Koneru Ramakrishna Rao has played a leading role in advancing parapsychology in the United States, India, and around the world--serving as president of both the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology and the U.S.-based Parapsychological Association. He founded the Journal of Indian Psychology and served as editor of the Journal of Parapsychology for nearly two decades. He has authored many books, including Basic Research in Parapsychology (second edition, 2001, $39.95) and Consciousness Studies (2002, $75). Thirteen essays collected here honor his contributions to the field; they are written by Raos colleagues, students, and protgs on such topics as psychical research, prayer and healing, consciousness, dreams and clairvoyance. Also provided is a complete bibliography of Raos published writings.
"This very important work calls for research and policy-making that is proactive, multi-level, multi-method, and interdisciplinary--not disease-driven. It synthesizes perspectives on wellness that have the potential to produce a paradigm shift in research and policy planning, implementation, and evaluation." — Lené Levy-Storms, University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Medicine/Geriatrics "[This book] helps broaden the field of inquiry and legitimates the social and political perspectives in health care research and planning." —Ellen R. Shaffer, University of California, San Francisco, Program in Medical Ethics
HumanRobot Interaction (HRI) considers how people can interact with robots in order to enable robots to best interact with people. HRI presents many challenges with solutions requiring a unique combination of skills from many fields, including computer science, artificial intelligence, social sciences, ethology and engineering. We have specifically aimed this work to appeal to such a multi-disciplinary audience. This volume presents new and exciting material from HRI researchers who discuss research at the frontiers of HRI. The chapters address the human aspects of interaction, such as how a robot may understand, provide feedback and act as a social being in interaction with a human, to experimental studies and field implementations of humanrobot collaboration ranging from joint action, robots practically and safely helping people in real world situations, robots helping people via rehabilitation and robots acquiring concepts from communication. This volume reflects current trends in this exciting research field.
This volume brings together essays by an internationally distinguished and diverse group of scholars. Contributors thoughtfully explore the ethical, public policy, and scientific implications of embryonic and adult stem cell research. Part one of the book offers a variety of scientific and public policy perspectives, including essays on stem cell plasticity and using umbilical cord blood as an alternative source of pluripotent stem cells. Part two vigorously examines the ethics of stem cell research and considers issues of social justice, morality, and public policy. Scientific alternatives, a natural law perspective regarding federal funding, and a discussion of the possible moral complicity of Catholic researchers are among the distinctive contributions made to the stem cell research debate by this collection. The objective and balanced discussions contained in this volume serve as an accessible introduction to the bioethical questions, issues, and problems surrounding stem cell research.
Why has the flow of big, world-changing ideas slowed down? A provocative look at what happens next at the frontiers of human knowledge. The history of humanity is the history of big ideas that expand our frontiers—from the wheel to space flight, cave painting to the massively multiplayer game, monotheistic religion to quantum theory. And yet for the past few decades, apart from a rush of new gadgets and the explosion of digital technology, world-changing ideas have been harder to come by. Since the 1970s, big ideas have happened incrementally—recycled, focused in narrow bands of innovation. In this provocative book, Michael Bhaskar looks at why the flow of big, world-changing ideas has slowed, and what this means for the future. Bhaskar argues that the challenge at the frontiers of knowledge has arisen not because we are unimaginative and bad at realizing big ideas but because we have already pushed so far. If we compare the world of our great-great-great-grandparents to ours today, we can see how a series of transformative ideas revolutionized almost everything in just a century and a half. But recently, because of short-termism, risk aversion, and fractious decision making, we have built a cautious, unimaginative world. Bhaskar shows how we can start to expand the frontier again by thinking big—embarking on the next Universal Declaration of Human Rights or Apollo mission—and embracing change.
For almost ten years chaos and fractals have been enveloping many areas of mathematics and the natural sciences in their power, creativity and expanse. Reaching far beyond the traditional bounds of mathematics and science to the realms of popular culture, they have captured the attention and enthusiasm of a worldwide audience. The fourteen chapters of the book cover the central ideas and concepts, as well as many related topics including, the Mandelbrot Set, Julia Sets, Cellular Automata, L-Systems, Percolation and Strange Attractors, and each closes with the computer code for a central experiment. In the two appendices, Yuval Fisher discusses the details and ideas of fractal image compression, while Carl J.G. Evertsz and Benoit Mandelbrot introduce the foundations and implications of multifractals.
