Scale is a word which underlies much of architectural and urban design practice, its history and theory, and its technology. Its connotations have traditionally been linked with the humanities, in the sense of relating to human societies and to human form. To build in scale is an aspiration that is usually taken for granted by most of those involved in architectural production, as well as by members of the public; yet in a world where value systems of all kinds are being questioned, the term has come under renewed scrutiny. The older, more particular, meanings in the humanities, pertaining to classical Western culture, are where the sense of scale often resides in cultural production.

Scale may be traced back, ultimately, to the discovery of musical harmonies, and in the arithmetic proportional relationship of the building to its parts. One might question the continued relevance of this understanding of scale in the global world of today. What, in other words, is culturally specific about scale? And what does scale mean in a world where an intuitive, visual understanding is often undermined or superseded by other senses, or by hyper-reality? Structured thematically in three parts, this book addresses various issues of scale. The book includes an introduction which sets the scene in terms of current architectural discourse and also contains a visual essay in each section. It is of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, academics and practitioners in architecture and architectural theory as well as to students in a range of other disciplines including art history and theory, geography, anthropology and landscape architecture.

This book examines the ways women politicians in Serbia and Kosovo have imagined, constructed, and politicised national identity and gender while engaging with politics in the context of the democratisation process. The first book to focus on the work of women inside political structures, it draws on participant observation and interview material to answer the question of how women in positions of power and influence deal with their national identity and gender in societies deeply divided along ethnic lines. Based on close studies of the work of a small number of women from different ethnic backgrounds, the author offers comparative analyses of the ways in which women politicians of different ethnicities respond to similar events in their everyday work. An original political ethnography that considers engagement of women in formal politics, this volume will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in political structures and political participation, particularly as these relate to questions of gender, nation and ethnicity.

The recent financial crisis has thrown many of the mergers and acquisitions of recent years into sharp focus. Too many have failed to generate real value for shareholders and many others have only proved lukewarm successes. Although it is impossible to assess accurately the extent to which these failures may be the result of poor planning and execution, they have raised considerable questions about the process, breadth and effectiveness of traditional due diligence activities. Value in Due Diligence explores new applications for due diligence including areas such as corporate culture, social responsibility, and innovation. It also examines the due diligence process itself to draw out those elements that provide effective risk and opportunity management as opposed to simple compliance.

This book examines the ways women politicians in Serbia and Kosovo have imagined, constructed, and politicised national identity and gender while engaging with politics in the context of the democratisation process. The first book to focus on the work of women inside political structures, it draws on participant observation and interview material to answer the question of how women in positions of power and influence deal with their national identity and gender in societies deeply divided along ethnic lines. Based on close studies of the work of a small number of women from different ethnic backgrounds, the author offers comparative analyses of the ways in which women politicians of different ethnicities respond to similar events in their everyday work. An original political ethnography that considers engagement of women in formal politics, this volume will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in political structures and political participation, particularly as these relate to questions of gender, nation and ethnicity.

This book considers cultural psychology from historical, theoretical, and epistemological perspectives, building an understanding of cultural psychology as a human science and moving beyond the nature-culture dichotomy. The unique collection of chapters seeks to advance the field of cultural psychology by reviving its historical legacies and arguing for its social responsibility in future historical developments. It considers European legacies for cultural psychology as developed by leading figures such as Giambattista Vico, Wilhelm Wundt, Wilhelm Dilthey, and Ernst Cassirer in order to provide insights into a long tradition of thinking from a cultural psychology perspective. The book discusses historical pathways in the rise and repression of cultural psychology and its different historical forms, arguing for the necessity of decolonizing psychology, securing a place for culture in it, and developing an epistemology suited to humankind's meaning-making processes in mutual shaping of psyche and culture. It provides an integrative and historical understanding of the subject and uses the diversity and heterogeneity within the field to offer critical reflections on its achievements. The thoroughly international group of contributors brings diverse analyses of self, body, emotions, culture, and society and considers the future of cultural psychology. The volume is a stimulating read for scholars and students of cultural and theoretical psychology and related areas including philosophy, anthropology, and history.

