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The Oestrid Flies: Biology, Host-parasite Relationships, Impact and Management
by D. D. Colwell P. J. Scholl M. J. R. HallThis book provides an in-depth review and analysis of the biology of adults and larvae of the Family Oestridae (commonly known as botflies, or warble flies). Oestrid flies cause myiasis (invasion of living tissue by the larvae), and are a major pest of both domestic and wild animals worldwide. The book presents a comparative investigation of the life histories and adaptation to parasitism exhibited by this unique family of flies. It also gives a detailed survey of each genus and provides a synopsis of the taxonomy of the family. It contains chapters on morphology, life history, host-parasite relationships, taxonomy and behavior.
The Official ACT Prep Guide
by Jossey-Bass StaffEverything you need to know about the 2016-2017 ACT test, with real full-length practice tests from the makers of the ACT! The Official ACT Prep Guide 2016-2017 is the bestselling resource for students gearing up for the ACT test. This comprehensive guide walks you through the entire test experience, from registration through results, with expert advice straight from the test's creators. You'll find effective test-taking strategies, tips for boosting your score on the English, math, reading, and science tests, and detailed information on the enhanced optional writing test. Three new full-length practice tests help you assess your readiness so you can spot weak areas well in advance, and the ACT experts provide valuable advice on preparing both mentally and physically so you can manage anxiety and be fully confident on test day. You also get free online bonus content to help you start college on the right foot, including tips for preparing an application that gets noticed, getting into your first-choice school, being a successful student, and much more. The 2016-2017 version of the ACT guide includes a number of changes, including reading test sections with two shorter prose passages and the enhanced writing test's prompts. This guide provides a preview of what to expect for the entire exam, so you can go into the test feeling fully prepared and ready to excel.
The Official Dopamine Nation Workbook: A Practical Guide to Overcoming Addiction in the Age of Indulgence
by Dr Anna LembkeA practical companion to the international bestseller Dopamine Nation, for individuals, families, counsellors, teachers, and anyone who wants to go beyond the narrative and engage in practices that will reset reward pathways for a more flourishing life.In Dopamine Nation, Dr. Lembke introduced readers to her ground-breaking research that demonstrates how abundance itself is a stressor, contributing to rising rates of addiction, depression, and anxiety. Now, she's written the workbook that we've all been waiting for. Full of specific exercises, fill-in tables, and inspiring examples, readers will be able to more clearly identify the substances and behaviors they struggle to moderate. With the warm, authoritative voice we know and love, Dr. Lembke will share her valuable advice on how to undertake your own dopamine fast, reset your own pathways, and live a happier and more fulfilling life.Praise for Dopamine Nation:'Anna Lembke's stories of guiding people to find a healthy balance between pleasure and pain have the power to transform your life' - Lori Gottlieb, bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone'Brilliant . . . riveting, scary, cogent, and cleverly argued. Lembke weaves patient stories with research, in a voice that's as empathetic as it is clear-eyed' - Beth Macy, bestselling author of Dopesick'Radically changes the way we think about mental illness, pleasure, pain, reward, and stress. Turn toward it. You'll be happy you did' - Daniel Levitin, bestselling author of The Organized Mind
The Official Dopamine Nation Workbook: A Practical Guide to Overcoming Addiction in the Age of Indulgence
by Dr Anna LembkeA practical companion to the international bestseller Dopamine Nation, for individuals, families, counsellors, teachers, and anyone who wants to go beyond the narrative and engage in practices that will reset reward pathways for a more flourishing life.In Dopamine Nation, Dr. Lembke introduced readers to her ground-breaking research that demonstrates how abundance itself is a stressor, contributing to rising rates of addiction, depression, and anxiety. Now, she's written the workbook that we've all been waiting for. Full of specific exercises, fill-in tables, and inspiring examples, readers will be able to more clearly identify the substances and behaviors they struggle to moderate. With the warm, authoritative voice we know and love, Dr. Lembke will share her valuable advice on how to undertake your own dopamine fast, reset your own pathways, and live a happier and more fulfilling life.Praise for Dopamine Nation:'Anna Lembke's stories of guiding people to find a healthy balance between pleasure and pain have the power to transform your life' - Lori Gottlieb, bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone'Brilliant . . . riveting, scary, cogent, and cleverly argued. Lembke weaves patient stories with research, in a voice that's as empathetic as it is clear-eyed' - Beth Macy, bestselling author of Dopesick'Radically changes the way we think about mental illness, pleasure, pain, reward, and stress. Turn toward it. You'll be happy you did' - Daniel Levitin, bestselling author of The Organized Mind
