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Computation of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: First International Conference, ICCAIML 2024, Jaipur, India, January 18–19, 2024, Proceedings, Part II (Communications in Computer and Information Science #2185)
by Milan Tuba Amit Kumar Bairwa Varun Tiwari Santosh Kumar Vishwakarma Thittaporn GanokratanaaThe two-volume set, CCIS 2184-2185, constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Conference on Computation of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, ICCAIML 2024, held in Jaipur, India, in January 18–19, 2024. The 60 papers included in these volumes were carefully reviewed and selected from 645 submissions. These papers focus on various subject areas within the field of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, such as Neural Networks and Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, Reinforcement Learning, Data Mining and Big Data Analytics, AI in Healthcare and Biomedical Applications, Autonomous Systems and Robotics, AI Ethics and Fairness, AI in Finance and Eco-nomics.
Alfred Tarski on Scientific Semantics (Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science #62)
by David Hitchcock Magda StroińskaThis book tells the story of the landmark event in modern logic whereby Alfred Tarski became “the man who defined truth”. Alfred Tarski’s classic monograph on truth became known internationally in 1935, when he presented its ideas in German at an international conference and collaborated in preparation of its German translation. This book provides the first English translation of the Polish version of Tarski’s conference paper, which for purposes of comparison is printed side-by-side with a new exact English translation of the German version. It offers for the first time a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the paper, and for the first time a description and analysis of the discussion of the paper immediately after its presentation. It discusses 22 substantive differences between the two versions. The book also extracts from recently discovered correspondence about the German translation of the truth monograph how it was decided to produce such a translation, the process of vetting and changing the translation, changes requested by Tarski, objections to the appeal to intuition in the Polish original (supported by a list of those appeals with their replacements in the German and English translations), other translational issues, discrepancies other than those concerning appeals to intuition between the Polish original and its German translation, the “Keystone cops” saga of Tarski’s off-prints, and monetary matters. It lists from Tarski’s journal his skiing, mountaineering and tourist trips in 1935, and describes his companions on those trips. An electronic supplement translates or summarizes the complete correspondence, with comments, and includes images from Tarski’s journal of his itineraries of his 1935 trips, with the editors' explanatory comments.
Natural Language Understanding in Conversational AI with Deep Learning
by Yan Li Josiah Poon Soyeon Caren Han Henry Weld Jean LeeThis book provides a comprehensive introduction to conversational spoken language understanding and surveys recent advances in conversational AI. It guides the reader through the history, current advancements, and future of natural language understanding (NLU) in human-computer interactions. To this end, the book is structured in seven chapters: Introduction to Natural Language Understanding lays the foundation by tracing the evolution of NLU from early human communication to modern human-computer interactions. Prerequisites and Glossary for Natural Language Understanding then serves as a foundational resource, consolidating essential prerequisites and key terminologies relevant across the book. Single-Turn Natural Language Understanding looks at Single-Turn NLU, focusing on tasks that involve interpreting and processing user inputs in a single interaction, while Multi-Turn Natural Language Understanding moves on systems for extended interactions with users and explores techniques for managing dialogues, using context and integrating external knowledge bases. Next, Evaluating Natural Language Understanding discusses the annotation of datasets and various performance assessment methods, covering different levels of understanding from intent recognition to slot filling and domain classification. Applications and Case Studies in Natural Language Understanding subsequently shows real-world applications of NLU in finance, medicine, and law. Eventually Challenges, Conclusions and Future Directions explores the core obstacles hindering the advancement of NLU, including ambiguity, domain adaptation, data scarcity, and ethical concerns. By understanding these challenges, this chapter highlights the ongoing work needed to advance NLU. This book mainly targets researchers, PhD students, and professionals who are entering this field and look for a state-of-the-art introduction to NLU applied in conversational systems such as chatbots, large language models, or educational systems.
Sound and Sense in Contemporary Theatre: Mad Auralities
by Matthew TomkinsonThis book is among the first to consider the subject of mad auralities in theatre and performance, asking: what does it mean to hear and listen madly? Drawing widely upon mad studies, critical disability studies, theatre studies, sound studies, queer studies, and critical race theory, it seeks to explore the theatrical relationship between sound and mental health differences by examining a range of case studies in which audience members are immersed in auditory simulations of madness. Ultimately, however, this critical study investigates the shortcomings of simulation as a representational practice, in keeping with the critical tradition of disability studies and mad studies.