Applied Psychology demonstrates the power of applied psychology to promote human welfare and optimal human functioning as well as the vast career opportunities that exist for those with a psychology education. Some of the most eminent psychologists in the world today examine how psychological science is and can be used to prevent and ameliorate pressing human problems to promote positive social change. Part one provides an overview of the history and rise of applied psychology. The second part provides examples of how psychological science has been, and can be used, to prevent and ameliorate human problems. Part three presents examples of cutting-edge research in applied psychology, while exploring non-traditional career opportunities. The contributors provide evidence for the range of career opportunities, discuss skill and educational requirements, and explore the quality of work life in a wide range of areas within psychology. Advice on what it takes to prepare for a rewarding career in applied psychology is also provided. Intended as a supplement for courses in introductory or applied psychology, contemporary issues, professional development, social and organizational psychology, this book will also be a valued addition to campus career centers. Psychologists considering new career options will also appreciate this volume.
Recent years have witnessed an increasing awareness of the importance and relevance of creativity in social and psychological life. This has led to an awakening of research into creativity. The book "New Frontiers in Creativity" deals with themes that have emerged due to the expanding boundaries of research in creativity. These concern primarily new perspectives in regard to creativity, discovering of creativity in new populations and nurturing of creativity in new domains and spheres of action. The book presents four new perspectives concerning creativity. The first is a comprehensive model of creativity (by Kreitler) that does justice to the complexity of creativity in terms of the constitutive components, ranging from cognition through motivation, emotions, personality, psychopathology, behavior and the environment, focusing on the rich variety of variables in each of the components and their interactions. Another perspective focuses on creativity in the study and research of creativity (by Runco) by adopting meta-cognitive powerful tactics in the study and nurturing of creativity. A third new perspective describes the innovative methods and findings in neurophysiology of creativity, particularly in brain studies (by Shemyakina and Nagornova). The set of new perspectives is complemented by a description of the social processes characterizing the spread and maintenance of innovative ideas (by Fokas). The innovation in terms of populations is presented in the discussion of creativity in individuals diagnosed with dyslexia (by Cancer and Antonietti), in the controversial sphere of psychopathology (by Thys) and in the elderly (by Cohen-Shalev). Notably, the creativity of all three populations has been increasingly recognized in recent years. The third part of the book is devoted to creativity in various domains, including painting (by Vardi), psychotherapy (by Buzdugan, Grigore and Dinca), engineering (by Engel), architecture (by Casakin), sports (by Santos, Sampaio and Memmert) and nature (by Edlinger). The book includes 13 chapters, written by internationally known experts from different countries -- Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Israel, Portugal, Romania, Russia, and USA -- responsible for discoveries in the specific aspect of creativity with which they deal. The different chapters of the book present innovative approaches, based on empirical evidence and innovative methodologies. Thereby they contribute to the setting of the scene for new developments and new applications of creativity in the rapidly changing world that is in increasing need for creativity.
New Frontiers in Astrobiology presents a simple and concise overview of the emerging field of astrobiology. Astrobiology studies the evolution, origin, and future of life on Earth and beyond. This book provides a brief overview of the current research and future status of this fascinating field. The book covers a wide range of topics from the history of astrobiology, the big bang, prebiotic chemistry, theories of the origin of life, extreme environments on Earth, and the quest for intelligent life in space. Currently, there is a critical gap in knowledge related to the future scope of astrobiology and its applications in science and society. The hallmark of the book is that it takes critical perspectives to analyze the new frontiers in astrobiology post Mars 2020/ExoMars missions that encompass the latestdevelopments in the detection of biosignatures and habitability beyond our Solar System (exomoons, exoplanets). The book will be a valuable resource for students, researchers, and scientists who seek greater insights into understanding the current status and future of astrobiology. - Explores the background and historical developments in astrobiology - Provides concise cutting-edge reviews on fundamental questions on origin and distribution of life on Earth, habitability beyond Earth, and future of life on Earth - Integrates contemporary and critical views in new frontiers in astrobiology
This anthology presents a new study of the worldwide African diaspora by bringing together diverse, multidisciplinary scholarship to address the connectedness of Black subject identities, experiences, issues, themes, and topics, applying them dynamically to diverse locations of the Blackworld—Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and the United States. The book underscores three dimensions of African diaspora study. First is a global approach to the African diaspora, showing how globalism underscores the distinctive role that Africa plays in contributing to world history. Second is the extension of African diaspora study in a geographical scope to more robust inclusions of not only the African continent but also to uncharted paths and discoveries of lesser-known diaspora experiences and identities in Latin America and the Caribbean. Third is the illustration of universal unwritten cultural representations of humanities in the African diasporas that show the distinctive humanities’ disciplinary representations of Black diaspora imaginaries and subjectivities. The contributing authors inductively apply these themes to focus the reader’s attention on contemporary localized issues and historical arenas of the African diaspora. They engage their findings to critically analyze the broader norms and dimensions that characterize a given set of interrelated criteria that have come to establish parameters that increasingly standardize African diaspora studies.
