Boards of directors are complex systems, and it is imperative to understand what the contextual forces are that shape the direction and make-up of boards. This Research Handbook provides inspiration for researchers and practitioners interested in the manifold dimensions and facets of context surrounding boards of directors. The contributions identify the complexity and multiplicity of contexts in which boards of directors work and operate, as well as indicating how board members interact with, and influence their contexts. The chapters explore national and institutional differences, divergent understandings of board requirements, climate change and boards' duties, transformation due to digitalisation, family firms, and micro-contextual dynamics affecting boards and their decisions. This Research Handbook promotes board accountability, questions the relative position of companies in society, and reconsiders governance from a multiple context, multi-actor perspective. Building a greater understanding of the main issues and theories surrounding boards of directors, this Research Handbook will be ideal for students and scholars of business and governance. Practitioners and policy makers can also find material for their evolving frameworks.

Fiduciary duties are widely viewed as essential to myriad private relationships, including guardianships, employment relationships, trusts, business organizations, and professional relationships. Recently, legal scholars and courts have devoted increasing attention to the application of fiduciary principles to public officials and public institutions. Some have argued that fiduciary relationships are unified by a common structure, but courts and commentators typically treat each fiduciary relationship as distinct. As a result, fiduciary law is often viewed as fragmented. The Research Handbook on Fiduciary Law shows that fiduciary law can be a distinctive field of study in its own right. This timely work presents important accounts of fiduciary relationships and new ideas on how fiduciary law can be explained. Coverage includes discussion of fiduciary obligations, fiduciary remedies, the role of equity and trusts, and public fiduciary law. A number of comparative perspectives are introduced to highlight similarities and differences between leading jurisdictions. The chapters in this Research Handbook help to show why this subject has drawn so many distinctive points of view, and sheds new light on a multi-faceted and rapidly growing field of study. This Research Handbook will be of interest to readers concerned with both the theory and practice of fiduciary law, as it incorporates significant new insights and developments in the field. It will also act as a starting point of new inquiry for those looking to contribute to the field themselves.

Current conceptions of mediation can often fail to capture the complexity and intricacy of modern conflicts. This Research Handbook addresses this problem by presenting the leading expert opinions on international mediation, examining how international mediation practices, mechanisms and institutions should adapt to the changing characteristics of contemporary international crises. Chapters consider the challenges facing the international community when aiming to achieve lasting resolutions in intrastate and interstate conflicts during acute periods of crisis and potential or actual violence escalation. The authors also provide much-needed context for 'gray zone conflict', the actions of non-state actors, gender dynamics and biases that hinder mediation. The ever-expanding role of mediation means authors also cover human security, climate diplomacy and cyber disputes. Using extensive analysis of salient cases as well as quantitative studies of aggregate trends, this Research Handbook is the vital reference work for mediation in contemporary international politics. The concluding chapter explores the overarching themes and key policy recommendations from the leading voices in mediation. An essential reference for postgraduate researchers of international politics, this Research Handbook provides both quantitative and qualitative analysis to further case knowledge for research. In addition, the case studies and concluding chapter will be a much-needed resource for policymakers and practitioners in defence policy and peace advocacy due to their emphasis on lessons learned and best practice.

Scrutinizing a relatively new field of study, the Handbook of Political Party Funding assesses the basic assumptions underlying the research, presenting an unequalled variety of case studies from diverse political finance systems. With contributions from both eminent international scholars and prominent representatives of the second generation of students in the field, this original and thought-provoking collection of current research updates our understanding of party funding regimes, while contributing to the re-examination of perennial and often problematic issues. It illustrates, using select empirical data, the range of alternative political finance structures, exposing both the limits of these regimes and their effects on parties, systems and on democratic competition. Offering diverse and detailed case studies, the chapters examine the stakes involved nationally, and the impact of financing on the political environment. At the same time, they present a picture of a field of study that is still establishing itself, offering direction for future research. Students and academics of political science, public law and comparative politics will find this an essential reference for studying party funding and its wider influence. Members of political institutions and those fighting political corruption will find this an incredibly useful Handbook for understanding the positives and negatives of party funding globally

