Books on the topic 'Single Sign-On'

This chapter looks at the calculus of a function of two or more variables, which is the subject of partial differentiation. The partial derivative of a function is the rate of change of the function with respect to the distance in the direction of a particular coordinate axis and is symbolised with the sign ∂. The chapter spends time on the implicit function theorem, since it is relied upon heavily elsewhere in the text. Lagrange multipliers are used to solve constrained optimisation problems. Topics include critical points, the product rule, the chain rule, directional derivatives, hypersurfaces and Taylor’s theorem. In addition, the chapter discusses Jacobian matrices, the inverse function theorem, gradients, level sets and Hessian matrices.

Setting a new benchmark for studies of technocracy, the book shows that a solution to the challenge of populism will depend as much on a technocratic retreat as democratic innovation. Esmark examines the development since the 1980s of a new 'post-industrial' technocratic regime and its complicity in the populist backlash against politics and political elites that is visible today. The new technocracy – a combination of network governance, risk management and performance management – has, the author argues, abandoned the overtly anti-democratic sentiments of its industrial predecessor and proclaimed a new partnership with democracy. The rise of populism, however, is a clear sign that the inherent problems of this partnership have been exposed and that technocracy posing as democracy will only serve to exacerbate existing problems.

Italy was among the first countries to sign the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2007, and ratified it in 2009 by Law 18/2009. Since then, the Convention has displayed significant influence on case law, and provoked a degree of judicial activism. This chapter provides an overview of how Italian courts have used and interpreted the CRPD. It highlights how Italian lower and higher courts, including the Constitutional Court and the Court of Cassation, have attempted to overcome the gap between domestic law and the CRPD, by ‘rethinking’ legal concepts in light of the Convention. This is evident with regards to the field of legal capacity and the domestic provisions of the civil code on the ‘administration of support’, but also to non-discrimination legislation, the scope of which has been evidently enlarged to encompass the failure to provide reasonable accommodation as a form of indirect discrimination.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide historical context for research in deaf education. Educators began conducting research from the time of the establishment of the first school for the deaf in the United States in 1816, long before the development of sophisticated research methodology. Investigators used the resources at hand and addressed issues of importance in their time. First reports tended to be anecdotal and self-report, followed by demographic studies. Research in the first half of the twentieth century concentrated on mental measurement and standardized tests of academic achievement. From this developed a core of professionals with skills to conduct studies in a wide range of areas and consumers with the interest to profit from them. Since that time, advances have been made in the study of sign languages, language acquisition, intellectual and cognitive assessment, and measurement of academic achievement, resulting in a broad array of research approaches.

Since the creation of GR and subsequent works in cosmology, the question of the curvature of space in the Universe is considered one of the most important and debated to this day. This is evident, because the curvature of space depends whether the Universe expands, contracts or is static. These discussions allowed the author to propose a paradoxical idea: simultaneous existence in the Universe of three interconnected space-times (positive, negative and zero curvature) and on this basis, to develop a theory in which each space-time plays its own role and develops in a strict accordance with its sign of curvature. The three space-time model of the structure of the Universe, proposed by the author, allows to solve many fundamental problems of modern cosmology and theoretical physics and creates the basis for building a unified physical theory (including one that unites GR and quantum physics).

Darwinian evolutionary theory is one of the brightest jewels in the crown of science; yet it has been highly controversial since its first appearance in the Origin of Species in 1859. Well known is the opposition of so many Christians, an opposition that shows little sign of abating today. The Problem of War: Darwinism, Christianity, and Their Battle to Understand Human Conflict argues that the roots of the unease lie not simply (as many think) in a straight clash between science and religion, but more deeply in the fact that, while professional biologists are producing first-class science, Darwinism has always had a somewhat darker side where it functions as a secular religion, a form of humanism, directly challenging Christianity. Testing and confirming this claim, The Problem of War is an in-depth study of Christians and of Darwinians on the theme of war. It covers a wide range of thinkers, showing that they are functioning in the same religious mode, but in directly conflicting ways—Christians arguing that war is always evil and we fallible humans will have it with us always; and Darwinians arguing that since war led to humankind, it has in respects to be considered good, but now we can and must move on to a more peaceful future. Appreciating the essentially religious nature of the debate helps us to understand the criticisms of Darwinism and to hope that the different perspectives, Christian and Darwinian, might indeed find common meeting ground.