From the mid-1960s onwards Michel Foucault has had a significant impact on diverse aspects of culture, knowledge and arts including architecture and its critical discourse. The implications for architecture have been wide-ranging. His archaeological and genealogical approaches to knowledge have transformed architectural history and theory, while his attitude to arts and aesthetics led to a renewed focus on the avant-garde. Prepared by an architect, this book offers an excellent entry point into the remarkable work of Michel Foucault, and provides a focused introduction suitable for architects, urban designers, and students of architecture. Foucault's crucial juxtaposition of space, knowledge and power has unlocked novel spatial possibilities for thinking about design in architecture and urbanism. While the philosopher's ultimate attention on the issues of body and sexuality has defined our understanding of the possibilities and limits of human condition and its relation to architecture. The book concentrates on a number of historical and theoretical issues often addressed by Foucault that have been grouped under the themes of archaeology, enclosure, bodies, spatiality and aesthetics in order to examine and demonstrate their relevancy for architectural knowledge, its history and its practice.

Despite traffic circles, four-way stop signs, lights regulated by timers or sensors, and other methods, the management of urban intersections remains problematic. Consider that transportation systems have all the features of so-called complex systems: the great number of state and control variables, the presence of uncertainty and indeterminism, the complex interactions between subsystems, the necessity to optimize several optimization criteria, and active behavior of the controlled process, to name just a few. Therefore, a mathematical approach to these systems can resolve their complex issues more elegantly than other methods. Addressing both efficiency and traffic safety issues, Optimal Traffic Control: Urban Intersections examines the traffic control optimization problem and presents a novel solution method. Using an approach based on control theory, graph theory, and combinatorial optimization, the authors derive a full mathematical description of the traffic control problem and enumerate all combinatorial aspects. The result is a set of algorithmic solutions to various problems along with computer implementation that you can incorporate into real traffic control systems for immediate results. The book concludes by evaluating how the choice of a complete set of signal groups influences intersection performance. Although modern cities throughout the world have a unique character influenced by culture, geography, and population, most of them share one main feature: busy intersections and the issue of controlling the traffic traveling through them. The development of information technologies, especially computer and telecommunications techniques, has changed the complexity of theproblem and influenced the development of new solutions. Clearly stating the issues and presenting a possible solution, this book shows you how to take full advantage of all the capabilities of microprocessor-based traffic signal controllers.

This new collection of key authors on nationalism presents the latest thinking on this fundamental aspect of Politics, International Relations and Sociology. John Breuilly, Walker Connor, Steven Grosby, Eric Hobsbawm, Anthony D Smith and Pierre van den Berghe comprehensively explain and address the key contemporary question in nationalism studies of 'when is the nation?' , or what point in a nation's history is it born, with authority and freshness. Our world is still deeply imbedded in the language and practice of nations and nationalism and they remain central parts in understanding human society. This comparison and contrast of the main approaches reveals their strengths and weaknesses. This new text: * introduces the main schools of thought with clarity and concision * tackles the most pertinent questions in nationalism * delivers both theoretical and empirical perspectives * uses an innovative new interactive debate format with questions and answers * presents key case studies bringing theory to life The inclusion of case studies gives the reader fresh insight into specific nations and national groups, including The United States, Greece, England and Fiji. The accessible debate format puts main theories and thinkers to the test, enabling the reader to interact with the issues directly. This unique volume is an invaluable resource for students and scholars of nationalism, ethnicity and global conflict.

This new collection of key authors on nationalism presents the latest thinking on this fundamental aspect of Politics, International Relations and Sociology. John Breuilly, Walker Connor, Steven Grosby, Eric Hobsbawm, Anthony D Smith and Pierre van den Berghe comprehensively explain and address the key contemporary question in nationalism studies of 'when is the nation?' , or what point in a nation's history is it born, with authority and freshness. Our world is still deeply imbedded in the language and practice of nations and nationalism and they remain central parts in understanding human society. This comparison and contrast of the main approaches reveals their strengths and weaknesses. This new text: * introduces the main schools of thought with clarity and concision * tackles the most pertinent questions in nationalism * delivers both theoretical and empirical perspectives * uses an innovative new interactive debate format with questions and answers * presents key case studies bringing theory to life The inclusion of case studies gives the reader fresh insight into specific nations and national groups, including The United States, Greece, England and Fiji. The accessible debate format puts main theories and thinkers to the test, enabling the reader to interact with the issues directly. This unique volume is an invaluable resource for students and scholars of nationalism, ethnicity and global conflict.