Celebrated by medical students for over a decade, Kaplan's pocket-sized Dr. Pestana's Surgery Notes is the highest-yield surgery review for the the shelf and USMLE Step 2 CK exams. Designed for portable prep, Dr. Pestana's Surgery Notes fits perfectly in your lab coat so you can refresh your knowledge in between cases. The Best Review Concise high-yield review of core surgery material 180 up-to-date vignettes for self-testing 15 brief essays examining selected diagnostic and therapeutic tools from a surgical perspective NEW essay topics: intravenous fluid therapy, surgical infections, and fluid needs in children NEW illustrated chapter on bariatric surgery NEW introduction with guidance for addressing regional variations in medical practice on National Board questions Expert Guidance Revised and fully up-to-date content from distinguished surgery instructor Dr. Carlos Pestana For over a decade, Dr. Pestana's Surgery Notes has helped med students excel on the surgery shelf exam and USMLE Step 2 CK

While knowledge-intensive environments encourage and foster new ideas for products, services, production methods and business models, they also entail high levels of risk derived from the fast and dynamically changing nature of technology. This Handbook explores the new theoretical frameworks that are needed to cope with the growing relevance of techno-entrepreneurship initiatives globally. Demonstrating that techno-entrepreneurship and its ecosystems create opportunities across national borders, this Handbook also shows how they proactively shape their business environment and engage in more complex collaborative networks. Chapters cover emerging areas in the field, such as frugal innovation, the drone industry and gender-specific entrepreneurship. Separated into sections dedicated to entrepreneurial ecosystems - with original research into incubators, accelerators and crowd funding - and techno-entrepreneurship across countries, the contributors examine specific issues that arise in context. With international scope, this Handbook will be an essential read for entrepreneurship and innovation scholars. Any researcher with an interest in entrepreneurial ecosystems will also benefit from the original research presented.

ABC of Autism provides clinicians and medical students with a succinct, evidence-based overview of the symptoms, evaluation, treatment, and management of autism in both daily practice and for ongoing patient support plans. This accessible and informative guide allows primary healthcare professionals to quickly reference the essential information required for appropriate patient care. Compact yet comprehensive, this book offers concise and focused chapters covering topics ranging from basic epidemiology and key diagnostic features to managing behavioural difficulties and co-morbidities, such as ADHD and dyspraxia. Full-colour illustrations reinforce understanding of the condition while actual case studies demonstrate contemporary practices and real-life scenarios. ABC of Autism is a valuable resource for GPs, paediatricians, speech therapists, educational psychologists, medical and nursing students, and practitioners responsible for coordinating multidisciplinary care for patients with autism.

This multidisciplinary Handbook examines the complex and often hidden relationship between organised crime and politics across the globe, highlighting the difficulties involved in researching such relationships and offering new insights into how they evolve to become pervasive and destructive. Exploring the ever-evolving nature of this relationship, and the exchanges within it, in order to identify common features and key differences, engaging chapters raise provoking questions regarding the possibility of improving democracy, political systems, civil society and economic systems in order to counter the possible infiltration of these organisations, their associates and representatives. Students and scholars of public policy, politics, criminology and those focusing on organised crime more specifically will find this Handbook an original and engaging guide to the current state of play, whilst policy-makers, practitioners and NGOs will find the case studies set in national contexts eminently valuable.

