Handbook of Public Economics Volume 2 (Handbooks in Economics)

Book Description

This second volume of the Handbook of Public Economics is a continuation of volume one, with chapters surveying the literature on both the tax and expenditure areas of public economics.

The material presents an up-to-date survey of the field of public economics by those actually doing work on the frontier of the subject, and is written in a manner that renders it useful to the public finance specialist, whilst remaining understandable for the student and non- specialist.
For more information on the Handbooks of Economics series, please see our homepage on http://www.elsevier.nl/locate/hes

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Valuable tool for public finance research.......2000-05-12

This text is essential not only for students taking courses in public finance, but a primary tool for researchers in this subject. This text comprises of works conducted by the leaders of this field. I recommend this text for anybody who is serious in learning the current research in this vast field of economics.

Molecular Plant Pathology: A Practical Approach Volume II (Practical Approach Series (Cloth))

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Molecular Plant Pathology: A Practical Approach Volume II (Practical Approach Series (Cloth))

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Advances in the understanding of cellular processes at the molecular level have transformed the biological sciences. Plant pathology is a field which has benefited dramatically from the application of molecular techniques and has become one of the most exciting areas of biology today. Molecular Plant Pathology: A Practical Approach Volume I and its companion Volume II provide the first comprehensive guide to the latest molecular techniques as well as the established approaches to the subject. Detailed protocols are included which address a wide range of investigations from plant pathogen isolation and culture, through physiology and biochemistry, to techniques for localizing genes and their products within the cells of the infected plants. Researchers in plant science, molecular biology, and related areas will find the two volumes of Molecular Plant Pathology to be an invaluable experimental resource, providing a wealth of easy-to-follow protocols supported by expert advice and guidance.

Book Description

Dallas-based Simpson and Stacy is one of the most unique law firms in the nation. The partners, Skip Simpson and Michael Stacy, handle suicide cases almost exclusively. Award winning journalist and best selling author C. C. Risenhoover pries into the minds of the two attorneys to discover what motivates their focus on suicide, and how the high-profile cases they handle affect them personally.

Book Description

As studies using microarray technology have evolved, so have the data analysis methods used to analyze these experiments. The CAMDA conference plays a role in this evolving field by providing a forum in which investors can analyze the same data sets using different methods. Methods of Microarray Data Analysis IV is the fourth book in this series, and focuses on the important issue of associating array data with a survival endpoint. Previous books in this series focused on classification (Volume I), pattern recognition (Volume II), and quality control issues (Volume III).

In this volume, four lung cancer data sets are the focus of analysis. We highlight three tutorial papers, including one to assist with a basic understanding of lung cancer, a review of survival analysis in the gene expression literature, and a paper on replication. In addition, 14 papers presented at the conference are included. This book is an excellent reference for academic and industrial researchers who want to keep abreast of the state of the art of microarray data analysis.

Jennifer Shoemaker is a faculty member in the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics and the Director of the Bioinformatics Unit for the Cancer and Leukemia Group B Statistical Center, Duke University Medical Center. Simon Lin is a faculty member in the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics and the Manager of the Duke Bioinformatics Shared Resource, Duke University Medical Center.

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The story behind the hand of the moving finger that writes

A thrilling journey deep into the strangeness of cutting-edge physics

Good for this type of content

Science Fiction and Real Quantum Time

Stick to time travel and lose the statistics next book

Time Travel in Einstein's Universe: The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time
J. Richard Gott
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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How to Build a Time Machine

Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy (Commonwealth Fund Book Program)

Time Travel: A New Perspective

The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century: Stories by Arthur C. Clarke, Jack Finney, Joe Haldeman, Ursula K. Le Guin,

About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolution

ASIN: 0618257357

Book Description

In this fascinating book, the renowned astrophysicist J. Richard Gott leads time travel out of the world of H. G. Wells and into the realm of scientific possibility. Building on theories posited by Einstein and advanced by scientists such as Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne, Gott explains how time travel can actually occur. He describes, with boundless enthusiasm and humor, how travel to the future is not only possible but has already happened, and he contemplates whether travel to the past is also conceivable. Notable not only for its extraordinary subject matter and scientific brilliance, Time Travel in Einstein's Universe is a delightful and captivating exploration of the surprising facts behind the science fiction of time travel.

