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  Physiology and Pathology of Chloride Transporters and Channels in the Nervous System: From Molecules to Diseases

  Francisco J. Alvarez-Leefmans and Eric Delpire

  The importance of chloride ions in cell physiology has not been fully recognized until recently, in spite of the fact that chloride (Cl-), together with bicarbonate, is the most abundant free anion in animal cells, and performs or determines fundamental biological functions in all tissues. For many years it was thought that Cl- was distributed in thermodynamic equilibrium across the plasma membrane of most cells. Research carried out during the last couple of decades has led to a dramatic change in this simplistic view. We now know that most animal cells, neurons included, exhibit a non-equilibrium distribution of Cl- across their plasma membranes. Over the last 10 to 15 years, with the growth of molecular biology and the advent of new optical methods, an enormous amount of exciting new information has become available on the molecular structure and function of Cl- channels and carriers. In nerve cells, Cl- channels and carriers play key functional roles in GABA- and glycine-mediated synaptic inhibition, neuronal growth and development, extracellular potassium scavenging, sensory-transduction, neurotransmitter uptake and cell volume control. Disruption of Cl- homeostasis in neurons underlies pathological conditions such as epilepsy, deafness, imbalance, brain edema and ischemia, pain and neurogenic inflammation. This book is about how chloride ions are regulated and how they cross the plasma membrane of neurons. It spans from molecular structure and function of carriers and channels involved in Cl- transport to their role in various diseases.

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  Raman Spectroscopy for Soft Matter Applications

  Maher S. Amer

  Raman spectroscopy provides a critical characterization tool in analytical chemistry. This book presents the fundamentals of raman spectroscopy outside the focus of physics to offer an accessible guide to scientists working in the broad area of soft materials. The book is organized into four sections with the first devoted to an introduction to Raman spectroscopy which includes scattering theory and instrumentation. The following sections are devoted to application areas including polymers and colloids, food science, drug delivery, defense, and medical.

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  Crisis in Kirkuk: The Ethnopolitics of Conflict and Compromise

  Liam Anderson and Gareth Stansfield

  With immense oil reserves and a diverse population of Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmens, Kirkuk's history has been scarred by interethnic violence and state-sponsored ethnic cleansing. This book offers a dispassionate analysis of the struggle for control of Kirkuk, arguing that Iraq's future stability depends on resolving the crisis in this region.

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  Conceptual Structures in Practice

  Pascal Hitzler and Henrik Scharfe

  Exploring fundamental research questions, Conceptual Structures in Practice takes you through the basic yet nontrivial task of establishing conceptual relations as the foundation for research in knowledge representation and knowledge mining. It includes contributions from leading researchers in both the conceptual graph and formal concept analysis (FCA) communities.

  This accessible, self-contained book begins by providing the formal background in FCA and conceptual graphs. It then describes various software tools for analysis and computation, including the ToscanaJ suite. Written by the original visionaries of the field, the next section discusses the history and future directions of conceptual structures. The final chapters explore prominent application areas in computer science, including text analysis, web semantics, and intelligent systems.

  An unprecedented, state-of-the-art overview from innovators in the field, this volume discusses how FCA and conceptual graphs can be used in many computer science areas. It serves as a benchmark of research on conceptual structures, inspiring further exploration in this discipline.

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  Money and Households in a Capitalist Economy: a Gendered Post Keynesian-Institutional Analysis

  Zdravka Todorova

  Post Keynesian analysis of monetary production have not provided much attention to households as institutions, while a good deal of the literature in feminist economics discusses households in a strictly microeconomic context, with little consideration of monetary phenomena. This book, a unique study of the capitalist economy, utilizes a distinctive combination of Post Keynesian, institutional and gender analysis to examine household economics in capitalist society in order to flesh out the gaps in each. The author poses questions that cut across rigidly determined areas of inquiry, such as gender and money and micro- and macroeconomic analysis. She grounds the discussion of households and their social and financial relations within a monetary theory of production, provides many methodological, theoretical, and policy formulation insights to establish a framework that illuminates current problems of household debt. The book connects the three aforementioned traditions in heterodox economics and offers to the reader a stimulating discussion of contemporary capitalist relations. Academics, post-graduate and undergraduate readers in institutional, Post Keynesian, social and feminist economics will enjoy the new perspectives in this book