The Division Officer's Guide, Twelfth Edition, is a handbook for Junior Officers and Petty Officers of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard afloat, in the air, under the sea and ashore. Originally written in 1952 by CAPT John V. Noel Jr., and last revised in 2004, the book provides division officers with basic lessons of leadership, organization, administration, training, and discipline - essential elements for success in their key positions. It offers much useful information on individual readiness, the conduct of assessments and inspections, maintenance processes and responsibilities, and the preparation and methods of correspondence and officer and enlisted career planning. The lessons and themes are not limited to use in the sea services; they provide a foundation for success in both military and personal life. Learning and practicing division officer skills lays a foundation for future success, no matter the environment or occupation, including the highest levels of the military, government, and citizenship. This twelfth edition continues to evolve with our rapidly changing world. Terrorism has become an international security issue, men and women now serve alongside superbly in all of our ships at sea, and technology continues to change virtually every aspect of naval operations. Cyber tools such as web-based information, use of computer networks aboard ships, and the ability to post and share information on websites in both unclassified and secure environments continue to expand the reach of sea services but similarly provide vulnerability vectors that may be exploited if not protected. Over the next ten years, a division officer can expect to see the expanding importance of cyber tools, increased need for cooperation among nations operating in shared maritime areas, and more autonomous operations where commander's intent must be fully understood and executed should networked operations be unavailable. Combined Navy and Coast Guard assets such as the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and Fast Frigate (FF), the National Security Cutter, the Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyer (DDG), and the Joint Strike Fighter (F-35) will enable highly networked operations, placing even greater emphasis on the importance of skilled and capable officers leading divisions at sea. Despite the technological advances in the tools available to leaders, a great constant remains-the direct personal impact that the division officer has on sailors each day. A division officer's fundamental task is to build the core elements of a winning team. Division Officer's Guide Twelfth Edition is written to reinforce the skills and competencies at the heart of this charge.

The Key to your life lies in the palm of your hand. Each palm is a separate 'Book of Life'. By learning the Language of your palm, you will discover hidden truths about yourself and attain a richer and more rewarding understanding of your life. This new edition of Litzka R Gibson's bestseller, "How to Read Palms, will teach you the: twelve steps to reading the palm; nine areas of the palm; basic lines - life, head and heart; special signs and markings; secondary lines - fate, fortune and health; lesser lines - affection, opposition, influence and family; and, types of hands and fingers.

The creative industries are becoming of increasing important from economic, cultural, and social perspectives. This Handbook explores the relationship, whether positive or negative, between creative industries and intellectual property (IP) rights. Distinguished international contributors reflect on the diverse policy approaches from across the world, taking into consideration a broad spectrum of economic and philosophical stances. In doing so, the topical chapters offer a global exploration of a wide breadth of issues, including sector-specific examples ranging from museums to traditional knowledge and artificial intelligence to enforcement and new business models. Intriguingly, this Handbook also looks forward to future challenges and developments regarding the role of IP in creative industries. Delivering fresh and challenging perspectives on the rich and important relationship between IP and the creative industries, this Handbook will be vital reading for scholars of IP. It will also be an important reference for advisors to, policymakers for, and funders of the creative industries, as well as activists challenging the power of IP.

Henry Gray's Anatomy Descriptive and Surgical has been the definitive medical book for students of the human body since its first publication in 1858. This professional guide is valued by medical practitioners, students and laypeople alike for its accuracy. This edition comprises an abridged version of the classic text - the last to be published during Gray's lifetime - and includes the masterly woodblock illustrations that made the original book a runaway success. A national and international treasure, Gray's Anatomy is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the history of medicine or in the amazingly complex machine that is the human body.

Language is one of the key paths to awareness, acceptance and empowerment but honestly, it can be confusing for many people. This easy-to-use dictionary introduces some of the most essential terminology surrounding gender, sexuality and LGBTQIA+ identity. If you have questions about yourself or about the terminology, or even if you're simply interested in learning more, this essential guide will help you navigate the world with knowledge and kindness.

