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Recommender Systems for Technology Enhanced Learning
by Nikos Manouselis Hendrik Drachsler Katrien Verbert Olga C. SantosAs an area, Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) aims to design, develop and test socio-technical innovations that will support and enhance learning practices of individuals and organizations. Information retrieval is a pivotal activity in TEL and the deployment of recommender systems has attracted increased interest during the past years. Recommendation methods, techniques and systems open an interesting new approach to facilitate and support learning and teaching. The goal is to develop, deploy and evaluate systems that provide learners and teachers with meaningful guidance in order to help identify suitable learning resources from a potentially overwhelming variety of choices. Contributions address the following topics: i) user and item data that can be used to support learning recommendation systems and scenarios, ii) innovative methods and techniques for recommendation purposes in educational settings and iii) examples of educational platforms and tools where recommendations are incorporated.
Recommender Systems Handbook
by Francesco Ricci Lior Rokach Bracha ShapiraThis second edition of a well-received text, with 20 new chapters, presents a coherent and unified repository of recommender systems' major concepts, theories, methodologies, trends, and challenges. A variety of real-world applications and detailed case studies are included. In addition to wholesale revision of the existing chapters, this edition includes new topics including: decision making and recommender systems, reciprocal recommender systems, recommender systems in social networks, mobile recommender systems, explanations for recommender systems, music recommender systems, cross-domain recommendations, privacy in recommender systems, and semantic-based recommender systems. This multi-disciplinary handbook involves world-wide experts from diverse fields such as artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, information retrieval, data mining, mathematics, statistics, adaptive user interfaces, decision support systems, psychology, marketing, and consumer behavior. Theoreticians and practitioners from these fields will find this reference to be an invaluable source of ideas, methods and techniques for developing more efficient, cost-effective and accurate recommender systems.
Recommender Systems in Fashion and Retail (Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering #734)
by Nima Dokoohaki Shatha Jaradat Humberto Jesús Corona Pampín Reza ShirvanyThis book includes the proceedings of the second workshop on recommender systems in fashion and retail (2020), and it aims to present a state-of-the-art view of the advancements within the field of recommendation systems with focused application to e-commerce, retail, and fashion by presenting readers with chapters covering contributions from academic as well as industrial researchers active within this emerging new field. Recommender systems are often used to solve different complex problems in this scenario, such as product recommendations, or size and fit recommendations, and social media-influenced recommendations (outfits worn by influencers).
Reconceptualising Learning in the Digital Age: The [un]democratising Potential Of Moocs (SpringerBriefs in Education)
by Allison Littlejohn Nina HoodThis book situates Massive Open Online Courses and open learning within a broader educational, economic and social context. It raises questions regarding whether Massive Open Online Courses effectively address demands to open up access to education by triggering a new education order, or merely represent reactionary and unimaginative responses to those demands. It offers a fresh perspective on how we conceptualise learners and learning, teachers and teaching, accreditation and quality, and how these dimensions fit within the emerging landscape of new forms of open learning.
Reconceptualizing Libraries: Perspectives from the Information and Learning Sciences
by Victor R. Lee Abigail L. PhillipsReconceptualizing Libraries brings together cases and models developed by experts in the information and learning sciences to identify the potential for libraries to adapt and transform in the wake of new technologies for connected learning and discovery. Chapter authors explore the ways that the increased interest in the design research methods, digital media emphases, and technological infrastructure of the learning sciences can foster new collaborations and formats for education within physical library spaces. Models and case studies from a variety of library contexts demonstrate how library professionals can act as change agents and design partners and how patrons can engage with these evolving experiences. This is a timely and innovative volume for understanding how physical libraries can incorporate and thrive as educational resources using new developments in technology and in the learning sciences.
Reconceptualizing STEM Education: The Central Role of Practices (Teaching and Learning in Science Series)
by Richard A. Duschl Amber S. BismackReconceptualizing STEM Education explores and maps out research and development ideas and issues around five central practice themes: Systems Thinking; Model-Based Reasoning; Quantitative Reasoning; Equity, Epistemic, and Ethical Outcomes; and STEM Communication and Outreach. These themes are aligned with the comprehensive agenda for the reform of science and engineering education set out by the 2015 PISA Framework, the US Next Generation Science Standards and the US National Research Council’s A Framework for K-12 Science Education. The new practice-focused agenda has implications for the redesign of preK-12 education for alignment of curriculum-instruction-assessment; STEM teacher education and professional development; postsecondary, further, and graduate studies; and out-of-school informal education. In each section, experts set out powerful ideas followed by two eminent discussant responses that both respond to and provoke additional ideas from the lead papers. In the associated website highly distinguished, nationally recognized STEM education scholars and policymakers engage in deep conversations and considerations addressing core practices that guide STEM education.
