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The real estate industry has been severely affected by recent developments in international capital markets. There has been a decline in real estate investment trust (REIT) share prices, and a decline in capital available for real estate ventures. These setbacks have coincided with serious financial problems of very large hedge funds and other institutional investors in the market for commercial mortgage-backed securities. This volume collects the revised papers first presented at a conference hosted by New York University's Salomon Center on the impact of globalization on real estate business cycles. To this end, the conference offered new insights into the implications of U.S. and global real estate cycles on real estate securities including REITs and mortgage-backed securities as well as direct real estate investment. The most important insight is that the amplitude and frequency of the cycles differ from place to place and time to time. To the extent that this implies that real estate markets around the world are not yet fully integrated, there are opportunities for global investors. There are also risks; the markets are becoming more correlated, most particularly in periods of crisis. Indeed, the relative immaturity of the Thai real estate market contributed significantly to the extent and severity of the Asian financial crisis of 1997. To exploit these opportunities and to manage the resulting risk, portfolio managers need to develop new data sources and empirical procedures designed to maximize the information content of the data that is available. The lack of high quality data emerges as the central and most pressing issue, not only from a portfolio management context, but alsofrom the standpoint of public policy.
The field of forensic DNA analysis has grown immensely in the past two decades and genotyping of biological samples is now routinely performed in human identification (HID) laboratories. Application areas include paternity testing, forensic casework, family lineage studies, identification of human remains, and DNA databasing. Forensic DNA Analysis: Current Practices and Emerging Technologies explores the fundamental principles and the application of technologies for each aspect of forensic DNA analysis. The book begins by discussing the value of DNA evidence and how to properly recognize, document, collect, and store it. The remaining chapters examine: The most widely adopted methods and the best practices for DNA isolation from forensic biological samples and human remains Studies carried out on the use of both messenger RNA and small (micro) RNA profiling Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods for quantification and assessment of human DNA prior to genotyping Capillary electrophoresis (CE) as a tool for forensic DNA analysis Next-generation short tandem repeat (STR) genotyping kits for forensic applications, the biological nature of STR loci, and Y-chromosome STRs (Y-STRs) Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence analysis Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertion/deletion polymorphisms (indels) in typing highly degraded DNA Deep-sequencing technologies The current state of integrated systems in forensic DNA analysis The book concludes by discussing various aspects of sample-processing training and the entities that provide such training programs. This volume is an essential resource for students, researchers, teaching faculties, and other professionals interested in human identification/forensic DNA analysis.
Are languages incommensurate? If so, how do people establish and maintain hypothetical equivalences between words and their meanings? What does it mean to translate one culture into the language of another on the basis of commonly conceived equivalences? This study -- bridging contemporary theory Chinese history, comparative literature, and culture studies -- analyzes the historical interactions among China, japan. and the West in terms of "translingual practice." By this term, the author refers to the process by which new words, meanings, discourses, and modes of representation arose, circulated, and acquired legitimacy in early modern China as it contacted/collided with European/Japanese languages and literatures. In reexamining the rise of modern Chinese literature in this context, the book asks three central questions: How did "modernity" and "the West" become legitimized in May Fourth literary discourse? What happened to native agency in this complex process of legitimation? How did the Chinese national culture imagine and interpret its own moment of unfolding? After the first chapter, which deals with the theoretical issues, ensuing chapters treat particular instances of translingual practice such as national character, individualism, stylistic innovations, first-person narration, and canon formation. The author reexamines the works of Lu Xun, Lao She, Shi Zhicun, Ding Ling, Xiao Hong, and others in this light, and concludes by probing the unprecedented conditions under which Chinese writers and critics moved from confidence in the absolute centrality of their civilization to rethinking Chinese literature and culture as one among many national literatures and cultures.Inshort, what does it mean to be Zhongguo ren (men and women of the Middle Kingdom) in terms of what is not of the Middle Kingdom? An appendix lists and classifies over 1,800 loanwords and neologisms introduced into modern Chinese before 1950, the largest annotated collection to be found a
Collective memory can make and break political culture around the world. Representations and reinterpretations of the past intersect with actions that shape the future. A nation's political culture emerges from complex layers of institutional and individual responses to historical events. Society changes and is changed by these layers of memory over time. Understanding them gives us insight into where we are today. Encompassing examples from colonization and decolonization, revolving around the critical junctures of the world wars, this book illustrates how collective memory is produced and organized, through commemoration, through monuments, and through individuals sharing stories. Using concrete examples from around the world, James H. Liu shows how different disciplines can come together through shared concepts like narratives and generational memories to provide mutually enriching perspectives on how political culture is made, and how it changes.
