Afro-Cuban percussion contributes essential characteristics to the richness of Latin American musical folklore, and its rhythmic systems hold a complexity and sophistication that deserve greater study among both learned and popular musical spheres. In Conga Drums in Space and Time, author Jorge Pardo presents an exploration of the surprising ways rhythms can create three-dimensional space when properly structured, considering Afro-Cuban percussion in particular. He charts the emotional excitement felt by listeners when exposed to syncopated rhythms using a thought-provoking theory of time positions. These ideas then carry over into Pardos own system of hand drum notation (HDN), a simple and straightforward iconography that allows percussionists of any level to sight-read two hand patterns and play authentic Conga rhythms in a short time. Through a combination of theory and practical exercises, Pardo takes musicians on an unusual rhythmic journey of discovery. Intriguing and challenging, this bilingual study explores the unexpected relationship between music and three-dimensional space and provides a simple and accessible system for percussion notation.
This pioneering study of the dynamics of city politics in one of Puerto Rico's largest townships examines the fascinating career to Benjamin Cole. A quasi-legendary figure in island politics, Cole served as mayor of MayagŸez from 1968 to 1992. His spectacular success often ran counter to the broader political trends in Puerto Rico and offers insights in the currents of change that swept the island from the 1960s through the 1990s.Based on years of intensive research, including unusually candid interviews with members of Puerto Rico's political elite, The Last Cacique offers the first in-depth study of local politics in Puerto Rico and one of the very few available for the Caribbean region.
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has made slow but consistent progress addressing the imbalances induced by the pandemic in an international environment that is just now showing signs of stabilizing. Despite favorable macroeconomic management, high interest rates and fiscal imbalances remain challenging while growth rates remain lackluster due to long-standing structural issues. Looking forward, an aging workforce and rising violence will increasingly complicate policy. This report focuses particularly on weak competitive forces as a source of low productivity, low growth, and low welfare in LAC. It emphasizes the need for effective competition institutions, pro-competition regulatory frameworks, complementary policies to improve the capabilities of workers and firms, and enhanced innovation systems, to prepare local industries to reach the technological frontier and face global competition. Furthermore, the report underscores the need for reforms to prevent large businesses from exerting undue political influence over policy decisions.
This timely and thought-provoking work analyses Mexico's conduct of its international trade dispute litigation from 1986 to 2007 in both multilateral and bilateral fora (i.e., GATT/WTO) as well as preferential trade agreements such as NAFTA. It exhaustively examines all cases and provides a well-reasoned explanation of Mexico's conduct, looking at factors such as bargaining power and political economy-type considerations. It also touches upon the strengths and weaknesses of the various dispute settlement systems that Mexico has used, analyzing their procedural aspects and their more important substantive elements. In addition, It suggests a methodology for assessing the results of litigation, based on inputs and outputs. This methodology may be used for assessing the cases of other WTO Members. It compares the dispute settlement system of the WTO and NAFTA, including other preferential trade agreements. This is useful in the context of any WTO Member with ? potential or existing ? regional dispute settlement systems. Based on Mexico's data, it evidences the limitations of country v. country legal remedies by highlighting the issues left unresolved. It analyzes the conflicts of law between NAFTA and the WTO dispute settlement systems.
This book provides the reader with an extensive background in the field of logic-timing simulation and delay modeling. It includes detailed information on the challenges of logic-timing simulation, applications, advantages and drawbacks. The capabilities of logic-timing are explored using the latest research results that are brought together from previously disseminated materials. An important part of the book is devoted to the description of the “Degradation Delay Model”, developed by the authors, showing how the inclusion of dynamic effects in the modeling of delays greatly improves the application cases and accuracy of logic-timing simulation. These ideas are supported by simulation results extracted from a wide range of practical applications.Sample Chapter(s)
The hard problem of consciousness is easily one of the most fascinating and enigmatic problems humanity has devised. A close tie would be the question regarding whether or not it is possible to conceive of a physical theory of everything. Do the machinations of mind have any real objective significance? Does physical reality truly abide by a set of knowable fundamental principles? This book, along with its many referential sources, attempts to answer these questions by viewing them through the lens of varying fields spanning from Theoretical Physics and Cognitive Science, to Buddhism and the Hermetica. It explores the relationships between qualitative and quantitative phenomena and exposes an underlying symmetry, that symmetry of which serves to combine the two paramount questions into one philosophical query. In short, this is an attempt at a first principles theory of mind, matter, and existence as a whole. One that synthesizes reductionist logic and holistic understandings into one ontological perspective. Our entire universe is in a state of synesthesia, and the subjective faculties of cognition are key components in the creation of a complete picture of objective reality.
