This is the first book about the meals of Early Judaism. As such it breaks important new ground in establishing the basis for understanding the centrality of meals in this pivotal period of Judaism and providing a framework of historical patterns and influences.

Contemporary approaches to the synthesis of chemically modified biomacromolecules (proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and carbohydrates) not only require efficient means to control conjugation and the specific site of attachment of the conjugated moiety but also the effective use of recent developments in the fields of pharmaceutical chemistry, biomolecular/polymer engineering, and nanobiotechnology. In this second edition of "Bioconjugation Protocols: Strategies and Methods," expert researchers update the classic methods and introduce valuable new approaches that go beyond basic conjugation techniques to include elements from advanced organic synthesis, molecular biology, surface biotechnology, materials science, and nanobioscience/engineering. These readily reproducible methods cover the preparation of biomolecular conjugates using a variety of labeling techniques and semisynthetic approaches. Additional chapters address the biofunctionalization of surface structures, including organic/inorganic thin films, as well as various types of nanostructures (magnetic nanoparticles, quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, and silicon nanowire devices). All the protocols follow the successful "Methods in Molecular Biology"TM series format, each one offering step-by-step laboratory instructions, an introduction outlining the principle behind the technique, lists of the necessary equipment and reagents, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.

Cutting-edge and highly practical, "Bioconjugation Protocols: Strategies and Methods, Second Edition" offers both novice and experienced researchers access to the broad array of techniques needed to carry out the semisynthesis of functional biomolecular reagents and/or the biofunctionalization of surfaces and structures of unique interest for a wide variety of applications, ranging from novel biomedical diagnostics to powerful new therapeutics to advanced biomaterials."

Implementing Management Innovations: Lessons Learned from Activity Based Costing in the U.S. Automobile Industry is the result of a long-term study of the implementation of activity based costing (ABC) inside two of America's largest automobile companies. The research advances our theoretical and practical understanding of the implementation of management innovations by tracing the evolution of ABC from the corporate level down to its eventual rollout at the plants. Another distinguishing feature of the study is the blend of field research methods and hypothesis testing to determine the factors that led to implementation success for managers and ABC development teams. Many of the findings of the study have implications for the implementation of other types of management innovations.

Citizens' sense of responsibility to their community and to their nation is becoming a topic of growing concern. Recent research indicates that citizens of the United States and many other nations have become increasingly disconnected from their fellow community members, and when this connection is lost, individuals begin to suffer. They experience poorer health, achieve lower academic and employment success, and are at risk for the development of a host of social problems. On a broader level, states and countries whose citizens feel detached from their communities show higher levels of crime, a greater incidence of disease, and even higher mortality rates. In The Psychology of Citizenship and Civic Engagement, S. Mark Pancer explores the development of civic engagement, the factors that influence its development, and the impacts of civic involvement on the individual, the community, and society. Pancer examines civic engagement over the lifespan and how the effects of early experiences and influences exerted by peers, families, and religious organizations shape adult involvement. By addressing civic engagement from a systemic as well as individual perspective, this book discusses the role that factors such as government policy, culture, and socioeconomic status play in fostering (or inhibiting) a person's civic connections. Pancer also works toward a solution to increase active citizenship by identifying gaps in research and theory and outlining ways in which scholarly work on civic engagement can inform policy and practice, with the aim to foster individuals sense of responsibility and community connection. By bringing together a large body of research from psychology, political science, sociology, education, and public health, Pancer provides readers with a comprehensive account of what science tells us about civic engagement.

Societies throughout the world depend on food, fiber and forest products. Continuity and security of agricultural and forest production are therefore of paramount importance. Predicted changes in climate could be expected to alter, perhaps significantly, the levels and relative agricultural and forestry production of different nations over the next few decades. Agriculture and forestry are also likely to influence the rate and magnitude of such change, as they can be both significant sources and sinks of a number of greenhouse gases. Adaptive management strategies therefore need to be formulated and implemented for these sectors, to enable them to both adapt to future environmental change, and to limit greenhouse gas emissions. This book arose from an international workshop held in Canberra, Australia, under the auspices of the former IPCC Working Group III - Agriculture, Forestry and Other Human Activities Sub-Group (AFOS). A number of leading speakers at the workshop were approached to encapsulate the concepts discussed and developed at this workshop. The resulting papers make up this volume. The book promotes a greater understanding of the major sources and sinks of greenhouse gases within intensive and extensive cropping and animal production systems, and of agroforestry. It highlights the need to adopt a holistic systems approach to monitoring and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and assessing impacts, and to integrate climate change-related goals and activities with other issues, such as biodiversity, desertification, and sustainable agriculture and forestry.