What explains the treatment of ethnic minorities in Southeast Asia? This Element conceptually disaggregates ethnicity into multiple constituent markers - specifically language, religion, and phenotype. By focusing on the interaction between these three ethnic markers, Liu and Ricks explore how overlap between these markers can affect whether a minority integrates within a broader ethnic identity; successfully extracts accommodation as unique group; or engages in a contentious and potentially violent relationship with the hegemon. The argument is tested through six case studies: (1) ethnic Lao in Thailand: integration; (2) ethnic Chinese in Thailand: integration; (3) ethnic Chinese in Malaysia: accommodation; (4) ethnic Malays in Singapore: accommodation; (5) ethnic Malays in Thailand: contention; and (6) ethnic Chinese in Indonesia: contention.
The field of forensic DNA analysis has grown immensely in the past two decades and genotyping of biological samples is now routinely performed in human identification (HID) laboratories. Application areas include paternity testing, forensic casework, family lineage studies, identification of human remains, and DNA databasing. Forensic DNA Analysis: Current Practices and Emerging Technologies explores the fundamental principles and the application of technologies for each aspect of forensic DNA analysis. The book begins by discussing the value of DNA evidence and how to properly recognize, document, collect, and store it. The remaining chapters examine: The most widely adopted methods and the best practices for DNA isolation from forensic biological samples and human remains Studies carried out on the use of both messenger RNA and small (micro) RNA profiling Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods for quantification and assessment of human DNA prior to genotyping Capillary electrophoresis (CE) as a tool for forensic DNA analysis Next-generation short tandem repeat (STR) genotyping kits for forensic applications, the biological nature of STR loci, and Y-chromosome STRs (Y-STRs) Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence analysis Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertion/deletion polymorphisms (indels) in typing highly degraded DNA Deep-sequencing technologies The current state of integrated systems in forensic DNA analysis The book concludes by discussing various aspects of sample-processing training and the entities that provide such training programs. This volume is an essential resource for students, researchers, teaching faculties, and other professionals interested in human identification/forensic DNA analysis.
Impedance Source Power Electronic Converters brings together state of the art knowledge and cutting edge techniques in various stages of research related to the ever more popular impedance source converters/inverters. Significant research efforts are underway to develop commercially viable and technically feasible, efficient and reliable power converters for renewable energy, electric transportation and for various industrial applications. This book provides a detailed understanding of the concepts, designs, controls, and application demonstrations of the impedance source converters/inverters. Key features: * Comprehensive analysis of the impedance source converter/inverter topologies, including typical topologies and derived topologies. * Fully explains the design and control techniques of impedance source converters/inverters, including hardware design and control parameter design for corresponding control methods. * Presents the latest power conversion solutions that aim to advance the role of power electronics into industries and sustainable energy conversion systems. * Compares impedance source converter/inverter applications in renewable energy power generation and electric vehicles as well as different industrial applications. * Provides an overview of existing challenges, solutions and future trends. * Supported by calculation examples, simulation models and results. Highly accessible, this is an invaluable resource for researchers, postgraduate/graduate students studying power electronics and its application in industry and renewable energy conversion as well as practising R&D engineers. Readers will be able to apply the presented material for the future design of the next generation of efficient power electronic converters/inverters.
In March 1999, New York University Salomon Center in assocIatIOn with the Department of Finance at NYU Stern held a one-day conference on the impact of real estate cycles on the real estate industry both from a domestic as well as an international perspective. The conference featured the leading research on this topic in the United States, Europe and Asia. Currendy, the real estate industry is at a critical point. New development projects around the world are being put on hold given recent developments in the international capital markets. The industry is hard hit by the decline in real estate investment trust (REIT) share prices and a shrink ing pool of capital for real estate ventures. This has unfortunately coincided with serious financial problems of very large hedge funds and other institutional investors in the market for commercial mortgage backed securities. There is need for new insights into the implications of U. S. and global real estate cycles on real estate secu rities including REITs and mortgage-backed securities as well as direct real estate investment. This global orientation is important given the high mobility of capital into the real estate, the increasing integration of real estate markets, and the proposed expan sion of real estate investment trusts (REIT) into international real estate. The process of globalization has resulted in increased competition between cities for the attrac tion of investment."
