This series is designed to meet the needs of students and lecturers of the National Certificate Vocational. Features for the student include: Easy-to-understand language; Real-life examples; A key word feature for important subject terms; A dictionary feature for difficult words; A reflect-on-how-you-learn feature to explore personal learning styles; Workplace-oriented activities; and Chapter summaries that are useful for exam revision.

In theclosing decades of the eighteenth century, the newly independent colonies along the mid-Atlantic coast of North America commenced an unprecedented public debate concerning the principles of civil government. The debate culminated in 1787 with the Philadelphia convention where the United States Constitution was drafted and adopted. After rati

It is always appropriate to ask whether an expedient foreign policy is morally justifiable, just as it is always appropriate to ask whether a morally defensible policy is consistent with the national interest. The ongoing dialogue between morality and realpolitik gives much of foreign policy debate its characteristic bite. In this collection of essays, a distinguished group of philosophers, political theorists, and lawyers- including Russell Hardin and Marshall Cohen-explore these contrasting themes. In essays that are at once insightful and accessible, noted political thinkers examine the tension of the conflicting demands of morality and national self-interest in the context of the foundations of international order, the possession and use of nuclear weapons, recourse to war, and the prospects for peace. A final postscript addresses the question of the responsibility of intellectuals in the national foreign policy debate. This book will appeal to scholars and students in any discipline dealing with international affairs as well as to lay readers who wish to explore the implications of taking morality and reason seriously in foreign policy.

How is women's conception of self affected by the caregiving responsibilities traditionally assigned to them and by the personal vulnerabilities imposed on them? If institutions of male dominance profoundly influence women's lives and minds, how can women form judgments about their own best interests and overcome oppression? Can feminist politics s

This book offers an account of moral subjectivity and moral reflection designed to meet the needs of feminism as well as other emancipatory movements. Diana Tietjens Meyers argues that impartial reason - the approach to moral reflection which has dominated 20th-century Anglo-American philosophy and judicial reasoning - is inadequate for addressing real world injustices. Dealing with problems of group-based social exclusion requires empathy with others. But empathy often becomes distorted by prejudicial attitudes which may be publicly condemned but continue to be transmitted through cultural figurations. Meyers argues that it is a mistake to view the moral subject as independent, transparent and rational. Instead, she presents a picture of a heterogeneous and pluralistic subject, one that is defined by ties to other people, liable to misunderstand its own motives, and in need of a repertory of strategies for purposes of moral reflection.

eBook available with sample pages: HB:0415904714

In recent times, venture capital and private equity funds have become household names, but so far little has been written for the investors in such funds - the so-called 'limited partners'. There is far more to the management of a portfolio of venture capital and private equity funds than usually perceived. "Beyond the J Curve" provides an innovative toolset for such limited partners to design and manage portfolios tailored to the dynamics of this market place, going far beyond the typical and often-simplistic recipe to 'go for top quartile funds'.

"Beyond the J Curve" provides the answers to key questions, including: Why should 'top-quartile' promises be taken with a huge pinch of salt and what does it takes to select superior fund managers? What do limited partners need to consider when designing and managing portfolios? How can one determine the funds' economic value to help address the questions of 'fair value' under IAS 39 and 'risk' under Basel II or Solvency II? Why is monitoring important and how does a limited partner manage their portfolio? How can the portfolio's returns be improved through proper liquidity management and what should be considered when over-committing? Why is uncertainty rather than risk an issue and how can a limited partner address and benefit from the fast changing private equity environment?

"Beyond the J Curve" takes the practitioner's view and offers private equity and venture capital professionals a comprehensive guide, making high return targets more realistic and sustainable. This book is a 'must have' for all parties involved in this market, as well as academic and students.

""This is the first work that I have seen that comprehensivelycovers the important subject of valuing, evaluating and measuring the performance of private equity funds. Much has been published in journals and papers on individual aspects of this controversial subject by various segments of the stakeholder universe - usually putting forward partisan viewpoints. This is the first time that a holistic, integrated and disciplined framework has been adopted. The approach taken has yielded a rich crop of useful results including an innovative methodology for determining fair value for private equity funds during the course of their long lives; portfolio design and benchmarking methods; a prototype grading and fund scoring system. Essential reading for investors and a useful state-of-the-art reference manual for private equity managers."" Christopher K. B. Brotchie, Formerly Chief Executive of the Baring Private Equity Group and Member of the ING Management Council

