Books on the topic 'Falling number'

This article explores aspects of Montaigne’s imagination with a focus on questions of conception and generation, volition and cognition, human and animal being. Engaging critically with the reception of early modern theories of the imagination in both poetic and medical discourse, and with a set of now canonical essays in the field (I, 8; II, 6; II, 12 as well as I, 21), it explores a number of resonant themes, tropes, and actions: falling, watching, reading, and (almost) dying. Discussion of Montaigne’s inheritance is best conducted alongside consideration of the complex afterlives of the Essays, and their powerful effects on the imagination of his readers. Particular attention is here paid to a “family” of privileged figures in the writing: monsters, children, and cats, and the argument, throughout, is that the imagination in, and of, Montaigne is best grasped as a distinctly embodied force.

How should we judge existing international organizations (IOs)? Cosmopolitans often assess such institutions against nonexistent but plausible alternatives. By contrast, this chapter assesses the effect of institutions relative to situations in which they are absent. It first disaggregates “democracy” into a number of constituent principles, falling under the demos dimension (who are the people?) and the kratos dimension (how do the people rule?). It then systematically assesses the recent empirical literature on the impact of international institutions on each of the principles identified. Overall, a mixed picture emerges. Not only are there significant differences among IOs, but sometimes the same organization appears to improve one dimension of democracy while being detrimental to another. This gives reason for cosmopolitans to conduct or encourage further empirical research aiming at identifying institutional designs that can enhance several dimensions of democracy at the same time.

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has developed a number of methods for interpreting the ICESCR that are often described as ‘special’ and as falling outside the framework of VCLT articles 31–33. However, this chapter argues that the VCLT can accommodate these methods. The real problem with the Committee’s interpretations is not their (il)legality but their (lack of) legitimacy. The Committee seems to equate legitimacy with sufficient State support. Accordingly, it constantly attempts to balance a moral reading of the Covenant with finding common ground among States parties. Yet legitimacy may derive not only from a source, such as State consent, but also from following a process of interpretation that is adequate and fair. For an interpretive practice to be legitimate, the interpreter must, at the very least, adhere to a set of principles, apply these coherently, and lay bare how a particular interpretive outcome is reached.

Energy storage plays a key role in the modern global economy, in which variable renewable energies are growingly acquiring a major part. One option for energy storage is the production of hydrogen through electrolysis of water with renewable electricity, which can later be used again to produce electricity in a fuel cell, internal combustion engine or gas turbine, among other applications. Renewable hydrogen is quickly approaching economic competitiveness and enjoying unprecedented political and business momentum, with the number of favorable policies and projects worldwide expected to increase rapidly in the coming years. The rising interest in this storage alternative is driven by the urgency of greenhouse gas emission mitigation, by the falling costs of renewable power and by systems integration challenges due to rising shares of variable renewable power supply. This book aims at reviewing the different available technologies for hydrogen production, storage and final use as an energy vector.

A number of philosophers, including Kant, Kripke, Boghossian, Gibbard and Brandom, can be read as endorsing the view that concepts are normative. I distinguish two versions of that view: a strong, non-naturalistic version which identifies concepts with norms or rules (Kant, Kripke), and a weaker version, compatible with naturalism, on which the normativity of concepts amounts only to their application’s being governed by norms or rules (Boghossian, Gibbard, Brandom). I consider a problem for the strong version: grasp of a rule seems to require grasp of the concepts which constitute the content of that rule, so how can we explain concept acquisition without falling into regress? I offer a Kantian response, on which grasp of a rule does not require antecedent grasp of concepts, but still involves the recognition of normativity in one’s rule-governed behavior. I distinguish the normativity of concepts, so understood, from the normativity associated with truth or warrant.

Falls in the elderly are very common, and their frequency increases with aging. At a personal level, falls are associated with a subsequent fear of falling, a decline in function, increased nursing home placement, and increased use of medical services, and complications resulting from falls represent the leading cause of death from injury in geriatric population. At the more global level, falls in the elderly are associated with increased use of medical services and increased cost directly to the patient and also indirectly, if we add the number of hours of work lost by caregivers who will assume care of that elderly person after the fall. This chapter covers the definition and relevance of falls in the elderly population; etiology and risk factors for falls; evaluation and management; and assessment for and correction of risk factors. Integrative management approaches discussed in this chapter are movement and exercise, nutrition and supplements, and hormone replacement.