The Official SAT Study Guide (2018 Edition)
by The College BoardReview every skill and question type needed for SAT success - now with eight total practice tests. The 2018 edition of The Official SAT Study Guide doubles the number of official SAT#65533; practice tests to eight - all of them created by the test maker. As part of the College Board's commitment to transparency, all practice tests are available on the College Board's website, but The Official SAT Study Guide is the only place to find them in print along with over 250 pages of additional instruction, guidance, and test information. With updated guidance and practice problems that reflect the most recent information, this new edition takes the best-selling SAT guide and makes it even more relevant and useful. Be ready for the SAT with strategies and up-to-date information straight from the exam writers. The Official SAT Study Guide will help students get ready for the SAT with: * 8 official SAT practice tests, written in the exact same process and by the same team of authors as the actual exam * detailed descriptions of the math and evidenced based reading and writing sections * targeted practice questions for each SAT question type * guidance on the new optional essay, including practice essay questions with sample responses * seamless integration with Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy There's also a complete chapter on the PSAT/NMSQT#65533;, which is aligned to the content and scores of the new SAT. The PSAT/NMSQT also has over $180 million of scholarships connected to student performance.
The Oil Palm Genome (Compendium of Plant Genomes)
by Maizura Ithnin Ahmad KushairiThis book compiles the fundamental advances resulting from of oil-palm genome and transcriptome sequencing, and describes the challenges faced and strategies applied in sequencing, assembling and annotating oil palm genome sequences. The availability of genome and transcriptome data has made the mining of a high number of new molecular markers useful for genetic diversity as well as marker-trait association studies and the book presents high-throughput genotyping platforms, which allow the detection of QTL regions associated with interesting oil palm traits such as oil unsaturation and yield components using classical genetic and association mapping approaches. Lastly, it also presents the discovery of major genes governing economically important traits of the oil palm.Covering the history of oil palm expansion, classical and molecular cytogenetics, improvements based on wild and advanced genetic materials, and the science of oil palm breeding, the book is a valuable resource for scientists involved in plant genetic research.
The Oil of Brazil: Exploration, Technical Capacity, and Geosciences Teaching (1864-1968) (Historical Geography and Geosciences)
by Drielli PeyerlThis book investigates the role of the National Petroleum Council (CNP) and especially of Petrobras in the construction and shaping of courses in Geosciences, as part of the historical process of the search for and exploration of oil, which began in Brazil in 1864 and ended in 1968 with the discovery of the first offshore well.The book explores the history of the discovery of oil in Brazil together with the historical development of oil research and geosciences in Brazil. It also elucidates significant events and developments which occurred between 1864 and 1968 such as the foundation of the Ouro Preto Mining School, the foundation of the CNP and Petrobras and other scientific societies and universities and their contributions to the formation and constitution of geosciences in Brazil. This book also discusses the massive investments by CNP and Petrobras in technical and scientific research for oil exploration in the Brazilian territory.This unique book appeals to scientists, students and professionals in geosciences, history and related fields.
The Oldest Cure in the World: Adventures in the Art and Science of Fasting
by Steve HendricksA journalist delves into the history, science, and practice of fasting, an ancient cure enjoying a dynamic resurgence. When should we eat, and when shouldn’t we? The answers to these simple questions are not what you might expect. As Steve Hendricks shows in The Oldest Cure in the World, stop eating long enough and you’ll set in motion cellular repairs that can slow aging and prevent and reverse diseases like diabetes and hypertension. Fasting has improved the lives of people with epilepsy, asthma, and arthritis, and has even protected patients from the worst of chemotherapy’s side effects. But for such an elegant and effective treatment, fasting has had a surprisingly long and fraught history. From the earliest days of humanity and the Greek fathers of medicine through Christianity’s “fasting saints” and a 19th-century doctor whose stupendous 40-day fast on a New York City stage inaugurated the modern era of therapeutic fasting, Hendricks takes readers on a rich and comprehensive tour. Threaded throughout are Hendricks’s own adventures in fasting, including a stay at a luxurious fasting clinic in Germany and in a more spartan one closer to home in Northern California. This is a playful, insightful, and persuasive exploration of our bodies and when we should—and should not—feed them.