The recent financial crisis has thrown many of the mergers and acquisitions of recent years into sharp focus. Too many have failed to generate real value for shareholders and many others have only proved lukewarm successes. Although it is impossible to assess accurately the extent to which these failures may be the result of poor planning and execution, they have raised considerable questions about the process, breadth and effectiveness of traditional due diligence activities. Value in Due Diligence explores new applications for due diligence including areas such as corporate culture, social responsibility, and innovation. It also examines the due diligence process itself to draw out those elements that provide effective risk and opportunity management as opposed to simple compliance.

Latin American and Caribbean communities and civil societies are undergoing a rapid process of transformation. Instead of pervasive social atomization, political apathy, and hollowed-out democracies, which have become the norm in some parts of the world, this region is witnessing an emerging collaboration between community, civil society, and government that is revitalizing democracy. This book argues that a key explanation lies in the powerful and positive relationship between community and civil society that exists in the region. The ideas of community and civil society tend to be studied separately, as analytically distinct concepts however, this volume seeks to explore their potential to work together. A unique contribution of the work is the space for dialogue it creates between the social sciences and the humanities. Many of the studies included in the volume are based on primary fieldwork and place-based case studies. Others relate literature, music and film to important theoretical works, providing a new direction in interdisciplinary studies, and highlighting the role that the arts play in community revival and broader processes of social change. A truly multi-disciplinary book bridging established notions of civil society and community through an authentically interdisciplinary approach to the topic.

Designer Cropping Systems for Polluted Land explores the processes and techniques of making polluted land safe for planting edible and non-edible crops. The book provides readers and practitioners with a comprehensive understanding of contaminated land use through designer cropping systems. It seeks to present promising and affordable practices for transforming polluted lands while also providing an excellent basis from which scientific knowledge can grow and widen in the fields of phytoremediation-based biofortification.

Scale is a word which underlies much of architectural and urban design practice, its history and theory, and its technology. Its connotations have traditionally been linked with the humanities, in the sense of relating to human societies and to human form. To build in scale is an aspiration that is usually taken for granted by most of those involved in architectural production, as well as by members of the public; yet in a world where value systems of all kinds are being questioned, the term has come under renewed scrutiny. The older, more particular, meanings in the humanities, pertaining to classical Western culture, are where the sense of scale often resides in cultural production.

Scale may be traced back, ultimately, to the discovery of musical harmonies, and in the arithmetic proportional relationship of the building to its parts. One might question the continued relevance of this understanding of scale in the global world of today. What, in other words, is culturally specific about scale? And what does scale mean in a world where an intuitive, visual understanding is often undermined or superseded by other senses, or by hyper-reality? Structured thematically in three parts, this book addresses various issues of scale. The book includes an introduction which sets the scene in terms of current architectural discourse and also contains a visual essay in each section. It is of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, academics and practitioners in architecture and architectural theory as well as to students in a range of other disciplines including art history and theory, geography, anthropology and landscape architecture.

Lonely Planet's Eastern Europe Phrasebook & Dictionary is your handy passport to culturally enriching travels with the most relevant and useful European phrases and vocabulary for all your travel needs. Ask for directions to historic sites, order regional delicacies, and propose a toast like a local - all with your trusted travel companion. With language tools in your back pocket, you can truly get to the heart of wherever you go, so begin your journey now! Get More From Your Trip with Easy-to-Find Phrases for Every Travel Situation! Order with confidence, explain food allergies, and try new foods with the menu decoder Save time and hassles with vital phrases at your fingertips Never get stuck for words with the 3500-word two-way, quick-reference dictionary Be prepared for both common and emergency travel situations with practical phrases and terminology Meet friends with conversation starter phrases Get your message across with easy-to-use pronunciation guides Inside Lonely Planet's Eastern Europe Phrasebook & Dictionary: Phrases to Learn Before You Go Ways to Start a Sentence Phrases to Sound like a Local Listen For - phrases you may hear Look For - phrases you may see on signs Shortcuts - easy-to-remember alternatives to the full phrases Q&A - suggested answers to questions asked Covers Basics - time, dates, numbers, amounts, pronunciation, reading tips, grammar rules Practical - travel with kids, disabled travellers, senior travellers, sightseeing, business, banking, post office, internet, phones, repairs, shopping, bargaining, accommodations, directions, border crossing, transport Social - meeting people, interests, feelings, opinions, going out, romance, culture, activities, weather Safe Travel - emergencies, police, doctor, chemist, dentist, symptoms, conditions Food - ordering, at the market, at the bar, dishes, ingredients The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet's Eastern Europe Phrasebook & Dictionary, our pocket-sized comprehensive language guide, provides on-the-go language assistance. Great for language students and travellers looking to interact with locals and immerse themselves in local culture. Check out our Fast Talk Phrasebook mobile app for on-the-go language needs. (Available languages: German, Latin Spanish, European Spanish, French, and Italian.)

Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Anyone can speak another language! It's all about confidence. Israelis love to chat, so don't be surprised - or caught out - if a total stranger starts up a heated discussion while you wait at a bus stop or felafel stand. An ancient language, Hebrew is the lingua franca of this most cosmopolitan of countries. Whether on a working holiday or on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, this book is an essential companion into the fascinating life of Israel. Never get stuck for words with our 3500-word two-way dictionary Order the right meal with our menu decoder Avoid embarrassing situations with essential tips on culture & manners Coverage includes: Basics, Practical, Social, Safe Travel and Food. Lonely Planet gets you to the heart of a place. Our job is to make amazing travel experiences happen. We visit the places we write about each and every edition. We never take freebies for positive coverage, so you can always rely on us to tell it like it is. Authors: Written and researched by Lonely Planet, Justin Ben-Adam Rudelson, and Klara Ilana Wistinetzki. About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places they find themselves in. 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves, it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia)

Never be stuck for words with our extensive dictionary. Our phrasebooks give you a comprehensive mix of practical and social words and phrases. Chat with the locals and discover their culture, a guaranteed way to enrich your travel experience. Get more from your trip with easy-to-find phrases for every travel situation. Order the right meal with our menu vocabulary. Use our carefully selected words and phrases to get around with ease.

This book summarizes the preparation, characterization and applications of rubber based nano blends. Rubbers from natural and synthetic polymers and their blends are discussed in the individual chapters, including nitrile, polyurethane, chlorosulphonated, polybutadiene, styrene butadiene, polychloroprene rubbers. In each chapter, contributors from academia and industry describe the preparation and characterization of the rubber blends. Therefore, a variety of characterization methods like tensile testing, differential scanning calorimetry, dynamical mechanical analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, electron microscopy, scattering and diffraction techniques, and rheology measurements are utilized. The authors evaluate the properties of the different materials and discuss numerous fields of application, ranging from biomedicine, packaging, coatings and automobile to aerospace.

Lonely Planet's Europe Phrasebook & Dictionary is your handy passport to culturally enriching travels with the most relevant and useful European phrases and vocabulary for all your travel needs. Ask for directions to historical sites, delve further into local culture, and order culinary specialties with confidence - all with your trusted travel companion. With language tools in your back pocket, you can truly get to the heart of wherever you go, so begin your journey now! Get More From Your Trip with Easy-to-Find Phrases for Every Travel Situation! Order with confidence, explain food allergies, and try new foods with the menu decoder Save time and hassles with vital phrases at your fingertips Never get stuck for words with the 3500-word two-way, quick-reference dictionary Be prepared for both common and emergency travel situations with practical phrases and terminology Meet friends with conversation starter phrases Get your message across with easy-to-use pronunciation guides Inside Lonely Planet's Europe Phrasebook & Dictionary: Phrases to Learn Before You Go Ways to Start a Sentence Phrases to Sound like a Local Listen For - phrases you may hear Look For - phrases you may see on signs Shortcuts - easy-to-remember alternatives to the full phrases Q&A - suggested answers to questions asked Covers Basics - time, dates, numbers, amounts, pronunciation, reading tips, grammar rules Practical - travel with kids, disabled travellers, senior travellers, sightseeing, business, banking, post office, internet, phones, repairs, shopping, bargaining, accommodations, directions, border crossing, transport Social - meeting people, interests, feelings, opinions, going out, romance, culture, activities, weather Safe Travel - emergencies, police, doctor, chemist, dentist, symptoms, conditions Food - ordering, at the market, at the bar, dishes, ingredients The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet's Europe Phrasebook & Dictionary, our pocket-sized comprehensive language guide, provides on-the-go language assistance. Great for language students and travellers looking to interact with locals and immerse themselves in local culture. Check out our Fast Talk Phrasebook mobile app for on-the-go language needs. (Available languages: German, Latin Spanish, European Spanish, French, and Italian.)

This book offers readers a single-source reference to the implementation aspects of multirate systems, advances in design of comb decimation filters and multirate filter banks. The authors describe a variety of the most recent applications in fields such as, image and video processing, digital communications, software and cognitive radio.