This volume examines the period from 1750–1820, which was a crucial period in the development of the novel in English. Not only was it the time of Smollett, Sterne, Austen, and Scott, but it also saw the establishment and definition of the novel as we know it, as well as the emergence of a number of subgenres, several of which remain to this day. Conventionally however, it has been one of the least studied areas—seen as a falling off from the heyday of Richardson and Fielding, or merely a prelude to the great Victorian novelists. This book takes full advantage of recent major advances in scholarly bibliography, new critical assessments, and the fresh availability of long-neglected fictional works, to offer a new mapping and appraisal. The opening section, as well as later chapters, consider historical conditions underlying the production, circulation, and reception of fiction during these seventy years, a period itself marked by a rapid growth in output and expansion in readership. Other chapters cover the principal forms, movements, and literary themes of the period, with individual contributions on the four major novelists (named above), seen in historical context, as well as others on adjacent fields such as the shorter tale, magazine fiction, children's literature, and drama. The volume also views the novel in the light of other major institutions of modern literary culture, including book reviewing and the reprint trade, all of which played a part in advancing a sense of the novel as a defining feature of the British cultural landscape. A focus on ‘global’ literature and imported fiction in two concluding chapters in turn reflects a broader concern for transitional literary studies in general.

Various forms of academic co-operation criss-cross the modern university system in a bewildering number of ways, from the open exchange of ideas and knowledge, to the sharing of research results, and frank discussions about research challenges. Embedded in these scholarly networks is the question of whether a global template for the management of both higher education and national research organisations is necessary, and if so, must institutions slavishly follow the high-flown language of the global knowledge society or risk falling behind in the ubiquitous university ranking system? Or are there alternatives that can achieve a better, more ethically inclined, world? Basing their observations on their own experiences, an interesting mix of seasoned scholars and new voices from southern Africa and the Nordic region offer critical perspectives on issues of inter- and cross-regional academic co-operation. Several of the chapters also touch on the evolution of the higher education sector in the two regions. An absorbing and intelligent study, this book will be invaluable for anyone interested in the strategies scholars are using to adapt to the interconnectedness of the modern world. It offers fresh insights into how academics are attempting to protect the spaces in which they can freely and openly debate the challenges they face, while aiming to transform higher education, and foster scholarly collaboration. The Southern African-Nordic Centre (SANORD) is a partnership of higher education institutions from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. SANORDs primary aim is to promote multilateral research co-operation on matters of importance to the development of both regions. Our activities are based on the values of democracy, equity, and mutually beneficial academic engagement.

Before children learn to use language, they learn about the world in action and by imitation. This learning provides the basis for language acquisition. Learning by imitation and thinking in action continue to be significant throughout life. Mathematical concepts are grounded in children’s schemas of action, which are action patterns that represent a logical organization that can be applied to different objects. This chapter describes some of the conditions that allow deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) children to learn by imitation and use schemas of action successfully to solve mathematical problems. Three examples of concepts that can be taught by observation and thinking in action are presented: the inverse relation between addition and subtraction, the concepts necessary for learning to write numbers, and multiplicative reasoning. There is sufficient knowledge for the use of teaching approaches that can prevent DHH children from falling behind before they start school.

Idiocy, once understood as a mark of divine disfavor, is later medicalized under a variety of seemingly scientific classifications, culminating in a eugenic-era fear of the “menace of the feebleminded” and the widespread institutionalization to which it gave rise. In literature and in music, representations of idiocy have generally fallen into a small number of types: the Holy Fool and the Sentimental Idiot; the Wild Child and the Natural Man; the Village Idiot (often played for laughs); and the Eugenic Idiot (simultaneously pitiable and a feared source of violence, possibly sexual in nature). Modernist music represents idiocy in its tendency toward simplification in all domains; its static, nondevelopmental character; its deliberate cultivation of disfluency and inarticulateness; its interest in generic incongruity; its pleasure in low humor; and above all its deep interest in the childlike, the folk, and the primitive (including the racial primitive). As in modernist literature, musical representations of idiocy enable the sorts of compositional innovations that are widely understood as defining musical modernism.