The face of entertainment has changed radically over the last decade--and dangerously so. Stars like Britney, Paris, Lindsay, Amy Winehouse--and their media enablers--have altered what we consider "normal" behavior. According to addiction specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky and business and entertainment expert Dr. S. Mark Young, a high proportion of celebrities suffer from traits associated with clinical narcissism--vanity, exhibitionism, entitlement, exploitativeness--and the rest of us, especially young people, are mirroring what we witness nightly on our TV and computer screens.

A provocative, eye-opening study, The Mirror Effect sounds a timely warning, raising important questions about our changing culture--and provides insights for parents, young people, and anyone who wonders what the cult of celebrity is really doing to America.

Righteous Indignation: Christian Philosophical and Theological Perspectives on Anger explores the philosophy of Christian anger-what anger is, what it means for God to be angry, and when anger is morally appropriate. The book explores specific biblical questions, such as how God communicates his anger in the Old Testament and whether anger at one's enemies in the imprecatory psalms is praiseworthy. In addition, some chapters focus on the practical application of anger to topics such as racial justice, criminal law, and civil discourse, and on the ideas of historical figures such as Thomas Aquinas and Jonathan Edwards. The purpose of the book is to provide multiple perspectives, examining anger from different angles, but most of all it is hoped that readers will come away with a better understanding of God's nature and how followers of Jesus ought to relate to those who wrong them.

This volume discusses the interactions between viruses and their host cells, and explores the roles of host and viral genes and non-coding RNAs in the virus replication cycle. During infection, viruses express a variety of genes, encoding proteins and RNAs that serve to subjugate the cell - by redirecting cellular processes to support viral replication and, at the same time, by mitigating the cellular response to infection. In this book, experts discuss these interactions in depth, and elaborate on our current understanding of virus-cell interactions for a diverse range of viruses, including positive and negative sense RNA viruses, DNA viruses, and a vector-borne virus. The roles of non-coding RNAs are also discussed. While each class of viruses has distinct replication requirements, this volume reveals unique features and commonalities in viral replication cycles. Accordingly, it represents a valuable source of information for researchers and clinicians alike.

In the recent history of philosophy few works have appeared which favorably portray Idealism as a plausible philosophical view of the world. Considerably less has been written about Idealism as a viable framework for doing theology. While the most recent and significant works on Idealism, composed by the late John Foster (Case for Idealism and A World for Us: The Case for Phenomenological Idealism), have put this theory back on the philosophical map, no such attempt has been made to re-introduce Idealism to contemporary Christian theology. Idealism and Christian Theology is such a work, retrieving ideas and arguments from its most significant modern exponents (especially George Berkeley and Jonathan Edwards) in order to assess its value for present and future theological construction. As a piece of constructive philosophical-theology itself, this volume considers the explanatory power an Idealist ontology has for contemporary Christian theology.

The interest in finding reliable and highly sensitive sensors for water quality control has grown recently empowered by the explosion of cutting-edge technologies such as nanotechnologies, optoelectronics, and computing on one hand and by the increasing need for more secure control of water quality on the other hand. This book highlights a number of modern topics in the field of biosensing particularly for water sensing in which the signal is enhanced, starting from surface enhanced spectroscopies using plasmonic structures such as Raman scattering (SERS), infrared enhanced absorption (SEIRA), and surface enhanced fluorescence (SEF). The SPR enhanced detection is highlighted in two chapters and addressed using signal processing and the use of color of solutions as a result of modification of the LSPR properties of nanoparticles. Porous materials are another field of research where the enhancement is achieved due to the increasing the area- to-volume ratio. Good examples are the two emerging fields of porous Si and sculptured thin films prepared by the oblique deposition technique. One of the long standing problems is bacteria detection in water which is addressed thoroughly with emphasis on the problems usually encountered in detecting large bioentities.

