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Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Life sciences: general issues
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Encountering Earth
(Hardcover)
Trevor Bechtel, Matt Eaton, Tim Harvie
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R1,316
R1,053
Discovery Miles 10 530
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This Handbook provides an overview of neuroscience-driven research
methodologies and how those methodologies might be applied to
theory-based research in the nascent field of
neuroentrepreneurship. A key challenge of this field is that few
neuroscientists are trained as entrepreneurship scholars and few
entrepreneurship scholars are trained as neuroscientists, but this
book skillfully bridges that gap. Expert contributors include
concrete examples of new ways to conduct research in their
contributions, which have the potential to shed light onto areas
such as decision making and opportunity recognition and allow
neuroentrepreneurs to ask different, perhaps better, questions than
ever before. This Handbook also presents current thinking and
examples of pioneering work, serves as a reference for those
wishing to incorporate these methods into their own research, and
provides several helpful discussions on the nature of answerable
questions using neuroscience techniques. Neuroentrepreneurship is
an important, emerging field for neuroscientists and
entrepreneurship scholars alike. For the former audience, this book
presents concrete research questions and entrepreneurship
applications; for the latter, it serves as a primer and
introduction to neuroscientific methods. Graduate students studying
entrepreneurship, and practitioners who are keen to promote
innovation and entrepreneurial skills in their leadership, will
also find this Handbook to be of interest. Contributors include: W.
Becker, C. Bellavitis, M.C. Boardman, M. Colosio, C. Couffe, M.
Day, P.M. de Holan, A.A. Gorin, S. Guillory, N. Krueger, A.
Passarelli, V. Perez-Centeno, C. Reeck, L. Schjoedt, K.G. Shaver,
A. Sud, T. Treffers, M.K. Ward
The technological innovations that have made "learning" computers
possible are being met with utopian hopes as well as apocalyptic
apprehensions. Will AI research eventually lead to software systems
that have consciousness and are capable of autonomous decision
making? The essays challenge "strong AI" from the perspective of
human agency and moral judgment, explain the categorical difference
between vulnerable humans and AI devices, and discuss diverse forms
of applied AI, such as prograns of natural language processing,
computional creativity, neuroenhancement, and the use of AI in
international healthcare. These theoretical issues are illustrated
in essays that focus on the encounter with artificial beings in
film, literature and theater. Examining science fiction that blurs
the borderline between humans and deep-learning androids, the
essays explore, and challenge, ways of questioning human
exceptionalism, for instance by visualizing non-conscious cognition
and sentience. The book suggests a sober distinction between
well-argued achievements of digital technology and excessive,
unfounded expectations.
‘Steve Brusatte, the author of The Rise and Fall of the
Dinosaurs, brings mammals out from the shadow of their more showy
predecessors in a beautifully written book that . . . makes the
case for them as creatures who are just as engaging as
dinosaurs.’ – The Sunday Times, ‘Best Books For Summer’ 'In
this terrific new book, Steve Brusatte . . . brings well-known
extinct species, the sabre-toothed tigers and the woolly mammoths,
thrillingly back to life' – The Times The passing of the age of
the dinosaurs allowed mammals to become ascendant. But mammals have
a much deeper history. They – or, more precisely, we –
originated around the same time as the dinosaurs, over 200 million
years ago; mammal roots lie even further back, some 325 million
years. Over these immense stretches of geological time, mammals
developed their trademark features: hair, keen senses of smell and
hearing, big brains and sharp intelligence, fast growth and
warm-blooded metabolism, a distinctive line-up of teeth (canines,
incisors, premolars, molars), mammary glands that mothers use to
nourish their babies with milk, qualities that have underlain their
success story. Out of this long and rich evolutionary history came
the mammals of today, including our own species and our closest
cousins. But today’s 6,000 mammal species - the egg-laying
monotremes including the platypus, marsupials such as kangaroos and
koalas that raise their tiny babies in pouches, and placentals like
us, who give birth to well-developed young – are simply the few
survivors of a once verdant family tree, which has been pruned both
by time and mass extinctions. In The Rise and Reign of the Mammals,
palaeontologist Steve Brusatte weaves together the history and
evolution of our mammal forebears with stories of the scientists
whose fieldwork and discoveries underlie our knowledge, both of
iconic mammals like the mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers of which
we have all heard, and of fascinating species that few of us are
aware of. For what we see today is but a very limited range of the
mammals that have existed; in this fascinating and ground-breaking
book, Steve Brusatte tells their – and our – story.
This book offers a new theoretical framework within which to
understand "the mind-body problem". The crux of this problem is
phenomenal experience, which Thomas Nagel famously described as
"what it is like" to be a certain living creature. David Chalmers
refers to the problem of "what-it-is-like" as "the hard problem" of
consciousness and claims that this problem is so "hard" that
investigators have either just ignored the issue completely,
investigated a similar (but distinct) problem, or claimed that
there is literally nothing to investigate - that phenomenal
experience is illusory. This book contends that phenomenal
experience is both very real and very important. Two specific
"biological naturalist" views are considered in depth. One of these
two views, in particular, seems to be free from problems; adopting
something along the lines of this view might finally allow us to
make sense of the mind-body problem. An essential read for anyone
who believes that no satisfactory solution to "the mind-body
problem" has yet been discovered.