5G Fixed Wireless Access: Revolutionizing Connectivity in the Digital Age (Synthesis Lectures on Communications)
by Isiaka AlimiThis book explores the transformative potential of 5G technology in delivering high-speed broadband services through wireless means, particularly targeting underserved and rural areas. The book covers several key topics, including high-frequency spectrum bands, advanced transmission schemes, multi-connectivity, adaptive numerology, and Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB). These elements are critical for enhancing network performance, increasing capacity, and reducing latency. High-frequency spectrum bands, such as those above 24 GHz, are essential for providing the necessary bandwidth to support high data rates and capacity. The book explains how these bands, while offering unprecedented peak rates, present challenges such as limited coverage and penetration, which are addressed through advanced technical solutions. Advanced transmission schemes, including massive beamforming and Multiple-Input Multiple-Output, are explored in detail. These technologies enable the efficient use of the spectrum by allowing multiple user terminals to be served simultaneously on the same frequency resources, thereby increasing the overall network capacity and improving user experiences. Multi-connectivity and adaptive numerology are also key topics. Multi-connectivity allows user equipment to connect to multiple network nodes simultaneously, improving reliability and performance. Adaptive numerology, defined in 3GPP Release 15, supports a flexible range of subcarrier spacing to cater to different services, quality of service requirements, latency needs, and frequency ranges. IAB is another significant topic covered in the book. IAB leverages the same spectrum for both access and backhaul, simplifying deployment and reducing costs. By using the 5G infrastructure to support backhaul, it eliminates the need for extensive fiber installations, making it easier to extend high-speed connectivity to remote and rural areas. These topics are crucial as they collectively address the limitations of traditional wired infrastructure, which is often costly and time-consuming to deploy in rural and hard-to-reach areas. By leveraging 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), the book sets out to solve the problem of the digital divide, aiming to make high-speed internet more accessible and affordable. The relevance of these solutions is underscored by the growing global demand for reliable, high-speed internet access. As the book outlines, 5G FWA not only enhances broadband services but also plays a pivotal role in bridging the digital divide, ensuring that more people, regardless of their location, can benefit from the advancements in internet technology. This makes "5G FWA " an essential read for understanding the future of broadband connectivity and the strategic approaches needed to overcome deployment challenges. This book is intended to be a definitive guide for professionals, researchers, policymakers, and anyone interested in understanding the nuances and implications of this transformative technology.
Driving Green Transportation System Through Artificial Intelligence and Automation: Approaches, Technologies and Applications (Lecture Notes in Intelligent Transportation and Infrastructure)
by Alex KhangThis book is designed to help transportation professionals and construction experts to develop and implement successful smart systems, leveraging the current trends, equipment, and advanced technologies to drive the green transportation system development. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a new direction that has opened a revolution in technology and smart applications, and it is also the basis for creating a green environment in the net-zero era. Therefore, machines, devices, self-driving car, and robots controlled by artificial intelligence-based systems are now the model of a smart transportation ecosystem for which all these technologies are referred to as "green" industries. In past years, the idea of making a green environment has been existing and moving on the society 5.0 being as a country strategy, and today, AI technology continues its development on this prototype. Nowadays, AI has begun actions to resemble a person in a real sense, and the idea of human-liked robotics put forward by scientists has started to be realized and will probably complete its development as living machines in the near future. AI has many subsystems and application in various industries, some of which have automation more accurately and are more integrated in modern industries. This book also targets a mixed audience of specialists, analysts, engineers, scholars, researchers, academics, professionals, and students from different communities to share and contribute new ideas, methodologies, technologies, approaches, models, frameworks, theories, and practices to resolve the challenging issues associated with the leveraging of AI and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in green transportation ecosystem.
Logic Programming and Nonmonotonic Reasoning: 17th International Conference, LPNMR 2024, Dallas, TX, USA, October 11–14, 2024, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #15245)
by Maria Vanina Martinez Gopal Gupta Carmine DodaroThis book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Logic Programming and Nonmonotonic Reasoning, LPNMR 2024, held in Dallas, TX, USA, during October 11-14, 2024. The 27 full papers and 3 short papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 48 submissions. They deal with declarative logic programming, non-monotonic reasoning, and knowledge representation, focusing on the design and implementation of logic-based programming languages and database systems.