Customer Reviews:

The story behind the hand of the moving finger that writes.......2007-01-22

"The moving finger writes and then moves on, nor all your piety can lure it back to retrace a line nor your tears wash out a word of it."

John Donne

Perhaps if Donne had written his immortal words AFTER having read this book, he MAY HAVE SAID "...unless of course, you have your Richard Gott time machine handy."

And like many other serviceable entries in the time machine genre of scientific speculation (like Paul Davies "How to Build a Time Machine"), Gott uses plain simple English with great illustrations to explain the three traditional theories of how time travel could be accomplished as well using the idea of time travel itself to speculate on the origins of the universe.

As to the three potential theories, Gott makes some good points:

1) Kurt Godel's suggestion that IF this were a rotating static universe, then time travel would be possible simply by going far enough into the future. Significantly, Godel was friends with Einstein over the course of the last fifteen years of Einstein's life. So, while Godel knew both Einstein and Einstein's physics, unfortunately his theory doesn't comport with physical observations that our universe is not rotating is expanding and not static as his theory would require. However, his theory does show that Einstein's physics do allow time travel, just not in the way Godel suggested.

2) The Tipler rotating cylinder...Proposed by Frank Tipler, if you could create and infinitely long cylinder in space and rotate it, one could travel along the access of rotation to move forward or backward in time. Unfortunately, to put it mildly, Tipler's cylinder is a tad bit beyond our current financial resources. (Just over a "few" billion, Congress nixed the Supercolliding Superconductor back in 1993 so they probably would be less excited about this project!).

3) Wormholes. The specialty of Star Trek lore wormholes were discussed at length in the Kip Thorne book "Black Holes and Time Warps." And although Thorne was the idea man beyond how Carl Sagan got Jody Foster to the middle of our galaxy in the movie "Contact," for his part Thorne is not optimistic that Black Holes could stay open to actually transport materials beyond a Planck length. In other words, modern string theory talks about basic building blocks of reality -- strings -- that are in size to a neutron as a neutron would be to our solar system. Even on weight watchers, the astronauts ("chrononauts") would have tough going.

Still the same, Gott noted that even though available for only subatomic transmissions, time travel could still explain how our universe was created.

SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU WANT TO HEAR THE GUY WHO INVENTED IT TO EXPLAIN STOP READING NOW.

But if you're willing to let me do it, here goes:

As noted, time travel -- even backwards -- can work at subatomic levels. The technical jargon is cosmic foam and apparently it happens all the time. To create the universe all that would need to happen is for a sufficiently compacted amount of matter to travel back in time so that it could become the Big Bang.

So in other words, depending on how you denominate it, time may be going now, about to begin somewhere or already be thirteen point seven billion years old.

Even if you read my explanation, read Gott's. He's a great accessible writer who has written perhaps the very best book on this issue.

A thrilling journey deep into the strangeness of cutting-edge physics.......2006-07-05

Richard Gott's Time Travel in Einstein's Universe: The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time is a thrilling journey deep into the strangeness of cutting-edge physics - a place where beautiful, baffling ideas are sometimes indistinguishable from the utterly crazy. On this journey, we meet a time-travelling brilliant mathematician. The journey ends with a strange and dark conclusion - one which calls into question our very existence. Ever since Einstein showed it was theoretically possible, the quest to travel through time has drawn eccentric amateurs and brilliant scientists in almost equal numbers. The amateurs include Aage Nost, who demonstrates his time machine in front of the cameras. The professionals include the likes of Professor Frank Tipler of Tulane University. His time machine sounds good - but it would weigh half the mass of the galaxy.There is, however, one way that time travel to the past could be possible. And it would be much more convenient. Future civilisations could use computers to create exact replicas of the past. Unfortunately that idea has physics trembling in its socks. Because if you can generate a perfect virtual reality version of the past, who's to say we are not one of the replicas? If your looking for a book that outline's all that latest theories this is about as close as you'll get.