Due to its depletion and the environmental damage it causes, hydrocarbons are being replaced by energy from renewable sources. One such form of energy source is Biomass. Biomass is a renewable raw material generated by living organisms and found in agricultural waste in large quantities. The three main components of biomass are cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The first two components are sugar polymers, being cellulosic ethanol a desirable goal for converting those. The truth is that the production of cellulosic ethanol has never passed the pilot unit phase, due to the lack of economic competitiveness. New ways must be found to make this viable. From the latest finding of the biomass structure, new biomass processing pathways are being advanced, constituting new biorefinery models, which will make it possible to obtain cellulosic ethanol concomitant with the production of different bioproducts such as xylitol, oligosaccharides, antioxidants and analogues to carbon fiber, etc. Lipid rich biomass is the source of foods oils. With population growth, the amounts of waste volume will increase. It is important to improve the processes of valorization of these residues, through their conversion into alcoholic esters of fatty acids, which can be used as fuel or in other domestic and industrial applications. This volume reviews advances and innovative applications in this field. It will encourage the use of new works and even unpublished works to use biomass or its components for the production of bioproducts and biofuels.
Non-Conventional Energy in North America: Current and Future Perspectives for Electricity Generation provides an analysis of the current state of non-conventional energy sources used in the United States and Canada. The book works through all non-conventional renewable energy power sources, such as solar, wind and nuclear, considers the associated pros and cons, their impact on society, the climate and the population, and their potential. As well as coverage on the amount of power generated from each source, this book considers various imposed policies and programs alongside public opinion to provide readers with an understanding of current and future potentials for sustainable energy. Readers in government, energy experts, economists, academics and scientists will find this book to be a great reference on which types of power generation they would like to develop in their regions to promote economic and social development. The book will equip readers with the knowledge to make future decisions to diversity the energy mix in their respective regions. Includes information on the different types of non-conventional energy sources in the USA and Canada, analyzing their impact on climate and the population Presents the pros and cons of each power generation technology, along with public opinion Features policy and programs currently in force in the USA and Canada on each type of non-conventional energy source
While Fidel Castro maintained his longtime grip on Cuba, revolutionary scholars and policy analysts turned their attention from how Castro succeeded (and failed), to how Castro himself would be succeeded—by a new government. Among the many questions to be answered was how the new government would deal with the corruption that has become endemic in Cuba. Even though combating corruption cannot be the central aim of post-Castro policy, Sergio Díaz-Briquets and Jorge Pérez-López suggest that, without a strong plan to thwart it, corruption will undermine the new economy, erode support for the new government, and encourage organized crime. In short, unless measures are taken to stem corruption, the new Cuba could be as messy as the old Cuba. Fidel Castro did not bring corruption to Cuba; he merely institutionalized it. Official corruption has crippled Cuba since the colonial period, but Castro's state-run monopolies, cronyism, and lack of accountability have made Cuba one of the world's most corrupt states. The former communist countries in Eastern Europe were also extremely corrupt, and analyses of their transitional periods suggest that those who have taken measures to control corruption have had more successful transitions, regardless of whether the leadership tilted toward socialism or democracy. To that end, Díaz-Briquets and Pérez-López, both Cuban Americans, do not advocate any particular system for Cuba's next government, but instead prescribe uniquely Cuban policies to minimize corruption whatever direction the country takes after Castro. As their work makes clear, averting corruption may be the most critical obstacle in creating a healthy new Cuba.
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