Handbook of Insurance: Volume I
by Georges DionneThe Handbook of Insurance reviews the last fifty years of research developments in insurance economics and its related fields. A single reference source for professors, researchers, graduate students, regulators, consultants, and practitioners, the book starts with the history and foundations of risk and insurance theory, followed by a review of prevention and precaution, asymmetric information, insurance fraud, risk management, insurance pricing, new financial innovations, reinsurance, corporate governance, capital allocation, securitization, systemic risk, insurance regulation, the industrial organization of insurance markets, and other insurance market applications. The new edition covers many topics that have risen in importance since the 2nd edition, such as climate risk, pandemic risk, insurtech, digital insurance, cyber risk, behavioral economics, Solvency II, corporate governance, enterprise risk management, and machine learning. This edition of the Handbook contains 17 new chapters. Each of the chapters is written by leading international authorities in risk and insurance research. All contributions are peer reviewed, and each chapter can be read independently of the others. It is a tour de force to provide to the insurance industry and its stakeholders a structured, complete, intelligent and critical synthesis of insurance economics in the twenty-first century. This is what you have in your hands. This third edition of the Handbook of Insurance should be the bible to anyone who wants to have a deep understanding of the complex challenges faced by insurance and reinsurance markets to create the large social value of risk sharing and risk diversification. Christian Gollier, Director of the Toulouse School of Economics This collective work not only offers a remarkable synthesis of cutting-edge research in insurance economics but also provides a rare resource, both comprehensive and authoritative, for professionals seeking a deeper understanding of insurance industry fundamentals and emerging trends. The content of the Handbook reflects the richness and dynamics of the field and underlines the many facets involved in better understanding how insurance works and contributes to society. Kai-Uwe Schanz, Deputy Managing Director, Head of Research & Foresight, The Geneva Association
Marshmallows for Breakfast
by Dorothy KoomsonKendra Tamale has found two reasons to face up to her pastWhen Kendra Tamale returns to England from Australia she rents a room from Kyle, a separated father of two, and begins a new job. She's looking forward to a fresh start and a simple life.Kyle's six-year-old twins, Summer and Jaxon, have other ideas and quickly adopt Kendra as their new mother - mainly because she lets them eat marshmallows for breakfast. Kendra eventually becomes a part of their lives, even though she's hiding a painful secret that makes her keep everyone -especially children - at arm's length.Then Kendra bumps into the man who shares her awful secret, and everything falls apart: she can't sleep, she can't eat, she's suspended from work, and the kids are taken away by their mother. The only way to fix things is to confess to the terrible mistake she made all those years ago. But that's something she swore she would never do... Marshmallows for Breakfast is a tale of redemption, hope and finding love in unexpected places.(P) 2019 Headline Publishing Limited
The Happy Prince and Other Stories (Puffin Classics)
by Oscar WildePuffin Classics: the definitive collection of timeless stories, for every child Rediscover the Puffin Classics collection and bring the best-loved classics to a new generation - including this charming edition of The Happy Prince and Other Stories.A haunting, magical fairy-tale collection, in which Oscar Wilde beautifully evokes (among others) The Happy Prince who was not so happy after all, The Selfish Giant who learned to love little children and The Star Child who did not love his parents as much as he should. Each of the stories shines with poetry and magic and will be enjoyed by children of every age.