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  Semantic Web: Grundlagen

  Pascal Hitzler, Markus Krotzsch, Sebastian Rudolph, and York Sure

  Das Buch Semantic Web – Grundlagen vermittelt als erstes deutschsprachiges Lehrbuch in verständlicher Weise die Grundlagen des Semantic Web. Es ermöglicht einen einfachen und zügigen Einstieg in Methoden und Technologien des Semantic Web und kann z.B. als solide Grundlage für die Vorbereitung und Durchführung von Vorlesungen genutzt werden. Die Autoren trennen dabei sauber zwischen einer intuitiven Hinführung zur Verwendung semantischer Technologien in der Praxis einerseits, und der Erklärung formaler und theoretischer Hintergründe andererseits. Nur für letzteres werden Grundkenntnisse in Logik vorausgesetzt, die sich bei Bedarf jedoch durch zusätzliche Lektüre und mit Hilfe eines entsprechenden Kapitels im Anhang aneignen lassen.

  Das Lehrbuch richtet sich primär an Studenten mit Grundkenntnissen in Informatik sowie an interessierte Praktiker welche sich im Bereich Semantic Web fortbilden möchten.

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  The Elements of Literacy

  Julie Lindquist and David Seitz

  This rhetoric begins with the question "What is Literacy?" and invites the reader to think and write about literacy as a field of study. The study of how people become literate, the role of literacy in society, and what forms literacy takes is important in many disciplines such as English, Rhetoric, Education, Sociology, and Anthropology. In The Elements of Literacy, students are specifically asked to consider five aspects or "sites" of literacy -- the mind (cognitive studies), culture (doing ethnographic research), class (the effects of social class on literacy practices), the workplace, and digital/multimodal literacies.

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  The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army

  Paul D. Lockhart

  The true story of the Baron de Steuben and the making of the American Army, The Drillmaster of Valley Forge is the first biography in half a century of the immigrant Prussian soldier who molded George Washington’s ragged, demoralized troops into the fighting force that eventually triumphed in America’s War of Independence.

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  Teaching Grammar with Perfect Poems for Middle School: Engaging Lessons with Model Poems That Motivate Kids to Learn Grammar and Write Well

  Nancy Mack

  Ten reproducible poems that have middle-school appeal are paired with complete lessons to target key grammar concepts—predicate adjectives, direct objects, gerunds, clauses, compound sentences, and more. Nancy Mack's lessons provide a scaffold for students to grasp each concept and then use it skillfully in their own writing. Includes lively student models, literature links, and step-by-step publishing activities that help embed grammar instruction within the context of real writing. For use with Grades 6-8.

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  When Mothers Kill: Interviews from Prison

  Michelle Oberman and Cheryl L. Meyer

  Why would one even want to talk to a mother who killed her children? So horrific is this crime that the thought of sitting in the same room with such a person brings a twinge of revulsion, an involuntary shiver, even after having spent hours in conversation with these very women. But now, at least for us, the revulsion is directed outward, at the crime, rather than at the women themselves.

  We set out to speak with mothers who kill because, after almost two decades of studying these women's cases, we realized that no one had ever really talked to them. Many had told their stories for them - experts, journalists, lawyers - but no one had ever asked the women if these stories had gotten it right, or even whether they had some thoughts of their own on what had gone wrong.

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  Using Children's Literature to Teach the Social Studies Ohio Academic Content Standards

  James Shiveley and Ronald G. Helms Ph.D.

  This book addresses a need by recommending quality children’s literature books that are aligned with specific Ohio Academic Content Standard for the Social Studies for grades K – 5. Our intent is to assist teachers in merging what they know to be interesting and constructive pedagogy with outcomes-based standards. Such a resource can help teachers move along a continuum toward using interesting fiction and non-fiction narratives that help students learn more social studies content, retain it longer, and transfer it to new settings. Hopefully, an additional benefit will be an overall increase in the level of interest that students will have in the social studies.

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  The Vanishing Present: Wisconsin's Changing Lands, Waters, and Wildlife

  Donald M. Waller and Thomas P. Rooney

  Straddling temperate forests and grassland biomes and stretching along the coastline of two Great Lakes, Wisconsin contains tallgrass prairie and oak savanna, broadleaf and coniferous forests, wetlands, natural lakes, and rivers. But, like the rest of the world, the Badger State has been transformed by urbanization and sprawl, population growth, and land-use change. For decades, industry and environment have attempted to coexist in Wisconsin—and the dynamic tensions between economic progress and environmental protection makes the state a fascinating microcosm for studying global environmental change.
  