The Oldest Enigma of Humanity: The Key to the Mystery of the Paleolithic Cave Paintings
by Bertrand David Jean-Jacques LefrèreThirty thousand years ago our prehistoric ancestors painted perfect images of animals on walls of tortuous caves, most often without any light. How was this possible? What meaning and messages did the cavemen want these paintings to convey? In addition, how did these perfect drawings come about at a time when man's sole purpose was surviving? And why, some ten thousand years later, did startlingly similar animal paintings appear once again, on dark cave walls?Scholars and archaeologists have for centuries pored over these works of art, speculating and hoping to come away with the key to the mystery. No one until now has ever come close to elucidating neither their origin nor their meaning.In their stunning book and for the first time, Mr. David and Mr. Lefrere, after working together for years, give us a new understanding of an art lost in time, revealing what had until recently remained unexplainable-the oldest enigma in humanity has been solved.
The Olive Landscapes of the Mediterranean: Key Challenges and Opportunities for their Sustainability in the Early XXIst Century (Landscape Series #36)
by José Muñoz-Rojas Roberto García-RuizThis book provides a state-of-the-art review of the current models and typologies of olive landscapes and related farming systems in the Mediterranean. It also explores potential prospects for monitoring and enhancing their sustainability standards. Olive groves are an essential component of the historical landscape that largely drive the cultural, ecological and socio-economic character of the region. Agronomic intensification and mechanization, market globalization and delocalization, and financialization are affecting these ancient farming systems in certain olive landscapes, whereas others are threatened by abandonment and financial loss. This complex set of processes is resulting in a heterogeneous mosaic of olive landscapes when examined across nested spatial-temporal scales and institutional levels. In alignment with such complexity, multiple challenges are arising linked to sustainability standards and targets. Sustainability has actually been the subject of much public discussion and yet of not nearly enough scientific evidence-gathering that is both robust and comparable across geographic contexts and scales. This is where this book is expected to provide a meaningful contribution. Ultimately, the main objective of this book is to establish a base-line sustainability picture of the complex mosaic of olive landscapes across the Mediterranean region. The book is structured along a series of national /regional and thematic reviews and syntheses, which lead to joined-up reflections on current and future challenges, opportunities and trajectories for enhancing the sustainability of olive landscapes across the Mediterranean. The book will be of interest to academics and researchers, policy-makers, the farming community, and market agents alike. We expect that they will find in this book an overall picture of the sector´s current situation and plausible pathways for achieving enhanced sustainability standards, whilst also permitting the reader to gain depth on the contingent characteristics of the different drivers, components and typologies of these dynamic and valuable landscapes.
The Olive Tree Genome
by Eddo Rugini Luciana Baldoni Rosario Muleo Luca SebastianiThis book provides an introduction to the genetics, genomics, and breeding of the olive tree, a multi-functional long-lived crop plant that is relevant not only for culinary olive and oil production, but also for shaping the landscape and history of many rural areas for centuries. Today, the recognized health benefits of extra-virgin olive oil provide new impulses for introducing innovation in olive crop management and olive breeding for a deeper understanding of the biological processes underlying fruit quality, adaptation to crop environment and response to threatening epidemics due to biological agents such as Xylella fastidiosa. The individual chapters discuss genetic resources; classic and modern breeding methods for providing new olive cultivars; the genotype x environment interactions determining the response to biotic and abiotic stresses; fruit metabolism related to oil production and the synthesis of health beneficial molecules; the mapping of genes and quantitative trait locus; and genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic strategies pertinent to the development of a molecular platform and template amenable to precise and rapid genetic modifications using recently developed genome editing tools.