My Best Friend's Girl
by Dorothy KoomsonKamryn Matika has no responsibilities - one birthday card will change that forever...Best friends Kamryn Matika and Adele Brannon though nothing could come between them - until Adele di the unthinkable and slept with Kamryn's fiancé Nate. Worse still, she got pregnant and had his child. When Kamryn discovered the truth about their betrayal she vowed never to see any of them again. Years later, Kamryn receives a letter from Adele asking her to visit her in hospital. Adele is dying and begs Kamryn to adopt her daughter Tegan. With a great job and hectic social life, the last thing Kamryn needs is a five-year-old daughter to disrupt things. Especially not one who reminds her of Nate. But with n on else to take care of Tegan and Adele fading fast, does she have any other choice? So begins a difficult journey that leads Kamryn towards forgiveness, love, responsibility and, ultimately, a better understanding of herself.(P) 2006 Hachette Audio
Governing PG&E
by Lynn Sharp Paine Will HurwitzThe five commissioners of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) listened intently at a public forum in April 2019 as PG&E Corporation's out-going chairman Richard Kelly described the company's proposed new board. PG&E, which provided electricity and natural gas to millions of Californians, had once been recognized for its vision in foreseeing energy's potential to reshape the state and power its economy. But PG&E was now in the crosshairs of investors, regulators, and the public for something else entirely: its role in a series of deadly and destructive wildfires that had ravaged the region and precipitated PG&E's bankruptcy months earlier. Called "the first climate-change bankruptcy," it was the largest utility bankruptcy in U.S. history. The commissioners at the CPUC, PG&E's primary regulator, were particularly concerned about PG&E's governance and had convened the forum to solicit opinions from experts and the public and to hear for themselves what steps the company was taking to improve it. The Commissioners are considering whether to make specific recommendations regarding the board's composition and functioning, including how the board assesses and compensates PG&E's CEO. A principal issue is the use of non-financial metrics to evaluate and reward CEO performance.
Flawed Strategy: Why Smart Leaders Make Bad Decisions
by Beatrice HeuserWhy did Volodymyr Zelensky doubt that Russia was preparing a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022? Why did British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain decide to 'do business with Herr Hitler' in Munich in 1938? And how was it that Israeli elites dismissed intelligence warnings of the Hamas attack in 2023? Had they not learned their lesson from the Egyptian‒Syrian attack on Yom Kippur fifty years earlier? In all these cases, smart decision makers misjudged their adversaries, largely because they failed to understand how their enemies' actions and strategies were shaped by different values and beliefs to their own. We may think such beliefs are irrational merely because we do not share them. They may appear confusing and ill judged. But as Beatrice Heuser ably shows in this pithy book, strategy making is a tricky business, marred by bias, irrationality, bureaucratic politics, colliding government interests, and complex procedures and structures. Assessing our adversaries as not only irrational but also illogical is a dangerous game that can lead to flawed and, on occasions, catastrophically bad decisions. This book explains why.
Investment Valuation, University Edition: Tools and Techniques for Determining the Value of any Asset
by Aswath DamodaranUpdated edition of the definitive guide to investment valuation tools and techniques Investment Valuation: Tools and Techniques for Determining the Value of Any Asset delves into valuation techniques for a variety of different asset classes, including real options, start-up firms, unconventional assets, distressed companies and private equity, real estate, and many more, and explains how to choose the right model for any given asset valuation scenario. The models are presented with real-world examples so as to capture some of the problems inherent in applying these models, with discussion of differences and common elements between the models to provide readers with a holistic understanding of the subject matter. Written by a professor of finance who is widely regarded as one of the best educators and thinkers on the topic of investment valuation, this newly revised and updated Fourth Edition explores topics including: Understanding financial statements, the basics of risk, and tests and evidence for market efficiency Estimating risk parameters and costs of financing, terminal value, and equity value per share Using scenario analysis, decision trees, and simulations for probabilistic approaches in valuation Investment Valuation: Tools and Techniques for Determining the Value of Any Asset is an essential resource for all investors and students of financial markets seeking an all-in-one guide to expand their valuation knowledge and make better investment decisions.