"The standard of contribution is high . . . the reader gets a good sense of the cutting edge of historical research." - African Affairs

The central Christian belief in salvation through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ remains one of the most intractable mysteries of Christian faith. Throughout history, it has given rise to various theories of atonement, many of which have been subject to critique as they no longer speak to contemporary notions of evil and sin or to current conceptions of justice. One of the important challenges for contemporary Christian theology thus involves exploring new ways of understanding the salvific meaning of the cross. In Atonement and Comparative Theology, Christian theologians with expertise in Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, and African Religions reflect on how engagement with these traditions sheds new light on the Christian understanding of atonement by pointing to analogous structures of sin and salvation, drawing attention to the scandal of the cross as seen by the religious other, and re-interpreting aspects of the Christian understanding of atonement. Together, they illustrate the possibilities for comparative theology to deepen and enrich Christian theological reflection.

Implementing Management Innovations: Lessons Learned from Activity Based Costing in the U.S. Automobile Industry is the result of a long-term study of the implementation of activity based costing (ABC) inside two of America's largest automobile companies. The research advances our theoretical and practical understanding of the implementation of management innovations by tracing the evolution of ABC from the corporate level down to its eventual rollout at the plants. Another distinguishing feature of the study is the blend of field research methods and hypothesis testing to determine the factors that led to implementation success for managers and ABC development teams. Many of the findings of the study have implications for the implementation of other types of management innovations.

Societies throughout the world depend on food, fiber and forest products. Continuity and security of agricultural and forest production are therefore of paramount importance. Predicted changes in climate could be expected to alter, perhaps significantly, the levels and relative agricultural and forestry production of different nations over the next few decades. Agriculture and forestry are also likely to influence the rate and magnitude of such change, as they can be both significant sources and sinks of a number of greenhouse gases. Adaptive management strategies therefore need to be formulated and implemented for these sectors, to enable them to both adapt to future environmental change, and to limit greenhouse gas emissions. This book arose from an international workshop held in Canberra, Australia, under the auspices of the former IPCC Working Group III - Agriculture, Forestry and Other Human Activities Sub-Group (AFOS). A number of leading speakers at the workshop were approached to encapsulate the concepts discussed and developed at this workshop. The resulting papers make up this volume. The book promotes a greater understanding of the major sources and sinks of greenhouse gases within intensive and extensive cropping and animal production systems, and of agroforestry. It highlights the need to adopt a holistic systems approach to monitoring and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and assessing impacts, and to integrate climate change-related goals and activities with other issues, such as biodiversity, desertification, and sustainable agriculture and forestry.

And Applications To The Human-Computer Interface Michael E. Fotta AT&T Communications 16th FIr. Atrium II, Cincinnati, OH 45202 Artificial intelligence (AI) programs represent knowledge in a fashion similar to human knowledge and the activities of an AI system are closer to human behavior than that of traditional systems. Thus, AI enables the computer to act more like a human instead of making the human think and act more like a computer. This capability combined with applying human factors concepts to the interface can greatly improve the human-computer interface. This paper provides an intro duction to artificial intelligence and then proposes a number of methods for using AI to improve the human-machine inter action. AN INTRODUCTION TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Definition There are many definitions of artificial intelligence (AI) running from the very general to the very detailed. Perhaps the most well accepted general definition is that by Elaine Rich: "Artificial intelligence is the study of how to make computers do things at which, at the moment, people are better," (Rich, 1983). A good example of a detailed definition is provided by the Brattle Research Corporation; "In simplified terms, artificial intelligence works with pattern matching methods which attempt to describe objects, events or pro cesses in terms of their qualitative features and logical and compu tational relationships," (Mishkoff, 1985)."

