The food market is changing from a producer-controlled to a consumer-directed market. A main driving force is consumer concern about agricultural production methods and food safety. More than before, the consumer demands transparency of the production and processing chain.
A food chain can be quite complex and the use of models has become indispensable to handle this complexity. Modelling tools are becoming increasingly important to guide the decisions for production of high-quality and safe agricultural foods. With the aid of models it becomes possible to control and predict quality attributes, so that product innovation can be done more efficiently. However, quality is an elusive concept, and there is always an aspect of subjectivity and uncertainty.
A novel approach in the agro-food chain would be to tackle subjective elements and uncertainty in modelling by using Bayesian statistics and Bayesian Belief Networks. Bayesian approaches use prior probabilities (partly accounting for subjectivity) to estimate posterior probabilities, resulting in higher accuracy than is possible with classical statistical techniques. Thus, the variability and uncertainty in data and decisions, inherent in a complex food chain, can be dealt with.

Under leadership of CT de Wit a large amount of modeling, building prototypes and also application, was carried out in the 1970s and 1980s. Comprehensive models were built, evaluated and carefully documented in the areas of crop growth production, plant breeding, soil water and nutrients, and in crop protection. Simulation techniques and biophysical theories developed in parallel. Simulation and experimentation always went hand in hand. Much of this work is documented in a long series of PhD theses under supervision of De Wit, in the series of Simulation Monographs (PUDOC), and in numerous other publications. This work has inspired many scientists across the global science community. The CT de Wit Graduate School of Production Ecology (PE) of the Wageningen University builds further on this platform and finds new subjects for research on and with models, and data. The PE platform provides also an excellent opportunity to develop contacts, cooperation and joint software with research groups in related fields and abroad. This book precipitates from such an exploration in new directions. We realize that modem information systems and statistics can offer a substantial contribution to the modelling framework. Good examples can be found here, and these provide a clear direction for the years to come.

In the current environment, most political violence occurs between internal communities, such as ethnic and religious groups, rather than between states. Such inter-communal conflict threatens both internal political stability and interstate relations. In this edited volume, a multidisciplinary and multinational group of scholars analyze the bases of inter-communal conflict and its domestic and international consequences. The authors focus on inter-communal conflict through the lenses of political struggles in the Middle East and Asia, which provide fertile grounds for assessing the viability of new social constructions and the continuing impact of ancestral ties. Containing theoretical, regional, and country studies, the chapters tackle such issues as: the implications of changes in the institutional rules for political competition; how explanatory narratives for conflict are selected when multiple attributions are possible; the bases of ideological conflict that have arisen within Islam; the problems of ethnic competition that remain unresolved in powersharing arrangements; the consequences for international relations when national boundaries do not circumscribe ethnic and religious communities; and the subordination of women's interests to religious conflict and its resolution. Since identities are shaped by multiple qualities, the contributions examine the role of ideologies, institutions, and politicians in shaping political cleavages, communities, and conflicts. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Academic clinicians, clinical scientists, well-known practitioners of alternative medicine, and authors of popular works on the subject summarize the facts about complementary cardiovascular medicines so that physicians can confidently and knowledgeably advise their patients. The authors comprehensively explain the background for each important alternative therapy, its rationale, the evidence supporting its use, its possible interaction with standard medicines, and, where possible, what is known about its safety and efficacy. The therapies for treating coronary heart disease (CHD) range from the more commonly encountered herbs, vitamins, supplements, and dietary fats and oils, to such less familiar techniques as acupuncture, homeopathy, massage, chelation therapy, meditation, aroma therapies, prayer, and energy therapies. Also included is a value-added CD-ROM that provides an eBook version of the work that can be viewed either on a personal computer or synchronized to a PDA.

"The thesis is radical," writes Marshall Sahlins of this landmark text in anthropology and political science. "We conventionally define the state as the regulation of violence; it may be the origin of it. Clastres's thesis is that economic expropriation and political coercion are inconsistent with the character of tribal society - which is to say, with the greater part of human history."Can there be a society that is not divided into oppressors and oppressed, or that refuses coercive state apparatuses? In this beautifully written book, Pierre Clastres offers examples of South American Indian groups that, although without hierarchical leadership, were both affluent and complex. In so doing he refutes the usual negative definition of tribal society and poses its order as a radical critique of our own Western state of power.Born in 1934, Pierre Clastres was educated at the Sorbonne; throughout the 1960s he lived with Indian groups in Paraguay and Venezuela. From 1971 until his death in 1979 he was Director of Studies at the fifth section of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris and held the Chair of Religion and Societies of the South American Indians there.Robert Hurley is the translator of the History of Sexuality by Michel Foucault and cotranslator of Anti-Oedipus by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari.

