Contemporary developments in the book publishing industry are changing the system as we know it. Changes in established understandings of authorship and readership are leading to new business models in line with the postulates of Web 2.0. Socially networked authorship, book production and reading are among the social and discursive practices starting to define this emerging system. Websites offering socially networked, collaborative and shared reading are increasingly important. Social Reading maps socially networked reading within the larger framework of a changing conception of books and reading. This book is structured into chapters covering topics in: social reading and a new conception of the book; an evaluation of social reading platforms; an analysis of social reading applications; the personalization of system contents; reading in the Cloud and the development of new business models; and Open Access e-books.
Discusses social reading as an emerging tendency involving authors, readers, librarians, publishers, and other industry professionalsDescribes how the way we read is changingPresents ways in which the major players in the digital content industry are developing specific applications to foster socially networked reading

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Faculty in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines face intensifying pressures in the 21st century, including multiple roles as educator, researcher, and entrepreneur. In addition to continuously increasing teaching and service expectations, faculty are engaged in substantive research that requires securing external funding, mentoring other faculty and graduate students, and disseminating this work in a broad range of scholarly outlets. Societal needs of their expertise include discovery, innovation, and workforce development. It is critical to provide STEM faculty with the professional development to support their complex roles and to base this development on evidence derived from research. This edited handbook provides STEM stakeholders with an opportunity to share studies and/or experiences that explore STEM faculty development (FD) in higher education settings. More specifically, we include work that examines faculty development planning, techniques/models, experiences, and outcomes focused on supporting the teaching, research, service, and leadership responsibilities of STEM faculty. The Handbook is suited for researchers and practitioners in STEM, STEM Education, Mathematics, Science, Technology, and Engineering disciplines. It is also suited towards faculty developers, higher education administrators, funding agencies, industry leaders, and the STEM community at large. This handbook is organized around three constructs (INPUTS, MECHANISMS, and OUTPUTS). The STEM faculty development inputs construct focuses on topics related to the characteristics of faculty members and institutions that serve as barriers or supports to the adoption and implementation of holistic STEM faculty development programs. Questions addressed in the handbook around this topic include: What barriers/supports exist for STEM faculty? How are these barriers/supports being addressed through STEM FD? How do contexts (e.g., economic, political, historical) influence faculty/ administrative needs related to STEM FD? How do demographics (e.g., gender, ethnicity, age, family background) influence faculty/administrative needs related to STEM FD? The STEM faculty development mechanisms construct focuses on topics related to the actual implementation of STEM faculty development and we consider the potential models or structures of STEM faculty development that are currently in place or conceptualized in theory. Questions addressed in the handbook around this topic include: What are the processes for developing models of STEM FD? What are effective models of STEM FD? How is effectiveness determined? What roles do stakeholders (e.g., faculty, administration, consultants) play within STEM FD mechanisms? The STEM faculty development outputs construct focuses on how to best understand the influence of STEM faculty development on outcomes such as productivity, teacher quality, and identity in relation to faculty development. Questions addressed in the handbook around this topic include: How has STEM FD influenced higher education practices and settings? What are appropriate output measures and how are they used in practice? What collaborations emerge from STEM FD? How does STEM FD affect other STEM stakeholders (e.g. students, administration, business, community)? The aim for this handbook was to examine the multifaceted demands of faculty roles, and together with members of the STEM education community, envision pathways through which universities and individuals may support STEM colleagues, regardless of their experience or rank, to enjoy long and satisfying careers. Our hope is for these chapters to aid readers in deep reflection on challenges faculty face, to contemplate adaptations of models presented, and to draw inspiration for creating or engaging in new professional development programs. Chapters across this handbook highlight a variety of institutional contexts from 2-year technical colleges, to teaching-focused institutions, in addition to research-centric settings. Some chapters focus primarily on teaching and learning practices and offer models for improving STEM instruction. Others focus on barriers that emerge for STEM faculty when trying to engage in development experiences. There are chapters that examine tenure structures in relation to faculty development and how STEM FD efforts could support research endeavors. Mentorship and leadership models are also addressed along with a focus on equity issues that permeate higher education and impact STEM FD. It is our sincere hope that this Handbook sparks increased discourse and continued explorations related to STEM FD, and in particular, the intentional focus of faculty development initiatives to extend to the many facets of academic life.

Whilst many of us would agree that human rights are more important than corporate profits, the reality is often different; such realities as child labour and environmental destruction caused by corporate activities make this patently clear. Recognising that balancing human rights and business interests can be problematic, Corporate Accountability considers the limits of existing complaint mechanisms and examines non-judicial alternatives for conflict resolution. The innovative approach herein compiles both long-standing international expertise and findings based on 25 key interviews from experts and victims. In contrast to the current literature, which tends to provide details on the functioning of the mechanisms, this book delves further to examine the strengths and weaknesses of each mechanism and provides criteria of excellence for non-judicial grievance mechanisms. In doing so, it provides a reality-check for corporate accountability worldwide. Novel and thought provoking, Corporate Accountability will be a captivating read for academics as well as companies interested in human rights and corporate social responsibility. It will also prove of interest to related state institutions such as development agencies and other relevant ministries such as chambers of commerce, trade unions, NGOs and civil society organisations.