  The Vanishing Present brings together a distinguished set of contributors—including scientists, naturalists, and policy experts—to examine how human pressures on Wisconsin’s changing lands, waters, and wildlife have redefined the state’s ecology. Though they focus on just one state, the authors draw conclusions about changes in temperate habitats that can be applied elsewhere, and offer useful insights into future of the ecology, conservation, and sustainability of Wisconsin and beyond.

  A fitting tribute to the home state of Aldo Leopold and John Muir, The Vanishing Present is an accessible and timely case study of a significant ecosystem and its response to environmental change.

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  Year Book of Family Practice

  Marjorie A. Bowman, Barbara S. Apgar, William W. Dexter, Richard A. Neill, Joseph E. Scherger, and Therese M. Zink

  The Year Book of Family Practice brings you abstracts of articles carefully selected from more than 500 journals worldwide. Expert commentaries evaluate the clinical importance of each article and discuss its application to your practice.

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  Care of the Suicidal Person

  John R. Cutcliffe

  According to the World Health Organization, approximately one million people died as a result of suicide in the year 2000. That is one death every 40 seconds. Drawing on service user data, this book contains and explains an evidence-based theory of how to care for suicidal people, tracing the role of nurses in caring for suicidal people.

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  Sequence Data Mining

  Guozhu Dong and Jian Pei

  Understanding sequence data, and the ability to utilize this hidden knowledge, will create a significant impact on many aspects of our society. Examples of sequence data include DNA, protein, customer purchase history, web surfing history, and more.

  This book provides thorough coverage of the existing results on sequence data mining as well as pattern types and associated pattern mining methods. It offers balanced coverage on data mining and sequence data analysis, allowing readers to access the state-of-the-art results in one place.

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  The Private Library of Eric Blair

  Ronald R. Geibert

  Today is often labeled as the Information Age. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, we are inundated with pictures, video, sound, and text. DSL, cable, cell-phones, fax machines, satellite radio, and other technologies keep us instantly in touch with events. To be "connected" is to be seen as contemporary and knowledgeable.

  Unfortunately, this instant access is not without risk. Much of this immediate information is unfiltered, untested, and, on occasions, suspect. The anonymous Internet "expert" that is quoted might no more be an expert than your next-door neighbor (in fact, that web site might just be the creation of your neighbor). Often, more effort is spent channel surging, Googling, or just chatting, rather than addressing the need for careful sorting, consideration, reflection, and thoughtful contemplation.

  This series examines the power and place of the book in today's digital environment. Acknowledging that the printed book is perhaps an instrument destined for obsolescence, the plates nevertheless take the viewer on a visual tour of the beauty and beguiling power of images and text found within the pages of volumes "disconnected" from the digital world. I am sharing the private library of one ordinary citizen.

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  Perspectives of Neural-Symbolic Integration

  Barbara Hammer and Pascal Hitzler

  The human brain possesses the remarkable capability of understanding, interpreting, and producing language, structures, and logic. Unlike their biological counterparts, artificial neural networks do not form such a close liaison with symbolic reasoning: logic-based inference mechanisms and statistical machine learning constitute two major and very different paradigms in artificial intelligence with complementary strengths and weaknesses. Modern application scenarios in robotics, bioinformatics, language processing, etc., however require both the efficiency and noise-tolerance of statistical models and the generalization ability and high-level modelling of structural inference mechanisms. A variety of approaches has therefore been proposed for combining the two paradigms.

  This carefully edited volume contains state-of-the-art contributions in neural-symbolic integration, covering `loose' coupling by means of structure kernels or recursive models as well as `strong' coupling of logic and neural networks. It brings together a representative selection of results presented by some of the top researchers in the field, covering theoretical foundations, algorithmic design, and state-of-the-art applications in robotics and bioinformatics.

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  Teaching Instrumental Music: Developing the Complete Band Program

  Shelley M. Jagow

  This book is a unique resource for both novice and experienced band directors, gathering effective teaching tools from the best in the field. Includes more than 40 chapters on: curriculum, "then and now" of North American wind bands, the anatomy of music making, motivation, program organization and administrative leadership, and much more.