This book enriches our views on representation and deepens our understanding of its different aspects. It arises out of several years of dialog between the editors and the authors, an interdisciplinary team of highly experienced researchers, and it reflects the best contemporary view of representation and reality in humans, other living beings, and intelligent machines. Structured into parts on the cognitive, computational, natural sciences, philosophical, logical, and machine perspectives, a theme of the field and the book is building and presenting networks, and the editors hope that the contributed chapters will spur understanding and collaboration between researchers in domains such as computer science, philosophy, logic, systems theory, engineering, psychology, sociology, anthropology, neuroscience, linguistics, and synthetic biology.

This book summarizes the preparation, characterization and applications of rubber based nano blends. Rubbers from natural and synthetic polymers and their blends are discussed in the individual chapters, including nitrile, polyurethane, chlorosulphonated, polybutadiene, styrene butadiene, polychloroprene rubbers. In each chapter, contributors from academia and industry describe the preparation and characterization of the rubber blends. Therefore, a variety of characterization methods like tensile testing, differential scanning calorimetry, dynamical mechanical analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, electron microscopy, scattering and diffraction techniques, and rheology measurements are utilized. The authors evaluate the properties of the different materials and discuss numerous fields of application, ranging from biomedicine, packaging, coatings and automobile to aerospace.

Biomimetics and Stem Cells: Methods and Protocols collects a series of approaches to demonstrate the role and value of biomimetics for the better understanding of stem cell behavior and the acceleration of their application in regenerative medicine. Recent advances in tissue engineering are enabling scientists to ''instruct'' stem cells toward differentiating into the right phenotypes, in the right place and at the right time. Given these advances, biomimetic environments are being designed to recapitulate, in vitro, the combinations of factors known to guide tissue development and regeneration in vivo and thereby help unlock the full potential of the stem cells. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Practical and essential, Biomimetics and Stem Cells: Methods and Protocols focuses on the use of biomimetic systems for stem cells in order to aid in moving this vital field of study forward.

This book is about nature considered as the totality of physical existence, the universe, and our present day attempts to understand it. If we see the universe as a network of networks of computational processes at many different levels of organization, what can we learn about physics, biology, cognition, social systems, and ecology expressed through interacting networks of elementary particles, atoms, molecules, cells, (and especially neurons when it comes to understanding of cognition and intelligence), organs, organisms and their ecologies? Regarding our computational models of natural phenomena Feynman famously wondered: "Why should it take an infinite amount of logic to figure out what one tiny piece of space/time is going to do?" Phenomena themselves occur so quickly and automatically in nature. Can we learn how to harness nature's computational power as we harness its energy and materials? This volume includes a selection of contributions from the Symposium on Natural Computing/Unconventional Computing and Its Philosophical Significance, organized during the AISB/IACAP World Congress 2012, held in Birmingham, UK, on July 2-6, on the occasion of the centenary of Alan Turing's birth. In this book, leading researchers investigated questions of computing nature by exploring various facets of computation as we find it in nature: relationships between different levels of computation, cognition with learning and intelligence, mathematical background, relationships to classical Turing computation and Turing's ideas about computing nature - unorganized machines and morphogenesis. It addresses questions of information, representation and computation, interaction as communication, concurrency and agent models; in short this book presents natural computing and unconventional computing as extension of the idea of computation as symbol manipulation.

This book provides anyone needing a primer on random signals and processes with a highly accessible introduction to these topics. It assumes a minimal amount of mathematical background and focuses on concepts, related terms and interesting applications to a variety of fields. All of this is motivated by numerous examples implemented with MATLAB, as well as a variety of exercises at the end of each chapter.

"Biomimetics and Stem Cells: Methods and Protocols" collects a series of approaches to demonstrate the role and value of biomimetics for the better understanding of stem cell behavior and the acceleration of their application in regenerative medicine. Recent advances in tissue engineering are enabling scientists to instruct stem cells toward differentiating into the right phenotypes, in the right place and at the right time. Given these advances, biomimetic environments are being designed to recapitulate, in vitro, the combinations of factors known to guide tissue development and regeneration in vivo and thereby help unlock the full potential of the stem cells. Written in the highly successful "Methods in Molecular Biology" series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.Practical and essential, "Biomimetics and Stem Cells: Methods and Protocols" focuses on the use of biomimetic systems for stem cells in order to aid in moving this vital field of study forward."