Invertebrate Conservation and Agricultural Ecosystems explores the diverse interests of invertebrate conservation and agricultural production. It is both an introduction to invertebrate conservation biology for agriculturists and an introduction to crop protection for conservation biologists, demonstrating how these two disparate fields may draw on each other for greater collective benefit. It draws on recent literature to show how invertebrate conservation in highly altered landscapes may be promoted and enhanced. The book deals with problems of, and approaches to, invertebrate conservation in highly managed agricultural ecosystems, and how biodiversity may be promoted without compromising agricultural production. It draws attention to the importance of invertebrates in agricultural systems and their role in ecosystem functions.
What constitutes a just tax system, and what are its moral foundations? Should a society's tax regime be designed to achieve a just distribution of wealth among its citizens, or should such a regime be designed to promote economic growth, rising standards of living, and increasing levels of employment? Are these two goals compatible or incompatible? Why should justice not require, or at least lead to, an increase in general prosperity? The essays in this volume examine the history of tax policies and the normative principles that have informed the selection of various types of taxes and tax regimes; economic data to discover which tax policies lead to economic growth; particular theories of justice or property rights regarding the design of tax systems; and other essays propose specific tax reforms. Still others challenge traditional theories of taxation, offering new ways of understanding the fiscal relationship between governments and their citizens.
Elections lie at the heart of democracy, and this book seeks to understand how the rules governing those elections are chosen. Drawing on both broad comparisons and detailed case studies, it focuses upon the electoral rules that govern what sorts of preferences voters can express and how votes translate into seats in a legislature. Through detailed examination of electoral reform politics in four countries (France, Italy, Japan, and New Zealand), Alan Renwick shows how major electoral system changes in established democracies occur through two contrasting types of reform process. Renwick rejects the simple view that electoral systems always straightforwardly reflect the interests of the politicians in power. Politicians' motivations are complex; politicians are sometimes unable to pursue reforms they want; occasionally, they are forced to accept reforms they oppose. The Politics of Electoral Reform shows how voters and reform activists can have real power over electoral reform.
Population and Climate Change provides the first systematic in-depth treatment of links between two major themes of the twenty-first century: population growth and associated demographic trends such as aging, and climate change. It is written by a multidisciplinary team of authors from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, who integrate both natural science and social science perspectives in a way that is readable by members of both communities. The book will be of primary interest to researchers in the fields of climate change, demography, and economics. It will also be useful to policy-makers and NGOs dealing with issues of population dynamics and climate change, and to teachers and students on courses such as environmental studies, demography, climatology, economics, earth systems science, and international relations.
Valence bond theory is one of two commonly used methods in molecular quantum mechanics, the other is molecular orbital theory. This book focuses on the first of these methods, ab initio valence bond theory. The book is split into two parts. Part I gives simple examples of two-electron calculations and the necessary theory to extend these to larger systems. Part II gives a set of case studies of related molecule sets designed to show the nature of the valence bond description of molecular structure. It also highlights the stability of this description to varying basis sets. There are references to the CRUNCH computer program for molecular structure calculations which is currently available in the public domain. The book will be of primary interest to researchers and students working on electronic theory and computation in chemistry and chemical physics.
This is the first book presenting a coherent theoretical and experimental treatment of the rapidly developing field of macroscopic quantum tunneling of the magnetic moment. The theory is based on the concept of the magnetic instanton and its renormalization by the dissipative environment. The book includes discussions of the tunneling of magnetic moment in small ferromagnetic grains, tunneling of the Ne'el vector in antiferromagnetic grains, quantum nucleation of magnetic domains, and quantum depinning of domain walls. The experimental part collects the majority of recent data that are, or may be, relevant to spin tunneling. Among the topics described are low temperature magnetic relaxation and its interpretation in various systems, experiments on single particles and mesoscopic wires, and resonant spin tunneling in molecular magnets. This study of an important new field in condensed matter physics by two leading contributors to the subject will be of interest to theorists and experime
This is a classic introduction to set theory in three parts. The first part gives a general introduction to set theory, suitable for undergraduates; complete proofs are given and no background in logic is required. Exercises are included, and the more difficult ones are supplied with hints. An appendix to the first part gives a more formal foundation to axiomatic set theory, supplementing the intuitive introduction given in the first part. The final part gives an introduction to modern tools of combinatorial set theory. This part contains enough material for a graduate course of one or two semesters. The subjects discussed include stationary sets, delta systems, partition relations, set mappings, measurable and real-valued measurable cardinals. Two sections give an introduction to modern results on exponentiation of singular cardinals, and certain deeper aspects of the topics are developed in advanced problems.