Pax Transatlantica asserts that the recurrent transatlantic crises that have dominated headlines since the end of the Cold War, while not irrelevant, pale when set against the realities of shared interests and goals. It emphasizes three key factors. First, despite inflammatory and dismissive rhetoric, NATO continues to provide a solid security structure for its member states: an institutional framework of a Pax Transatlantica that has stood the test of time by expanding its remit and scope. Second, in a world concerned with the potential effects of trade wars (especially between the United States and China) and the rise of economic nationalism, the transatlantic economic relationship stands apart as the richest, most closely integrated transcontinental economic space on the globe. Third, the book traces the parallel evolution of domestic politics on both sides of the Atlantic with specific focus on the rise of populism. Rather than a sign of transatlantic “drift,” the rise of populism—much like the emergence of so-called Third Way politics on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1990s—is evidence of a closely integrated transatlantic political space. In the end, while it is obvious that the history of the transatlantic relationship—even during the Cold War—was littered with crises, the relationship has endured. Conflicts have illustrated, time and again, the strength of the transatlantic community. The “West,” the book concludes, not only continues to exist. It is likely to thrive in the future.

China’s economic growth has been revolutionary, and is the foundation of its increasingly prominent role in world affairs. It is the world’s second biggest economy, the largest manufacturing and trading nation, the consumer of half the world’s steel and coal, the biggest source of international tourists, and one of the most influential investors in developing countries from southeast Asia to Africa to Latin America. Multinational companies make billions of dollars in profits in China each year, while traders around the world shudder at every gyration of the country’s unruly stock markets. Perhaps paradoxically, its capitalist economy is governed by an authoritarian Communist Party that shows no sign of loosening its grip. China is frequently in the news, whether because of trade disputes, the challenges of its Belt and Road initiative for global infrastructure, or its increasing military strength. China’s political and technological challenges, created by a country whose political system and values differ dramatically from most of the other major world economies, creates uncertainty and even fear. China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know is a concise introduction to the most astonishing economic and political story of the last three decades. Arthur Kroeber enhances our understanding of China’s changes and their implications. Among the essential questions he answers are: How did China grow so fast for so long? Can it keep growing and still solve its problems of environmental damage, fast-rising debt and rampant corruption? How long can its vibrant economy co-exist with the repressive one-party state? How do China’s changes affect the rest of the world? This thoroughly revised and updated second edition includes a comprehensive discussion of the origins and development of the US-China strategic rivalry, including Trump’s trade war and the race for technological supremacy. It also explores the recent changes in China’s political system, reflecting Xi Jinping’s emergence as the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. It includes insights on changes in China’s financial sector, covering the rise and fall of the shadow banking sector, and China’s increasing integration with global financial markets. And it covers China’s rapid technological development and the rise of its global Internet champions such as Alibaba and Tencent.