"The standard of contribution is high . . . the reader gets a good sense of the cutting edge of historical research." - African Affairs

The central Christian belief in salvation through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ remains one of the most intractable mysteries of Christian faith. Throughout history, it has given rise to various theories of atonement, many of which have been subject to critique as they no longer speak to contemporary notions of evil and sin or to current conceptions of justice. One of the important challenges for contemporary Christian theology thus involves exploring new ways of understanding the salvific meaning of the cross. In Atonement and Comparative Theology, Christian theologians with expertise in Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, and African Religions reflect on how engagement with these traditions sheds new light on the Christian understanding of atonement by pointing to analogous structures of sin and salvation, drawing attention to the scandal of the cross as seen by the religious other, and re-interpreting aspects of the Christian understanding of atonement. Together, they illustrate the possibilities for comparative theology to deepen and enrich Christian theological reflection.

Winner of the Frederick Streng Book Award for Excellence in Buddhist-Christian Studies This work provides the first systematic discussion of the Bodhisattva path and its importance for constructive Christian theology. Crucified Wisdom examines specific Buddhist traditions, texts, and practices not as phenomena whose existence requires an apologetic justification but as wells of tested wisdom that invite theological insight. With the increasing participation of Christians in Buddhist practice, many are seeking a deeper understanding of the way the teachings of the two traditions might interface. Christ and the Bodhisattva are often compared superficially in Buddhist-Christian discussion. This text combines a rich exposition of the Bodhisattva path, using Santideva's classic work the Bodicaryavatara and subsequent Tibetan commentators, with detailed reflection on its implications for Christian faith and practice. Author S. Mark Heim lays out root tensions constituted by basic Buddhist teachings on the one hand, and Christian teachings on the other, and the ways in which the Bodhisattva or Christ embody and resolve the resulting paradoxes in their respective traditions. An important contribution to the field of comparative theology in general and to the area of Buddhist-Christian studies in particular, Crucified Wisdom proposes that Christian theology can take direct instruction from Mahayana Buddhism in two respects: deepening its understanding of our creaturely nature through no-self insights, and revising its vision of divine immanence in dialogue with teachings of emptiness. Heim argues that Christians may affirm the importance of novelty in history, the enduring significance of human persons, and the Trinitarian reality of God, even as they learn to value less familiar, nondual dimensions of Christ's incarnation, human redemption, and the divine life. Crucified Wisdom focuses on questions of reconciliation and atonement in Christian theology and explores the varying interpretations of the crucifixion of Jesus in Buddhist-Christian discussion. The Bodhisattva path is central for major contemporary Buddhist voices such as the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh, who figure prominently as conversation partners in the text. This work will be of particular value for those interested in "dual belonging" in connection to these traditions.

Forgiveness is a hallmark teaching within monotheistic religions. This Element introduces the topic in three ways. First, it considers the extent to which forgiveness is specific to or constituted by monotheistic beliefs, by a comparison with analogous teaching and practice in Buddhism. Second, the most extensive section explores the grammar of forgiveness shared across the Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam - elements of repentance, intercession, and eschatological deferral. This section identifies some of the divergent tendencies or emphases on this topic among those traditions. A third section addresses the role of forgiveness and monotheistic religions in human cultural evolution and the emergence of eusociality. The aim is for the reader to gain an introductory view of monotheism and forgiveness from a comparative religious example, from an internal examination of Abrahamic traditions, and from a developmental, secular perspective.

Building on recent engagements with Barth in the area of theologies of religion, Karl Barth and Comparative Theology inaugurates a new conversation between Barth's theology and comparative theology. Each essay brings Barth into conversation with theological claims from other religious traditions for the purpose of modeling deep learning across religious borders from a Barthian perspective. For each tradition, two Barth-influenced theologians offer focused engagements of Barth with the tradition's respective themes and figures, and a response from a theologian from that tradition then follows. With these surprising and stirringly creative exchanges, Karl Barth and Comparative Theology promises to open up new trajectories for comparative theology. Contributors: Chris Boesel, Francis X. Clooney, Christian T. Collins Winn, Victor Ezigbo, James Farwell, Tim Hartman, S. Mark Heim, Paul Knitter, Pan-chiu Lai, Martha L. Moore-Keish, Peter Ochs, Marc Pugliese, Joshua Ralston, Anantanand Rambachan, Randi Rashkover, Kurt Richardson, Mun'im Sirry, John Sheveland, Nimi Wariboko