Hypersonic Slender Body Aerodynamics (Aerospace Series)
by Ethirajan RathakrishnanOne-of-a-kind resource on theoretical and application aspects of hypersonic slender body aerodynamics with many didactic features included throughout Developed using class-tested course material, Hypersonic Slender Body Aerodynamics presents the theoretical and application aspects of the subject in a precise, concise, and student-friendly manner. The text includes a large number of worked examples, figures, diagrams, tables, and exercise problems. This book covers the subject material beginning from the definition of the slender body geometry through to the study of flow field around the body and the calculation of the aerodynamic and thermal loads acting on the body at speeds ranging from low to high (i.e., from incompressible to hypersonic speeds). The Mach number independence principle and approximate theories for caret wings are also covered, among many other key topics. This book is unique in its comprehensive coverage of the topic, enabling readers to find information in one place instead of scattered throughout proprietary wind tunnel test data, flight test data, government technical reports, scientific literature sources, and numerical methods. Some of the concepts explored in Hypersonic Slender Body Aerodynamics include: Wings of supersonic aircraft, covering sharp leading edges and ground and viscous effects, and pressure distribution on surfaces, covering transverse and longitudinal flow Hypersonic aerodynamics, covering atmospheric properties, hypersonic-flow characteristics, governing equations, and flow past a semi-wedge Application of slender-body theory, covering leading-edge heat transfer, sublimation, aerodynamic effects, nose bluntness, blast-wave theory, and thin shock layers Axisymmetric slender bodies, covering potential flow solutions and pressure distribution, and drag of slender bodies, covering shape factor and blunt after-body corrections Skillfully written with a clear and engaging writing style, Hypersonic Slender Body Aerodynamics is an essential learning resource on the subject for undergraduate and graduate students of aerospace engineering and practicing engineers working in aerospace research labs and industries. It is a perfect textbook for courses on slender body aerodynamics.
Practical Statistics for Geographers and Earth Scientists
by Nigel WalfordA practice-oriented and accessible introduction to geographical statistics In the newly revised Second Edition of Practical Statistics for Geographers and Earth Scientists, distinguished researcher Nigel Walford delivers an authoritative and easy-to-follow introduction to the principles and applications of statistical analysis in a geographical context. The book assists students in the development of competence in the statistical procedures necessary to conduct independent investigations, field-work, and related geographical research projects. The book explains statistical techniques relevant to geographical, geospatial, earth, and environmental data. It employs graphics and mathematical notation for maximum clarity. Guidance is provided on how to formulate research questions to ensure that the correct data is collected for the chosen analysis method. This new edition incorporates a new section on exploratory spatial analysis and spatial statistics. It also offers: A thorough introduction to first principles in the statistical analysis of geographical data, including discussions of the quality, content, collection, and acquisition of geographical data In-depth treatments of geographical data exploration, including the taking of statistical measures or quantities, as well as frequency distributions, probability, and hypotheses Comprehensive explorations of testing times, including parametric and nonparametric tests Insightful discussions of relationship investigation, including correlation and regression, as well as the spatial aspects of geographical data Perfect for undergraduates pursuing a degree in geography, Practical Statistics for Geographers and Earth Scientists will also be a valuable tool for students in other earth and environmental sciences.
Equality: What It Means and Why It Matters
by Michael J. Sandel Thomas PikettyIn this compelling dialogue, two of the world’s most influential thinkers reflect on the value of equality and debate what citizens and governments should do to narrow the gaps that separate us. Ranging across economics, philosophy, history, and current affairs, Thomas Piketty and Michael Sandel consider how far we have come in achieving greater equality. At the same time, they confront head-on the extreme divides that remain in wealth, income, power, and status nationally and globally. What can be done at a time of deep political instability and environmental crisis? Piketty and Sandel agree on much: more inclusive investment in health and education, higher progressive taxation, curbing the political power of the rich and the overreach of markets. But how far and how fast can we push? Should we prioritize material or social change? What are the prospects for any change at all with nationalist forces resurgent? How should the left relate to values like patriotism and local solidarity where they collide with the challenges of mass migration and global climate change? To see Piketty and Sandel grapple with these and other problems is to glimpse new possibilities for change and justice but also the stubborn truth that progress towards greater equality never comes quickly or without deep social conflict and political struggle.
The Routledge Handbook of Feminist Anthropology (Routledge Handbooks of Gender and Sexuality)
by Edited by Pamela L. GellerThe Routledge Handbook of Feminist Anthropology is a comprehensive inter- and intradisciplinary survey of the field of feminist anthropology. It has at its core a focus on raising consciousness and communicating information about gender inequities, suffering, and precarity, as well as furthering a praxis informed by intersectionality, decolonial intent, and compassion.Divided into three clear parts and comprising 34 chapters by an international team of contributors, the Handbook addresses topics in the following key areas: resisting violence communicating creatively labor migration and displacement health and disease reproduction intersectionality decolonial work. The collection assesses the field at an interesting moment in time—one defined by social justice and populist movements gone global; once and future pandemics; extreme environmental disasters; and neoliberalism interrupted. How do gender, sex, and sexuality intersect with these phenomena? In answer, contributors to this volume put a heterogeneous anthropological approach in place; they advance interdisciplinary conversations, as well as renew a commitment to intradisciplinary dialogue.The Routledge Handbook of Feminist Anthropology is essential reading for students, researchers, and instructors in anthropology, and will also be of interest to those in related disciplines such as gender studies, queer studies, economics, biomedicine, political science, sociology, geography, and science and technology studies.