""The transactions, size and stories of private equity and venture capital investment activity are the focus of many news publications today. It is not quite the same situation in the area of academic and technical publications, where much remains to be researched and published. The authors of Beyond the J-Curve have taken on the ambitious project of analysing the difficult and controversial area of valuing fund portfolios. Their innovative and integrated approach aims at opening up the framework within which these valuations are practised by investors, and offers alternatives. This is a welcome angle to the current debate among investors, private equity and venture capital practitioners. The subject is likely to spur substantial discussions and additional technical publications. Beyondthe J-Curve is certainly a thorough and pioneering contribution to that debate."" Javier Echarri, Secretary General, European Private Equity & Venture Capital Association

""Beyond the J Curve is a timely guide for investors in private equity, with an elegant balance of analysis and practical suggestions. Its emphasis on monitoring and active portfolio management should promote more effective stewardship of private equity assets in the future."" Brenlen Jinkens, Director, Cogent Partners Europe

""Congratulations to both Thomas Meyer and Pierre-Yves Mathonet for their publication Beyond the J curve. They should be highly commended for breaking a long-standing taboo - investing in private equity can now be modelled. Beyond the J curve not only reveals a theoretical approach to Fair Value for private equity funds but also proposes a complete approach for investors to build up, in possession of the facts, a comprehensive and effective programme for private equity investments. I am personally convinced that our industry should become more involved into this type of approach in order to best explain the interest of investing in private equity."" Pierre Herve, General Secretary of Natexis private Equity, Chairman of AFIC's Basel II and IFRS working groups, and Member of EFRAG's Venture Capital working group

How is women's conception of self affected by the caregiving responsibilities traditionally assigned to them and by the personal vulnerabilities imposed on them? If institutions of male dominance profoundly influence women's lives and minds, how can women form judgments about their own best interests and overcome oppression? Can feminist politics survive in face of the diversity of women's experience, which is shaped by race, class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, as well as by gender? Exploring such questions, leading feminist thinkers have reinvigorated work on the concept of self and personal identity, as demonstrated by the discussions in this insightful volume.The concerns that animate feminist scholarship have prompted feminist philosophers to sideline the theme of individualism and to focus on the theme of intersubjectivity. In conceptualizing the self, the contributors to this volume highlight emotional bonds among people, the stories people tell one another, and the systems of categories and behavioral norms that unite and divide groups of people. Topics addressed include sexual violence and the self, the social self and autonomy, the narrative self and integrity, self-ownership and the body, forgetting yourself and your race, group membership and personal identity, grief and gender, sympathy and women's diversity, emotion and emancipatory epistemology, and dependency and justice. This volume will be important reading for students of feminist theory, ethics, and social and political philosophy.

In theclosing decades of the eighteenth century, the newly independent colonies along the mid-Atlantic coast of North America commenced an unprecedented public debate concerning the principles of civil government. The debate culminated in 1787 with the Philadelphia convention where the United States Constitution was drafted and adopted. After rati

The purposes of this report are to 1) assess and document the occurrence and concentrations of selected pharmaceuticals and other organic wastewater compounds in WWTP influent and effluent, groundwater, canal water, and canal sediment samples at selected sites in Miami-Dade County; 2) assess the persistence of these compounds during wastewater treatment by comparing influent and effluent concentrations, loads, and seasonal variations, and by calculating percent reduction of individual compounds during treatment at each plant; and (3) assess the potential transport of these compounds from recharge areas through the groundwater system and into the canal system by comparing effluent concentrations at the HSWWTP with concentrations in nearby groundwater, nearby canal water and bed sediments, and more distant canal water and bed sediments.

There are significant returns to be made from private equity, infrastructure, real estate and other illiquid investments, but a competitive strategy is essential for investment success and for meeting objectives. This book takes readers through all the considerations of planning and implementing an investment strategy in illiquid investments.

The ascendancy of neo-liberalism in different parts of the world has put social democracy on the defensive. Its adherents lack a clear rationale for their policies. Yet a justification for social democracy is implicit in the United Nations Covenants on Human Rights, ratified by most of the worlds countries. The covenants commit all nations to guarantee that their citizens shall enjoy the traditional formal rights; but they likewise pledge governments to make those rights meaningful in the real world by providing social security and cultural recognition to every person.
This new book provides a systematic defence of social democracy for our contemporary global age. The authors argue that the claims to legitimation implicit in democratic theory can be honored only by social democracy; libertarian democracies are defective in failing to protect their citizens adequately against social, economic, and environmental risks that only collective action can obviate. Ultimately, social democracy provides both a fairer and more stable social order.
But can social democracy survive in a world characterized by pervasive processes of globalization? This book asserts that globalization need not undermine social democracy if it is harnessed by international associations and leavened by principles of cultural respect, toleration, and enlightenment. The structures of social democracy must, in short, be adapted to the exigencies of globalization, as has already occurred in countries with the most successful social-democratic practices.