Corruption within the Nixon administration was not limited to Watergate; his Committee on Health Education ignored and suppressed the opinions of professional health educators. In this history, two education insiders explain why and how the committee was a sham from the beginning. One of the authors-Joy Garrison Cauffman-participated on the committee and was threatened by President Nixon's representatives for expressing her opinions.

Now Cauffman and her coauthor, Ronald L. Linder, reveal how political insiders took steps to form the bogus committee; how President Nixon and his people quashed the recommendations of educators; how slush funds drive what goes on in Washington, DC; and how bureaucrats continue to distort the issues related to health education.

Several committee members argued against the predetermined outcomes of the committee's work, but they were silenced-and the price they paid for speaking up is shocking.

The future of health care in America is critically dependent on our ability to educate people on how to establish and maintain their health. But to make that possible, we must learn from the mistakes showcased in "A Forty-Year Retrospective of President Nixon's Committee on Health Education."

KIRKUS REVIEWS: An American immigrant explores the sprawling history of the Jewish people...through the struggles of generations of his family... The illuminating book...is rich in history...The author tells his family's story with passion, charm, and exquisite detail...As a memoir, it's beautifully rendered, and as history, it's masterfully told...an engrossing and important look at the Jewish experience of the last century and a half. CLARION REVIEW ****: Chaim Linder's remarkable memoir reaches into widely interesting territory...This memoir stands with the best of its kind, rendered in delicious detail by a brilliant yet ordinary man...with an unflagging sense of aliveness... BLUEINK REVIEW: ...Linder transports readers from his childhood in Palestine to his pursuit of the American Dream...skillfully combines personal detail with historical facts...an engaging memoir about an uncommon individual...particularly compelling.

One of the most important decisions that you will ever make may be to undergo a cosmetic surgery procedure. The author's hope is that the reader will use this book as a tool to assist them in making that very important decision. An educated, informed patient stands a better chance of being happy with their results since they know exactly what to look for during their initial consultations. They also have fewer complaints and complications because they know what to expect each step of the way. With the worksheets and checklists included in this book, the reader will know what questions to ask and what answers to expect.

This open access book provides an updated and fully revised 4th edition of this authoritative analysis of Swiss democracy. It particularly explains the institutions of federalism and consensus government through political power sharing. In this new edition, the authors also address several important changes and challenges that have affected Swiss democracy, including the country's relationship with the EU, fiscal equalisation, direct democracy and the legitimacy of national referendums, territorial conflict, as well as the polarisation of party politics.

As Laura Linder asserts, increased concentration of media ownership has resulted in the homogenization of public discourse. Packaged, commercialized messages have replaced the personalized and localized opinions necessary for the uninhibited marketplace of ideas envisioned in the First Amendment. Narrowcast outlets such as talk radio give vent to individual voices, but only to a limited, predefined audience. The media have led a social shift toward splintering and compartmentalization, away from pluralism and consensus.

Public access television provides an alternative to this trend, requiring active public participation in the process of developing community-based programming through the dominant medium of television. Today, more than 2,000 public access television centers exist in the United States, producing more than 10,000 hours of original, local programming every week. But public access television remains underutilized, even as deregulation and growing interest in other telecommunications delivery systems pose a potential threat to the long-term viability of public access television. In this comprehensive review of the background and development of public access television, Linder offers all the information needed to understand the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings as well as the nuts and bolts of public access television in the United States. Must reading for students and scholars involved with mass media in the United States and professionals in the television field.

Littleton. Columbine. Sandy Hook. Each school shooting in the United States is followed by a series of questions. Why does this happen? Who are the shooters? How can this be prevented? Along with parents, school officials, media outlets, and scholars, popular culture has also attempted to respond to these questions through a variety of fictional portrayals of rampage violence. Rampage Violence Narratives: What Fictional Accounts of Rampage Violence Say about the Future of America's Youth offers a detailed look at the state of youth identity in American cultural representations of youth violence through an extended analysis of over forty primary sources of fictional narratives of urban and suburban school violence. Representations of suburban and rural school shootings that are modeled after real-life events serve to shape popular understandings of the relationship between education and American identity, the liminal space between childhood and adulthood, and the centrality of white heterosexual masculinity to definitions of social, political, and economic success in the United States.Through a series of 'case studies' that offer in-depth examinations of fictional depictions of school shootings in film and literature, it becomes clear that these stories are representative of a larger social narrative regarding the future of the United States. The continuing struggle to understand youth violence is part of an ongoing conversation about what it means to raise future citizens within a cultural moment that views youth through a lens of anxiety rather than optimism.