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  Real Estate: Building a Strong Foundation

  James E. Larsen, Bill Carey, and Chantal Howell-Carey

  Whether preparing for a career, or seeking a better understanding of real estate in everyday life, this book will provide the basis to conduct real estate transactions in the real world. Larsen presents a clear understanding of current theories and practices in the real estate market with this accessible introduction.

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  Denmark, 1513-1660: The Rise and Decline of a Renaissance Monarchy

  Paul D. Lockhart

  One of the largest states in Europe, Denmark in the 16th and 17th-centuries was at the height of its influence. This work examines the unlikely career of Denmark as the major power of northern Europe, exploring its rise to the forefront of European affairs and its decline in fortunes following its disastrous involvement in the Thirty Years' War.

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  Team-Based Learning for Health Professions Education : a Guide to Using Small Groups for Improving Learning

  Larry Michaelsen, Dean Parmelee, Kathryn McMahon, and Ruth E. Levine

  Education in the health professions is placing greater emphasis on “active” learning―learning that requires applying knowledge to authentic problems; and that teaches students to engage in the kind of collaboration that is expected in today’s clinical practice.
  
  Team-Based Learning (TBL) is a strategy that accomplishes these goals. This book is an introduction to TBL for health profession educators. It outlines the theory, structure, and process of TBL, explains how TBL promotes problem solving and critical thinking skills, aligns with the goals of science and health courses, improves knowledge retention and application, and develops students as professional practitioners. The book provides readers with models and guidance on everything they need to know about team formation and maintenance; peer feedback and evaluation processes, and facilitation.
  
  The book includes chapters where instructors describe how they apply TBL in their courses. The examples range across undergraduate science courses, basic and clinical sciences courses in medical, sports medicine and nursing education, residencies, and graduate nursing programs. The book concludes with a review and critique of the current scholarship on TBL in the health professions, and charts the needs for future research.

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  The Rise of the Anti-Corporate Movement: Corporations and the People Who Hate Them

  Evan W. Osborne

  Against the backdrop of Enron and the other high-profile cases of corporate malfeasance, it is easy to paint today's executives as villains and blame big business, and corporations generally, for a wide array of social ills. Is the criticism warranted? Not quite, says Evan Osborne, as he traces the history of anti-corporate sentiment and assesses the fever-pitch hatred, by some, of all things corporate. While not perfect angels, Osborne argues, corporations confer many more benefits to society than ills. Moreover, they are an essential engine of human progress, and longstanding legal principles are more than adequate to address their flaws. And that makes the rising tide of anti-corporate sentiment dangerous.

  Why? Look at the facts: Large corporations inspire both awe and fear. On the one hand, they create jobs, introduce scientific and technological breakthroughs, open up borders through trade, and provide indispensable products and services that make life easier. On the other hand, many think they undermine the will of the people, encourage bribery and corruption, finance oppressive regimes, ruin values and culture, befoul the environment, and encourage economic inequality. It was no accident that the terrorists of September 11 targeted the World Trade Center, an iconic symbol of American financial power. In this provocative book, Evan Osborne pulls back the curtain to illuminate how corporations have evolved as an essential element of society, and how opposition to them has developed out of proportion—a fire fanned by anti-business activists, the media, and other groups. He sets the record straight, explaining how corporations work, how they have evolved in the context of other institutions, the net benefits they provide—and how to deal with their undeniable imperfections. At the same time, he shows how anti-business claims have become more strident and where these arguments fail to stand up to scrutiny.

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  Semantic Web-Based Information Systems: State-of-the-Art Applications

  Amit P. Sheth and Miltiadis Lytras

  This book covers new semantic Web enabled tools for the citizen, learner, organization, and business. Real-world applications in development of the knowledge society and semantic Web issues, challenges and implications in each of the IS research streams are included as viable sources.

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  Interfaces in Electronic Materials: Proceedings of the International Symposium

  L. Cook, D. Misra, Sharmila M. Mukhopadhyay, W. Wong-Ng, O. Leonte, and K. Sundaram

  Papers presented at the symposium on "Interfaces in Electronic Materials," held during the joint annual meetings of The Electrochemical Society and the Electronics Division of the American Ceramic Society, October 12-16, 2003 in Orlando, Florida.