Alcohol, Drugs, and Impaired Driving addresses many theoretical and practical issues related to the role played by alcohol and other psychoactive drugs on driving performance, road-traffic safety, and public health. Several key forensic issues are involved in the enforcement of laws regulating driving under the influence of alcohol and/or other drugs, including analytical toxicology, pharmacology of drug action, as well as the relationships between dose taken, concentration levels in the body, and impairment of performance and behavior. Our knowledge of drunken driving is much more comprehensive than drugged driving, so a large part of this book is devoted to alcohol impairment, as well as impairment caused by use of drugs other than alcohol. For convenience, the book is divided into four main sections. The first section gives some historical background about measuring alcohol in blood and breath as evidence for the prosecution of traffic offenders. The important role of the Breathalyzer instrument in traffic-law enforcement, especially in Australia, Canada, and the USA is presented along with a biographical sketch of its inventor (Professor Robert F. Borkenstein of Indiana University) with focus on the man, his work and his impact. The second section discusses several issues related to forensic blood and breath-alcohol alcohol analysis as evidence for prosecution of traffic offenders. This includes how the results should be interpreted in relation to impairment and an evaluation of common defense challenges. Because most countries have adopted concentration per se laws, the main thrust of the prosecution case is the suspect's measured blood- or breath-alcohol concentration. This legal framework necessitates that the analytical methods used are "fit for purpose" and are subjected to rigorous quality assurance procedures. The third section gives a broad overview of the current state of knowledge about driving under the influence of non-alcohol drugs in various countries. This includes adoption of zero-tolerance laws, concentration per se statutes, and clinical evidence of driver impairment based on field sobriety tests and drug recognition expert evidence. The fourth section deals with epidemiology, enforcement, and countermeasures aimed at reducing the threat of drunken and drugged driving. All articles have appeared previously in the international journal Forensic Science Review, but all are completely updated with current data, references, and the latest research on developments since the articles were published. This book contains a convenient collection of the best articles covering recommendations for blood and breath testing methods, public policy relating to such methods, and forensic and legal implications of the enforcement of measures to counter driving under the influence.
Languages have deep political significance beyond communication: a common language can strengthen cultural bonds and social trust, or it may exacerbate cultural differences and power imbalances. Language regimes that emerge from political bargains can centralize power by favoring the language of one ethnolinguistic group, share power by recognizing multiple mother tongues, or neutralize power through the use of a lingua franca. Cultural egoism, communicative efficiency, or collective equality determines the choice. As Amy H. Liu demonstrates, the conditions surrounding the choice of a language regime also have a number of implications for a nation's economy."Standardizing Diversity" examines the relationship between the distribution of linguistic power and economic growth. Using a newly assembled dataset of all language-in-education policies in Asia from 1945 to 2005 and drawing on fieldwork data from Malaysia and Singapore, Liu shows language regimes that recognize a lingua franca exclusively--or at least above all others--have a significant positive effect for developing social trust, attracting foreign investment, and stimulating economic growth. Particularly at high levels of heterogeneity, the recognition of a lingua franca is optimal for fostering equality and facilitating efficiency. Her findings challenge the prevailing belief that linguistic diversity is inimical to economic growth, suggesting instead that governments in even the most ethnically heterogeneous countries have institutional tools to standardize their diversity and to thrive economically.
This textbook adopts a unique approach to helping developers and CS students learn Hadoop MapReduce programming fast in an easy-to-setup, virtual 4-node Linux YARN cluster on a Windows laptop. Rather than filled with disjointed, piecemeal code snippets to show Hadoop MapReduce programming features one at a time, it is designed to place your total Hadoop MapReduce programming learning process in a common application context of mining customer spending patterns ensconced in large volumes of credit card transaction record data. Precise, end-to-end procedures are given to help you set up your Hadoop MapReduce development environment quickly on Eclipse with Maven on Windows. Step-by-step procedures are also given on how to set up a four-node Linux cluster at minimum so that you can run your MapReduce programs not only in local but also in standalone and fully distributed mode on a real cluster. In fact, all MapReduce programs presented in the book have been tested and verified on such a Linux cluster. This textbook mainly focuses on teaching Hadoop MapReduce programming in a scientific, objective, quantitative approach. Rather than heavily relying on subjective, verbose (and sometimes even pompous) textual descriptions with sparse code snippets, this textbook uses Hadoop Java APIs, Hadoop configuration parameters, complete MapReduce programs and their execution logs and outputs to demonstrate how Hadoop MapReduce framework works and how to write MapReduce programs. Specifically, this text covers the following subjects: * Introduction to Hadoop * Setting up a Linux Hadoop Cluster * The Hadoop Distributed FileSystem * MapReduce Job Orchestration and Workflows * Basic MapReduce Programming * Advanced MapReduce Programming * Hadoop Streaming * Hadoop Administration No matter what role you play on your team, this text can help you gain truly applicable Hadoop skills in a most effective and efficient manner. The book can also be used as a supplementary textbook for a distributed computing or Hadoop course offered to upper-division CS students.