The fourth edition is again an "all-in-one" combination of basic theory and practical exercises with software and data available from the Springer server. Potential readers / users are students of Photogrammetry, Geodesy, Geography and other sciences, but also all who are interested in this topic. No prior knowledge is necessary, except the handling of standard PCs. Theory is presented true to the motto "as little as possible, but as much as necessary". The main part of the book contains several tutorials. In increasing complexity, accompanied by texts explaining further theory, the reader can proceed step by step through the particular working parts. All intermediate as well as the final results are discussed with reference to accuracy and error handling, and included in the data sets to provide controls. Most of the standard work in Digital Photogrammetry is shown and trained, for example scanning, image orientation, stereo plotting, aerial triangulation measurement (manual and automatic), block adjustment, automatic creation of surface models via image matching, creation of ortho images and mosaics, and others. Examples of both aerial and close-range photogrammetry present the power of this kind of measurement techniques. 3-D images can be viewed with the accompanying 3-D glasses. During the time since the last edition, the software development went on, and therefore it was necessary to adopt the text to the actual program versions which were also tested to work properly under MS Windows 10. Few options which are obsolete nowadays were removed, some new options were added, the handling of the software was simplified in several places, and so on. For the use of own images taken with a custom digital camera, a new chapter offers an easy way of lens calibration and explains how to get good results with a minimum of work. The software is not limited to the example data included but may be used for personal projects. Part of the book comprises a complete description of the software.

Wouldn't you love to abolish the IRS ...Keep all the money in your paycheck ...Pay taxes on what you spend, not what you earn ...And eliminate all the fraud, hassle, and waste of our current system?Then the FairTax is for you. In the face of the outlandish American tax burden, talk-radio firebrand Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder are leading the charge to phase out our current, unfair system and enact the FairTax Plan, replacing the federal income tax and withholding system with a simple 23 percent retail sales tax on new goods and services. This dramatic revision of the current system, which would eliminate the reviled IRS, has already caught fire in the American heartland, with more than six hundred thousand taxpayers signing on in support of the plan.As Boortz and Linder reveal in this first book on the FairTax, this radical but eminently sensible plan would end the annual national nightmare of filing income tax returns, while at the same time enlarging the federal tax base by collecting sales tax from every retail consumer in the country. The FairTax, they argue, would transform the fearsome bureaucracy of the IRS into a more transparent, accountable, and equitable tax collection system. Among other benefits, it will: Make America's tax code truly voluntary, without reducing revenueReplace today's indecipherable tax code with one simple sales taxProtect lower-income Americans by covering the tax on basic necessitiesEliminate billions of dollars in embedded taxes we don't even know we're payingBring offshore corporate dollars back into the U.S. economyEndorsed by scores of leading economists and supported by a huge and growing grassroots movement, the FairTax Plan could revolutionize the way America pays for itself. In this straight-talking book, Neal Boortz and John Linder show you how it would work--and how you can help make it happen.

This timely reappraisal of Walker Evans and James Agee's photo-textual collaboration "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men," 1941 focuses on the interdisciplinary aspects of the book. It provides in-depth chapters on the book's status as part imaginative fiction, documentary effort, ethnographic study, confessional writing, and modernist prose. Contributions range from chapters on Walker Evan's photographs and their seminal role in representing the South, material on the journalistic and sociological context for Agee and Evans's collaboration, their personal relationship and more. Taking into account such concepts as psychoanalysis, photography, cinema, ethnography, semiotics, journalism and the South, among other things, these essays constitute a long overdue and important endeavor within American Studies.

Although religious unrest had been brewing in Western Europe long before Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, historians view this event as the tipping point that shattered the unity of Medieval Catholic civilization. Disillusioned by Church bureaucracy and a papal schism, and encouraged by the formation of early nation states and the rise of Renaissance Humanism, Western Europe was primed for an alternative to the old order. The reforms of what eventually became the Lutherans, Calvinists, Anglicans, and Radical Anabaptists called for a return to scripture and a focus on individual faith. The counterreformation on the part of the Catholic Church brought about a new focus on spirituality that culminated in the Council of Trent. The event that Linder calls "Midwife to the Modern World" still resonates today, in modern spiritual revivals, religious debates, and newer Church reforms. Illuminated by primary source documents from the period, a timeline, a glossary, and biographies of key figures, this volume is an ideal reference source for any student of the past, and the present.

A powerful time potion has given Clarissa, a modern college student, the opportunity to travel back to the year 1861. Life in the Victorian era is far more difficult than Clarissa anticipated. Her modern thinking impedes her ability to fit in with the past. Everything goes wrong, until a chance encounter with the handsome, George Laurent, changes everything. Although George is already engaged to be married, he is captivated by Clarissa's untimely demeanor, and a passionate romance ensues. With her days in the past quickly running out, will Clarissa find a way to transcend the barrier of time?

In a unified form, this monograph presents fundamental results on the approximation of centralized and decentralized stochastic control problems, with uncountable state, measurement, and action spaces. It demonstrates how quantization provides a system-independent and constructive method for the reduction of a system with Borel spaces to one with finite state, measurement, and action spaces. In addition to this constructive view, the book considers both the information transmission approach for discretization of actions, and the computational approach for discretization of states and actions. Part I of the text discusses Markov decision processes and their finite-state or finite-action approximations, while Part II builds from there to finite approximations in decentralized stochastic control problems. This volume is perfect for researchers and graduate students interested in stochastic controls. With the tools presented, readers will be able to establish the convergence of approximation models to original models and the methods are general enough that researchers can build corresponding approximation results, typically with no additional assumptions.