In October 2003, Ilham Aliyev became President of Azerbaijan. After a career as a scholar and historian, businessman and oil executive, his sudden rise to political power caught many by surprise. Yet eight years on, Azerbaijan is on the crest of an economic wave despite the global recession. The newly independent nation is building a robust civil society, democracy has taken root, poverty rates have dropped dramatically and Azerbaijan is winning international plaudits for transparency and good governance. Ilham: Portrait of a President is the first English-language biography of this intriguing statesman.
This study represents a reappraisal of the relationship between play — an activity which is most often understood in terms of something ‘set apart’ — and everyday life. Via a series of archaeological, anthropological and ethnographic investigations, it leads towards the conclusion that play is not in fact so separate as is often assumed.
At a time of unprecedented interest in improvisation across the arts, The Art of Becoming boldly asserts that everyone can and should improvise. Drawing on emerging psychological literature as well as their own research with musicians, authors Raymond MacDonald and Graeme Wilson - both music psychologists and renowned performers in their own right - propose new ideas on what defines improvisation in music. MacDonald and Wilson explore the cognitive processes involved, the role of specialist skills or knowledge in improvised interaction, and the nature of understanding between improvisers. Their investigation lays out how we develop as improvisers, alongside health benefits derived from music participation. The Art of Becoming is a vital resource for courses on improvisation in contemporary practice, and for those applying musical improvisation in community and therapeutic contexts, setting out a framework based on psychological findings for understanding improvisation as a universal capability and an essentially social behavior. With suggestions for approaching this practice in new ways at any level, it demonstrates how improvisation transcends musical genres and facilitates collaboration between practitioners from disciplines across the artistic spectrum. Putting forward important implications for contemporary artistic practices, pedagogy, music therapy and the psychology of social behavior, The Art of Becoming provides fresh and provocative insights for anyone interested in playing, studying, teaching, or listening to improvised music.
This book describes the multi-axis substructure testing (MAST) system, a simulator developed at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, which provides state-of-the-art technology for large-scale hybrid testing of structures under realistic scenarios depicting extreme events. The book also demonstrates the responses of physical specimens while they serve as part of the virtual computer model of the full structure subjected to extreme dynamic forces. Experimental studies using the MAST system are expected to enhance design and construction methods and significantly improve the repair and retrofitting of structures endangered by natural disasters and man-made hazards, providing a direct benefit to society by improving public safety and the re silience of the built environment. An additional benefit is increased sustainability in the form of reduced direct and indirect economic losses and social and environmental impacts in the face of extreme events. This book will be of interest to researchers and advanced practitioners in the fields of structural earthquake engineering, geotechnical earthquake engineering, engineering seismology, and experimental dynamics, including seismic qualification.
A proposal for a categorization of cognition based on core properties of the constituent processes that integrates theory and empirical findings across domains. All sciences need ways to classify the phenomena they investigate; chemistry has the periodic table and biology a taxonomic system for classifying life forms. These classification schemes depend on conceptual coherence, demonstrated correspondences across paradigms. This conceptual coherence has proved elusive in psychology, although recent advances have brought the field to the point at which it is possible to define the type of classificatory system needed. This book proposes a categorization of cognition based on core properties of constituent processes, recognizing correspondences between cognitive processes with similar underlying structure but different surface properties. These correspondences are verified mathematically and shown not to be merely coincidental. The proposed formulation leads to general principles that transcend domains and paradigms and facilitate the interpretation of empirical findings. It covers human and nonhuman cognition and human cognition in all age ranges. Just as the periodic table classifies elements and not compounds, this system classifies relatively basic versions of cognitive tasks but allows for complexity. The book shows that a more integrated, coherent account of cognition would have many benefits. It would reduce the conceptual fragmentation of psychology; offer defined criteria by which to categorize new empirical results; and lead to fruitful hypotheses for the acquisition of higher cognition.
More than three million people across the world were moved and inspired by Shaun Wilson-Miller’s tragic farewell message on YouTube. Shaun had undergone two heart transplants and spent most of his life in hospital, only to be diagnosed with chronic heart rejection shortly after his seventeenth birthday. In the face of this heartache, Shaun had one message, stay positive and live life to the full. This is his untold story: the pawn in the middle of a war between his parents; the victim of assault and landing the girl of his dreams. Serious health issues never held Shaun back from pursuing a career in television and film he inspired and motivated all who met him – famous boxers, actors, elite sportsmen and contestants on the The Voice. Part mystic, part practical joker, part football nutter – Shaun was a remarkable young man who touched millions with his footprint on their hearts.
Contains teaching aids (maps, games, etc.) & revision tests & exercises, set out for easy duplication, to accompany the secondary school text of the same title.
Second edition of a textbook first published in 1981 for Year-9 secondary geography students in NSW. Contains large sections of new text and many new illustrations. Among other areas it looks at changes in mediterranean lands, temperate grasslands and tropical forests. Includes an index.
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