A collection of short stories that "offers an idiosyncratic series of 'what-ifs' about our fragile human condition ... What if your perfect hermaphrodite match existed on another planet? What if you could suddenly see through everybody's skin to their organs? What if you knew the exact date of your death? What if your city was filled with doppelgangers of you? Forced to navigate these bizarre scenarios, Phillips' characters search for solutions to the problem of how to survive in an irrational, infinitely strange world"--
• New York Times bestseller • The 100 most substantive solutions to reverse global warming, based on meticulous research by leading scientists and policymakers around the world “At this point in time, the Drawdown book is exactly what is needed; a credible, conservative solution-by-solution narrative that we can do it. Reading it is an effective inoculation against the widespread perception of doom that humanity cannot and will not solve the climate crisis. Reported by-effects include increased determination and a sense of grounded hope.” —Per Espen Stoknes, Author, What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming “There’s been no real way for ordinary people to get an understanding of what they can do and what impact it can have. There remains no single, comprehensive, reliable compendium of carbon-reduction solutions across sectors. At least until now. . . . The public is hungry for this kind of practical wisdom.” —David Roberts, Vox “This is the ideal environmental sciences textbook—only it is too interesting and inspiring to be called a textbook.” —Peter Kareiva, Director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA In the face of widespread fear and apathy, an international coalition of researchers, professionals, and scientists have come together to offer a set of realistic and bold solutions to climate change. One hundred techniques and practices are described here—some are well known; some you may have never heard of. They range from clean energy to educating girls in lower-income countries to land use practices that pull carbon out of the air. The solutions exist, are economically viable, and communities throughout the world are currently enacting them with skill and determination. If deployed collectively on a global scale over the next thirty years, they represent a credible path forward, not just to slow the earth’s warming but to reach drawdown, that point in time when greenhouse gases in the atmosphere peak and begin to decline. These measures promise cascading benefits to human health, security, prosperity, and well-being—giving us every reason to see this planetary crisis as an opportunity to create a just and livable world.
You hear and read a lot about ways to improve your relationship. But if you've tried these without much success, you're not alone. Many highly reactive couples—pairs that are quick to argue, anger, and blame—need more than just the run-of-the-mill relationship advice to solve their problems in love. When destructive emotions are at the heart of problems in your relationship, no amount of effective communication or intimacy building will fix what ails it. If you're part of a "high-conflict" couple, you need to get control of your emotions first, to stop making things worse, and only then work on building a better relationship. The High-Conflict Couple adapts the powerful techniques of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) into skills you can use to tame out-of-control emotions that flare up in your relationship. Using mindfulness and distress tolerance techniques, you'll learn how to deescalate angry situations before they have a chance to explode into destructive fights. Other approaches will help you disclose your fears, longings, and other vulnerabilities to your partner and validate his or her experiences in return. You'll discover ways to manage problems with negotiation, not conflict, and to find true acceptance and closeness with the person you love the most. This book has been awarded The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Self-Help Seal of Merit — an award bestowed on outstanding self-help books that are consistent with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) principles and that incorporate scientifically tested strategies for overcoming mental health difficulties. Used alone or in conjunction with therapy, our books offer powerful tools readers can use to jump-start changes in their lives.
The influence of materialist ontology largely dominates philosophical and scientific discussions. However, there is a resurgent interest in alternative ontologies from panpsychism (the view that at the base of reality exists potential minds, minds, or mind-lets) to idealism and dualism (the view that all of reality is material and mental). The Routledge Handbook of Idealism and Immaterialism is an outstanding reference source and the first major collection of its kind. Historically grounded and constructively motivated, it covers the key topics in philosophy, science, and theology, providing students and scholars with a comprehensive introduction to idealism and immaterialism. Also addressed are post-materialism developments, with explicit attention to variations of idealism and immaterialism (the view that reality depends on a mind or a set of minds). Comprising 44 chapters written by an international and interdisciplinary team of contributors, the Handbook is organised into five clear parts: Idealism and the history of philosophy Important figures in idealism Systematic assessment of idealism Idealism and science Idealism, physicalism, panpsychism, and substance dualism Essential reading for students and researchers in metaphysics, philosophy of science, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of mind, The Routledge Handbook of Idealism and Immaterialism will also be of interest to those in related discplines where idealist and immaterialist ontology impinge on history, science, and theology.
Logic Synthesis and Verification Algorithms is a textbook designed for courses on VLSI Logic Synthesis and Verification, Design Automation, CAD and advanced level discrete mathematics. It also serves as a basic reference work in design automation for both professionals and students. Logic Synthesis and Verification Algorithms is about the theoretical underpinnings of VLSI (Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits). It combines and integrates modern developments in logic synthesis and formal verification with the more traditional matter of Switching and Finite Automata Theory. The book also provides background material on Boolean algebra and discrete mathematics. A unique feature of this text is the large collection of solved problems. Throughout the text the algorithms covered are the subject of one or more problems based on the use of available synthesis programs.
This book is the leader among the new generation of text books on quality that follow the systems approach to creating quality in products and services; the earlier generations focused solely on parts of the system such as statistical methods, process control, and management philosophy. It follows the premise that the body of knowledge and tools documented by quality professionals and researchers, when employed in designing, creating and delivering the product will lead to product quality, customer satisfaction and reduced waste. The tools employed at the different stages of the product creation cycle are covered in this book using real world examples along with their theoretical bases, strengths and weaknesses. This textbook can be used for training - from shop floor personnel to college majors in business and engineering to practicing professionals. Graduate students training as researchers in the quality field will also find useful material. The book has been used as the text for a Professional Series Massive Open Online Course offered by the Technical University of Munich on edX.org, through which tens of thousands of participants from all over the world have received training in quality methods. According to Professor Dr. Holly Ott, who chose the book for the course, the text is one of the main factors contributing to success of this MOOC. The Third Edition has been fully revised to be friendly for self-study, reflects changes in the standards referenced such as ISO 9000, and includes new examples of application of statistical tools in health care industry. Features: Reviews the history of quality movement in the U.S. and abroad Discusses Quality Cost analysis and quality’s impact on a company’s bottom line Explains finding customer needs and designing the product using House of Quality Covers selection of product parameters using DOE and reliability principles Includes control charts to control processes to make the product right-the-first-time Describes use of capability indices Cp and Cpk to meet customer needs Presents problem solving methodology and tools for continuous improvement Offers ISO 9000, Baldrige and Six Sigma as templates for creating a quality system
It was estimated that 80% of the information received by human is visual. Image processing is evolving fast and continually. During the past 10 years, there has been a significant research increase in image segmentation. To study a specific object in an image, its boundary can be highlighted by an image segmentation procedure. The objective of the image segmentation is to simplify the representation of pictures into meaningful information by partitioning into image regions. Image segmentation is a technique to locate certain objects or boundaries within an image. There are many algorithms and techniques have been developed to solve image segmentation problems, the research topics in this book such as level set, active contour, AR time series image modeling, Support Vector Machines, Pixon based image segmentations, region similarity metric based technique, statistical ANN and JSEG algorithm were written in details. This book brings together many different aspects of the current research on several fields associated to digital image segmentation. Four parts allowed gathering the 27 chapters around the following topics: Survey of Image Segmentation Algorithms, Image Segmentation methods, Image Segmentation Applications and Hardware Implementation. The readers will find the contents in this book enjoyable and get many helpful ideas and overviews on their own study.
Instructs GCSE ICT course students on how to design, implement and document a database system at GCSE level using MS Access 2000. The resource includes advice on how to choose a project as well as featuring a sample project.