Mendel's groundbreaking paper, which laid the foundation for
further research upon heritage and genetics, is published here
complete with the original illustrations and charts. When Mendel
released this paper in 1865, it was after years of rigorous study
and comparison in plant specimens and their offspring. His
conclusion that variant traits were hereditary and could be
determined, with a good degree of accuracy, through probability
analysis were revolutionary in natural science at the time.
Mendel's assertions regarding acquired characteristics,
demonstrated through the comparison of peas and their seeds, would
spark great interest in the nature and mechanisms behind heredity
between generations of organisms. Seeking to gain high quality
results, Mendel prefaces his explanations by noting that he
artificially fertilized the plants described in the work.
Ending hunger, achieving food security and promoting sustainable
development are at the top of the list of United Nations (UN)
sustainable global development priorities. In the times of high
population growth and increasing pressure of agricultural systems,
efficiency in use of natural resources has been at the epicenter of
sustainable agricultural. The concept of 'Input efficiency' implies
production of high quantity and quality of food, from using only
finite natural resources as inputs, in the form of mainly land,
water, nutrients, energy, or biological diversity. In this book,
editors provide a roadmap to the food, nutritional, and
environmental security in the agricultural systems. They share
insight into the approaches that can be put in practice for
increasing the input use efficiency in the cropping systems and
achieve stability and sustainability of agricultural production
systems. This book is of interest to teachers, researchers, climate
change scientists, capacity builders and policymakers. Also the
book serves as additional reading material for undergraduate and
graduate students of agriculture, agroforestry, agroecology, and
environmental sciences. National and international agricultural
scientists, policymakers will also find this to be a useful read.
Environmental heat stress is associated with a marked decrease in
orthostatic tolerance (OT), which is defined as the ability to
stand or sit upright without symptoms of dizziness,
lightheadedness, presyncope, or fainting. In most healthy humans,
the autonomic nervous system makes rapid and balanced adjustments
to heart rate and peripheral blood flow, such that most people are
able to stand up "successfully" most of the time, in most
environments. The goal of this book is to discuss various aspects
of the sympathetic neural response to heat stress, how the
sympathetic nervous system coordinates the successful integrative
physiological response to orthostasis, and what happens when it
encounters both challenges simultaneously. We include overviews of
mechanisms of thermoregulation and blood pressure regulation in
humans, with particular focus on control of cardiac output and
neurovascular control mechanisms during heat stress. We discuss the
implications that these changes have for distribution of peripheral
blood flow and, in particular, for blood flow to the cerebral
circulation. The added stressor of dehydration is also discussed,
as it so often goes hand in hand with heat stress. We end with a
brief presentation of countermeasures against the decreases in OT
with heat stress.
This collection vigorously addresses the religious implications of
extreme human enhancement technology. Topics covered include
cutting edge themes, such as moral enhancement, common ground to
both transhumanism and religion, the meaning of death, desire and
transcendence, and virtue ethics. Radical enhancement programs,
advocated by transhumanists, could arguably have a more profound
impact than any other development in human history. Reflecting a
range of opinion about the desirability of extreme enhancement,
leading scholars in the field join with emerging scholars to foster
enhanced conversation on these topics.
The most comprehensive and practical guide available for caregivers
of children who have seizures and epilepsy, now completely updated.
For more than 30 years, parents, caregivers, and health care
providers have trusted Seizures and Epilepsy in Children to provide
comprehensive, science-based information and practical answers to
the most common questions about these conditions. In this new
edition, completely revised and updated, a team of experts from
Johns Hopkins Medicine offers guidance on: * diagnostic testing and
the latest treatments * recommendations for the best devices, apps,
and websites * driving, health insurance, and playing sports *
navigating school and other environments * mental health issues and
counseling * coping with disability * side effects from medications
This new edition also features dedicated chapters on diet,
complementary and alternative medicine, and rescue medicines.
Seizures and Epilepsy in Children is the go-to resource for
caregivers and families with children who have epilepsy and
seizures.
This book is an inclusive coverage of advances in aquaculture
health management. It offers latest updates as well as explains the
novel concepts and issues related to aquatic animal health
management. To support the understanding of the concepts, there is
extensive use of illustrations. Chapters emphasize on the state of
art techniques and hold great promise for the sustainable
development of aquaculture. This book is of interest to teachers,
researchers, aquatic biologists, capacity builders and
policymakers. Also the book serves as additional reading material
for undergraduate and graduate students of aquatic sciences, marine
sciences, biotechnology, ecology, and environmental sciences.
National and international aquatic scientists, policy makers will
also find this to be a useful read.
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