The Olive: Botany and Production
by Maurizio Lambardi Luca Sebastiani Giovanni Benelli A. Rosati Roberto Mariotti José Mercado Soraya Mousavi Isabel Narváez Elena Palomo-Ríos Fernando Pliego-Alfaro Louise Ferguson Dvora Namdar Giuseppe Surico Giovanni Agosteo Barbera Giuseppe Angjelina Belaj Antonio Belcari Karim Barkaoui Giora Ben-Ari Alon Ben-Gal Rita Biasi Iris Biton Konstantinos Blazakis Aureliano Bombarely Antonio Brunori Santa Olga Cacciola Angelo Canale Giovanni Caruso Dr Tiziano Caruso Nicola Cinosi Arnon Dag Ran Erel Daniela Farinelli Tommaso Ganino Jesus A Gil-Ribes Calero José Gómez Riccardo Gucci Consolación Guerrero Panagiotis Kalaitzis Lauri Pierre-Eric Lorenzo León Bianco Riccardo Lo Enrico Maria Lodolini Francisco Luque Hanene Mairech Picchi Malayka Giulia Marino Francesco Paolo Marra G Medina-Alonso Maurizio Micheli Monji Msallem Ruggero Petacchi Pierluigi Pierantozzi Malayka Samantha Picchi Amalia Rosa Piscopo Primo Proietti Alessandro Ragazzi Pilar Rallo Hava F Rapoport Luca Regni Laia Ribalta Patrizia Sacchetti Alicia Serrano Luca Testi Maria Cristina Valeri Andrea Vitale Uri Yermiyahu Hande Yilmaz-Düzyaman Valeria Zeni Isaac Zipori James Friel Raul De Rosa Salvatore Camposeo Garcia Sergio CastroThe European or Mediterranean cultivated olive (Olea europaea L., subsp. europaea, var. europaea) is an ancient crop notable for its early domestication. Today, hundreds of olive varieties are grown to produce high-quality fruit for oil and table olives for human consumption. Over the last 30 years, the olive industry has undergone profound innovation due to scientific and technical advances, particularly in genomics, breeding, orchard management, mechanization and agro-ecology. Not all these developments are currently available to smaller producers. Outside the Mediterranean Basin, where it has been present for over 6,000 years, olive cultivation has spread to many other countries. These new olive-growing areas are helping further the expansion of the industry, due to increased awareness of the nutritional and health properties of extra virgin olive oil. This book is a much-needed update on olive biology and cultivation, with contributions from leading international experts, and includes: Genetics and breeding Olive propagation and nursery Planting olive orchards Horticultural management of olive orchards Plant protection Olive by-products Multifunctionality of olive groves and ecosystem services The Olive: Botany and Production is an invaluable resource for researchers and students in horticulture and agriculture, in addition to producers involved in olive orchard management.
The Omniverse: Transdimensional Intelligence, Time Travel, the Afterlife, and the Secret Colony on Mars
by Alfred Lambremont WebreA tour through the new science of the Omniverse, its spiritual and physical dimensions, and its incalculable intelligent civilizations • Reveals the key travel and communication technologies of the Omniverse: time travel, teleportation, and telepathy • Unveils newly disclosed state secrets about these technologies, about the findings of the NASA Mars rover missions, and about a secret colony and life on Mars • Explains through science how souls are holographic fragments of God and how they help create planets, solar systems, galaxies, and universes in the multiverse We are all citizens of the Omniverse, the overarching matrix of energy, spirit, and intelligence that encompasses all that exists: all universes within the multiverse as well as the spiritual dimensions centered on the divine Source that many call God. In this scientific guide to the Omniverse, Alfred Lambremont Webre reveals startling replicable evidence about extraterrestrial and extra-universal life, the intelligent civilizations created by souls in the afterlife, top-secret alien technology, and the existence of a secret base as well as life on Mars. The author explains how our souls are holographic fragments of God/Source and how souls and Source are co-creating planets and galaxies as virtual realities for soul development. He addresses Grey alien control over soul reincarnation and also sheds light on the presence of invisible hyperdimensional controllers known as the Archons, who feed off negative energy. Revealing the key technologies of the Omniverse, the author explains how hyperdimensional civilizations communicate telepathically, teleport interdimensionally, and travel through time. He unveils newly disclosed state secrets about government possession of these technologies, the findings of the NASA Mars rover missions, and the secret Mars colony whose permanent security personnel is age-reversed and shot back through time to their specific space-time origin points--with their memories blocked. Integrating science and spirituality, this map of the dimensions of the Omniverse sounds the call for scientific inquiry into the holographic origins of the soul, the potential of time travel, and our role as divine co-creators with Source.