Good for this type of content.......2006-06-26

I searched extensively for a book that would explain current theories of time and the implications thereof that could be understood by a non-mathematical mind and one not trained in physics, and it was extraordinarily difficult. I ended up choosing this book, which is probably as close as one will get to what I was hoping for. The first and last chapters are actually the most accessible and interesting, the first being an overview of many fictional accounts of time travel (both movies and books) and the last a treatise on future prediction and probability, which I found most interesting and consoling. The chapters inbetween were the denser material in which the author discusses whether or not time travel to the past or the future could work and, inevitably, it deals with the theory of relativity, wormholes, black holes, etc. and how all that would function, all of which is confusing for a layperson like me. Nevertheless, this is, as I mentioned, the closest thing to a non-scientific explanation of what are at base purely mathematical constructs. It does get one thinking philosophically about what "time" is and about time travel in general. For example, if one can travel to the future, doesn't that imply that the future already "exists" as a "place" which one can visit? Mindbending reading and worth it for that reason alone.

Science Fiction and Real Quantum Time.......2006-02-08

Gott explores the current possibilities for actual time travel in light of current physics and quantum mechanics. He summarizes the history of quantum physics, as providing insights into the concepts of time, and possibility of wormholes and other perturbations of Spacetime that might allow time travel. He reports on various experiments and lines of enquiry by various physicists, like Kip Thorne, who have investigated time and practical factors in time relationships and travel into the future or past. The concepts of relativity and war speed (speed of light) come into view here. Gott correlates various areas of current enquiry, including a rich survey of contributions science fiction has made to actually enquiry in quantum physics.)

Stick to time travel and lose the statistics next book.......2006-01-18

Summary: Interesting read but when Gott left time travel physics to discuss statistics and probability theory the book became bland like author was padding his essential [time travel, nature of the universe, beginnings, etc & TOE-chasing] published papers with his other non-essential statistical theory work.

Book Description

Mountain Gazette offered proof that "outdoor literature" need not be an oxymoron. Running a scant eight years, from 1972 to 1979, the magazine featured material by major writers and artists on outdoor and adventure subjects. This volume collects the best material ? nonfiction, fiction, photography, cartoons, and illustrations ? from the old and new Mountain Gazette. Selections include singer-songwriter Katie Lee?s "The Ride," a meditation on biking through town naked; "The Monkey Wrench Gang: A Review," by George Sibley; and Karen Recknagel's "Climbing the Walls in Berkeley." Other contributors include Edward Abbey, Galen Rowell, Steve Wishart, and Cindy Kleh.

Book Description

In this collection of essays, an eminent American historian of race relations discusses issues central to our understanding of the history of racism, the role of racism, and the possibilites for justice in contemporary society. George M. Fredrickson provides an eloquent and vigorous examination of race relations in the United States and South Africa and at the same time illuminates the emerging field of comparative history--history that is explicitly cross-cultural in its comparisons of nations, eras, or social structures. Taken together, these thought-provoking, accessible essays--several never before published--bring new precision and depth to our understanding of racism and justice, both historically and for society today.
The first group of essays in The Comparative Imagination summarizes and evaluates the cross-national comparative history written in the past fifty years. These essays pay particular attention to comparative work on slavery and race relations, frontiers, nation-building and the growth of modern welfare states, and class and gender relations. The second group of essays represents some of Fredrickson's own explorations into the cross-cultural study of race and racism. Included are new essays covering such topics as the theoretical and cross-cultural meaning of racism, the problem of race in liberal thought, and the complex relationship between racism and state-based nationalism. The third group contains Fredrickson's recent work on anti-racist and black liberation movements in the United States and South Africa, especially in the period since World War II.
In addition, Fredrickson's provocative introduction breaks significant new intellectual ground, outlining a justification for the methods of comparative history in light of such contemporary intellectual trends as the revival of narrative history and the predominance of postmodern thought.

