One of the truisms in American politics has been that "divisive" primaries hurt the party's prospects of winning the presidency in the general election. However, traditional definitions of divisive primaries focus too much on candidate behavior and not enough on the actual divisions and fractures within a party. The Invisible Hands of Political Parties in Presidential Elections proposes a new measure of party cohesion that instead looks at individual donors who are willing to contribute to multiple candidates during the early stages of the presidential primaries. The authors of this collection reveal how these preprimary donor networks can serve as an accurate barometer of party unity, providing a significant perspective on the changing roles of political parties in American government today.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Entertainment Computing, ICEC 2013, held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in October 2013. The 13 full papers, 6 short papers, 11 posters presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 75 submissions. In addition to these papers, the program featured 2 demos, 3 workshops, 3 tutorials and 3 art installations, also summarized in this book. The papers cover various topics in the multi-disciplinary field of entertainment computing.

This book provides evidence to support the health-promoting components of green tea for human health. It explores the significance of green tea and its catechins represented by epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), demonstrating their beneficial effects on diseases including cancer, obesity, arteriosclerosis, diabetes, hepatitis, and neurodegenerative diseases. The present status of human studies and avenues for future research are discussed. It is written by a team of experts from across the globe and makes significant Japanese findings available to international researchers. It is an essential resource for researchers interested in the biochemistry and pharmacology of green tea, and functional foods and beverages.

What constitutes a good parent, and when do they go too far? We often hear stereotypes associated with strict Asian parenting, and yet, although the accreditations on paper are known to many, still we find ourselves wondering, But at what costs?

"Secrets of a Fortune Cookie: A Memoir" describes the harrowing journey of author Vanessa Yang, a young woman of Chinese descent, who was born in Singapore and educated in schools across the globe.

She experienced a traditional Asian-style upbringing, with no consideration to social development. As a strictly raised Chinese Singaporean expatriate student in international schools, she was also influenced by her friends and peers and their Western ideals. Her mother s relentless Eastern upbringing, dominated by an isolated focus on academics alone, was not a productive fit to a teenager s growing desires to fit in and find encouragement and love.

These disparate experiences and lifestyles were the seeds of her vicious teen rebellion against everything her parents honored, and it was these acts of defiance that ultimately climaxed her insecurities. Satirically funny and heartrending by turns, her story of independent self-discovery brings to light, the aptly pondered detriments of the causes and consequences of stereotypical Asian-style parenting.

In the end, the clash of cultures she and her sisters faced drove her to resort to drastic measures in order to find the love and confidence she never received at home. A remarkable memoir with valuable life lessons, Secrets of a Fortune Cookie offers an inspiring look at a young woman s turbulent past.

The term 'spyware' is not well defined. Generally it is used to refer to any software that is downloaded onto a person's computer without their knowledge. Spyware may collect information about a computer user's activities and transmit that information to someone else. It may change computer settings, or cause 'pop-up' advertisements to appear (in that context, it is called 'adware'). Spyware may redirect a Web browser to a site different from what the user intended to visit, or change the user's home page. A type of spyware called 'keylogging' software records individual keystrokes, even if the author modifies or deletes what was written, or if the characters do not appear on the monitor. Thus, passwords, credit card numbers, and other personally identifiable information may be captured and relayed to unauthorised recipients. Some of these software programs have legitimate applications the computer user wants. They obtain the moniker 'spyware' when they are installed surreptitiously, or perform additional functions of which the user is unaware. Users typically do not realise that spyware is on their computer. They may have unknowingly downloaded it from the Internet by clicking within a website, or it might have been included in an attachment to an electronic mail message (e-mail) or embedded in other software. According to a survey and tests conducted by America Online and the National Cyber Security Alliance, 80% of computers in the test group were infected by spyware or adware, and 89% of the users of those computers were unaware of it. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a consumer alert on spyware in October 2004. It provided a list of warning signs that might indicate that a computer is infected with spyware, and advice on what to do if it is. This new book helps shed light on this insidious nightmare created by members of the human race to wreck havoc on the remainder.