The world food situation is deteriorating. Grain stocks have dropped to a dangerously low level. The World Food Price Index has doubled in one decade. The ranks of the hungry are expanding; political unrest is spreading. On the demand side of the food equation, there will be 219,000 people at the dinner table tonight who were not there last night. And some 3 billion increasingly affluent people are moving up the food chain, consuming grain-intensive livestock and poultry products. At the same time, water shortages and heat waves are making it more difficult for farmers to keep pace with demand. As grain-exporting countries ban exports to keep their food prices down, importing countries are panicking. In response, they are buying large tracts of land in other countries to grow food for themselves. The land rush is on. Could food become the weak link for us as it was for so many earlier civilizations? Lester Brown, one of the leading environmentalists of our time, explains why world food supplies are tightening and tells what we need to do about it.

Distribution channels are the most complex element of the marketing mix to fully grasp and to profitably manage. In this Handbook the authors present cutting-edge research on channel management and design from analytical, conceptual, and empirical perspectives. The ultimate objective of this Handbook is a comprehensive theory of distribution channels for scholars presented in enlightened surveys of the literature to tightly reasoned investigations. Channel management topics include value creation, interorganizational knowledge transfer, contract design, governance and control, and relationship management. Channel design topics encompass coordination, supply-chain management, price vs. quantity competition, channel breadth, franchising, resale price maintenance, and bricks-and-mortar vs. online retailer competition. The book concludes with a sketch of a ''Comprehensive Theory of Distribution Channels'' meant to incorporate and extend current thinking. The breadth of this Handbook makes it appropriate for use in a doctoral course on distribution channels, or as a knowledge-broadening resource for faculty and researchers who wish to understand types of channels research that are outside the scope of their own approach to distribution. Contributors include: K.D. Antia, B.L. Baker, P. Bicen, C.P. Blocker, J.R. Brown, G. Cai, N.N. Chau, S.C. Choi, J.L. Crosno, T.H. Cui, Y. Dai, R.P. Dant, R. Desiraju, K. Eshghi, D.J. Flint, K.M. Frias, M. Ghosh, S. Gilbert, G.T. Gundlach, C.M. Harmeling, J.D. Hibbard, M.B. Houston, C.A. Ingene, K. Jerath, G. John, J. Johnson, M. Kacker, G. Lai, Z. Li, R.F. Lusch, P. Mallucci, A.J. Malter, S. Mani, A.L. Matthews, R.W. Palmatier, S.-J. Park, R.E. Paul, J. Raju, S. Ray, F. Sadeh, R.S. Sohi, J.M. Song, R. Staelin, A.S. Vinhas, M. Viswanathan, K.H. Wathne, S.K. Weaven, X. Xu, W. Zhang, Z.J. Zhang, Y. Zhao

Contemporary scholars of Chinese philosophy often presuppose that early China possessed a naturalistic worldview, devoid of any non-natural concepts, such as transcendence. Challenging this presupposition head-on, Joshua R. Brown and Alexus McLeod argue that non-naturalism and transcendence have a robust and significant place in early Chinese thought. This book reveals that non-naturalist positions can be found in early Chinese texts, in topics including conceptions of the divine, cosmogony, and apophatic philosophy. Moreover, by closely examining a range of early Chinese texts, and providing comparative readings of a number of Western texts and thinkers, the book offers a way of reading early Chinese Philosophy as consistent with the religious philosophy of the East and West, including the Abrahamic and the Brahmanistic religions. Co-written by a philosopher and theologian, this book draws out unique insights into early Chinese thought, highlighting in particular new ways to consider a range of Chinese concepts, including tian, dao, li, and you/wu.

This book provides a global perspective on COVID-19, taking the heterogenous realities of the pandemic into account. Contributions are rooted in critical social science studies of risk and uncertainty and characterized by theoretical approaches such as cultural theory, risk society theory, governmentality perspectives, and many important insights from 'southern' theories. Some of the chapters in the book have a more theoretical-conceptual emphasis, while others are more empirically oriented - but all chapters engage in an insightful dialogue between the theoretical and the empirical, in order to develop a rich, diverse and textured picture of the new challenge the world is facing and responding to. Addressing multiple levels of responses to the coronavirus, as understood in terms of, institutional and governance policies, media communication and interpretation, and the sense-making and actions of individual citizens in their everyday lives, the book brings together a diverse range of studies from across 6 continents. These chapters are connected by a common emphasis on applying critical theoretical approaches which help make sense of, and critique, the responses of states, organisations and individuals to the social phenomena emerging amid the Corona pandemic.

