Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business, and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This Advanced Introduction to Social Capital provides an overview of cutting-edge research on social capital. Karen Cook highlights the networks, norms, and trust involved in social capital that facilitate cooperation, strengthen civil society, and contribute to social order, indicating how each contributes to the collective good and provides resources of value to individuals, organizations, and institutions. Key Features: Cross-cultural comparisons of the role of social networks in a number of domains of activity A critical focus on the importance of tolerance and the reaffirmation of democratic principles and practices An understanding of current social and political challenges related to polarization, such as inequality and trust limitations This timely Advanced Introduction is crucial reading for students and researchers in sociology and political science who are looking for an overview of social capital. It will also be an inspiring read for scholars of public policy, particularly those concerned with public management and its impact on social capital.

Rapidly generating and processing large amounts of data, supercomputers are currently at the leading edge of computing technologies. Supercomputers are employed in many different fields, establishing them as an integral part of the computational sciences Research and Applications in Global Supercomputing investigates current and emerging research in the field, as well as the application of this technology to a variety of areas. Highlighting a broad range of concepts, this publication is a comprehensive reference source for professionals, researchers, students, and practitioners interested in the various topics pertaining to supercomputing and how this technology can be applied to solve problems in a multitude of disciplines.

This book is an international effort to standardize the language, terms, and methods used in ocular toxicology.With over 300 color illustrations this consensus volume provides standards and harmonization for procedures, terminology, and scoring schemes for ocular toxicology. it is essential for industry, pharmaceutical companies, and governmental agencies to help improve the drug development process and to reduce and refine the use of animals in research. Standards for Ocular Toxicology and Inflammation is endorsed by the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists.

Includes cutting edge information regarding the very lastest environmental threats to public health Provides a detailed case study based on real-world scenario that allows the reader to practice human health risk assessment Describes innovative guidance and tools to respond to chemical incidents and attacks, which facilitates the reader to tailoring a effective protection and remediation response

An engaging history of studio furniture, Speaking of Furniture: Conversations with 14 American Masters is a fresh, interesting, and in-depth examination of the modus operandi of 14 accomplished-and diverse-furniture makers. The colourful, informative study includes expository conversations with James Krenov, Wendell Castle, Jere Osgood, Judy Kensley McKie, David Ebner, Richard Scott Newman, Hank Gilpin, Alphonse Mattia, John Dunnigan, Wendy Maruyama, James Schriber, Timothy S. Philbrick, Michael Hurwitz, and Thomas Hucker. The insightful interviews illuminate how these creative and gifted craftspeople arrived professionally and what their craft means to them individually. In his interpretive and elucidatory Foreword, Edward S. Cooke, Jr. maps out and gives the background on the parameters of the studio furniture world. Author and furniture maker Roger Holmes offers an insider's perspective on the art and craft of producing exquisite contemporary furniture in his conversational Introduction and maintains, "Art or craft, this is very personal work." This elegant presentation skilfully sheds light on the thought processes and techniques of a celebrated and exceptional gathering of studio furniture makers who are as unique as they are stellar. As sculptor and furniture designer Wendell Castle remarks, 'What I admired was that...fine art and craft were the same thing.'

This book is an international effort to standardize the language, terms, and methods used in ocular toxicology.With over 300 color illustrations this consensus volume provides standards and harmonization for procedures, terminology, and scoring schemes for ocular toxicology. it is essential for industry, pharmaceutical companies, and governmental agencies to help improve the drug development process and to reduce and refine the use of animals in research. Standards for Ocular Toxicology and Inflammation is endorsed by the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists.

Centrarchid fishes, also known as freshwater sunfishes, include such prominent species as the Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass and Bluegill. They are endemic to Eastern North America where they form part of a multi-million dollar sports fishing industry, but they have also been widely introduced around the globe by recreational anglers, in aquaculture programs and by government fisheries agencies. Centrarchid Fishes provides comprehensive coverage of all major aspects of this ecologically and commercially important group of fishes. Coverage includes diversity, ecomorphology, phylogeny and genetics, hybridization, reproduction, early life history and recruitment, feeding and growth, ecology, migrations, bioenergetics, physiology, diseases, aquaculture, fisheries management and conservation. Chapters have been written by well-known and respected scientists and the whole has been drawn together by Professors Cooke and Philipp, themselves extremely well respected in the area of fisheries management and conservation. Centrarchid Fishes is an essential purchase for all fish biologists, ecologists, fisheries managers and fish farm personnel who work with centrarchid species across the globe.

A bold reorientation of art history that bridges the divide between fine art and material culture through an examination of objects and their uses Art history is often viewed through cultural or national lenses that define some works as fine art while relegating others to the category of craft. Global Objects points the way to an interconnected history of art, examining a broad array of functional aesthetic objects that transcend geographic and temporal boundaries and challenging preconceived ideas about what is and is not art. Avoiding traditional binaries such as East versus West and fine art versus decorative art, Edward Cooke looks at the production, consumption, and circulation of objects made from clay, fiber, wood, and nonferrous base metals. Carefully considering the materials and process of making, and connecting process to product and people, he demonstrates how objects act on those who look at, use, and acquire them. He reveals how objects retain aspects of their local fabrication while absorbing additional meanings in subtle and unexpected ways as they move through space and time. In emphasizing multiple centers of art production amid constantly changing contexts, Cooke moves beyond regional histories driven by geography, nation-state, time period, or medium. Beautifully illustrated, Global Objects traces the social lives of objects from creation to purchase, and from use to experienced meaning, charting exciting new directions in art history.

Cooke offers a fresh and appealing cross-disciplinary study of the furnituremakers, social structure, household possessions, and surviving pieces of furniture of two neighboring New England communities. Winner of the Decorative Arts Society, Inc.'s Charles F. Montgomery Prize Originally published in 1996. In Making Furniture in Preindustrial America Edward S. Cooke Jr. offers a fresh and appealing cross-disciplinary study of the furnituremakers, social structure, household possessions, and surviving pieces of furniture of two neighboring New England communities. Drawing on both documentary and artifactual sources, Cooke explores the interplay among producer, process, and style in demonstrating why and how the social economies of these two seemingly similar towns differed significantly during the late colonial and early national periods. Throughout the latter half of the eighteenth century, Cooke explains, the yeoman town of Newtown relied on native joiners whose work satisfied the expectations of their fellow townspeople. These traditionalists combined craftwork with farming and made relatively plain, conservative furniture. By contrast, the typical joiner in the neighboring gentry town of Woodbury was the immigrant innovator. Born and raised elsewhere in Connecticut and serving a diverse clientele, these craftsmen were free of the cultural constraints that affected their Newtown contemporaries. Relying almost entirely on furnituremaking for their livelihood, they were free to pay greater attention to stylistically sensitive features than to mere function.