This comprehensive book offers a thoughtful survey of theories, issues and cases in order to reassess the present vision of contract law. 'Comparative' refers both to the specific kind of methodologies implied and to the polyphonic perspectives collected on the main topics, with the aim of superseding the conventional forms of representation. In this perspective, the work engages a critical search for the fault lines, which crosses traditions of thought and globalized landscapes. Notwithstanding contract's enduring presence and the technicalities devoted to managing clauses and interpretation, the inquiry on the proper nature of contract and its status and collocation within private legal taxonomies continues to be a controversial exercise. Moving from a vast array of dissimilar inclinations, which have historically produced heterogeneous maps of law, this book is built around the genealogies of contractual theoretical thinking; the contentious relationship between private governance and normative regulations; the competing styles used to stage contract law; the concurring opinions expressed within the domain of other disciplines, such as literature and political theory; the tensions between global context and local frames; and the movable thresholds between canonical expressions and heterodox constructions. For its careful analysis and the wide range of references employed, Comparative Contract Law will be a tremendous resource for academics, legal scholars and interdisciplinary experts as well as judges and law practitioners.

For anyone with an interest in botany or wondering what a plant name means, this well-written book will be an indispensable guide. The Illustrated Dictionary of Southern African Plant Names is aimed at keen gardeners, plant collectors, amateur and professional botanists, academics, and many other people who wish to have an answer to the question: “What do generic plant names mean?” Without a reference book to guide you, the generic names are simply unexplained ‘names’ because they are written in botanical Latin which few people understand. This easy-to-use dictionary enables readers to find out how plants have got their names. It provides a wealth of information that opens up a new world of understanding for all plant lovers. The book has nearly 5 000 entries and will include approximately 400 beautiful full-colour photographs of plants taken by top botanical photographers. This not only gives life to the book but in many cases illustrates how these names relate to the plant. Pictures have been selected from the various regions of southern African and 24 of South Africa’s leading botanists contributed to this choice with an opening page (from A–Z). Readers who wish to know more about the lives of those individuals after whom plants were named such as Watsonia, Welwitschia and hundreds more, will be surprised but delighted to find this dictionary contains more than 900 short biographies together with some 600 images, thus conserving southern African botanical history. There are fascinating descriptions of these individuals’ contributions to science, their explorations, their achievements and tragedies. The book also provides information for those readers who want to know more about the genus, such as whether the genus is an invasive species or whether the genus name has been superseded and what the replacement name is.

New In This Edition: This second edition of the Encyclopedia of GIS includes 30% to 50% new content. It provides up-to-date information on emerging topics such as spatial big data, smart-phone GIS, urban computing and mobile recommender systems. It also expands the first edition's rich set of GIS-related commercial and societal applications such as geo-targeting, geo-fencing and understanding climate changes, while enabling more comprehensive coverage of classical GIS topics such as map projections, global positioning systems and spatial cognition. The entries explain the key software, data sets and processes used by geographers and computational scientists. Additionally, the reference emphasizes the role of GIS in business and mobile intelligence. By offering more diversified GIS-related topics from theory and research than most of the other available literature, the authors equip newcomers to the field with principles as well as applications. With an accessible breadth of content and intuitive A-Z organization, this new edition of the encyclopedia is an invaluable reference for newcomers to the field of GIS, as well as researchers, students, developers and professionals who are interested in exploring this new dynamic area. Praise For The First Edition: "The focus here, however, is on the mathematical and computational aspects of GIS ... . This is very welcome to those practitioners who have been less exposed to some of the mathematical and computational aspects of GIS. This is also very welcome to the researcher or graduate student within any of the interdisciplinary areas that use GIS. ... I highly recommend it." (Pascal V. Calarco, ACM Computing Reviews, November, 2008) "This single-volume reference work is a highly welcome ... addition to the rapidly advancing field of geographic information systems. Peer-reviewed entries from over 300 contributors cover 41 topical subfields, with an overall emphasis on computational aspects of GIS. The volume is adequately illustrated with 723 figures and 90 tables in black and white. A full bibliography and concise list of entry terms are provided at the back of the work. ... Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division geography students through professionals." (C. E. Smith, CHOICE, Vol. 45 (11), 2008) "The encyclopedia is divided into 41 fields, each one an important sub-area within GIS. ... the editors' organization of the material and comprehensive and systematic approach are superb and shall give students, eager readers as well as researchers an understanding of the topics in quite full depth and breadth. ... is lavishly illustrated with figures, graphs and tables, the design and execution of which are as perfect as the material they illustrate. ... it is sturdy and opens out nicely for study and reference." (Current Engineering Practice, 2008).

