Lobbying competition is viewed as a delegated common agency game under moral hazard. Several interest groups try to influence a policy-maker who exerts effort to increase the probability that a reform be implemented. With no restriction on the space of contribution schedules, all equilibria perfectly reflect the principals' preferences over alternatives. As a result, lobbying competition reaches efficiency. Unfortunately, such equilibria require that the policy-maker pays an interest group when the latter is hurt by the reform. When payments remain non-negative, inducing effort requires leaving a moral hazard rent to the decision maker. Contributions schedules no longer reflect the principals' preferences, and the unique equilibrium is inefficient. Free-riding across congruent groups arises and the set of groups active at equilibrium is endogenously derived. Allocative efficiency and redistribution of the aggregate surplus is linked altogether and both depend on the set of active principals, as well as on the group size.
Lobbying competition is viewed as a delegated common agency game under moral hazard. Several interest groups try to influence a policy-maker who exerts effort to increase the probability that a reform be implemented. With no restriction on the space of contribution schedules, all equilibria perfectly reflect the principals' preferences over alternatives. As a result, lobbying competition reaches efficiency. Unfortunately, such equilibria require that the policy-maker pays an interest group when the latter is hurt by the reform. When payments remain non-negative, inducing effort requires leaving a moral hazard rent to the decision maker. Contributions schedules no longer reflect the principals' preferences, and the unique equilibrium is inefficient. Free-riding across congruent groups arises and the set of groups active at equilibrium is endogenously derived. Allocative efficiency and redistribution of the aggregate surplus is linked altogether and both depend on the set of active principals, as well as on the group size.
Ionisation Constants of Inorganic Acids and Bases in Aqueous Solution, Second Edition provides a compilation of tables that summarize relevant data recorded in the literature up to the end of 1980 for the ionization constants of inorganic acids and bases in aqueous solution. This book includes references to acidity functions for strong acids and bases, as well as details about the formation of polynuclear species. This text then explains the details of each column of the tables, wherein column 1 gives the name of the substance and the negative logarithm of the ionization constant and column 2 gives the temperature of measurements in degree Celsius. This book presents as well the method of measurement and the literature references that are listed alphabetically at the end of the tables. Chemists will find this book useful.
This monograph-like book assembles the thorougly revised and cross-reviewed lectures given at the School on Data Parallelism, held in Les Menuires, France, in May 1996. The book is a unique survey on the current status and future perspectives of the currently very promising and popular data parallel programming model. Much attention is paid to the style of writing and complementary coverage of the relevant issues throughout the 12 chapters. Thus these lecture notes are ideally suited for advanced courses or self-instruction on data parallel programming. Furthermore, the book is indispensable reading for anybody doing research in data parallel programming and related areas.
Child Maltreatment, Third Edition, by Cindy Miller-Perrin and Robin Perrin, is a thoroughly updated new edition of the first textbook for undergraduate students and beginning graduate students in this field. The text is designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to child maltreatment by disseminating current knowledge about the various types of violence against children. By helping students understand more fully the etiology, prevalence, treatment, policy issues, and prevention of child maltreatment, the authors hope to further our understanding of how to treat child maltreatment victims and how to prevent future child maltreatment.
Thoroughly updated and expanded, the Second Edition of Child Maltreatment: An Introduction disseminates current knowledge about the various types of violence against children. Uniquely offering both a psychological and sociological focus, this core text helps students understand more fully the etiology, prevalence, treatment, policy issues, and prevention of child maltreatment.
Over the last two decades, earth modeling has become a major investigative tool for evaluating the potential of hydrocarbon reservoirs. Earth modelling must now face new challenges since petroleum exploration no longer consists in only investigating newly identified resources, but also in re-evaluating the potential of previously investigated reservoirs in the light of new prospecting data and of revised interpretations. Earth models incorporate a variety of different interpretations made on various types of data at successive steps of the modeling process. However, current modeling procedures provide no way to link a range of data and interpretations with a final earth model. For this reason, sharing and exchanging information about the model building process is at present a major difficulty. Recently, the term “Shared Earth Modeling” has been used for expressing the idea that earth models should be built in such a way that experts and end users can have access, at any time, to all the information incorporated into the model. This information does not only concern the data, but also the knowledge that geoscientists produce by interpreting these data. Accordingly, practical solutions must be studied for operating a knowledge-driven approach of Shared Earth Modeling. This is the goal of this book. This study of earth subsurface modeling is intended for several categories of readers. It concerns in the first place geologists, engineers and managers involved in the study and evaluation of subsurface reservoirs and hydrocarbon exploration. Relying on recent progress in various fields of computer sciences, the authors present innovative solutions for solving the critical issue of knowledge exchange at key steps of the modeling process. This book will also be of interest to researchers in computer science and, more generally, to engineers, researchers and students who wish to apply advanced knowledge-based techniques to complex engineering problems. Contents : Part I. Earth Models. 1. Earth models as subsurface representations. 2. Earth models for underground resource exploration and estimation. 3. Earth models used in petroleum industry: current practice and future challenges. Part II. Knowledge oriented solutions. 4. Knowledge based approach of a data intensive problem: seismic interpretation. 5. Individual surface representations and optimization. 6. Geological surface assemblage. 7. 3D Meshes for structural, stratigraphy and reservoir frameworks. 8. The data extension issue: geological constraints applied in geostatistical processes. Part III. Knowledge formalization. 9. Ontologies and their use for geological knowledge formalization. 10. Ontologies for Interpreting geochronological relationships. 11. Building ontologies for analyzing data expressed in natural language. 12. Ontology-based rock description and interpretation. Part IV. Knowledge management & applications. 13. Ontology integration and management within data intensive engineering systems. 14. Earth modeling using web services. 15. Full scale example of a knowledge-based method for building and managing an earth model. Part V. Conclusion. Appendix. Glossary.
The Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels is unique among reference books on the Bible, the first volume of its kind since James Hastings published his Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels in 1909. In the more than eight decades since Hastings, our understanding of Jesus, the Evangelists and their world has grown remarkably. New interpretive methods illumined the text, the ever-changing profile of modern culture has put new questions to the Gospels, and our understanding of the Judaism of Jesus's day has advanced in ways that could not have been predicted in Hastings's day. But for many readers of the Gospels the new outlook on the Gospels remains hidden within technical journals and academic monographs. The Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels bridges the gap between scholars and those pastors, teachers, students and lay people desiring in-depth treatment of select topics in an accessible and summary format. The topics range from cross-sectional themes (such as faith, law, Sabbath) to methods of interpretation (such as form criticism, redaction criticism, sociological approaches), from key events (such as the birth, temptation and death of Jesus) to each of the four Gospels as a whole. Some articles - such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, rabbinic traditions and revolutionary movements at the time of Jesus - provide significant background information to the Gospels. Others reflect recent and less familiar issues in Jesus and Gospel studies, such as divine man, ancient rhetoric and the chreiai. Contemporary concerns of general interest are discusses in articles covering such topics as healing, the demonic and the historical reliability of the Gospels. And for those entrusted with communicating the message of the Gospels, there is an extensive article on preaching from the Gospels. The Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels presents the fruit of evangelical New Testament scholarship at the end of the twentieth century - committed to the authority of Scripture, utilising the best of critical methods, and maintaining dialog with contemporary scholarship and challenges facing the church.
Aimed primarily at graduate students and beginning researchers, this book provides an introduction to algebraic geometry that is particularly suitable for those with no previous contact with the subject; it assumes only the standard background of undergraduate algebra. The book starts with easily-formulated problems with non-trivial solutions and uses these problems to introduce the fundamental tools of modern algebraic geometry: dimension; singularities; sheaves; varieties; and cohomology. A range of exercises is provided for each topic discussed, and a selection of problems and exam papers are collected in an appendix to provide material for further study.
A detailed examination of all aspects of parrots from behavior to their conservation. Parrots' colour and charisma, coupled with the fact that they mimic human speech, make them fascinating to many people. They are ancient birds with unique bill and foot structures that enable them to forage on fruits in the canopy of forest trees as well as on seeds in grasslands. Because they depend on fruits and seeds all year round, most species are confined to the tropics or sub-tropics, where the world's biodiversity is at its greatest. There are over three hundred species of parrots, of which more than one hundred are recognised as rare, endangered, vulnerable or threatened with extinction. Parrots are largely distributed in tropical areas of developing countries where economies are weak and uncertain, and where there is great dependence on the exploitation of natural resources, particularly hard wood evergreen forests, which are preferred parrot habitats. Unfortunately, high levels of corruption are common to these regions, with much illegal trade in animals and little or no law enforcement. Collectors of parrots in the first world pay huge sums for rare parrots. However, research, education and conservation actions are greatly reducing illegal trade in African parrots. This book provides complete coverage of all aspects of the biology of extant African, Malagasy and Mascarene parrots, and reviews our knowledge of extinct and fossil parrots from the region. Particular themes include the behavioural and ecological characteristics of parrots, their species characteristics and conservation biology. Current concepts in avian and conservation biology are also discussed. Parrots of Africa, Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands is aimed at ornithologists, conservation biologists, avian ecologists, academics, bird watchers and parrot fans alike. It is well illustrated, with high quality original photographs, and includes distribution maps, figures and tables.
Sexual reproduction is a fundamental aspect of life. It is defined by the occurrence of meiosis and the fusion of two gametes of different sexes or mating types. Sex-determination mechanisms are responsible for the sexual fate and development of sexual characteristics in an organism, be it a unicellular alga, a plant, or an animal. In many cases, sex determination is genetic: males and females have different alleles or different genes that specify their sexual morphology. In animals, this is often accompanied by chromosomal differences. In other cases, sex may be determined by environmental (e.g. temperature) or social variables (e.g. the size of an organism relative to other members of its population). Surprisingly, sex-determination mechanisms are not evolutionarily conserved but are bewilderingly diverse and appear to have had rapid turnover rates during evolution. Evolutionary biologists continue to seek a solution to this conundrum. What drives the surprising dynamics of such a fundamental process that always leads to the same outcome: two sex types, male and female? The answer is complex but the ongoing genomic revolution has already greatly increased our knowledge of sex-determination systems and sex chromosomes in recent years. This novel book presents and synthesizes our current understanding, and clearly shows that sex-determination evolution will remain a dynamic field of future research. The Evolution of Sex Determination is an advanced, research level text suitable for graduate students and researchers in genetics, developmental biology, and evolution.
Based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Primary Care: Child and Adolescent Version (DSM-PC), this state-of-the-art reference expertly guides you through normal and abnormal development and behavior for all pediatric age groups. See how neurobiological, environmental, and human relationship factors all contribute to developmental and behavioral disorders and know how to best diagnose and treat each patient you see. Accurately identify developmental and behavioral problems using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Primary Care criteria, and evidence-based guidelines. Gain a clear understanding of the "normal" boundaries and variations within specific disorders. Make informed therapeutic decisions with the integration of basic science and practical information and recommendations from the Society of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Avoid legal and ethical implications by consulting the Law, Policy, and Ethics chapter.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.