educators, religious leaders, developmental and social psychologists, will find this a valuable resource, as will a socially concerned segment of the public who are looking for practical ways to work for peace.
The Social Structure of Competition
Authors: Burt Ronald
Published: November 2020

A player brings capital to the competitive arena and walks away with profit determined by the rate of return where the capital was invested. The market production equation predicts profit: invested capital, multiplied by the going rate of return, equals the profit to be expected from the investment. You invest a million dollars. The going rate of return is 10 percent. The profit is one hundred thousand dollars. Investments create an ability to produce a competitive product. For example, capital is invested to build and operate a factory. Rate of return is an opportunity to profit from the investment. The rate of return is keyed to the social structure of the competitive arena and is the focus here. Each player has a network of contacts in the arena. Something about the structure of the player’s network and the location of the player’s contacts in the social structure of the arena provides a competitive advantage in getting higher rates of return on investment. This chapter is about that advantage. It is a description of the way in which social structure renders competition imperfect by creating entrepreneurial opportunities for certain players and not for others. A player brings at least three kinds of capital to the competitive arena. Other distinctions can be made, but three are sufficient here. First, the player has financial capital: cash in hand, reserves in the bank, investments coming due, lines of credit. Second, the player has human capital. Your natural qualities—charm, health, intelligence, and looks—combined with the skills you have acquired in formal education and job experience give you abilities to excel at certain tasks. Third, the player has social capital: relationships with other players. You have friends, colleagues, and more general contacts through whom you receive opportunities to use your financial and human capital. I refer to opportunities in a broad sense, but I certainly mean to include the obvious examples of job promotions, participation in significant projects, influential access to important decisions, and so on. The social capital of people aggregates into the social capital of organizations.
Nonextensive Statistical Mechanics: Construction and Physical Interpretation
Authors: Tsallis Constantino
Published: November 2020

Statistical mechanics is clearly mechanics (classical, quantum, special or general relativistic, or any other) plus the theory of probabilities, as is well known. It is our understanding, however, that it is more than that. It is also the adoption of a specific entropic functional, which will, in some sense, adequately shortcut the vast, and for most practical purposes useless, detailed microscopic mechanical information on the system. It is, in particular, through this functional that the connection with thermodynamics and its macroscopic laws will be established. This particular functional is determined by the specific type (or geometry) of occupation of the phase space (or Hilbert space or analogous space). This geometrical structure depends in turn not only on the microscopic dynamics that the system obeys, but also on the initial conditions at which the system is placed at t = 0. In colloquial terms, we could say that the microscopic dynamics determine where the system is allowed to live, whereas the initial conditions determin where it likes to live within the allowed region. This viewpoint is consistent with Einstein's perspective on classical statistical mechanics, and especially with his criticism [82, 92] of the celebrated Boltzmann principle However, the problem is that, up to now, no systematic manner exists for univocally determining the entropic functional to be used, given the dynamics and the initial conditions. The optimization of this entropy under the physically appropriate constraints is expected to provide the correct probability distribution for the microscopic states of the macroscopic stationary state of the system. Boltzmann, then complemented by Gibbs, proposed the celebrated form which is the foundation of standard statistical mechanics.
Quality Assurance in the Analytical Chemistry Laboratory
Authors: Hibbert D. Brynn
Published: November 2020

Analytical chemical results touch everyones lives can we eat the food? do I have a disease? did the defendant leave his DNA at the crime scene? should I invest in that gold mine? When a chemist measures something how do we know that the result is appropriate? What is fit for purpose in the context of analytical chemistry? Many manufacturing and service companies have embraced traditional statistical approaches to quality assurance, and these have been adopted by analytical chemistry laboratories. However the right chemical answer is never known, so there is not a direct parallel with the manufacture of ball bearings which can be measured and assessed. The customer of the analytical services relies on the quality assurance and quality control procedures adopted by the laboratory. It is the totality of the QA effort, perhaps first brought together in this text, that gives the customer confidence in the result. QA in the Analytical Chemistry Laboratory takes the reader through all aspects of QA, from the statistical basics and quality control tools to becoming accredited to international standards. The latest understanding of concepts such as measurement uncertainty and metrological traceability are explained for a working chemist or her client. How to design experiments to optimize an analytical process is included, together with the necessary statistics to analyze the results. All numerical manipulation and examples are given as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that can be implemented on any personal computer. Different kinds of interlaboratory studies are explained, and how a laboratory is judged in proficiency testing schemes is described. Accreditation to ISO 17025 or OECD GLP is nearly obligatory for laboratories of any pretension to quality. Here the reader will find an introduction to the requirements and philosophy of accreditation. Whether completing a degree course in chemistry or working in a busy analytical laboratory, this book is a single source for an introduction into quality assurance.
Continental Drift—The Road to Plate Tectonics
Authors: Rogers John J. W. , Santosh M.
Published: November 2020