Foodborne Diseases, Third Edition, covers the ever-changing complex issues that have emerged in the food industry over the past decade. This exceptional volume continues to offer broad coverage that provides a foundation for a practical understanding of diseases and to help researchers and scientists manage foodborne illnesses and prevent and control outbreaks. It explains recent scientific and industry developments to improve awareness, education, and communication surrounding foodborne disease and food safety. Foodborne Diseases, Third Edition, is a comprehensive update with strong new topics of concern from the past decade. Topics include bacterial, fungal, parasitic, and viral foodborne diseases (including disease mechanism and genetics where appropriate), chemical toxicants (including natural intoxicants and bio-toxins), risk-based control measures, and virulence factors of microbial pathogens that cause disease, as well as epigenetics and foodborne pathogens. Other new topics include nanotechnology, bioterrorism and the use of foodborne pathogens, antimicrobial resistance, antibiotic resistance, and more.

The determination of crustal structure by means of explo sion seismology has been one of the major objectives of the European Seismological Commission (ESC) over the past twenty-five years. It was decided some time ago to publish the results of regional crustal investigations in Europe in a series of monographs. This publication entitled "Ex plosion Seismology in Central Europe - Data and Results" is Volume 1 in a sequence of publications dealing with the crustal structure in Europe. The European seismologists are indebted to the German Geo physical Society (Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft) for taking the initiative to publish this book. Thanks are due to the German Research Society (Deutsche Forschungs gemeinschaft) for providing generous financial support of the field measurements and data evaluation. It is hoped that this publication will stimulate a continuation of in vestigations of the earth's lithosphere in order to eluci date the details which are still not fully understood."

Under leadership of CT de Wit a large amount of modeling, building prototypes and also application, was carried out in the 1970s and 1980s. Comprehensive models were built, evaluated and carefully documented in the areas of crop growth production, plant breeding, soil water and nutrients, and in crop protection. Simulation techniques and biophysical theories developed in parallel. Simulation and experimentation always went hand in hand. Much of this work is documented in a long series of PhD theses under supervision of De Wit, in the series of Simulation Monographs (PUDOC), and in numerous other publications. This work has inspired many scientists across the global science community. The CT de Wit Graduate School of Production Ecology (PE) of the Wageningen University builds further on this platform and finds new subjects for research on and with models, and data. The PE platform provides also an excellent opportunity to develop contacts, cooperation and joint software with research groups in related fields and abroad. This book precipitates from such an exploration in new directions. We realize that modem information systems and statistics can offer a substantial contribution to the modelling framework. Good examples can be found here, and these provide a clear direction for the years to come.

In the current environment, most political violence occurs between internal communities, such as ethnic and religious groups, rather than between states. Such inter-communal conflict threatens both internal political stability and interstate relations. In this edited volume, a multidisciplinary and multinational group of scholars analyze the bases of inter-communal conflict and its domestic and international consequences. The authors focus on inter-communal conflict through the lenses of political struggles in the Middle East and Asia, which provide fertile grounds for assessing the viability of new social constructions and the continuing impact of ancestral ties. Containing theoretical, regional, and country studies, the chapters tackle such issues as: the implications of changes in the institutional rules for political competition; how explanatory narratives for conflict are selected when multiple attributions are possible; the bases of ideological conflict that have arisen within Islam; the problems of ethnic competition that remain unresolved in powersharing arrangements; the consequences for international relations when national boundaries do not circumscribe ethnic and religious communities; and the subordination of women's interests to religious conflict and its resolution. Since identities are shaped by multiple qualities, the contributions examine the role of ideologies, institutions, and politicians in shaping political cleavages, communities, and conflicts. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