Alcohol has been used for thousands of years and, indeed, in very different ways. Two thousand years ago, the occupying Romans sipped wine regularly but reasonably moderately, and marvelled at the local English serfs who celebrated bringing in their crops with brief episodes of unrivalled drunkenness. The use of alcohol was not only tolerated but sometimes encouraged by the ruling classes as a way of subjugating the population and dulling their awareness of the conditions in which they had to live and work. The adverse impact of gin consumption was famously recorded by Hogarth’s painting of ‘Gin Lane’ but, at the same time, beer was reckoned a safer alternative to water for fluid intake and was linked to happiness and prosperity in the sister painting of ‘Beer Street’. It was against the ‘pernicious use of strong liquors’ and not beer that the president of the Royal College of Physicians, John Friend, petitioned Parliament in 1726. Some desultory attempts were made by Parliament in the eighteenth century to introduce legislation in order to tax and control alcohol production but they were eventually repealed. It was really the onset of the Industrial Revolution in nineteenth-century England that brought into sharp relief the wasted productivity and lost opportunity from excess consumption. England moved from a rural, relatively disorganized workforce to an urban, more closely scrutinized and supervised one—for instance, in factories, where men needed their wits about them to work heavy machinery, workers that were absent (in body or mind) were noticed. And, in Victorian Britain, there arose a greater social conscience—an awareness, for example, of the harm, through neglect, inflicted on the children of those who spent their wages and their days in an alcoholic stupor. Nonetheless, the per capita consumption of alcohol in the UK at the end of the nineteenth century was greater than it is today. It fell progressively through the first half of the twentieth century, with two marked dips. The first coincided with the introduction of licensing hours restrictions during the First World War, and the second with the economic depression of the 1930s. Following the Second World War, there was a doubling of alcohol consumption between 1950 and the present day, to about 10 l of pure alcohol per capita. There has been a small fall of 9% in the last 5 years; this may be, in part, related to the changing ethnic mix and increasing number of non-drinkers. There has always been a mismatch between the self-reported consumption in lifestyle questionnaires, and the data from customs and excise, with the latter being 40% greater. From the latter, it can be estimated that the average consumption of non-teetotal adults in England is 25 units (0.25 l of pure alcohol) per week, which is well above the recommended limits of 14 units for women, and 21 units for men. Of course, average figures hide population differences, and it is estimated that the heaviest-consuming 10% of the population account for 40% of that drunk. While men continue to drink, on average, about twice the amount that women do, the rate of rise of consumption in women has been steeper. Average consumption is comparable across socio-economic groups but there is evidence of both more teetotallers and more drinking in a harmful way in the poorest group. In 2007, 13% of those aged 11–15 admitted that they had drunk alcohol during the previous week. This figure is falling, but those who do drink are drinking more. The average weekly consumption of pupils who drink is 13 units/week. Binge drinking estimates are unreliable, as they depend on self-reporting in questionnaires. In the UK, they are taken as drinking twice the daily recommended limits of 4 units for men, and 3 units for women, on the heaviest drinking day in the previous week. In 2010, 19% of men, and 12% of women, admitted to binge drinking, with the figures being 24% and 17%, respectively, for those aged 16–24. The preferred venue for drinking in the UK has changed markedly, mainly in response to the availability of cheap supermarket drink. Thirty years ago, the vast majority of alcohol was consumed in pubs and restaurants, whereas, in 2009, the market share of off-licence outlets was 65%. However, drinkers under 24 years of age still drink predominantly away from home. The UK per capita consumption is close to the European average, but consumption has been falling in Mediterranean countries and rising in northern and eastern Europe. Europe has the highest consumption of all continents, but there is undoubtedly massive under-reporting in many countries, particularly because of local unregulated production and consumption. It is estimated that less than 10% of consumption is captured in statistics in parts of Africa.