"These seeds will captivate you whether you're a gardener or not." - The Washington Post "A sumptuous guide to 600 of the world's weirdest and most beautiful species, from the black seed with hair like Donald Trump to pinhead-sized orchid seeds." - The Guardian "The book drives home the incredible botanical wealth that is found on our precious blue planet." - The English Garden True time capsules of life, seeds are significant items of hope and promise. They are the most complex organs plants ever produce, and come in an enormously diverse range of shapes, sizes, and colours; from the impressive coco de mer nut to the microscopic seeds of an orchid, to the extraordinary cobalt blue of the traveller's palm pit. Seeds are often overshadowed by the adult plant's size and show. Here, 600 seeds are spotlit, each given equal attention, each shown as glorious photographs, life size and in detail, alongside an engraving of the parent plant. Every profile includes a population distribution map, a table of essential information, and a commentary revealing notable characteristics, related species, and a diagnosis of the specimen's importance in terms of taxonomy, rarity, dispersal method, and scientific significance. Arranged taxonomically, this essential reference reveals the variety and importance of seeds to an extent never seen before.

This Handbook presents innovative research that compares different criminal procedure systems by focusing on the mechanisms by which legal systems seek to avoid error, protect rights, ground their legitimacy, expand lay participation in the criminal process and develop alternatives to criminal trials, such as plea bargaining, as well as alternatives to the criminal process as a whole, such as intelligence operations. The criminal procedures examined in this book include those of the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Russia, India, Latin America, Taiwan and Japan, among others. This book explores a number of key topics in the field of criminal procedure: the role of screening mechanisms in weeding out weak cases before trial; the willingness of different legal systems to suppress illegally obtained evidence; the ways legal systems set meaningful evidentiary thresholds for arrest and pretrial detention; the problem of wrongful convictions; the way legal systems balance the search for truth against other values, such as protections for fundamental rights; emerging legal protections for criminal defendants, including new safeguards against custodial questioning in the European Union, limitations on covert operations in post-Soviet states and the Indian system of anticipatory bail, as well as the mechanisms by which legal systems avoid trials altogether. A number of contributors also examine the impact of legal reforms that have newly introduced lay jurors into the fact-finding process, or that now require juries to give reasons for verdicts. The ideal readership for this Handbook includes scholars and students of criminal procedure and comparative law, as well as civil liberties lawyers. Scholars of national security, the European Union, transitional justice and privacy will also be interested in the volume's contributions to their fields.

A nation with two languages but one soul that speaks passionately through its writers -- here is the guide to the modern literary scene covering circa 100 works that sum up the currents and corners of Welsh life from the 1920s to the present. This little book puts the lot at your fingertips, covering novels, short-story collections, poetry and drama written in or translated into English. In addition there is a a database of translated work, while each review is followed by an extract to give a flavour of the book. The Babel Guides are an expanding series of pocket reference works to whats available in English from the literatures of the world for a non-specialist audience. Essential for public and academic libraries, students and general readers who want to expand their literary horizons.

This resource provides a single, concise reference containing terms and expressions used in the study, practice, and application of physical sciences. The reader will be able to identify quickly critical information about professional jargon, important people, and events. The encyclopedia gives self-contained definitions with essentials regarding the meaning of technical terms and their usage, as well as about important people within various fields of physics and engineering, with highlights of technical and practical aspects related to cross-functional integration. It will be indispensable for anyone working on applications in biomedicine, materials science, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, geology, astronomy, and energy. It also includes handy tables and chronological timelines organized by subject area and giving an overview on the historical development of ideas and discovery.