This book develops the theory of global attractors for a class of parabolic PDEs which includes reaction-diffusion equations and the Navier-Stokes equations, two examples that are treated in detail. A lengthy chapter on Sobolev spaces provides the framework that allows a rigorous treatment of existence and uniqueness of solutions for both linear time-independent problems (Poisson's equation) and the nonlinear evolution equations which generate the infinite-dimensional dynamical systems of the title. Attention then switches to the global attractor, a finite-dimensional subset of the infinite-dimensional phase space which determines the asymptotic dynamics. In particular, the concluding chapters investigate in what sense the dynamics restricted to the attractor are themselves 'finite-dimensional'. The book is intended as a didactic text for first year graduates, and assumes only a basic knowledge of Banach and Hilbert spaces, and a working understanding of the Lebesgue integral.
This book develops the theory of global attractors for a class of parabolic PDEs which includes reaction-diffusion equations and the Navier-Stokes equations, two examples that are treated in detail. A lengthy chapter on Sobolev spaces provides the framework that allows a rigorous treatment of existence and uniqueness of solutions for both linear time-independent problems (Poisson's equation) and the nonlinear evolution equations which generate the infinite-dimensional dynamical systems of the title. Attention then switches to the global attractor, a finite-dimensional subset of the infinite-dimensional phase space which determines the asymptotic dynamics. In particular, the concluding chapters investigate in what sense the dynamics restricted to the attractor are themselves 'finite-dimensional'. The book is intended as a didactic text for first year graduates, and assumes only a basic knowledge of Banach and Hilbert spaces, and a working understanding of the Lebesgue integral.
This self-contained book is a graduate-level introduction for mathematicians and for physicists interested in the mathematical foundations of the field, and can be used as a textbook for a two-semester course on mathematical statistical mechanics. It assumes only basic knowledge of classical physics and, on the mathematics side, a good working knowledge of graduate-level probability theory. The book starts with a concise introduction to statistical mechanics, proceeds to disordered lattice spin systems, and concludes with a presentation of the latest developments in the mathematical understanding of mean-field spin glass models. In particular, progress towards a rigorous understanding of the replica symmetry-breaking solutions of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick spin glass models, due to Guerra, Aizenman-Sims-Starr and Talagrand, is reviewed in some detail.
This text describes novel treatments of quantum problems using enhanced quantization procedures. When treated conventionally, certain systems yield trivial and unacceptable results. This book describes enhanced procedures, generally involving extended correspondence rules for the association of a classical and a quantum theory, which, when applied to such systems, yield nontrivial and acceptable results. The text begins with a review of classical mechanics, Hilbert space, quantum mechanics, and scalar quantum field theory. Next, analytical skills are further developed, a special class of models is studied, and a discussion of continuous and discontinuous perturbations is presented. Later chapters cover two further classes of models both of which entail discontinuous perturbations. The final chapter offers a brief summary, concluding with a conjecture regarding interacting covariant scalar quantum field theories. Symmetry is repeatedly used as a tool to help develop solutions for simple
As a cognitive neuropsychologist, Tim Shallice considers the general question of what can be learned about the operation of the normal cognitive system from the study of the cognitive difficulties arising from neurological damage and disease. He distinguishes two types of theories of normal function - primarily modular and primary non-modular - and argues that the problems of making valid inferences about normal function from studies of brain-damaged subjects are more severe for the latter. He first analyzes five well-researched areas in which some modularity can be assumed: short-term memory, reading, writing, visual perception, and the relation between input and output language processing. His aim is to introduce the methods about normal function mirror ones derived directly from studies of normal subjects and indeed at times preceded them. He then more theoretically examines these inferences, from group studies and individual case studies to modular and non-modular systems. Finally,
The physics and mathematics of nonlinear dynamics and chaotic and complex systems constitute some of the most fascinating developments of late twentieth-century science. It turns out that chaotic behaviour can be understood, and even utilized, to a far greater degree than had been suspected. Surprisingly, universal constants have been discovered. The implications have changed our understanding of important phenomena in physics, biology, chemistry, economics, medicine and numerous other fields of human endeavour. In this book, two dozen scientists and mathematicians who were deeply involved in the 'nonlinear revolution' cover most of the basic aspects of the field. The book is divided into five parts: dynamical systems, bifurcation theory and chaos; spatially extended systems; dynamical chaos, quantum physics and the foundations of statistical mechanics; evolutionary and cognitive systems; and complex systems as an interface between the sciences.