This book adopts a unique approach to helping enterprise Java developers learn Spring 4 fast. Rather than filled with disjointed, piecemeal samples to show Spring features one at a time, it is designed to base your total Spring learning experience on a functioning, end-to-end integrated sample named SOBA (Secure Online Banking Application), which runs on any one of the three operating systems (Windows, Linux and Mac OS X), any one of the four Java App Servers (Tomcat, GlassFish, JBoss and WebLogic), and any one of the four RDBMS (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle and SQL Server). The book also includes another standalone sample application named MyNotes, which is simpler than SOBA. Specifically, this book helps you learn the following latest Spring technologies: * Spring Core Framework * Spring MVC Web Framework * Spring Data Access Framework (JDBC and Hibernate) * Spring RESTful Web Services Framework * Spring Security Framework * Spring Transaction Management Framework * Spring Validation Framework * Spring Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) Framework * Spring Testing * Spring Integration with EJB * Spring Web Flow Framework At the end of your learning experience with this book, you will gain truly applicable skills and will be able to start contributing to the success of your Spring-based enterprise application project immediately.
This textbook adopts a unique approach to helping developers and CS students learn Hadoop MapReduce programming fast. Rather than filled with disjointed, piecemeal code snippets to show Hadoop MapReduce programming features one at a time, it is designed to place your total Hadoop MapReduce programming learning process in a common application context of mining customer spending patterns ensconced in large volumes of credit card transaction record data. Precise, end-to-end procedures are given to help you set up your Hadoop MapReduce development environment quickly on Eclipse with Maven on Mac OS X. Step-by-step procedures are also given on how to set up a four-node Linux cluster at minimum so that you can run your MapReduce programs not only in local mode on your Mac OS X machine but also in fully distributed mode on a real cluster. In fact, all MapReduce programs presented in the book have been tested and verified in local mode and on such a Linux cluster. This textbook mainly focuses on teaching Hadoop MapReduce programming in a scientific, objective, quantitative approach. Rather than heavily relying on subjective, verbose (and sometimes even pompous) textual descriptions with sparse code snippets, this textbook uses Hadoop Java APIs, Hadoop configuration parameters, complete MapReduce programs and their execution logs and outputs to demonstrate how Hadoop MapReduce framework works and how to write MapReduce programs. Specifically, this text covers the following subjects: *Introduction to Hadoop *Setting up a Linux Hadoop Cluster *The Hadoop Distributed FileSystem *MapReduce Job Orchestration and Workflows *Basic MapReduce Programming *Advanced MapReduce Programming *Hadoop Streaming *Hadoop Administration No matter what role you play on your team, this text can help you gain truly applicable Hadoop skills in a most effective and efficient manner. The book can also be used as a supplementary textbook for a distributed computing or Hadoop course offered to upper-division college CS students.
Speaking about Chinese writing entails thinking about how writing speaks through various media. In the guises of the written character and its imprints, traces, or ruins, writing is more than textuality. The goal of this volume is to consider the relationship of writing to materiality in China's literary history and to ponder the physical aspects of the production and circulation of writing. To speak of the thing-ness of writing is to understand it as a thing in constant motion, transported from one place or time to another, one genre or medium to another, one person or public to another. Thinking about writing as the material product of a culture shifts the emphasis from the author as the creator and ultimate arbiter of a text's meaning to the editors, publishers, collectors, and readers through whose hands a text is reshaped, disseminated, and given new meanings. By yoking writing and materiality, the contributors to this volume aim to bypass the tendency to oppose form and content, words and things, documents and artifacts, to rethink key issues in the interpretation of Chinese literary and visual culture.