Conway retires from the FBI at the age of sixty. He takes with him copies of reports he'd come across when he had been investigating murders. He begins to track a particular hit man believed to be responsible for many of those murders. Brian Purger is a free-lance hit man. His survival depends on his cunning and strength. He finds peace only at his New Hampshire mountain retreat. Bill is the closest thing to a friend Purger has ever had. Bill is a college graduate and works for a large company. He is a widower with a young daughter and values family life above all else. He is in love with Leigh but is worried she will find out about his friendship with Purger. Leigh is divorced, a working mother with two children. She is insecure and wants more than anything to have her children grow up with a father figure in the home. She loves Bill and thinks he is the answer to making her family complete. Bill takes Leigh on a romantic skiing trip to a remote New England mountain and finds that a blizzard is closing in. Bill has never told Leigh that Purger also has a cabin on the mountain. The ski holiday soon intrudes into Purger's reclusive life. He tells Bill that he will eliminate the woman if she gets too close. He believes he will be doing his friend a favor. He threatens to kill Bill too if he gets in the way. Bill warns Leigh and tells her about Purger, but they cannot escape in the car because of the blizzard. They decide to ski down the mountain to safety. When Bill disappears during the trip, Leigh realizes she is alone on the mountain, with a professional killer in pursuit.

What make someone a good human being? Is there an objective answer to this question, an answer that can be given in naturalistic terms? For ages philosophers have attempted to develop some sort of naturalistic ethics. Against ethical naturalism, however, notable philosophers have contended that such projects are impossible, due to the existence of some sort of gap between facts and values. Others have suggested that teleology, upon which many forms of ethical naturalism depend, is an outdated metaphysical concept. This book argues that a good human being is one who has those traits the possession of which enables someone to achieve those ends natural to beings like us. Thus, the answer to the question of what makes a good human being is given in terms both objective and naturalistic. The author shows that neither 'is-ought' gaps, nor objections concerning teleology pose insurmountable problems for naturalistic virtue ethics. This work is a much needed contribution to the ongoing debate about ethical theory and ethical virtue.

Periodic worldwide economic turmoil over the last few decades has created an environment in which the degree of risk of investment assets is now an important factor in their evaluation. Real Estate Investment: A Capital Market Approach is the first text to examine the effect of such changes on real estate markets, taking an in-depth look at three major areas of financial and economic importance within the real estate profession: * The time value of money and the valuation of cash flows * Risk and return in real estate * Portfolio management Real Estate Investment: A Capital Market Approach is aimed primarily at students on both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in property investment or finance and MBA real estate specialists. The text is also of interest to fund managers, property researchers and professional investment valuers.

In a Washington, D.C. hospital, a U.S. Senator dies of an unknown infectious disease. In California, a college campus is under quarantine and hospitals are pushed to the breaking point. In Wyoming, the banks of streams are littered with dead fish and birds are falling from the sky. The genetically engineered plague has escaped its lab in Colorado and is now spreading without mercy from coast to coast, infecting any living host it can find. But before any cure can be found, the bacteria must be stabilized. The culprit seems to have a mind of its own as it continues to mutate and evolve within the host population.

An Introduction to R and Python for Data Analysis helps teach students to code in both R and Python simultaneously. As both R and Python can be used in similar manners, it is useful and efficient to learn both at the same time, helping lecturers and students to teach and learn more, save time, whilst reinforcing the shared concepts and differences of the systems. This tandem learning is highly useful for students, helping them to become literate in both languages, and develop skills which will be handy after their studies. This book presumes no prior experience with computing, and is intended to be used by students from a variety of backgrounds. The side-by-side formatting of this book helps introductory graduate students quickly grasp the basics of R and Python, with the exercises providing helping them to teach themselves the skills they will need upon the completion of their course, as employers now ask for competency in both R and Python. Teachers and lecturers will also find this book useful in their teaching, providing a singular work to help ensure their students are well trained in both computer languages. All data for exercises can be found here: https://github.com/tbrown122387/r_and_python_book/tree/master/data. Key features: - Teaches R and Python in a "side-by-side" way. - Examples are tailored to aspiring data scientists and statisticians, not software engineers. - Designed for introductory graduate students. - Does not assume any mathematical background.

"This combination bibliography-thesaurus . . . is distinguished by its thesaurus-index, ' a hierarchical listing of terms that also provides entry numbers for the citations in the first part of the book. These thesaurus descriptors are natural language terms' and according to the author provide a means with which one can efficiently locate specific information.' The work covers a wide range of topics. . . . Highly recommended for academic and general collections." Choice

Companies and their advisors are frequently faced with questions regarding mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. Until now, relevant information has only been available in large multi-volume sets or in volumes covering each aspect separately. This will be the first single-volume desktop reference to cover all important aspects at once, including business, legal, finance, accounting, tax, and process issues. The author writes in an engaging, accessible style that will appeal to professionals and students alike. Anyone seeking "one-stop shopping" for mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures will appreciate this very useful, concise, and readable new book.

A lot of time and money is invested in collaborative research and development projects at universities, research institutes and companies. But how should these complex projects be planned and run to create valuable commercial outcomes?

This book is a manual for all individuals and organisations from academia and industry working together on research and development projects. Whether grant funded, company to company or academic to company, this inspiring and highly readable book covers winning grant support, the legal arrangements, working with academics and practitioners, managing project progress and exploiting the project results.

The examples, practical methods and tips in this book will not only help the reader prepare for grant applications, but more importantly help to achieve the best results and returns from every collaborative project.