Aspects of Quality Management in Value Creating in the Industry 5.0 Way
by Mohamed Abouhawwash Joanna Rosak-Szyrocka Shashi Kant GuptaIndustry 5.0 suggests a new stage of industrial growth that expands upon earlier stages of industrialization, emphasizing human-centered approaches to technology and digital sustainability. With its innovative approach, Industry 5.0 will contribute to the resolution of the manufacturing–social need mismatch issue. In contrast to other industrial revolutions that placed more emphasis on the financial aspects of sustainability, the Industry 5.0 vision places more emphasis on social demands and human centricity.This book Aspects of Quality Management in Value Creating in the Industry 5.0 Way focuses on the challenges that companies in the field of quality management in Industry 5.0 face, particularly in relation to client value aspects. The book devotes a lot of space to the issues of client satisfaction, cybersecurity, e-commerce, TQM, and collaborative work between robots and humans in the company.Features: Characterizes the new role of value for customer 5.0 in the augmented era Analyzes the collaborative work between robots and humans in Industry 5.0 conditions Investigates the complex relationship between satisfaction, awareness, perception, attitude, and demographics, as well as examining how technological advances and market performance impact client satisfaction Includes: E-client in the cyber-security aspect Multi-Agent Technology (MAT) to maintain Total Quality Management (TQM) in manufacturing and MAT’s role in TQM A novel structure for innovation, "Innovation Control (IC)," to integrate creative thinking and business strategy Industry 5.0 inside the automotive sector Technetronic Education (TE) in Industry 5.0: advantages, challenges, and implications Ethical aspects and challenges associated with developing technologies This book Aspects of Quality Management in Value Creating in the Industry 5.0 Way serves as a future road map, guiding readers through the complexities of industrial progress.Academic researchers, along with senior undergraduate and graduate students, are the primary target audience.
Peace by Design
by Mardelle McCuskey ShepleyWe live in an era in which designers will make an essential and critical contribution to the health and success of humanity. Design can promote healing in healthcare environments, contribute to good mental health, reduce gun violence, and positively impact health and racial equity, all of which contribute to providing a more peaceful world.The primary focus of this book is to inspire young designers, academics, and practitioners to achieve their maximum societal contribution. It also supports experienced designers seeking reaffirmation of their social goals. To provide a foundation, the first chapter discusses the definition of design and design thinking and evidence regarding the direct and indirect contributions of design to peace. The subsequent chapters address peace endeavors at six scales of the physical environment: sustainable and equitable design, landscape architecture, architecture, interior design, industrial design, and graphic design. Additionally, nine short cameos are provided by contributors from various disciplines, who provide their favorite examples of “peace projects.” Peace can be manifested at multiple levels: world-wide, neighborhood and community, familial, or individual, and the various authors discuss portions from this spectrum. They broadly endorse disciplinary entanglements as a means of addressing societal and sustainability challenges and celebrate the impact of collaboration.This book is essential reading for students and practitioners representing all fields of design, including graphic design, industrial design, interior design, architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design.