This book is a collection of papers on spatial statistics for remote sensing. The book emerges from a study day that was organized in 1996 at the International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences, ITC, in Enschede, The Netherlands. It was by several means a memorable event. The beautiful new building, according to a design by the famous modern Dutch architect Max van Huet was just opened, and this workshop was the first to take place there. Of course, much went wrong during the workshop, in particular as the newest electronic equipment regularly failed. But the workshop attrackted more than hundred attendants, and was generally well received. The results of the workshop have been published in Stein et al. (1998). The aim of the workshop was to address issues of spatial statistics for remote sensing. The ITC has a long history on collecting and analyzing satellite and other remote sensing data, but its involvement into spatial statistics is of a more recent date. Uncertainties in remote sensing images and the large amounts of data in many spectral bands are now considered to be of such an impact that it requires a separate approach from a statistical point of view. To quote from the justification of the study day, we read: Modern communication means such as remote sensing require an advanced use of collected data. Satellites collect data with different resolution on different spectral bands.

As one of the biological factors that most powerfully impacted history, infectious diseases continue to be a leading cause of global morbidity and mortality. At least two major factors are making infectious diseases assume more important roles than ever before. One of these is the increasing ability of certain microorganisms, normally limited to other species, to cross or jump across the species barrier and become human pathogens. The second factor -- our increasing and unprecedented global mobility which has made traveling between any two remote locations on the planet possible in less than 24 hours. As a result, a local outbreak anywhere in the world becomes a global concern. A significant challenge that is shared by most (if not all) infectious diseases is our insufficient understanding of the dynamic host-pathogen interaction. In particular, one of the gaps in visualizing our interaction with microorganisms stems from the fact that historically, pathogen transmission in populations was assumed to be homogeneous, with infected individuals having approximately equal opportunities to infect secondary contacts. However, in what became known as "the 20/80 rule", an increasing number of studies and observations point towards a small number of individuals (20%) that are responsible for most (80%) transmission events in a population. This minority of individuals who infect a disproportionately large number of secondary contacts has become known as "super-spreaders". The phenomenon of super-spreading lies at the core of understanding the biology of microorganisms and their ability to cause outbreaks, and is instrumental for developing and implementing preventive and therapeutic strategies. This book proposes to examine super-spreading in infectious diseases. Super-spreading dates back as far as Typhoid Mary, the first documented example, and it was documented for most microorganisms, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Plasmodium and Schistosoma species, HIV, hepatitis C, influenza virus, Ebola virus, rhinoviruses, Escherichia coli, West Nile virus, and the SARS coronavirus. A thought-provoking find from the SARS pandemic was that in the absence of super-spreading events, most infected individuals caused very few (if any) secondary contacts, but a low number of super-spreaders fueled the global outbreak. Super-spreading was described in human, animal, and plant hosts, and it exists at the level of the individual as well as at that of the species. One of the common denominators of super-spreading events is that they are virtually always identified only retroactively, as part of epidemiologic investigations. There is, however, a great interest and an acute need in being able to prospectively predict super-spreading, as this would considerably improve the opportunities to prevent, control, and limit outbreaks. A fundamentally important and far-reaching topic in infectious diseases, the study of super-spreading holds key implications for managing epidemics and pandemics, and promises to fill an important gap in microbiology, medicine, public health, agriculture, animal sciences, and biodefense.

The food market is changing from a producer-controlled to a consumer-directed market. A main driving force is consumer concern about agricultural production methods and food safety. More than before, the consumer demands transparency of the production and processing chain.
A food chain can be quite complex and the use of models has become indispensable to handle this complexity. Modelling tools are becoming increasingly important to guide the decisions for production of high-quality and safe agricultural foods. With the aid of models it becomes possible to control and predict quality attributes, so that product innovation can be done more efficiently. However, quality is an elusive concept, and there is always an aspect of subjectivity and uncertainty.
A novel approach in the agro-food chain would be to tackle subjective elements and uncertainty in modelling by using Bayesian statistics and Bayesian Belief Networks. Bayesian approaches use prior probabilities (partly accounting for subjectivity) to estimate posterior probabilities, resulting in higher accuracy than is possible with classical statistical techniques. Thus, the variability and uncertainty in data and decisions, inherent in a complex food chain, can be dealt with.