Reconceptualizing the Digital Humanities in Asia: New Representations of Art, History and Culture (Digital Culture and Humanities #2)
by Kaby Wing-Sze KungThis book examines new forms of representation that have changed our perception and interpretation of the humanities in an Asian, and digital, context. In analyzing written and visual texts, such as the use of digital technology and animation in different works of art originating from Asia, the authors demonstrate how literature, history, and culture are being redefined in spatialized relations amid the trend of digitization. Research studies on Asian animation are in short supply, and so this volume provides new and much needed insights into how art, literature, history, and culture can be presented in innovative ways in the Asian digital world. The first section of this volume focuses on the new conceptualization of the digital humanities in art and film studies, looking at the integration of digital technologies in museum narration and cinematic production. The second section of the volume addresses the importance of framing these discussions within the context of gender issues in the digital world, discussing how women are represented in different forms of social media. The third and final section of the book explores the digital world’s impacts on people’s lives through different forms of digital media, from the electromagnetic unconscious to digital storytelling and digital online games. This book presents a novel contribution to the burgeoning field of the digital humanities by informing new forms of representation and interpretations, and demonstrating how digitization can influence and change cultural practices in Asia, and globally. It will be of interest to students and scholars interested in digitization from the full spectrum of humanities disciplines, including art, literature, film, music, visual culture, media, and animation, gaming, and Internet culture."This is a well-written book, and I enjoyed reading it. The first impression of the book is that it is very innovative - a down-to-the-earth academic volume that discusses digital culture."- Professor Anthony Fung, Professor, Director, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong "This book has contributed to the existing field of humanities by informing new forms of representation and interpretations, and how digitization may change cultural practices. There is comprehensive information on how the humanities in the digital age can be applied to a wide range of subjects including art, literature, film, pop music, music videos, television, animation, games, and internet culture."- Dr Samuel Chu, Associate Professor, The Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong
Reconfigurable Active and Passive Planar Antennas for Wireless Communication Systems (Signals and Communication Technology)
by Shiban Kishen Koul Rajesh K. SinghThis book presents state-of-the-art trends in reconfigurable active and passive planar antennas and their applications in wireless communication systems operating in the frequency band 5-6 GHz. Due to various key features such as multifunction antenna design, compactness, planar nature, and low cost, these technologies are becoming popular for current and future wireless applications. This book discusses different novel antenna designs and their working principles in detail. The modern and future wireless systems require wideband antennas to accommodate various channels in a single band or in separate bands. The carrier aggregation (CA) has been introduced in the modern wireless systems such as LTE-advanced systems and 5G./6G. In CA, a device can use several channels for transmission and reception. The used channels can exist in the same frequency band (intra-band CA) or in distinct bands (inter-band CA). To accommodate more channels, more bandwidth is required within the operating band. For portable devices, circularly polarized (CP) antennas are more advantageous over linearly polarized antennas since in CP antennas, there is low risk of misalignment and, hence encountering interference. Circularly polarized antenna also provides higher link reliability for the portable devices. To provide high data rates, more bandwidth is needed to accommodate more channels. Various multifunction, compact, and wideband antennas for plethora of applications are addressed in detail in this book. The scope of developing reconfigurable active antennas for application in beam switching, beam steering, wireless charging, security systems, etc., is described. This book concludes by giving glimpses of antenna requirements for future wireless communication systems.
Reconfigurable Cellular Neural Networks and Their Applications (SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology)
by Müştak E. Yalçın Tuba Ayhan Ramazan YeniçeriThis book explores how neural networks can be designed to analyze sensory data in a way that mimics natural systems. It introduces readers to the cellular neural network (CNN) and formulates it to match the behavior of the Wilson–Cowan model. In turn, two properties that are vital in nature are added to the CNN to help it more accurately deliver mimetic behavior: randomness of connection, and the presence of different dynamics (excitatory and inhibitory) within the same network. It uses an ID matrix to determine the location of excitatory and inhibitory neurons, and to reconfigure the network to optimize its topology. The book demonstrates that reconfiguring a single-layer CNN is an easier and more flexible solution than the procedure required in a multilayer CNN, in which excitatory and inhibitory neurons are separate, and that the key CNN criteria of a spatially invariant template and local coupling are fulfilled. In closing, the application of the authors’ neuron population model as a feature extractor is exemplified using odor and electroencephalogram classification.