The Evolution of Household Technology and Consumer Behavior, 1800-2000 (Modern Heterodox Economics)
by Julia Sophie WoersdorferThe increasing division and specialization of labor between the market and the nonmarket sector is a central stylized fact of long-run economic development. Over time, a large share of activities which had formerly been carried out by the private household itself has become replaced by market alternatives, raising at the same time the demand for consumer goods.The neoclassical economic framework of household production theory relates the increasing demand for household technology to rising wages and opportunity costs of time: the higher the wage rate, the more costly it is to spend time in unpaid housework activities. Consumer products are thus purchased to make household production processes more efficient and to substitute capital goods for the household’s time (time substitution hypothesis). Although this hypothesis sounds plausible at first sight, it cannot capture the essential phenomena underlying the complex process of the mechanization of the home over the past 200 years. Its major weakness lies in the treatment of consumer preferences, whose explanatory potential is explicitly factored out.Using the washing of clothes as a microcosm of household economics, this book examines long-term changes in cleanliness consumption patterns from the perspective of an evolutionary economic, psychologically informed consumer theory. Woersdorfer shows how the historical evolution of cleanliness consumption over the past 200 years is the result of the interplay of supply and demand side factors, namely, technical change in washing technology on one side and motivational driving forces and consumer learning capabilities on the other. Hence, not changing relative prices but innate consumer needs and consumer learning processes, leading to a growing understanding of how to satisfy those needs, are the essential driving forces behind the rising technological endowment of the home and the corresponding demand for household appliances.The Evolution of Household Technology and Consumer Behavior, 1800–2000 will be of interest to researchers in the field of evolutionary economics, history of technology, economic history, innovation economics and sociology.
Skin and Pregnancy: A Comprehensive Guide for Clinical Practice
by Rashmi Sarkar Swati Agrawal Soumya JagadeesanThis text fills the gap between medical specialties in this topic, covering the dermatological diseases appearing during or affected by pregnancy; it also looks at safe drug usage and the cosmetic and aesthetic concerns of the pregnant woman. Most of the conditions discussed require a combined approach and treatment by the dermatologist and gynecologist and obstetrician, and this text establishes a united therapeutic approach for all practitioners. Fills the gap between the various specialties involved in managing skin diseases in pregnant patients Offers a unified approach for all health professionals managing pregnant patients Presents a practical and detailed clinical resource
Operation Chaos and Operation Luna
by Poul AndersonWerewolf Steve Matuchek and witch Ginny Graylock defend America in this fantasy duology from the multiple Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author. Operation Chaos: In a world where magic is real, werewolf Steve Matuchek and powerful witch Virginia Graylock are paired together in the war to stop the invading Caliphate forces from taking over America. Their mission: stop the enemy from unleashing their superweapon—a genie in a bottle. And that is only the beginning of an adventure that will take them quite literally to Hell and back . . . &“Operation Chaos was one of the truly fine fantasies of the 1970s, a fantasy whose magic was so splendidly engineered that you felt it was as logical—and as likely—as our real technology.&” —Harry Turtledove &“A great read, from a master writer at the top of his game.&” —GirlsWithGuns.org Operation Luna: Now married with three rambunctious children, Steve and Ginny once again find themselves fighting for their country as they try to stop a plot to sabotage America&’s first manned mission to the moon (in an alternate history timeline, that is). But they will need help from a loyal cadre of magical allies if they hope to avert a catastrophe . . . &“An enjoyable tale by a veteran writer who knows exactly what he&’s doing.&” —Publishers Weekly
Fractured: A Thriller (Detective Ellie MacIntosh #4)
by Kate WattersonBlending mystery and romance, Kate Watterson's Fractured finds Detective Ellie MacIntosh racing to stop a serial killer. Milwaukee homicide detective Ellie MacIntosh's bizarre case takes gruesome to a new level—and is eerily and frustratingly familiar. She has seen the signature work of the killer before, but cannot connect the victims. There isn't a single suspect in sight, but at least the case gives Ellie something to focus on instead of her chaotic personal life. Ellie's partner, Jason Santiago, is glad to be back on the job, even on a disturbing case like this one. Working with Ellie has evolved into a tangled relationship that is no longer platonic, at least to him. The trouble is, she has no idea how he feels. Jason's chance to make a move is now, but he's paralyzed by the fear he will ruin both his career and a partnership he values more than any he has ever had. Therapist Dr. Georgia Lukens is fascinated by the complicated relationship between Ellie and Jason, but she has other, non-detective patients with deeper problems. When a timid woman named Rachel reveals that she suspects her promiscuous and charismatic roommate Lea has been involved in the grisly murders, Georgia is put into the untenable position of deciding if this privileged information is just the ramblings of a delusional patient or something more. And little does she know that Lea has become focused on Jason Santiago. As Ellie pieces together a macabre puzzle of past and present sins, it becomes clear that madness takes many forms and…it may be too late to stop her partner from becoming the next victim.