Early in the nineteenth century, British Quakers broke through a century-long hedge of Quietism which had gripped their Religious Society since the death of their founding prophet, George Fox. After 1800, the majority of Friends in England and Ireland gradually embraced the evangelical revival, based on the biblical principle of Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice as the effective source of salvation. This evangelical vision contradicted early Quakerism’s central religious principle, the saving quality of the Light of Christ Within (Inward Light) which led human beings from sinful darkness into saving Light. The subsequent, sometimes bitter struggles among British Quakers turned on the question of whether the infallible Bible or leadings from the Light should be the primary means for guiding Friends to eternal salvation. Three of the most significant upheavals originated in Manchester. In 1835 Isaac Crewdson, a weighty Manchester Friend, published A Beacon to the Society of Friends which questioned the authority of the Inward Light and the entire content of traditional Quaker ministry as devoid of biblical truth. The ensuing row ended with Crewdson and his followers separating from the Friends. Following this Beacon Separation, however, British Quakerism was increasingly dominated by evangelical principles. Although influenced by J.S. Rowntree’s Quakerism, Past and Present, Friends agreed to modify their Discipline, a cautious compromise with the modern world. During the 1860s a new encounter with modernity brought a second upheaval in Manchester. An influential thinker as well as a Friend by marriage, David Duncan embraced, among other advanced ideas, higher criticism of biblical texts. Evangelical Friends were not pleased and Duncan was disowned by a special committee investigating his views. Duncan died suddenly before he could take his fight to London Yearly Meeting, but his message had been heard by younger British Friends. The anti-intellectual atmosphere of British Quakerism, presided over by evangelical leader J.B. Braithwaite, seemed to be steering Friends towards mainstream Protestantism. This tendency was challenged in a widely read tract entitled A Reasonable Faith, which replaced the angry God of the atonement with a kinder, gentler, more loving Deity. A clear sign of changing sentiments among British Friends was London Yearly Meeting’s rejection of the Richmond Declaration (1887), an American evangelical manifesto mainly written by J.B. Braithwaite. But the decisive blow against evangelical dominance among Friends was the Manchester Conference of 1895 during which John Wilhelm Rowntree emerged as leader of a Quaker Renaissance emphasizing the centrality of the Inward Light, the value of social action, and the revival of long-dormant Friends’ Peace Testimony. Before his premature death in 1905, J.W. Rowntree and his associates began a transformation of British Quakerism, opening its collective mind to modern religious, social, and scientific thought as the means of fulfilling Friends’ historic mission to work for the Kingdom of God on earth. During the course of the nineteenth century, British Quakerism was gradually transformed from a tiny, self-isolated body of peculiar people into a spiritually riven, socially active community of believers. This still Dissenting Society entered the twentieth century strongly liberal in its religious practices and passionately confident of its mission ‘to make all humanity a society of Friends’.

This GSoD In Focus provides a brief overview of the global state of democracy at the end of 2019, prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, and assesses some of the preliminary impacts that the pandemic has had on democracy globally in 2020. Key findings include: • To address the COVID-19 pandemic, starting in March 2020, more than half the countries in the world (59 per cent) had declared a national state of emergency (SoE), enabling them to take drastic temporary (and in most cases necessary) measures to fight the pandemic. These measures have included in most cases temporarily curbing basic civil liberties, such as freedom of assembly and movement, and in some cases postponing elections. • International IDEA’s Global Monitor of COVID-19’s Impact on Democracy and Human Rights finds that more than half the countries in the world (61 per cent) had, by the end of November 2020, implemented measures to curb COVID-19 that were concerning from a democracy and human rights perspective. These violated democratic standards because they were either disproportionate, illegal, indefinite or unnecessary in relation to the health threat. • Concerning developments have been more common in countries that were already non-democratic prior to the pandemic (90 per cent) and less common, although still quite widespread, in democracies (43 per cent). • The democracies that have implemented democratically concerning measures are those that were already ailing before the pandemic. More than two-thirds were democracies that were either backsliding, eroding or weak prior to the pandemic. • Almost a year since the first outbreak of COVID-19, the pandemic seems to have deepened autocratization in most of the countries that were already non-democratic. However, in at least 3 of those countries (Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand), the pandemic has also tapped into existing simmering citizen discontent and may have been the tipping point in unleashing massive protest waves demanding democratic reform. The pandemic has also seemingly deepened democratic backsliding processes and exposed the democratic weakness and fragility of new or re-transitioned democracies (Malaysia, Mali, Myanmar, Sri Lanka). In a few cases, the pandemic has also exposed countries that showed no apparent sign of democratically ailing prior to the pandemic, but where concerning democratic developments have occurred during the pandemic and which risk seeing a significant deterioration in their democratic quality as a result (i.e. Argentina, El Salvador). • The aspects of democracy that have seen the most concerning developments during the pandemic are freedom of expression, media integrity, and personal integrity and security. However, the freedoms that have been restricted across most countries are freedom of movement and assembly. Another core democratic process that has been heavily affected by the pandemic is the electoral, with half the elections scheduled between February and December 2020 postponed due to the pandemic. • The pandemic has also shown democracy’s resilience and capacity for renovation. Innovation through accelerated digitalization has occurred across most regions of the world. And democratic institutions, such as parliaments, courts, electoral commissions, political parties, media and civil society actors, have fought back against attempts at executive overreach and democratic trampling or collaborated to ensure effective responses to the pandemic. The review of the state of democracy during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 uses qualitative analysis and data of events and trends in the region collected through International IDEA’s Global Monitor of COVID-19’s Impact on Democracy and Human Rights, an initiative co-funded by the European Union.