The Comparative Imagination: on the History of Racism, Nationalism, and Social Movements

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The Comparative Imagination: on the History of Racism, Nationalism, and Social Movements
George M. Frederickson
Manufacturer: U. Of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000R3D6N8

Book Description

A unique and comprehensive look at some 1,500 of the world's peoples--from the earliest times to the present--offers a fascinating exploration of our planet's cultural and ethnic diversity. Africa, the Americas, Europe, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania all receive individual sections, with maps and entries arranged in A-to-Z form. In addition to covering today's nation-states, there's information on the minorities who live in these countries (such as the Basques in Spain); the various diasporas created by dispersed peoples (Kurds, Jews); significant cultural, but non-ethnic groups, including Maronite Christians; and even extinct populations like the Goths.

Customer Reviews:

A good start at filling a gap in the reference bookshelf.......2005-11-18

Admirable topic-matter and breadth of coverage, but this book could have included a little more of certain things.

Often, in the course of my reading, nonfiction and fiction, I have come across the names of peoples or tribes or nations that do not correspond to nation-states, and have wondered about them. For instance, in Gunter Grass's "The Tin Drum", he talks about people in Poland called Kashubians and Pomeranians. What are those? I wondered.

The answers are here. Similar answers are also here for every other group in the world, past and present, that could be called a "people": 1500 entries in all. It's a fantastic idea for a reference book, and a very good effort, especially for a first try.

I myself am partly of Latvian descent, and find no less than a page and a half on my ancestors. I found out that Latvians are descended from several Baltic-speaking and Finnic-speaking tribes, including the Couronians, Latgalians, Selonians, and Zemgalians. There is even a black-and-white map of the territories occupied by each of these tribes. Cool!

Most entries are just a few sentences long, such as that for the Djapas, a people of Brazil's Amazonian forest. Others are longer, such as that for Poles (two pages).

The typical entry begins with a definition of who a people are, such as this for the Acehnese: "An Austronesian-speaking people living in the mountainous northwest of Sumatra, Indonesia, where they number around 150,000." Next comes what is thought to be the origin of a people, as this for the Amorites: "...who migrated from the Arabian peninsula (or possibly from modern Syria) into northeast Jordan around 2500 BC, and later into parts of Palestine." Next comes a brief history of the people, including the dates of turning-points in their existence, and finally, sometimes, some cultural notes, such as gods worshipped or a note on their art forms.

This book fills such an important reference need that it feels wrong to criticize it, but I have a couple of issues. One is that the entries usually do not give a strong sense of what makes a people or tribe individual or distinctive. This might be a tall order and not answerable in many cases, but often, in reading the entries, there is a more or less detailed history of the people telling what they did, but not a description of who they really are or were. However, a few tidbits of key cities, gods, and cultural practices are thrown in where these are known.

Another (minor) problem, for me, is the book's arrangement in five large regional chapters (The Americas, Africa, Europe, South and Central Asia and the Middle East, and East and Southeast Asia and Oceania), each one of which contains its own alphabetical list of entries. I personally don't find this arrangement useful, since the alphabetical listings keep restarting. There is a comprehensive alphabetical index of all entries at the back of the book, and that is what I find myself using most often to locate entries.

Also, the eight-page introduction by editor John M. MacKenzie, while giving a pretty good overview of some of the challenges of compiling such a work and the difficulties with nomenclature, does not do what I think it really ought to: discuss the question of what constitutes the identity of a people. Why are we human beings grouped as "peoples" anyway? I would like to know what the scholars who prepared this book have to say on that topic.