Originally published in 2000, this is the second volume of a comprehensive two-volume treatment of quadratic optimal control theory for partial differential equations over a finite or infinite time horizon, and related differential (integral) and algebraic Riccati equations. Both continuous theory and numerical approximation theory are included. The authors use an abstract space, operator theoretic approach, which is based on semigroups methods, and which unifies across a few basic classes of evolution. The various abstract frameworks are motivated by, and ultimately directed to, partial differential equations with boundary/point control. Volume 2 is focused on the optimal control problem over a finite time interval for hyperbolic dynamical systems. A few abstract models are considered, each motivated by a particular canonical hyperbolic dynamics. It presents numerous fascinating results. These volumes will appeal to graduate students and researchers in pure and applied mathematics and
This volume provides comprehensive coverage of all aspects of cosmology and extragalactic astronomy at an advanced level. Beginning with an overview of the key observational results and necessary terminology, it goes on to cover important topics including the theory of galactic structure and galactic dynamics, structure formation, cosmic microwave background radiation, formation of luminous galaxies in the universe, intergalactic medium and active galactic nuclei. Topics are developed in a contemporary fashion, with emphasis on currently active research areas. This self-contained text has a modular structure, and contains over one hundred worked exercises. It can be used alone, or in conjunction with the previous two accompanying volumes (Volume I: Astrophysical Processes, and Volume II: Stars and Stellar Systems). The textbook develops all aspects of extragalactic astronomy and cosmology in a detailed and pedagogical way, and will be invaluable to researchers and graduate students of
This new, expanded textbook describes all phases of a modern compiler: lexical analysis, parsing, abstract syntax, semantic actions, intermediate representations, instruction selection via tree matching, dataflow analysis, graph-coloring register allocation, and runtime systems. It includes good coverage of current techniques in code generation and register allocation, as well as functional and object-oriented languages, that are missing from most books. In addition, more advanced chapters are now included so that it can be used as the basis for two-semester or graduate course. The most accepted and successful techniques are described in a concise way, rather than as an exhaustive catalog of every possible variant. Detailed descriptions of the interfaces between modules of a compiler are illustrated with actual C header files. The first part of the book, Fundamentals of Compilation, is suitable for a one-semester first course in compiler design. The second part, Advanced Topics, which
This new, expanded textbook describes all phases of a modern compiler: lexical analysis, parsing, abstract syntax, semantic actions, intermediate representations, instruction selection via tree matching, dataflow analysis, graph-coloring register allocation, and runtime systems. It includes good coverage of current techniques in code generation and register allocation, as well as functional and object-oriented languages, that are missing from most books. In addition, more advanced chapters are now included so that it can be used as the basis for a two-semester or graduate course. The most accepted and successful techniques are described in a concise way, rather than as an exhaustive catalog of every possible variant. Detailed descriptions of the interfaces between modules of a compiler are illustrated with actual C header files. The first part of the book, Fundamentals of Compilation, is suitable for a one-semester first course in compiler design. The second part, Advanced Topics, whic
How did today's rich states first establish modern fiscal systems? To answer this question, Political Transformations and Public Finances by Mark Dincecco examines the evolution of political regimes and public finances in Europe over the long term. The book argues that the emergence of efficient fiscal institutions was the result of two fundamental political transformations that resolved long-standing problems of fiscal fragmentation and absolutism. States gained tax force through fiscal centralization and restricted ruler power through parliamentary limits, which enabled them to gather large tax revenues and channel funds toward public services with positive economic benefits. Using a novel combination of descriptive, case study and statistical methods, the book pursues this argument through a systematic investigation of a new panel database that spans eleven countries and four centuries. The book's findings are significant for our understanding of economic history and have important
Tone and Intonation are two types of pitch variation, which are used by speakers of all languages in order to give shape to utterances. More specifically, tone encodes segments and morphemes, and intonation gives utterances a further discoursal meaning that is independent of the meanings of the words themselves. In this comprehensive survey, Carlos Gussenhoven provides an overview of research into tone and intonation, discussing why speakers vary their pitch, what pitch variations mean, and how they are integrated into our grammars. He also explains why intonation in part appears to be universally understood, while at other times it is language-specific and can lead to misunderstandings. After eight chapters on general topics relating to pitch modulation, the book's central arguments are illustrated with comprehensive phonological descriptions - partly in Optimality Theory - of the tonal and intonational systems of six languages, including Japanese, Dutch, and English.
Most recent microservices books fully buy into the hype, starting from the premise that microservices are nearly always the best approach to developing enterprise systems. But that isn't always a safe assumption: in fact, in some cases, it can be disastrous, leading to architectures that serve nobody well. Strategic Microservices and Monoliths helps business decision-makers and technical team members collaborate to clearly understand their strategic problems, and identify their optimal architectural approaches, whether those turns out to be distributed microservices, well-modularized monoliths, or coarser-grade services partway between the two. Writing for executives and IT professionals alike, leading software architecture expert Vaughn Vernon and Tomasz Jaskula guide you through making balanced architecture compositional decisions based on need and purpose rather than popular opinion, so you can maximize business value and deliver systems that evolve more easily. Throughout, the auth