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science. Please check back later for the full article.Africa, a continent with the largest number of countries falling under the category of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), remains highly dependent on rain-fed agriculture that suffers from low intake of water, exacerbating the vulnerability to climate variability and anthropogenic climate change. The increasing frequency and severity of climate extremes impose major strains on the economies of these countries. The loss of livelihoods due to interaction of climate change with existing stressors is elevating internal and cross-border migration. The continent is experiencing rapid urbanization, and its cities represent the most vulnerable locations to climate change due in part to incapacitated local governance. Overall, the institutional capacity to coordinate, regulate, and facilitate development in Africa is weak. The general public is less empowered to hold government accountable. The rule of law, media, and other watchdog organizations, and systems of checks and balances are constrained in different ways, contributing to poor governance and resulting in low capacity to respond to climate risks.As a result, climate policy and governance are inseparable in Africa, and capacitating the government is as essential as establishing climate policy. With the highest level of vulnerability to climate change compared with the rest of the world, governance in Africa is pivotal in crafting and implementing viable climate policies.It is indisputable that African climate policy should focus first and foremost on adaptation to climate change. It is pertinent, therefore, to assess Africa’s governance ability to identify and address the continent’s needs for adaptation. One key aspect of effective climate policy is access to up-to-date and contextually relevant information that encompasses indigenous knowledge. African countries have endeavored to meet international requirements for reports such as the National Communications on Climate Change Impacts and Vulnerabilities and the National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs). However, the capacity to deliver on-time quality reports is lacking; also the implementation, in particular integration of adaptation plans into the overall development agenda, remains a challenge. There are a few successes, but overall adaptation operates mainly at project level. Furthermore, the capacity to access and effectively utilize availed international resources, such as extra funding or technology transfer, is limited in Africa.While the continent is an insignificant source of emissions on a global scale, a more forward looking climate policy would require integrating adaptation with mitigation to put in place a foundation for transformation of the development agenda, towards a low carbon driven economy. Such a futuristic approach calls for a comprehensive and robust climate policy governance that goes beyond climate to embrace the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030. Both governance and climate policy in Africa will need to be viewed broadly, encompassing the process of globalization, which has paved the way to a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. The question is, what should be the focus of climate policy and governance across Africa under the Anthropocene era?

As record numbers of migrants have fled by sea in recent years, states have restricted their borders to protect national security. The challenge of balancing domestic security concerns with international human rights commitments has fallen to courts. Drawing on cases from the United States, Australia, and the ECtHR, this chapter will compare how the 1951 Refugee Convention has been interpreted across countries and over time. Its object is to compare when and how courts creatively avoid non-refoulement, the prohibition against returning refugees to a place where their lives are endangered, and when courts uphold a stricter interpretation of the principle. More broadly, this analysis sheds light on the question of what extraterritorial obligations human rights law demands. This chapter employs the techniques of comparative law to illuminate our understanding of what international refugee law, although ostensibly uniform, means when applied in various jurisdictions.

Examines the Ohio River valley though an environmental lens and explores the role that American Indian women played in creating a sedentary agrarian village world in this rich and fertile landscape. Focuses on the crescent of Indian communities located along the banks of the Wabash River valley, a major Ohio tributary, to trace the evolution of the agrarian-trading nexus that shaped village life. The agricultural work of Indian women and their involvement in an Indian-controlled fur trade provides a glimpse into a flourishing village world that has escaped historical attention and refutes the notion that this region was continually torn asunder by warfare. Trade and diplomacy allowed Indians to successfully control the Ohio River valley until the late eighteenth century, with neither the French nor the British exercising hegemony over these lands. Instead, Indians incorporated numerous Europeans and vast numbers of Indian refugees into their highly diverse world, enabling different Algonquian-speaking Indians to live adjacent to and with each other, eventually paving the way for the Pan-Indian Confederacies of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Indian world that Americans encountered in the 1780s was an Indian-controlled landscape that they had long defended from repeated foreign intrusions, not the middle ground of fragmented Native groups associated with imperial contact. Until the crushing defeat at Fallen Timbers in 1794, Indians believed that Americans were another wave of intruders that could be repulsed.