In this era of suicide bombers, separatists, and other manifestations of "identity politics", a work such as this could and should have something truly important to contribute to our understanding. The present work certainly makes an excellent start by gathering so much wonderful material in one volume, but I believe it has room to expand and improve with a second edition.

Don't get me wrong--I love this book. I just want more of it.

Peoples, Nations and Cultures: An A-Z of the Peoples of the World, Past and Present

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Peoples, Nations and Cultures: An A-Z of the Peoples of the World, Past and Present
Professor John (Author) MacKenzie
Manufacturer: Cassell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSMQG4

Book Description

Often referred to as the Newton of France, Pierre Simon Laplace has been called the greatest scientist of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He affirmed the stability of the solar system and offered a powerful hypothesis about its origins. A skillful mathematician and popular philosopher, Laplace also did pioneering work on probability theory, in devising a method of inverse probabilities associated with his classic formulation of physical determinism in the universe. With Lavoisier and several younger disciples, he also made decisive advances in chemistry and mathematical physics.

Roger Hahn, who has devoted years to researching Laplace's life, has compiled a rich archive of his scientific correspondence. In this compact biography, also based in part on unpublished private papers, Hahn follows Laplace's journey from would-be priest in the provinces to Parisian academician, popularizer of science during the French Revolution, religious skeptic, and supporter of Napoleon. By the end of his life, Laplace had become a well-rewarded dean of French science.

In this first full-length biography, Hahn illuminates the man in his historical setting. Elegantly written, Pierre Simon Laplace reflects a lifetime of thinking and research by a distinguished historian of science on the fortunes of a singularly important figure in the annals of Enlightenment science.

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Pierre-Simon Laplace, 1749-1827
Charles Coulston Gillispie
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691050279

Book Description

Pierre-Simon Laplace was among the most influential scientists in history. Often referred to as the lawgiver of French science, he is known for his technical contributions to exact science, for the philosophical point of view he developed in the presentation of his work, and for the leading part he took in forming the modern discipline of mathematical physics. His two most famous treatises were the five-volume Traité de mécanique céleste (1799-1825) and Théorie analytique des probabilités (1812). In the former he demonstrated mathematically the stability of the solar system in service to the universal Newtonian law of gravity. In the latter he developed probability from a set of miscellaneous problems concerning games, averages, mortality, and insurance risks into the branch of mathematics that permitted the quantification of estimates of error and the drawing of statistical inferences, wherever data warranted, in social, medical, and juridical matters, as well as in the physical sciences.

This book traces the development of Laplace's research program and of his participation in the Academy of Science during the last decades of the Old Regime into the early years of the French Revolution. A scientific biography by Charles Gillispie comprises the major portion of the book. Robert Fox contributes an account of Laplace's attempt to form a school of young physicists who would extend the Newtonian model from astronomy to physics, and Ivor Grattan-Guinness summarizes the history of the scientist's most important single mathematical contribution, the Laplace Transform.

Pierre Simon Laplace 1749-1827: A Determined Scientist.(Book review): An article from: Canadian Journal of History

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Pierre Simon Laplace 1749-1827: A Determined Scientist.(Book review): An article from: Canadian Journal of History
Janis Langins
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Canadian Journal of History, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2006. The length of the article is 960 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Pierre Simon Laplace 1749-1827: A Determined Scientist.(Book review)
Author: Janis Langins
Publication: Canadian Journal of History (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 41 Issue: 1 Page: 120(2)

Article Type: Book review

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The New Calendar of the Correspondence of Pierre Simon Laplace (Berkeley Papers in History of Science)

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The New Calendar of the Correspondence of Pierre Simon Laplace (Berkeley Papers in History of Science)

Manufacturer: Univ of California Office for
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0918102200

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