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by Michael PollanWhat shall we have for dinner? For omnivores like ourselves, this simple question has always posed a dilemma: When you can eat just about anything nature (or the supermarket) has to offer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stir anxiety, especially when some of the foods on offer might shorten your life. Today, buffeted by one food fad after another, America is suffering from what can only be described as a national eating disorder. The omnivore's dilemma has returned with a vengeance, as the cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast-food outlet confronts us with a bewildering and treacherous food landscape. What's at stake in our eating choices is not only our own and our children's health, but the health of the environment that sustains life on earth. The Omnivores Dilemma is a groundbreaking book in which one of America's most fascinating, original, and elegant writers turns his own omnivorous mind to the seemingly straightforward question of what we should have for dinner. The question has confronted us since man discovered fire, but, according to Michael Pollan, the bestselling author of The Botany of Desire, how we answer it today, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, may well determine our very survival as a species. Should we eat a fast-food hamburger? Something organic? Or perhaps something we hunt, gather, or grow ourselves? To find out, Pollan follows each of the food chains that sustain us industrial food, organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves from the source to a final meal, and in the process develops a definitive account of the American way of eating. His absorbing narrative takes us from Iowa cornfields to food-science laboratories, from feedlots and fast-food restaurants.
The Omnivorous Mind: Our Evolving Relationship with Food
by John S. AllenIn this gustatory tour of human history, Allen suggests that the everyday activity of eating offers deep insights into our cultural and biological heritage. Beginning with the diets of our earliest ancestors, he explores eating's role in our evolving brain before considering our contemporary dinner plates and the preoccupations of foodies.
The Omo-Turkana Basin: Cooperation for Sustainable Water Management (Earthscan Series on Major River Basins of the World)
by Jonathan LautzeThis book provides a comprehensive examination of water resource management in the Omo-Turkana Basin, linking together biophysical, socioeconomic, policy, institutional and governance issues in a solutions-oriented manner. The Omo-Turkana Basin is one of the most important lake basins in Africa, and despite the likely transboundary impacts associated with the management of dams, it is the largest lake basin in Africa without a cooperative water agreement. This volume provides a foundation for integrated decision-making in the management of development in the Lake Turkana Basin. Chapters cover water-related conditions, hydropower, agriculture, ecosystems, resilience and transboundary governance. The final chapter proposes ways forward in light of the potential benefits that can be achieved through cooperation, and practical realities that cooperation is slow and may take time to achieve. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of water and natural resource management, environmental policy, sustainable development and African studies. It will also be relevant to water management professionals.
The Once and Future World
by J. B. MacKinnonFrom one of Canada's most exciting writers and ecological thinkers, a book that will change the way we see nature and show that in restoring the living world, we are also restoring ourselves. The Once and Future World began in the moment J.B. MacKinnon realized the grassland he grew up on was not the pristine wilderness he had always believed it to be. Instead, his home prairie was the outcome of a long history of transformation, from the disappearance of the grizzly bear to the introduction of cattle. What remains today is an illusion of the wild--an illusion that has in many ways created our world. In 3 beautifully drawn parts, MacKinnon revisits a globe exuberant with life, where lions roam North America and 20 times more whales swim in the sea. He traces how humans destroyed that reality, out of rapaciousness, yes, but also through a great forgetting. Finally, he calls for an "age of restoration," not only to revisit that richer and more awe-filled world, but to reconnect with our truest human nature. MacKinnon never fails to remind us that nature is a menagerie of marvels. Here are fish that pass down the wisdom of elders, landscapes still shaped by "ecological ghosts," a tortoise that is slowly remaking prehistory. "It remains a beautiful world," MacKinnon writes, "and it is its beauty, not its emptiness, that should inspire us to seek more nature in our lives."
The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone
by Brian Merchant"The One Device is a tour de force, with fast-paced edge and heaps of analytical insight." -Ashlee Vance, New York Times bestselling author of Elon Musk"A stunning book. You will never look at your iPhone the same way again." -Dan Lyons, New York Times bestselling author of DisruptedThe secret history of the invention that changed everything-and became the most profitable product in the world.Odds are that as you read this, an iPhone is within reach. But before Steve Jobs introduced us to "the one device," as he called it, a cell phone was merely what you used to make calls on the go.How did the iPhone transform our world and turn Apple into the most valuable company ever? Veteran technology journalist Brian Merchant reveals the inside story you won't hear from Cupertino-based on his exclusive interviews with the engineers, inventors, and developers who guided every stage of the iPhone's creation.This deep dive takes you from inside One Infinite Loop to 19th century France to WWII America, from the driest place on earth to a Kenyan pit of toxic e-waste, and even deep inside Shenzhen's notorious "suicide factories." It's a firsthand look at how the cutting-edge tech that makes the world work-touch screens, motion trackers, and even AI-made their way into our pockets.The One Device is a roadmap for design and engineering genius, an anthropology of the modern age, and an unprecedented view into one of the most secretive companies in history. This is the untold account, ten years in the making, of the device that changed everything.
The One-Minute Workout: Science Shows a Way to Get Fit That's Smarter, Faster, Shorter
by Christopher Shulgan Martin Gibala<p>Finally, the solution to the #1 reason we don’t exercise: time. Everyone has one minute. <p> A decade ago, Martin Gibala was a young researcher in the field of exercise physiology—with little time to exercise. That critical point in his career launched a passion for high-intensity interval training (HIIT), allowing him to stay in shape with just a few minutes of hard effort. It also prompted Gibala to conduct experiments that helped launch the exploding science of ultralow-volume exercise. Now that he’s the worldwide guru of the science of time-efficient workouts, Gibala’s first book answers the ultimate question: How low can you go? <p>Gibala’s fascinating quest for the answer makes exercise experts of us all. His work demonstrates that very short, intense bursts of exercise may be the most potent form of workout available. Gibala busts myths (“it’s only for really fit people”), explains astonishing science (“intensity trumps duration”), lays out time-saving life hacks (“exercise snacking”), and describes the fascinating health-promoting value of HIIT (for preventing and reversing disease). Gibala’s latest study found that sedentary people derived the fitness benefits of 150 minutes of traditional endurance training with an interval protocol that involved 80 percent less time and just three minutes of hard exercise per week. <p>Including the eight best basic interval workouts as well as four microworkouts customized for individual needs and preferences (you may not quite want to go all out every time), The One-Minute Workout solves the number-one reason we don’t exercise: lack of time. Because everyone has one minute.</p>
The One: How an Ancient Idea Holds the Future of Physics
by Heinrich PäsA "fascinating [and] provocative" argument by a particle physicist—marshalling a "heady mix of history, philosophy and cutting-edge theory" (Wall Street Journal)—for monism, the ancient idea about the universe that says, All is One In The One, particle physicist Heinrich Päs presents a bold idea: fundamentally, everything in the universe is an aspect of one unified whole. The idea, called monism, has a rich three-thousand-year history: Plato believed that &“all is one&” before monism was rejected as irrational and suppressed as a heresy by the medieval Church. Nevertheless, monism persisted, inspiring Enlightenment science and Romantic poetry. Päs aims to show how monism could inspire physics today, how it could slice through the intellectual stagnation that has bogged down progress in modern physics and help the field achieve the grand theory of everything it has been chasing for decades. Blending physics, philosophy, and the history of ideas, The One is an epic, mind-expanding journey through millennia of human thought and into the nature of reality itself.
The Online Self
by Soraj HongladaromThis book investigates the emerging phenomenon of the self as it exists in the online world. It argues for an externalist conception of self and identity, one that does not depend on the continuity of consciousness of the subject. It also offers an analysis of related phenomenon such as online friendship and games based on this analysis. An outstanding feature of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace is that it allows for the user to put forward their "selves" or their identity onto the Internet and use the online self as an anchor to connect with any number of "friends" each of whom also has their own online selves. A number of questions then arise which are deeply conceptual and philosophical in nature: What is the metaphysical nature of this emerging online self? Is it the same or fundamentally different from the "offline" self with which we are already familiar? Since increasing numbers of people are connected to the online world, this world itself seems to be taking on a reality of its own. This much has been appreciated by a number of scholars in the field. However, there seems to be lacking a systematic study of the philosophical and metaphysical nature of the self that has become a key element in cyberspace, a key topic which this volume addresses. Apart from the problem of constitution of the online self, this volume addresses related questions concerning personal identity in the online world and scrutinizes computer games and the characteristics that they share with social networking sites. Unlike the majority of the existing literature, which discusses the topic from a more social scientific perspective, this volume fills the lacuna of a philosophical and theoretical study of the online world.
The Only Woman in the Room
by Eileen PollackA bracingly honest exploration of why there are still so few women in the hard sciences, mathematics, engineering, and computer science In 2005, when Lawrence Summers, then president of Harvard, asked why so few women, even today, achieve tenured positions in the hard sciences, Eileen Pollack set out to find the answer. A successful fiction writer, Pollack had grown up in the 1960s and '70s dreaming of a career as a theoretical astrophysicist. Denied the chance to take advanced courses in science and math, she nonetheless made her way to Yale. There, despite finding herself far behind the men in her classes, she went on to graduate summa cum laude, with honors, as one of the university's first two women to earn a bachelor of science degree in physics. And yet, isolated, lacking in confidence, starved for encouragement, she abandoned her ambition to become a physicist.Years later, spurred by the suggestion that innate differences in scientific and mathematical aptitude might account for the dearth of tenured female faculty at Summer's institution, Pollack thought back on her own experiences and wondered what, if anything, had changed in the intervening decades. Based on six years interviewing her former teachers and classmates, as well as dozens of other women who had dropped out before completing their degrees in science or found their careers less rewarding than they had hoped, The Only Woman in the Room is a bracingly honest, no-holds-barred examination of the social, interpersonal, and institutional barriers confronting women--and minorities--in the STEM fields. This frankly personal and informed book reflects on women's experiences in a way that simple data can't, documenting not only the more blatant bias of another era but all the subtle disincentives women in the sciences still face.The Only Woman in the Room shows us the struggles women in the sciences have been hesitant to admit, and provides hope for changing attitudes and behaviors in ways that could bring far more women into fields in which even today they remain seriously underrepresented.
The Ontogeny of Information: Developmental Systems and Evolution
by Susan OyamaThe Ontogeny of Information is a critical intervention into the ongoing and perpetually troubling nature-nurture debates surrounding human development. Originally published in 1985, this was a foundational text in what is now the substantial field of developmental systems theory. In this revised edition Susan Oyama argues compellingly that nature and nurture are not alternative influences on human development but, rather, developmental products and the developmental processes that produce them. Information, says Oyama, is thought to reside in molecules, cells, tissues, and the environment. When something wondrous occurs in the world, we tend to question whether the information guiding the transformation was pre-encoded in the organism or installed through experience or instruction. Oyama looks beyond this either-or question to focus on the history of such developments. She shows that what developmental "information" does depends on what is already in place and what alternatives are available. She terms this process "constructive interactionism," whereby each combination of genes and environmental influences simultaneously interacts to produce a unique result. Ontogeny, then, is the result of dynamic and complex interactions in multileveled developmental systems. The Ontogeny of Information challenges specialists in the fields of developmental biology, philosophy of biology, psychology, and sociology, and even nonspecialists, to reexamine the existing nature-nurture dichotomy as it relates to the history and formation of organisms.
The Ontology of Ecological Cognition (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)
by Konrad WernerThis book provides the first explicit examination of the underlying ontology of the ecological/embodied cognition philosophical project. More specifically, it examines the locative concepts used by defenders of representationalism and the more environmentally oriented, ecological/embodied views on cognition.The book’s main argument is that ecological/embodied cognition is embedded in various philosophical traditions. It establishes that there is a lack of clarity in how we conceptualize locative relations in contexts having to do with cognition. The book tackles questions of what it means that internal representations are internal, that the external world is external, that the extended mind is extended, how we should understand the claim that cognition and consciousness are in the head, or, alternatively, in the environment. Additionally, it addresses what it means that cognition enacts an environment, which is likely the most controversial claim made in some branches of embodied cognition. The goal of the book is to capture the essential traits of cognition thought of as an ecological phenomenon – as a factor determining a specific locus – and thereby elicit how cognition takes part in the creation of the world as we know it.The Ontology of Ecological Cognition will appeal to scholars and graduate students working in philosophy of mind, cognitive science and metaphysics.
The Ontology of Physics for Biology: Semantic Modeling of Multiscale, Multidomain Physiological Systems
by Daniel L. Cook John H. Gennari Maxwell L. NealThis book introduces semantic representations of multiscale, multidomain physiological systems that link to qualitative reasoning and to quantitative analysis of biophysical processes in health and disease. Two major public health problems, diabetes and hypertension, serve as use-cases to illustrate the depth and rigor of such representations for logical inference and quantitative analysis. Central to this approach is the Ontology of Physics for Biology (OPB) that formally represents the foundations of classical physics and engineering system dynamics that are the basis for our understanding of biomedical entities, processes, and functional relationships. Furthermore, we introduce OPB-based software for annotating and abstracting available biosimulation models for reuse, recombination, and for archiving of physics-based biomedical knowledge. We have formalized and leveraged physics-based biological knowledge as a working view of physiology and biophysics from three distinct perspectives: (1) biologists and biomedical investigators, (2) biophysicists and bioengineers, and (3) biomedical ontologists and informaticists. We present a logical and intuitive semantics of classical physics as a tool for mediating and translating biophysical knowledge among biomedical domains. Daniel L. Cook, MD, PhD John H. Gennari, PhD Maxwell L. Neal, PhD