While the media tends to pay the most attention to violent secessionist movements or peaceful independence movements, it is just as important to understand why there are regions where political movements for autonomy fail to develop. In neglecting regions without political movements or full-blown independence demands, theories may be partial at best and incorrect at worst. State Institutions, Civic Associations, and Identity Demands examines over a dozen regions, comparing and contrasting successful cases to abandoned, unsuccessful, or dormant cases. The cases range from successful secession (East Timor, Singapore) and ongoing secessionist movements (Southern Philippines), to internally divided regional movements (Kachin State), low-level regionalist stirrings (Lanna, Taiwan), and local but not regional mobilization of identity (Bali, Minahasan), all the way to failed movements (Bataks, South Maluku) and regions that remain politically inert (East and North Malaysia, Northeast Thailand). While each chapter is written by a country expert, the contributions rely on a range of methods, from comparative historical analysis, to ethnography, field interviews, and data from public opinion surveys. Together, they contribute important new knowledge on little-known cases that nevertheless illuminate the history of regions and ethnic groups in Southeast Asia. Although focused on Southeast Asia, the book identifies two factors that can explain why movements emerge and successfully develop and concludes with a chapter by Henry Hale that illustrates how this can be applied globally.
The problem of translation has become increasingly central to
critical reflections on modernity and its universalizing processes.
Approaching translation as a symbolic and material exchange among
peoples and civilizations--and not as a purely linguistic or
literary matter, the essays in "Tokens of Exchange" focus on China
and its interactions with the West to historicize an economy of
translation. Rejecting the familiar regional approach to
non-Western societies, contributors contend that "national
histories" and "world history" must be read with absolute attention
to the types of epistemological translatability that have been
constructed among the various languages and cultures in modern
times. "Contributors." Jianhua Chen, Nancy Chen, Alexis Dudden
Eastwood, Roger Hart, Larissa Heinrich, James Hevia, Andrew F.
Jones, Wan Shun Eva Lam, Lydia H. Liu, Deborah T. L. Sang, Haun
Saussy, Q. S. Tong, Qiong Zhang
This book will illuminate Xinjiang studies as never before, publishing for the first time the complete diaries of Liu Zerong, governor of Xinjiang during World War II, illuminating the origin of contemporary policies for smaller ethnic groups in the new China that emerged in 1949. The diaries are introduced with a biographical study of Liu, and a discussion of the historical context of World War II and the post-war situation in Xinjiang, which was divided into rival spheres of KMT control, and the Soviet-aligned East Turkistan Republic. Both in the Moscow embassy, and in the provincial administration of Ürümchi, Liu Zerong was Republican China’s chief Russian-speaking representative, whose task it was to engage on a daily basis with his Soviet counterparts. His extensive diaries therefore offer a unique insight into this tense decade of Sino-Soviet diplomacy, and will be of interest to a wide range of scholars in fields of Chinese and international history. The accompanying set of essays by the world's leading Xinjiang scholars confirm this volume's status as a key text for scholars, policymakers and others seeking to understand Chinese policies in Xinjiang.
The analysis of drugs and their metabolites in biological media are now expected to routinely achieve 20% accuracy in the ng/mL concentration level. Therefore, the availability and the selection of quality ion-pairs designating the analytes and their isotopically labeled analogs (ILAs) are important considerations in achieving the accuracy of quantitation results. Assisting scientists with this process, Quantitation and Mass Spectrometric Data of Drugs and Isotopically Labeled Analogs provides an extremely valuable reference for labs involved in the analysis of therapeutic and abused drugs. Part One of this comprehensive volume illustrates approaches, mechanisms, and challenges pertaining to the use of isotopic analogs as internal standards for drug quantitation. The second section is a systematic compilation of full-scan mass spectra of drugs and their analogs, as parent compounds and as derivatives resulting from various chemical derivatization approaches, commonly encountered in today s labs. Based on the mass spectra data presented in the second section, Part Three provides corresponding tables of ion-pairs which can potentially be adapted to designate the drugs and their isotopic analogs in the analytical processes. Relative quality of these ion-pairs (cross-contribution to the intensity of these ions by their isotopic analogs) is included in these tables. With more than 1500 full-scan mass spectra and quick access data tables, this text represents the authors years of work compiling mass spectra of the many chemical derivatization forms of drugs, their metabolites, and their isotopically labeled counterparts. The unparalleled scope of this compilation makes it a critical one-stop reference for those involved in drug analyses of biological specimens and interpretation of results. |
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