2013 Reprint of 1950 edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. The present volume contains the most important document of early monasticism, "The Life of St. Antony," whose author is no less a man than the great St. Athanasius himself. Antony, generally considered the father of Christian monasticism, was born circa 250 a.d. to well-to-do parents in Middle Egypt. Athanasius is counted as one of the four Great Doctors of the Church in the Roman Catholic Church as well as one of the Great Doctors of the Church in Eastern Orthodoxy, where he is also labeled the "Father of Orthodoxy." He is also celebrated by many Protestants, who label him "Father of The Canon." Athanasius is venerated as a Christian saint, whose feast day is 2 May in Western Christianity, 15 May in the Coptic Orthodox Church, and 18 January in the other Eastern Orthodox Churches. He is venerated by the Roman Catholic Church, Oriental and Eastern Orthodox churches, the Lutherans, and the Anglican Communion.

Inventor of Cruise Control, president of the world-famous Perfect Circle Corporation, member of the Automotive Hall of Fame - Ralph Teetor was one of indiana's great industrial pioneers. Many who experienced his astonishing competence with machinery and confidence with people and places easily forgot that he had been blind since the age of five. This is his daughter's story of her remarkable father.

While human listeners have little problems in dealing with the strong variation in spoken language, the same cannot be said about automatic speech recognition (ASR). This work compares recognition performance of man and machine with the aim of learning from the distinct errors between these two. Based on the differences, the signal processing mechanisms are analyzed that are suitable to increase the robustness of ASR. The comparison focuses on the influence of intrinsic variation of speech, i.e., changes in speaking rate, effort and style, as well as dialect and accent. The outcome of the experiments suggests that the processing of temporal cues in ASR bears room for improvement. Therefore, spectro-temporal features are employed as input to ASR systems, which results in an increase of recognition performance for varying speaking effort and speaking style compared to standard features. This documents the usefulness of spectro-temporal and temporal information for automatic recognizers.

Numbering with colors is tutorial in nature, with many practical examples given throughout the presentation. It is heavily illustrated with gray-scale images, but also included is an 8-page signature of 4-color illustrations to support the presentation. While the organization is somewhat similar to that found in "The Data Handbook," there is little overlap with the content material in that publication. The first section in the book discusses Color Physics, Physiology and Psychology, talking about the details of the eye, the visual pathway, and how the brain converts colors into perceptions of hues. This is followed by the second section, in which Color Technologies are explained, i.e. how we describe colors using the CIE diagram, and how colors can be reproduced using various technologies such as offset printing and video screens. The third section of the book, Using Colors, relates how scientists and engineers can use color to help gain insight into their data sets through true color, false color, and pseudocolor imaging.

The ascendancy of neo-liberalism in different parts of the world has put social democracy on the defensive. Its adherents lack a clear rationale for their policies. Yet a justification for social democracy is implicit in the United Nations Covenants on Human Rights, ratified by most of the worlds countries. The covenants commit all nations to guarantee that their citizens shall enjoy the traditional formal rights; but they likewise pledge governments to make those rights meaningful in the real world by providing social security and cultural recognition to every person.
This new book provides a systematic defence of social democracy for our contemporary global age. The authors argue that the claims to legitimation implicit in democratic theory can be honored only by social democracy; libertarian democracies are defective in failing to protect their citizens adequately against social, economic, and environmental risks that only collective action can obviate. Ultimately, social democracy provides both a fairer and more stable social order.
But can social democracy survive in a world characterized by pervasive processes of globalization? This book asserts that globalization need not undermine social democracy if it is harnessed by international associations and leavened by principles of cultural respect, toleration, and enlightenment. The structures of social democracy must, in short, be adapted to the exigencies of globalization, as has already occurred in countries with the most successful social-democratic practices.

"Strategic Budgeting" offers a new way to understand how federal budget deficits developed. Rejecting the incrementalist theory of budgetary strategy, this study focuses on the micro level--the competitive process of budgeting for individual programs--to advance a theory based on the changing structural characteristics of the budgetary process itself. The book illustrates how advocates for spending have creatively taken advantage of flawed accounting practices to make costs less visible and documents how they designed programs to avoid budgetary controls. "Strategic Budgeting" also shows how controllers reacted to these tactics by improving accounting rules and budget procedures. The book concludes with practical recommendations for improving the process of budgeting for individual programs.
" Meyers] spent much of the 1980s as an analyst for the Congressional Budget Office, and so he knows just about every budgeting gimmick there is to know. He traces how flaws in the government's budget data can lead to wildly incorrect assumptions, which in turn can be exploited by clever players with a stake in the budget." --National Journal
Roy T. Meyers is Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore.