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Artificial Intelligence in Internet of Things: Proceedings of 8th International Conference on Internet of Things and Connected Technologies (ICIoTCT 2023) (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems #1072)
by Frank Lin David Pastor Nishtha Kesswani Ashok Patel Sushanta Bordoloi Chaitali KoleyThis book is a collection of high-quality research papers presented at 8th International Conference on Internet of Things and Connected Technologies (ICIoTCT 2023), held at National Institute of Technology (NIT), Mizoram, India, during 29–30 September 2023. This book presents recent advances on IoT and connected technologies. This book is designed for marketing managers, business professionals, researchers, academicians, and graduate-level students seeking to learn how IoT and connecting technologies increase the amount of data gained through devices, enhance customer experience, and widen the scope of IoT analytics in enhancing customer marketing outcomes.
Advances in Computational Intelligence: 23rd Mexican International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, MICAI 2024, Tonantzintla, Mexico, October 21–25, 2024, Proceedings, Part I (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #15246)
by Lourdes Martínez-Villaseñor Gilberto Ochoa-RuizThe two-volume set, LNAI 15246 and 15247, constitutes the proceedings of the 23rd Mexican International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, MICAI 2024, held in Tonantzintla, Mexico in October 21–25, 2024. The 37 full papers presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from 141 submissions. The papers presented in these two volumes are organized in the following topical sections: Part I - Machine Learning; Computer Vision. Part II - Intelligent Systems; Bioinformatics and Medical Applications; Natural Language Processing.
Management of Diabetic Complications: Calling for a Team Approach
by Georgi Abraham Jothydev Kesavadev Priyanka Govindan Nanditha Arun Suneeta TeckchandaniDiabetic complications, which occur both acutely and on a chronic basis, are an enormous challenge facing doctors at every level of care.There needs to be more knowledge, which is compiled into a textbook and is unavailable for reference- taking this into account, to provide clinical care, to address challenges to family physicians, nurses, diabetologists, subspecialty physicians, surgeons, doctors in training, and telemedicine consultations. This book is a compilation of different subjects in diabetic care, which can be easily referred to in diverse situations and organ involvement for appropriate management strategies. This book covers not only common complications lucidly but rare complications with a structured management plan. The book contains up-to-date information with color / black & white figures to explain the disease process and follow-up plans. The book is good teaching material for medical students, interns, nurses, and junior-level doctors and consultants. Chapters will provide a simple, comprehensive complication assessment with essential highlights—for example, foot ulcers and skin infections with management strategies for day-to-day evaluation. It covers any disease process with skin and mucus membrane involvement with serious issues such as Stroke, Myocardial Infarction, and CKD.
Performing Artists and Precarity: Work in the Contemporary Entertainment Industries
by Philip Hancock Melissa TylerThis open access book focuses on the distinctive experiences of freelance and self-employed live performers in the UK’s live entertainment industries It provides an in-depth account of their working lives during COVID-19, showing how their experiences of the pandemic provide insight into the different types of precarity shaping what it means to be a live performer. A growing body of academic research has focused on the meaning, experience, and nature of precarity for those working in the cultural and creative sector, highlighting the problem of socio-economic precarity. This book demonstrates how a constant struggle for recognition also shapes the contours and lived experiences of live performance work. It emphasizes how, combined with affective and socio-economic forms of precarity, this recognitive precarity creates a distinctive and challenging set of working conditions. Drawing on original data generated through a national survey of self-employed and freelance performers across the live entertainment industries, combined with insights derived from a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews, this book presents an empirically rich insight into the struggles and opportunities presented by the multiple forms of precarity that the pandemic brought to the fore. It gives voice to a precarious workforce that remains integral to one of the UK’s most economically buoyant sectors but whose experiences are often marginalized in academic research, and in policy and practice. It will, therefore, offer a unique insight for both students and scholars of work and employment, and for those working in the cultural and creative sector, into the distinctive nature of work as a freelance or self-employed live performer.
Beyond the Law: Ethnography of Mundane Violence, Faith, and Lifeworlds (Contemporary Anthropology of Religion)
by Muhammad BilalThe book embarks on a journey into the intricate landscape of blasphemy in Pakistan amid a rising tide of blasphemy accusations, public lynchings, and contentious blasphemy laws. Challenging conventional perspectives, this book delves beyond legal and religious confines, offering an ethnography of the mundane as a secular reading and a grand existential scheme to highlight how blasphemy laws and religious prisms often fail to capture the essence of the blasphemy dilemma in Pakistan. The author offers an insightful re-evaluation of the blasphemy issue, addressing its multifaceted definition, the motivations driving intentional blasphemous acts and frivolous accusations, the authority to punish alleged offenders, the paradox of religious violence, and the emergence of mediated expressions and virtual negotiation of blasphemy. Through meticulous grassroots analysis of ordinary Pakistanis’ perspectives, the book offers pragmatic policy solutions for blasphemy issues, presenting unorthodox insights into Pakistan, its diverse populace, and the ever-evolving sensibilities of Islam and societal dynamics in both local and global contexts.
Systemic Risk and Complex Networks in Modern Financial Systems (New Economic Windows)
by Vincenzo PacelliThis open access book is a groundbreaking exploration of systemic risk in modern financial systems. Through its theoretical and empirical investigations, it reveals the multidimensionality of systemic risk, the transmission channels of crises, and the interlinkages between physical, transition, and financial risks. It introduces cutting-edge methodologies, including prediction and optimization models based on complex networks, multilayer networks and eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) approaches, to forecast and measure systemic risk and financial crisis. It provides insight for academics, practitioners, policy and supervisory authorities, and bankers and financial market operators on understanding the links that determine the propagation of financial crises and the emergence of systemic risks. This book is essential for those wishing to better understand systemic risk and its implications.
Geological Genetic Analysis and Application of Oil and Gas Reservoirs
by Huanqing ChenThis book presents the research on geological genetic analysis of oil and gas reservoirs. It expounds on the methods, problems, and prospects of geological genetic analyses of oil and gas reservoirs, considering structures, reservoirs, and oil–gas–water (OGW) systems. Then, it explains the application of geological genetic analysis of oil and gas reservoirs with examples of volcanic rocks in the Songliao Basin, glutenites in the northwestern Junggar Basin, and sandstones in the Liaohe Basin. It is a valuable reference for researchers, engineers, and graduate students engaged in oil/gas exploration both from industrial and academic sectors.
Women in Analysis and PDE (Trends in Mathematics #5)
by Marianna Chatzakou Michael Ruzhansky Diana StoevaSince 2019 Ghent Analysis & PDE Center (GAPC) has been organising international workshops, conferences, seminars, and other scientific events covering a wide range of pioneering topics in Analysis and PDEs. In the winter of 2023, the GAPC decided to collect and publish mathematical results presented by women mathematician hosted at the center. This collection, in the form short papers, presented in the current book offers a wide range of state of art in Analysis and PDEs and disseminates the scientific discoveries of GAPC’s visitors and members to scientists outside of the center. The short papers published in current volume in the subseries Research Perspectives Ghent Analysis and PDE Center within the book series Trends in Mathematics are peer-reviewed written versions of the talks presented by women at GAPC events and are grouped accordingly. The current volume is strictly speaking in the realm of pure mathematics, but aims to be of interest not only to scientists in the field, butalso to anyone who has an interest to other applied sciences that Analysis and PDEs have applications to. The collection will also include the talks given at the two workshops "Women in Generalised Functions", organised in 2022 and 2023.
Advanced Methods in Statistics, Data Science and Related Applications: SIS 2022, Caserta, Italy, June 22–24 (Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics #467)
by Matilde Bini Antonio Balzanella Lucio Masserini Rosanna VerdeThis book contains a selection of the improved contributions submitted by participants at the conference of the Italian Statistical Society - SIS 2022 held in Caserta 22-24 June 2022. The scientific community of Italian statistics, which gathers around the SIS, is paying particular attention to the development of statistical techniques increasingly oriented toward the processing of large data, mainly, of complex data. The main goal is to provide the analysis of the data and the interpretability of the obtained results, with a view to decision support and the reliability of the data outcomes. The aim of this volume is to show some of the most relevant contributions of statistical and data analysis methods in preserving the quality of the information to be processed, especially when it comes from different, often non-official sources; as well as in the extraction of knowledge from complex data (textual, network, unstructured and multivalue) and in the explicability of results. Data Science today represents a broad domain of knowledge development from data, where statistical and data analysis methods can make an important contribution in the different domains where data management and processing are required. This volume is addressed to researchers but also to Ph.D. and MSc students in the field of Statistics and Data Science to acquaint them with some of the most recent developments towards which statistical research is orienting, in prevalence in Italy.
Monocytes and Macrophages in Development, Regeneration, and Disease (Results and Problems in Cell Differentiation #74)
by Malgorzata Kloc Jacek Z. Kubiak Marta HalasaThe study and therapeutic application of macrophages is a rapidly developing field. Tremendous progress has been made in understanding the phenotypes and functions of macrophages in healthy and diseased tissues and organs. Following the great success of Volume 62: "Macrophages - Origin, Functions and Biointervention" published in this series, this new book now focuses on the role of monocytes and macrophages in development, regeneration and disease. This new volume offers an overview of the latest developments in monocyte and macrophage subtypes and functions across various tissues including adipose tissue, bones, liver, lungs, testes, and the nervous system. The book also reviews existing and potential therapies targeted towards the macrophages and describes their homeostatic functions. It explores how macrophage cell cycle, metabolism, mitochondrial activity, histone acetylation status, and interaction with the extracellular matrix contribute to changes in macrophage phenotype and function in health and disease. Additionally, it examines the interactions between macrophages and cancer cells, bacteria, helminth parasites, and their role in the colonization and spread of HIV. For ease of reference, the volume is divided into three sections: Part I Nonimmunologic and immunologic functions of monocytes/macrophages Part II Tissue/organ specific functions of macrophages Part III Macrophage functions and dysfunction in diseases This book will be of interest to researchers working in the fields of developmental biology, immunology, cancer research, and therapeutic applications. It is written to inform and inspire experts and newcomers to the field of macrophages.
Becoming a Coach: The Essential ICF Guide
by Jonathan Passmore Tracy SinclairThis new and fully updated edition of the bestselling Becoming a Coach: The Essential ICF Guide brings this essential guide for ICF coaches up to date for 2024 and onwards. This book equips you with the skills and knowledge you need to develop yourself as a professional coach. It will encourage you to reflect on who you are, what you do and how you can enhance your skills. By drawing on the ICF Gold Standard for coach training and the latest coaching research, it will ensure your practice is well-informed by evidence and is up to the highest professional standards. The book will also help you as you undertake any coaching training program, deepening your understanding of the core skills to be a coach and broadening your thinking as to how these can be applied with real clients in your own coaching practice.
Do You Know...?: The Jazz Repertoire in Action
by Robert R. Faulkner Howard S. BeckerEvery night, somewhere in the world, three or four musicians will climb on stage together. Whether the gig is at a jazz club, a bar, or a bar mitzvah, the performance never begins with a note, but with a question. The trumpet player might turn to the bassist and ask, “Do you know ‘Body and Soul’?”—and from there the subtle craft of playing the jazz repertoire is tested in front of a live audience. These ordinary musicians may never have played together—they may never have met—so how do they smoothly put on a show without getting booed offstage. In “Do You Know . . . ?” Robert R. Faulkner and Howard S. Becker—both jazz musicians with decades of experience performing—present the view from the bandstand, revealing the array of skills necessary for working musicians to do their jobs. While learning songs from sheet music or by ear helps, the jobbing musician’s lexicon is dauntingly massive: hundreds of thousands of tunes from jazz classics and pop standards to more exotic fare. Since it is impossible for anyone to memorize all of these songs, Faulkner and Becker show that musicians collectively negotiate and improvise their way to a successful performance. Players must explore each others’ areas of expertise, develop an ability to fake their way through unfamiliar territory, and respond to the unpredictable demands of their audience—whether an unexpected gang of polka fanatics or a tipsy father of the bride with an obscure favorite song.“Do You Know . . . ?” dishes out entertaining stories and sharp insights drawn from the authors’ own experiences and observations as well as interviews with a range of musicians. Faulkner and Becker’s vivid, detailed portrait of the musician at work holds valuable lessons for anyone who has to think on the spot or under a spotlight.
Growing Figs in Cold Climates: A Complete Guide
by Lee ReichDiscover how to grow fresh figs organically in cold climates—from Minnesota to Moscow—with the help of this informative guide.Growing Figs in Cold Climates is a complete, full-color, illustrated guide to organic methods for growing delicious figs in cold climates, well outside the traditional hot, arid home of this ancient fruiting tree. Coverage includes:Five methods for growing figs in cold climates including overwinteringCultivar selection for cool and cold climatesPruning techniques for a variety of methods of growing figs in cold climatesPest problems and solutionsHarvesting, including ways to speed ripening, identify ripe fruit, and manage an overabundanceSmall-scale commercial fig production in cold climatesFresh figs are juicy, full-bodied, and filled with a honey-sweet flavor, and because truly ripe figs are highly perishable, they are only available to those who grow their own.By choosing the right cultivars and techniques, figs can be grown across cool and cold growing zones of North America, Europe, and beyond, putting them within reach of almost every gardener. Easy and delicious—if you can grow a houseplant, you can grow a fig.Praise for Growing Figs in Cold Climates“Lee Reich is a master at growing food, especially fruits, and his extensive personal knowledge about figs comes through clearly in his writings. . . . Follow his advice for growing figs and you are guaranteed success.” —Robert Pavlis, author, Garden Myths, Building Natural Ponds, and Soil Science for Gardeners, owner, Aspen Grove Gardens“We have grown this delicious fruit on Maine’s chilly coast, but Lee shows us how to do it even better.” —Barbara Damrosch and Eliot Coleman, farmers, Four Season Farm, authors
Chernobyl: A Novel
by Frederik PohlHugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction Grand Master Frederik Pohl presents a fictional account of the worst nuclear disaster in human history. Chernobyl: The very name conjures the catastrophe that the world feared could happen someday at a nuclear power plant. On April 26, 1986, a power surge caused the core of one of the reactors to explode, spewing a cloud of radioactive steam into the Ukrainian air. More than four thousand people died, as many as a half-million suffered potentially cancer-causing exposure, and the city around the plant became a toxic wasteland in which nothing could live. Before the disaster at the Chernobyl plant, nuclear catastrophe had been only a fear, a threat. But when the Chernobyl plant was destroyed, all those fears were suddenly all too real.Frederik Pohl's novel of this disaster was written months after the tragic events. He had the cooperation of many people inside the U.S.S.R. with access to technical information and first-person accounts of what is still the most tragic nuclear event in human history and only one of two level 7 nuclear accidents, along with the Fukushima disaster of 2011.This is fiction, but it is the most riveting, realistic account of what happened that has ever been written.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
The Seventeen Traditions: Lessons from an American Childhood
by Ralph Nader“The Seventeen Traditions brings us back to what’s important in life—and what makes America truly great.”—Jim Hightower, Illinois TimesThe activist, humanitarian, and former presidential candidate named one of the 100 most influential figures in American history by The Atlantic—one of only three living Americans so honored—Ralph Nader, looks back at his small-town Connecticut childhood and the traditions and values that shaped his progressive worldview. At once eye-opening, thought-provoking, and surprisingly fresh and moving, Nader’s The Seventeen Traditions is a celebration of uniquely American ethics certain to appeal to fans of Mitch Albom, Tim Russert, and Anna Quindlen—an unexpected and most welcome gift from this fearlessly committed reformer and outspoken critic of corruption in government and society. In a time of widespread national dissatisfaction and disillusionment that has given rise to new dissent characterized by the Occupy Wall Street movement, the liberal icon shows us how every American can learn from The Seventeen Traditions and, by embracing them, help bring about meaningful and necessary change.
Transforming Hitler's Germany: Developing Western Cultures under the Threat of the Cold War
by Tim Heath Annamarie VickersAs the last flames of the Second World War flickered and died, Germany emerged into an apocalyptic wasteland, where the Hitler Youth generation would be cursed with the running sore of National Socialism. With the uncaged bear of the Soviet Union flexing its muscles and the escalating tensions between East and West providing some distraction from the funeral pyre of the Third Reich, those living in West Germany soon understood that they were the geological bulkhead, a component in the prevention of communism spreading throughout the infantile peace of post-Second World War Europe. Despite all the destruction and political tensions which surrounded them, the young men and women of Germany were keen to experience the world beyond their own precarious borders. In August 1945, Tia Schuster and Lisa Kraus were two fourteen-year-old Berliners, and - like many - they found themselves shoehorned into what was to be the second ‘new era’ of their young lives. The first had brought about only death and destruction, yet this second had a cold unfamiliarity about it. As the late 1940s gave way to the 1950s and ‘60s, a series of new decadent eras - of rock-n-roll, fashion, flower power and sexual revolution - was on the horizon, which posed a threat to the traditional German way of life championed by the Nazi regime and post-Second World War German government. With this heady mixture of newfound freedom, the youth of Germany unwittingly became a feature of everything that both fascism and communism despised. This unique work tells the story of the tentative steps taken by young men and women into the ‘afterlife of Nazi Germany’. Encompassing memoirs along the way, it presents a quirky portrayal of charm, humor, mischief and personal accomplishment along with a vitally important slice of (West) Germany’s social history, which has remained hidden from the literary world for decades. As Tia Schuster remarked: ‘The world suddenly became a very big piece of pie, we wouldn’t be happy with just taking a slice of this pie, no, we wanted the whole damn thing and we didn’t care if it made us sick or not!’
When Less Is More: The Complete Guide for Women Considering Breast Reduction Surgery
by Bethanne SnodgrassIf you have ever thought that your breasts are too big, this book is for you. Do you suffer from chronic back and neck pain? Do you struggle to sit up straight? What about frequent headaches or hand numbness? Disabling muscle and joint pain, discolored shoulder grooves from your bra straps, and rashes under your breasts are just some of the symptoms caused by heavy breasts. Many large-breasted women also suffer psychologically from poor body image and unwanted sexual attention. Sound familiar? If so, When Less Is More will provide you with the information you need to make an informed decision about a procedure that can transform your life.Breast reduction is among the top ten most commonly performed major plastic surgical procedures, as common as facelift surgery. Most women experience dramatic symptom relief and emotional benefits after the procedure. In fact, the vast majority of women who have breast reduction surgery would have it again or recommend it to a friend. Even celebrities are speaking out about their breast reductions and the life-changing benefits they have experienced as a result. However, making the decision to have surgery can be difficult, and most women consider it for years before taking action. Unfortunately, despite the media attention and increasing frequency of the procedure, there is an alarming lack of accurate information regarding the surgery and its indications. Many doctors still recommend weight loss as an effective way to reduce breast size without scientific evidence to support this approach. Insurance companies often further confuse and complicate matters by using strict, one-size-fits-all guidelines to determine coverage eligibility. When Less Is More offers much-needed help for women suffering with large breasts by providing reliable information to help them answer critical questions:Will the surgery help me?Are there alternatives to surgery?How do I find a good doctor?Will my insurance pay for the surgery?It also includes immediate steps you can take to help relieve pain, such as finding a well-fitting bra, and features a fully illustrated physical therapy program. To help you face surgery with confidence, Dr. Snodgrass also discusses many details that doctors don’t have time to tell you.You may be a teenager trying to hide your breast size, a corporate executive, a stay-at-home mom, or a grandmother with deep grooves in your shoulders from your bra straps. Whoever you are or whatever your circumstances, the bottom line is you want to look and feel better. Breast reduction is one of the most effective surgeries available to help you do that, and When Less Is More gives you the essential information you need.
The Exiled King (Bone Magic #4)
by Sarah RemyAvani and Mal’s journey comes to its gripping conclusion in this final installment of the Bone Magic series by Sarah RemyThe desert has outgrown its boundaries…The warriors of the sands have united for the first time. They are newly privy to the secret sidhe roads beneath mountains, the ones that used to keep the flatlands safe. And they are marching toward Wilhaiim with weapons of steel.Wilhaiim is out of options…King Renault’s choice is untenable: watch the flatlands fall, or work with Malachi Doyle in a secret gambit to revive Wilhaiim’s ancient mechanized guardians, the Automata. The Automata have a terrible, bloodied history, but Mal believes they are his kingdom’s only hope of survival.Mal wavers on the edge of insanity…Avani lives with Mal in her head, an unwilling witness to his increasing madness. Her nights are filled with dreams of darkness and despair, her days troubled by guilt and uncertainty. Her beloved Goddess draws distant as Mal’s influence takes its toll. And as the bloodshed, brutality, and loss multiples, she and Mal will learn that determination is sometimes more potent than sorcery…and that the greatest sacrifices are often inescapable.
Living with Wood: A Guide for Toymakers, Hobbyists, Crafters, and Parents
by Dr. Seri C. RobinsonA comprehensive guide for wood workers of all ages that covers the science behind wood, its many uses, and optimal care. For anyone who has ever used, owned, or been curious about wood of any kind, this guide offers a fantastic summary of the science behind the material&’s anatomy, chemistry, and general upkeep. With the practical and accessible information presented here, you&’ll never have difficulty deciding what wood to work with or how to clean your boarded floors again. Living with Wood covers a broad range of topics, including best uses of wood in the home, finishing and coloring, woodworking machines, and unsafe woods. Whether you&’re building furniture, getting crafting, or caring for wooden antiques, this is your ideal guide to the most versatile, reliable, and beautiful material ever known.
Dream Trippers: Global Daoism and the Predicament of Modern Spirituality
by David A. Palmer Elijah SieglerOver the past few decades, Daoism has become a recognizable part of Western “alternative” spiritual life. Now, that Westernized version of Daoism is going full circle, traveling back from America and Europe to influence Daoism in China. Dream Trippers draws on more than a decade of ethnographic work with Daoist monks and Western seekers to trace the spread of Westernized Daoism in contemporary China. David A. Palmer and Elijah Siegler take us into the daily life of the monastic community atop the mountain of Huashan and explore its relationship to the socialist state. They follow the international circuit of Daoist "energy tourism," which connects a number of sites throughout China, and examine the controversies around Western scholars who become practitioners and promoters of Daoism. Throughout are lively portrayals of encounters among the book’s various characters—Chinese hermits and monks, Western seekers, and scholar-practitioners—as they interact with each other in obtuse, often humorous, and yet sometimes enlightening and transformative ways. Dream Trippers untangles the anxieties, confusions, and ambiguities that arise as Chinese and American practitioners balance cosmological attunement and radical spiritual individualism in their search for authenticity in a globalized world.
The Fresh 20: 20-Ingredient Meal Plans for Health and Happiness 5 Nights a Week
by Melissa LanzThe Fresh 20, the popular budget-friendly meal-planning service founded by working mother Melissa Lanz, is now a cookbook, offering families an all-natural and easy approach to mealtimes.Using just 20 organic, non-processed ingredients per week, home cooks can create 5 wholesome, delicious meals in just minutes. A busy home cook herself, Lanz understands the “What’s for dinner?” conundrum and has developed a program that gives parents healthy cooking options.Inspiring and educational, The Fresh 20 is filled with gorgeous color photos, shopping lists that take advantage of seasonal fruits and vegetables, prep tips, and, of course, easy and delicious recipes — including vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options.
Studying Human Behavior: How Scientists Investigate Aggression and Sexuality
by Helen E. LonginoIn Studying Human Behavior, Helen E. Longino enters into the complexities of human behavioral research, a domain still dominated by the age-old debate of “nature versus nurture.” Rather than supporting one side or another or attempting to replace that dichotomy with a different framework for understanding behavior, Longino focuses on how scientists study it, specifically sexual behavior and aggression, and asks what can be known about human behavior through empirical investigation. She dissects five approaches to the study of behavior—quantitative behavioral genetics, molecular behavior genetics, developmental psychology, neurophysiology and anatomy, and social/environmental methods—highlighting the underlying assumptions of these disciplines, as well as the different questions and mechanisms each addresses. She also analyzes efforts to integrate different approaches. Longino concludes that there is no single “correct” approach but that each contributes to our overall understanding of human behavior. In addition, Longino reflects on the reception and transmission of this behavioral research in scientific, social, clinical, and political spheres. A highly significant and innovative study that bears on crucial scientific questions, Studying Human Behavior will be essential reading not only for scientists and philosophers but also for science journalists and anyone interested in the engrossing challenges of understanding human behavior.
Red Lipstick: An Ode to a Beauty Icon
by Rachel FelderA unique, full-color compendium that celebrates and explores the enduring power and allure of the world’s most iconic lip shade, jam-packed with entertaining stories, anecdotes, little-known facts, quotes, and more than 100 gorgeous images culled from fine art, photography, and beauty and fashion editorial and advertising.“Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick, and pull yourself together.” — Elizabeth TaylorLipstick is the one makeup item most women can’t live without—and the most iconic shade is red. Exuding power, sensuality, allure, and mystery, red lips have been a constant of fashion for more than 5,000 years, beginning with Mesopotamian women around 3500 B.C. Throughout the ages, red lipstick has been a signature look worn by royalty, celebrities, and real women across cultures and geography. In fact, nearly all women own a tube of red lipstick, whether it’s the favorite shade they’ve been wearing devotedly for years, or as beauty boost they use for special occasions.Filled with a show-stopping selection of images and distinctively packaged—the size of a clutch, with a jacket printed with a matte, velvet, red finish—Red Lipstick is the only cultural history of this makeup essential available. Granted unprecedented access to experts and the archives of revered brands like Chanel and Elizabeth Arden, beauty writer Rachel Felder explores the origins and allure of red lipstick and illuminates its association with aristocracy, sex appeal, illicit sexuality, rebellion, power, glamour, fame, and beauty. She also spotlights the fascinating array of women who have worn it through the ages, including monarchs, suffragettes, flappers, working women in World War II, first ladies, political leaders, geishas, Hollywood sirens, rock and rollers, fashionistas, and more. Inside this enthralling book, you’ll discover why red lipstick makes women more attractive to others (and the science behind it); tips on choosing the most perfect shade of crimson; and a wealth of anecdotes, quotations, select literary excerpts, and trivia, such as the shade Carolyn Bessette Kennedy wore on her wedding day. Red Lipstick is packed with a museum’s worth of fine art, including both Man Ray’s photograph “Red Badge of Courage” and infamous painting “Les Amoreaux;” lush, rarely seen vintage magazine advertisements from stalwart brands like Guerlain and Dior; illustrations by renowned fashion illustrators such as René Gruau, Daisy Villeneuve, and Bil Donovan; artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edgar Degas, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Wayne Thiebaud, and Walt Kuhn; and images of famous red lipstick wearers including Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth II, Coco Chanel, Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Madonna, Diana Vreeland, Rihanna, Paloma Picasso, and many others. With its captivating, chic design, beautiful selection of visuals, and engaging, entertaining text, Red Lipstick is a classic, like the perfect red lip shade itself.
Gringo Gulch: Sex, Tourism, and Social Mobility in Costa Rica
by Megan Rivers-MooreThe story of sex tourism in the Gringo Gulch neighborhood of San José, Costa Rica could be easily cast as the exploitation of poor local women by privileged North American men—men who are in a position to take advantage of the vast geopolitical inequalities that make Latin American women into suppliers of low-cost sexual labor. But in Gringo Gulch, Megan Rivers-Moore tells a more nuanced story, demonstrating that all the actors intimately entangled in the sex tourism industry—sex workers, sex tourists, and the state—use it as a strategy for getting ahead. Rivers-Moore situates her ethnography at the intersections of gender, race, class, and national dimensions in the sex industry. Instead of casting sex workers as hapless victims and sex tourists as neoimperialist racists, she reveals each group as involved in a complicated process of class mobility that must be situated within the sale and purchase of leisure and sex. These interactions operate within an almost entirely unregulated but highly competitive market beyond the reach of the state—bringing a distinctly neoliberal cast to the market. Throughout the book, Rivers-Moore introduces us to remarkable characters—Susan, a mother of two who doesn’t regret her career of sex work; Barry, a teacher and father of two from Virginia who travels to Costa Rica to escape his loveless, sexless marriage; Nancy, a legal assistant in the Department of Labor who is shocked to find out that prostitution is legal and still unregulated. Gringo Gulch is a fascinating and groundbreaking look at sex tourism, Latin America, and the neoliberal state.
Hebridean Journey: The Magic of Scotland's Outer Isles
by Brigid BensonShortlisted for the Scottish Nature Photography Book Awards Washed by the surging waves of the Atlantic Ocean, the island chain of Scotland's Outer Hebrides lies at the very edge of Europe. From white shell sands, peaty moors and gnarly mountains to heather hills, sea-green lochs and mysterious ancient monuments, these are places of unrivalled beauty. This book is a fabulous invitation to discover the unique magic of Lewis and Harris, Berneray, North Uist, Grimsay, Benbecula, South Uist, Eriskay, Bara and Vatersay, as well as the vibrant Gaelic culture of the islanders. Packed with fascinating insights, hidden gems and helpful information, it offers the uplifting opportunity for meaningful travels and life-affirming experiences in these extraordinary islands.