Alfred Wegener never set out to be a geologist. With an education in meteorology and astronomy, his career seemed clear when he was appointed Lecturer in those subjects at the University of Marburg, Germany. It wasn’t until 1912, when Wegener was 32, that he published a paper titled “Die Entstehung der Kontinente” (The origin of the continents) in a recently founded journal called Geologische Rundschau. This meteorologist had just fired the opening shot in a revolution that would change the way that geologists thought about the earth. In a series of publications and talks both before and after World War I, Wegener pressed the idea that continents moved around the earth independently of each other and that the present continents resulted from the splitting of a large landmass (we now call it a “supercontinent”) that previously contained all of the world’s continents. After splitting, they moved to their current positions, closing oceans in front of them and opening new oceans behind them. Wegener and his supporters referred to this process as “continental drift.” The proposal that continents moved around the earth led to a series of investigations and ideas that occupied much of the 20th century. They are now grouped as a set of concepts known as “plate tectonics.” We begin this chapter with an investigation of the history of this development, starting with ideas that preceded Wegener’s proposal. This is followed by a section that describes the reactions of different geologists to the idea of continental drift, including some comments that demonstrate the rancorous nature of the debate. The next section discusses developments between Wegener’s proposal and 1960, when Harry Hess suggested that the history of modern ocean basins is consistent with the concept of drifting continents. We finish the chapter with a brief description of seafloor spreading and leave a survey of plate tectonics to chapter 2. Although Wegener is credited with first proposing continental drift, some tenuous suggestions had already been made. We summarize some of this early history from LeGrand (1988).
Reverberations: Mexico City’s 1985 Earthquake and the Transformation of the Capital
Authors: Davis Diane E.
Published: November 2020

On September 19, 1985, at 7:14 a.m. an earthquake reaching a magnitude of 8.1 on the Richter scale and lasting almost two full minutes hit the coast of Mexico, rocking its capital city and shaking its buildings and its people. The next day, at 7:38 p.m., Mexico City experienced a second tremor of an almost equal magnitude on the Richter scale, 7.5. What has come to be known as the Mexico City earthquake, then, was in actuality two earthquakes, although those who experienced it lived through a single disaster whose longer-term reverberations were as powerful as the first set of tremors that hit the city on that initial day in September. The earthquake, or those two days of tremors big and small, produced a physical disaster on a scale not seen since the destruction of the city in 1521, when Hernán Cortés’s forces defeated the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. This same battle site later served as the seat of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Spanish colonial power and subsequently marked the place where the majority of the 1985 earthquake damage occurred. After the first day alone, 250 buildings were completely destroyed with 50 more at risk of collapsing; thousands of others were damaged or considered to be unusable. Five thousand people were injured with more than 1,000 still trapped under the debris; more than 250,000 people were homeless. The city lacked telephone and electricity services. After the second day’s quake, when more reliable statistics began flowing in, 2,000 were officially confirmed dead (although close to 7,000 cadavers had been identified) with 28,000 still listed as missing; more than 7,000 victims were being treated at relief stations, with 30,000 at gyms and other sites turned into shelters. More than 800,000 residents were ultimately forced to abandon their homes and sleep in the open air. Official statements later acknowledged 5,000 killed and 14,000 injured; but an independent final tally accounted for 2 million residents temporarily made homeless and thousands dead, tens of thousands injured, 100,000 damaged building units (mostly residential), and hundreds of thousands of residents made permanently homeless.