Covering all the knowledge and skills needed for everyday duties as well as success on certification and recertification exams, The Ophthalmic Assistant, 11th Edition, is an essential resource for allied health personnel working in ophthalmology, optometry, opticianry, and other eye care settings. Drs. Harold A. Stein, Raymond M. Stein, and Melvin I. Freeman are joined by new editor Dr. Rebecca Stein and several new contributing authors who provide practical, up-to-date guidance on ocular diseases, surgical procedures, medications, and equipment, as well as paramedical procedures and office management for today's practice. This outstanding reference and review tool provides essential knowledge and guidance for ophthalmic assistants, technicians, and technologists as critical members of the eye care team. Keeps you up to date with coverage of key topics such as topography-guided PRK, cataract surgery with multifocal IOLs to treat presbyopia, and OCT and OCTA, as well as the latest information on basic science, new testing procedures and equipment, and two new chapters on refractive surgery and eye banking. Provides full-color visual guidance for identification of ophthalmic disorders, explanations of difficult concepts, and depictions of the newest equipment used in ophthalmology and optometry-more than 1,000 images in all. Features more than 400 interactive multiple-choice review questions that test your knowledge and understanding of key concepts. Includes a bonus color-image atlas that tests your clinical recognition of disease and disorders of the eye. Contains convenient quick-reference appendices with hospital/practice forms for more efficient patient record keeping, conversion tables, and numerous language translations, plus information on ocular emergencies, pharmaceuticals, and more. Enhanced eBook version included with purchase. Your enhanced eBook allows you to access all of the text, figures, and references from the book on a variety of devices.

Academic clinicians, clinical scientists, well-known practitioners of alternative medicine, and authors of popular works on the subject summarize the facts about complementary cardiovascular medicines so that physicians can confidently and knowledgeably advise their patients. The authors comprehensively explain the background for each important alternative therapy, its rationale, the evidence supporting its use, its possible interaction with standard medicines, and, where possible, what is known about its safety and efficacy. The therapies for treating coronary heart disease (CHD) range from the more commonly encountered herbs, vitamins, supplements, and dietary fats and oils, to such less familiar techniques as acupuncture, homeopathy, massage, chelation therapy, meditation, aroma therapies, prayer, and energy therapies.

"My walk through life
in words and pictures." HS

Dr. Harold Stein grew up in the small border town of Niagara Falls, Canada and went on to become a world authority in ophthalmology. Not all the things he learned along the way came from a text book or lecture as he illustrates in his memoirs.
Follow along as he traces his early years, dodging across moving trains to get to school, trading a rifle for bugle in high school and the life changing encounter which inspired him to choose medicine as a career.
While ophthalmology is a serious specialty, Dr. Stein never loses sight of his sense of humor, sharing his own faux pas in investments, family life and medicine.
His stories are also a journey through history: the pre war years in Canada, of the post-war years at university as Toronto grew to become a world class city.
In those years society, culture and technology changes and Dr. Stein gives us a front row seat through the 1950s and 1960s as he pursues his studies at the world famous Mayo Clinic and later Oxford University before starting at a suburban hospital built on a dirt road and surrounded by farms.
Join him as he travels the world, sometimes for pleasure, sometimes to give back by using his skills to treat patients in the third world who would otherwise be blind or go blind.
It's an adventure of a lifetime with lots of laughs along the way.

HAROLD A. STEIN M.D., FRCSC
10 BELLAIR ST SUITE1805 TORONTO ONT.CANADA
M5R3T8
EMAIL hastein @earthlink.net
OR [email protected]>
ph)416-920-2083
FAX 416-920-4288

Brutally Honest & Ridiculously Funny...Table Talk: Memoirs of a Bikini Waxer is a hilarious collection of stories, opinions, rantings and ravings that will leave you laughing your hairless ass OFF Each chapter represents a different hat worn by Caren on any given day as a hair removal specialist. The Bikini Waxer -- The Love Doctor -- The Bearded Lady -- The Belle of the Balls- no subject is off limits. Not only funny but sincere and uplifting, this book will leave any female reader with a sense of womanly pride and dynamism. "As a woman who knows women, I have found that no issue is too big or too small to discuss. We are passionate conversationalists regardless of the subject matter. Whatever the issue may be from finding a new wrinkle or a gray hair to buying a new outfit, dating a jerk, getting a divorce or not knowing what color to paint the damn powder room, it's all important to us - at least for the time it's on the table. Some women look to me for answers. I can only tell them what I would do in certain situations but it's important to tread lightly with some subjects. After all, despite what some may think, I don't have all the answers. Who on this planet does?" Caren A. Stein

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!