Reconfigurable Computing
by Michael Hübner João M. CardosoAs the complexity of modern embedded systems increases, it becomes less practical to design monolithic processing platforms. As a result, reconfigurable computing is being adopted widely for more flexible design. Reconfigurable Computers offer the spatial parallelism and fine-grained customizability of application-specific circuits with the postfabrication programmability of software. To make the most of this unique combination of performance and flexibility, designers need to be aware of both hardware and software issues. FPGA users must think not only about the gates needed to perform a computation but also about the software flow that supports the design process. The goal of this book is to help designers become comfortable with these issues, and thus be able to exploit the vast opportunities possible with reconfigurable logic.
Reconfigurable Computing Systems Engineering: Virtualization of Computing Architecture
by Lev KirischianReconfigurable Computing Systems Engineering: Virtualization of Computing Architecture describes the organization of reconfigurable computing system (RCS) architecture and discusses the pros and cons of different RCS architecture implementations. Providing a solid understanding of RCS technology and where it’s most effective, this book: Details the architecture organization of RCS platforms for application-specific workloads Covers the process of the architectural synthesis of hardware components for system-on-chip (SoC) for the RCS Explores the virtualization of RCS architecture from the system and on-chip levels Presents methodologies for RCS architecture run-time integration according to mode of operation and rapid adaptation to changes of multi-parametric constraints Includes illustrative examples, case studies, homework problems, and references to important literature A solutions manual is available with qualifying course adoption. Reconfigurable Computing Systems Engineering: Virtualization of Computing Architecture offers a complete road map to the synthesis of RCS architecture, exposing hardware design engineers, system architects, and students specializing in designing FPGA-based embedded systems to novel concepts in RCS architecture organization and virtualization.
Reconfigurable Cryptographic Processor
by Shaojun Wei Bo Wang Leibo LiuThis book focuses on the design methods for reconfigurable computing processors for cryptographic algorithms. It covers the dynamic reconfiguration analysis of cryptographic algorithms, hardware architecture design, and compilation techniques for reconfigurable cryptographic processors, and also presents a case study of implementing the reconfigurable cryptographic processor “Anole” designed by the authors’ team. Moreover, it features discussions on countermeasures against physical attacks utilizing partially and dynamically reconfigurable array architecture to enhance security, as well as the latest trends for reconfigurable cryptographic processors. This book is intended for research scientists, graduate students, and engineers in electronic science and technology, cryptography, network and information security, as well as computer science and technology.
Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface-Empowered 6G (Wireless Networks)
by Hongliang Zhang Boya Di Lingyang Song Zhu HanThis book presents novel RIS-Based Smart Radio techniques, targeting at achieving high-quality channel links in cellular communications via design and optimization of the RIS construction. Unlike traditional antenna arrays, three unique characteristics of the RIS will be revealed in this book. First, the built-in programmable configuration of the RIS enables analog beamforming inherently without extra hardware or signal processing. Second, the incident signals can be controlled to partly reflect and partly transmit through the RIS simultaneously, adding more flexibility to signal transmission. Third, the RIS has no digital processing capability to actively send signals nor any radio frequency (RF) components. As such, it is necessary to develop novel channel estimation and communication protocols, design joint digital and RIS-based analog beamforming schemes and perform interference control via mixed reflection and transmission. This book also investigates how to integrate the RIS to legacy communication systems. RIS techniques are further investigated in this book (benefited from its ability to actively shape the propagation environment) to achieve two types of wireless applications, i.e., RF sensing and localization. The influence of the sensing objectives on the wireless signal propagation can be potentially recognized by the receivers, which are then utilized to identify the objectives in RF sensing. Unlike traditional sensing techniques, RIS-aided sensing can actively customize the wireless channels and generate a favorable massive number of independent paths interacting with the sensing objectives. It is desirable to design RIS-based sensing algorithms, and optimize RIS configurations. For the second application, i.e., RIS aided localization, an RIS is deployed between the access point (AP) and users. The AP can then analyze reflected signals from users via different RIS configurations to obtain accurate locations of users. However, this is a challenging task due to the dynamic user topology, as well as the mutual influence between multiple users and the RIS. Therefore, the operations of the RIS, the AP, and multiple users need to be carefully coordinated. A new RIS-based localization protocol for device cooperation and an RIS configuration optimization algorithm are also required. This book targets researchers and graduate-level students focusing on communications and networks. Signal processing engineers, computer and information scientists, applied mathematicians and statisticians, who work in RIS research and development will also find this book useful.
Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface-Enabled Integrated Sensing and Communication in 6G (Wireless Networks)
by Xiaoling Hu Chenxi Liu Mugen Peng Caijun ZhongAs the main trend and key enabling technology for next-generation wireless networks (i.e., 6G), integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) can effectively improve spectrum efficiency, hardware efficiency, and information processing efficiency. However, it faces several deficiencies, including limited coverage due to high-frequency signals and limited communication-sensing performance due to uncontrollable wireless environments. Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) provides novel dimensions to address these deficiencies by intelligently manipulating the wireless propagation environment in an energy- and hardware-efficient manner. RIS-enabled ISAC is expected to comprehensively promote the multi-dimensional performance of 6G, such as communication capacity, sensing accuracy, and coverage. Nevertheless, to fully realize its potential, one needs to figure out the impacts of RIS on joint communication and sensing performance and tackle new technical challenges in beamforming design and signal processing. The goal of this book, therefore, is to deliver a thorough understanding of RIS-enabled ISAC from three perspectives: performance analysis, beamforming design, and signal processing. Specifically, the authors provide a brief introduction to RIS-enabled ISAC, including basic concepts, motivations, potential application scenarios, and an overview of the state-of-the-art research on RIS-enabled ISAC. The theoretical performance analytical frameworks of RIS-enabled ISAC and their corresponding results are also discussed. Based on this, several critical issues are identified and elaborated on, including signal processing technologies such as angle and Delay-Doppler information acquisition, and air interface technologies such as beamforming designs. Finally, the book concludes with future trends and open issues for further research.The book would be beneficial for researchers, graduate students, and industry professionals who wish to gain a comprehensive understanding of the latest developments and challenges in RIS-enabled ISAC. By providing insights into the potential of RIS-enabled ISAC and the technical challenges that need to be addressed, the book can aid in the development of practical solutions for next-generation wireless networks and contribute to the advancement of the field of wireless communications.
Reconfigurable Manufacturing Enterprises for Industry 4.0 (Manufacturing and Production Engineering)
by Ibrahim H. Garbie Hamid ParsaeiThe objective of this book is to support readers facing the urgency, challenges, analysis, and methodologies to reconfiguration. It presents a comprehensive framework for reconfiguring manufacturing enterprises and provides a set of valuable conceptual frameworks and methodologies for analyzing, evaluating, and assessing reconfiguration indices. This book offers practical guidance for implementing the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0). It presents open-ended problems pertaining to the concepts covered in the book and provides a new approach for reconfiguring industrial systems. Not only is this book for industrialists and academics, it will also appeal to undergraduate and graduate students studying industrial, mechanical, and manufacturing engineering. Scholars and practitioners in operations management will also find this book of interest.
Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems: From Design to Implementation (Springer Series in Advanced Manufacturing)
by Lyes BenyoucefThis book develops innovative techniques from operational research and management science for the design and implementation of a reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS), and subsequently analyzes and assesses their performance. A reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS) is a paradigm that can address many of the challenges posed by the modern market. Accordingly, substantial research is now being conducted on RMS, focusing on various levels of decision-making (strategic, tactical and operational). However, as a relatively new research area, there are still only very few books and articles available on reconfigurable manufacturing system design and management. In addition to filling that gap, this book provides a forum for investigating, exchanging ideas on, and disseminating the latest advances in the broad area of RMS applications in today’s industry. Gathering contributions by experts from academia, industry and policy-making, it represents an essential contribution to the existing literature on manufacturing and logistics in general and industry 4.0 in particular.
Reconfigurable Mobile Radio Systems: A Snapshot of Key Aspects Related to Reconfigurability in Wireless Systems
by Guillaume VivierDifferent aspects of the reconfigurability of mobile radio systems are analyzed in this book. These include services, object modeling applied to software radio, flexible spectrum management, trade-offs for building a reconfigurable terminal, an example of a pure software radio modem, adaptive MIMO techniques and analog-to-digital converters.
Reconfigurable Networks-on-Chip
by Yu-Hen Hu Wen-Chung Tsai Sao-Jie Chen Ying-Cherng LanThis book provides a comprehensive survey of recent progress in the design and implementation of Networks-on-Chip. It addresses a wide spectrum of on-chip communication problems, ranging from physical, network, to application layers. Specific topics that are explored in detail include packet routing, resource arbitration, error control/correction, application mapping, and communication scheduling. Additionally, a novel bi-directional communication channel NoC (BiNoC) architecture is described, with detailed explanation. Written for practicing engineers in need of practical knowledge about the design and implementation of networks-on-chip; Includes tutorial-like details to introduce readers to a diverse range of NoC designs, as well as in-depth analysis for designers with NoC experience to explore advanced issues; Describes a variety of on-chip communication architectures, including a novel bi-directional communication channel NoC. From the Foreword: Overall this book shows important advances over the state of the art that will affect future system design as well as R&D in tools and methods for NoC design. It represents an important reference point for both designers and electronic design automation researchers and developers. --Giovanni De Micheli
Reconfigurable Radio Systems
by Maria Stella IacobucciCovers the state of the art of the technology and standards for reconfigurable radio systems, from self organizing networks and cognitive radio, through to reconfigurable architectures for networks and terminals This timely book provides a standards-based view of the development, evolution, techniques and potential future scenarios for the deployment of reconfigurable radio systems. After an introduction to radiomobile and radio systems deployed in the access network, the book describes cognitive radio concepts and capabilities, which are the basis for reconfigurable radio systems. The self-organizing network features introduced in 3GPP standards are discussed and before IEEE 802. 22, the first standard based on cognitive radio, is described. Then the ETSI reconfigurable radio systems functional architecture and the IEEE 1900. 4 standard for reconfigurable radio are examined. Finally, the author presents new scenarios and future visions that reconfigurable radio systems may bring. Key features:- Examines the current standards based on cognitive and reconfigurable radio, and analyses future scenarios Includes a general overview of radiomobile (i. e. GSM, UMTS, HSPA, LTE) and wireless (i. e. WLAN, WPAN, WiMAX) network architectures Features an accompanying website features links and white papers
Reconfigurable RF Power Amplifiers on Silicon for Wireless Handsets
by Eric Kerhervé Laurent Leyssenne Yann DevalReconfigurable RF Power Amplifiers on Silicon for Wireless Handsets is intended to designers and researchers who have to tackle the efficiency/linearity trade-off in modern RF transmitters so as to extend their battery lifetime. High data rate 3G/4G standards feature broad channel bandwidths, high dynamic range and critical envelope variations which generally forces the power amplifier (PA) to operate in a low efficiency "backed-off" regime. Classic efficiency enhancement techniques such as Envelope Elimination and Restoration reveal to be little compliant with handset-dedicated PA implementation due to their channel-bandwidth-limited behavior and their increased die area consumption and/or bill-of-material. The architectural advances that are proposed in this book circumvent these issues since they put the stress on low die-area /low power-consumption control circuitry. The advantages of silicon over III/V technologies are highlighted by several analogue signal processing techniques that can be implemented on-chip with a power amplifier. System-level and transistor-level simulations are combined to illustrate the principles of the proposed power adaptive solutions. Measurement on BICMOS demonstrators allows validating the functionality of dynamic linearity/efficiency management. In Reconfigurable RF Power Amplifiers on Silicon for Wireless Handsets, PA designers will find a review of technologies, architectures and theoretical formalisms (Volterra series...) that are traditionally related to PA design. Specific issues that one encounters in power amplifiers (such as thermal / memory effects, stability, VSWR sensitivity...) and the way of overcoming them are also extensively considered throughout this book.
Reconfigurable Switched-Capacitor Power Converters
by Dongsheng Ma Rajdeep BondadeThis book provides readers specializing in ultra-low power supply design for self-powered applications an invaluable reference on reconfigurable switched capacitor power converters. Readers will benefit from a comprehensive introduction to the design of robust power supplies for energy harvesting and self-power applications, focusing on the use of reconfigurable switched capacitor based DC-DC converters, which is ideal for such applications. Coverage includes all aspects of switched capacitor power supply designs, from fundamentals, to reconfigurable power stages, and sophisticated controller designs.
Reconfigurable System Design and Verification
by Pao-Ann Hsiung Marco D. Santambrogio Chun-Hsian HuangReconfigurable systems have pervaded nearly all fields of computation and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Reconfigurable System Design and Verification provides a compendium of design and verification techniques for reconfigurable systems, allowing you to quickly search for a technique and determine if it is appropriate to the task at hand. It bridges the gap between the need for reconfigurable computing education and the burgeoning development of numerous different techniques in the design and verification of reconfigurable systems in various application domains. The text explains topics in such a way that they can be immediately grasped and put into practice. It starts with an overview of reconfigurable computing architectures and platforms and demonstrates how to develop reconfigurable systems. This sets up the discussion of the hardware, software, and system techniques that form the core of the text. The authors classify design and verification techniques into primary and secondary categories, allowing the appropriate ones to be easily located and compared. The techniques discussed range from system modeling and system-level design to co-simulation and formal verification. Case studies illustrating real-world applications, detailed explanations of complex algorithms, and self-explaining illustrations add depth to the presentation. Comprehensively covering all techniques related to the hardware-software design and verification of reconfigurable systems, this book provides a single source for information that otherwise would have been dispersed among the literature, making it very difficult to search, compare, and select the technique most suitable. The authors do it all for you, making it easy to find the techniques that fit your system requirements, without having to surf the net or digital libraries to find the candidate techniques and compare them yourself.
Reconfigurable Transceiver Architecture for Multiband RF-Frontends
by Erick Gonzalez RodriguezThis book investigates and discusses the hardware design and implementation to achieve smart air interfaces with a reduced number of Radio Frequency (RF) transmitter and receiver chains, or even with a single reconfigurable RF-Frontend in the user terminal. Various hardware challenges are identified and addressed to enable the implementation of autonomous reconfigurable RF-Frontend architectures. Such challenges are (i) the conception of a transceiver with wide tuning range of at least up to 6 GHz, (ii) the system integration of reconfigurable technologies targeting current compact devices that demand voltages up to 100 V for adaptive controlling and (iii) the realization of a multiband and multistandard antenna module employing agile components to provide flexible frequency coverage. A solid design of a reconfigurable frontend is proposed from the RF part to the digital baseband. The system integration of different components in the reconfigurable RF-Frontend of a portable-oriented device architecture is demonstrated.
Reconfiguring the World: Nature, God, and Human Understanding from the Middle Ages to Early Modern Europe (Johns Hopkins Introductory Studies in the History of Science)
by Margaret J. OslerChange in human understanding of the natural world during the early modern period marks one of the most important episodes in intellectual history. This era is often referred to as the scientific revolution, but recent scholarship has challenged traditional accounts. Here, in Reconfiguring the World, Margaret J. Osler treats the development of the sciences in Europe from the early sixteenth to the late seventeenth centuries as a complex and multifaceted process.The worldview embedded in modern science is a relatively recent development. Osler aims to convey a nuanced understanding of how the natural world looked to early modern thinkers such as Galileo, Descartes, Boyle, and Newton. She describes investigation and understanding of the natural world in terms that the thinkers themselves would have used. Tracing the views of the natural world to their biblical, Greek, and Arabic sources, Osler demonstrates the impact of the Renaissance recovery of ancient texts, printing, the Protestant Reformation, and the exploration of the New World. She shows how the traditional disciplinary boundaries established by Aristotle changed dramatically during this period and finds the tensions of science and religion expressed as differences between natural philosophy and theology.Far from a triumphalist account, Osler’s story includes false starts and dead ends. Ultimately, she shows how a few gifted students of nature changed the way we see ourselves and the universe.
Reconnecting People and Water: Public Engagement and Sustainable Urban Water Management
by Liz SharpWater management in industrialised western countries has long been seen as a technical process associated with pipes, drains and bureaucracies. This technical model of water management is now being questioned. This book examines the nature of contemporary water management and the prospects for and barriers to different forms of engagement with the public. In particular, it shows how historical and social scientific understandings develop and question current water management norms in relation to water in the landscape, water in the home and the hidden management of water beneath our streets and behind our walls. It is shown that the four-fold challenges of climate change, urbanisation, changing environmental standards and fiscal accountability mean that we can no longer rely on unseen technical fixes to erase the threats of pollution, water shortages and floods. Such concerns offer two prompts for public engagement and participation. First, on a purely instrumental level, public engagement can complement, or offer an obvious alternative to, technical fixes. Second, public engagement may provide a route to find new ways of addressing water and related challenges. The author offers a unique social science perspective on many of the socio-technical issues facing the management of water in urban settings in developed countries, where urban is interpreted broadly to include all areas served by piped water. Drawing on historical context and an extensive review of the published literature, as well as the author's own empirical studies, the work prompts broader discussions about how we manage water in contemporary society. It is invaluable for students and professionals in water resource management and planning.