Download or read book Historical Mechanisms written by Andreas Boldt and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-03-16 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historical Mechanisms argues that scientific method can provide key new insights about events that took place long ago. Taking a fresh approach to historical method and theory, this book contends that there is enough data to show that under certain circumstances societies have behaved, and will continue to behave, in similar ways throughout history. In this book, Andreas D. Boldt discusses the possibility of utilizing natural scientific theories in order to explain historical processes, focusing on the question of how nations and empires rise, succeed, fail and then assume another form in which they begin the cycle again. Scientific methods are utilized metaphorically as a means of establishing connections between events and trends throughout history, and this book argues that these methods can explain historical patterns such as chaos and stability, the relationship between power centres and power vacuums, the necessary conditions for the expansion of empires and the influence of natural and man-made borders. Exploring the ways in which concepts from science can be employed to shed new light on the analysis of historical data, Historical Mechanisms is valuable reading for all scholars of the theory and method of history.

Download or read book A Brief Illustrated History of Machines and Mechanisms written by Emilio Bautista Paz and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-08-02 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Machines have always gone hand-in-hand with the cultural development of m- kind throughout time. A book on the history of machines is nothing more than a specific way of bringing light to human events as a whole in order to highlight some significant milestones in the progress of knowledge by a complementary persp- tive into a general historical overview. This book is the result of common efforts and interests by several scholars, teachers, and students on subjects that are connected with the theory of machines and mechanisms. In fact, in this book there is a certain teaching aim in addition to a general historical view that is more addressed to the achievements by “homo faber” than to those by “homo sapiens”, since the proposed history survey has been developed with an engineering approach. The brevity of the text added to the fact that the authors are probably not com- tent to tackle historical studies with the necessary rigor, means the content of the book is inevitably incomplete, but it nevertheless attempts to fulfil three basic aims: First, it is hoped that this book may provide a stimulus to promote interest in the study of technical history within a mechanical engineering context. Few are the co- tries where anything significant is done in this area, which means there is a general lack of knowledge of this common cultural heritage.

Download or read book Mechanisms in Ancient Chinese Books with Illustrations written by Kuo-Hung Hsiao and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-12-12 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a unique approach for studying mechanisms and machines with drawings that were depicted unclearly in ancient Chinese books. The historical, cultural and technical backgrounds of the mechanisms are explained, and various mechanisms described and illustrated in ancient books are introduced. By utilizing the idea for the conceptual design of modern mechanisms, all feasible designs of ancient mechanisms with uncertain members and joints that meet the technical standards of the subjects’ time periods are synthesized systematically. Ancient Chinese crossbows (the original crossbow and repeating crossbows), textile mechanisms (silk-reeling mechanism, spinning mechanisms, and looms), and many other artisan's tool mechanisms are used as illustrated examples. Such an approach provides a logical method for the reconstruction designs of ancient mechanisms with uncertain structures. It also provides an innovative direction for researchers to further identify the original structures of mechanisms and machines with drawings in ancient literature. This book can be used as a textbook and/or supplemental reading material for courses related to history of ancient (Chinese) machinery and creative mechanism design for senior and graduate students.

Download or read book Mechanisms of Life History Evolution written by Thomas Flatt and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2011-05-12 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life history theory seeks to explain the evolution of the major features of life cycles by analyzing the ecological factors that shape age-specific schedules of growth, reproduction, and survival and by investigating the trade-offs that constrain the evolution of these traits. Although life history theory has made enormous progress in explaining the diversity of life history strategies among species, it traditionally ignores the underlying proximate mechanisms. This novel book argues that many fundamental problems in life history evolution, including the nature of trade-offs, can only be fully resolved if we begin to integrate information on developmental, physiological, and genetic mechanisms into the classical life history framework. Each chapter is written by an established or up-and-coming leader in their respective field; they not only represent the state of the art but also offer fresh perspectives for future research. The text is divided into 7 sections that cover basic concepts (Part 1), the mechanisms that affect different parts of the life cycle (growth, development, and maturation; reproduction; and aging and somatic maintenance) (Parts 2-4), life history plasticity (Part 5), life history integration and trade-offs (Part 6), and concludes with a synthesis chapter written by a prominent leader in the field and an editorial postscript (Part 7).

Download or read book Historical Mechanisms written by Andreas Boldt and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-16 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historical Mechanisms argues that scientific method can provide key new insights about events that took place long ago. Taking a fresh approach to historical method and theory, this book contends that there is enough data to show that under certain circumstances societies have behaved, and will continue to behave, in similar ways throughout history. In this book, Andreas D. Boldt discusses the possibility of utilizing natural scientific theories in order to explain historical processes, focusing on the question of how nations and empires rise, succeed, fail and then assume another form in which they begin the cycle again. Scientific methods are utilized metaphorically as a means of establishing connections between events and trends throughout history, and this book argues that these methods can explain historical patterns such as chaos and stability, the relationship between power centres and power vacuums, the necessary conditions for the expansion of empires and the influence of natural and man-made borders. Exploring the ways in which concepts from science can be employed to shed new light on the analysis of historical data, Historical Mechanisms is valuable reading for all scholars of the theory and method of history.

Download or read book Correcting the Blueprint of Life written by Errol C. Friedberg and published by CSHL Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brief history of the discovery of the more important mechanisms by which cells respond to DNA damage. The study, which introduces the study of DNA mutagenesis and repair, is aimed at advanced undergraduates or graduate students, as well as researchers in a variety of fields.

Download or read book Comparative Historical Methods written by Matthew Lange and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2012-11-12 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This bright, engaging title provides a thorough and integrated review of comparative-historical methods. It sets out an intellectual history of comparative-historical analysis and presents the main methodological techniques employed by researchers, including: - comparative-historical analysis, - case-based methods, - comparative methods - data, case selection and theory. Matthew Lange has written a fresh, easy to follow introduction which showcases classic analyses, offers clear methodological examples and describes major methodological debates. It is a comprehensive, grounded book which understands the learning and research needs of students and researchers.

Download or read book International Symposium on History of Machines and Mechanisms written by Marco Ceccarelli and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-11-23 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The HMM2004 International Symposium on History of Machines and Mechanisms is the second event of a series that has been started in 2000 as main activity of the IFToMM Permanent Commission for History of MMS, Mechanism and Machine Science. The aim of the HMM Symposium is to be a forum to exchange views, opinions, and experiences on History of MMS from technical viewpoints in order to track the past but also to look at future developments in MMS. The HMM Symposium Series is devoted to the technical aspects of historical deve- pments and therefore it has been addressed mainly to the IFToMM Community. In fact, most the authors of the contributed papers are experts in MMS and related topics. This year HMM Symposium came back to Cassino, after the challenging first event in 2000. The HMM2004 International Symposium on History of Machines and Mechanisms was held at the University of Cassino, Italy, from 12 to 15 May 2004. These Proceedings contain 29 papers by authors from all around the world. These papers cover the wide field of the History of Mechanical Engineering and particularly the History of MMS. The contributions address mainly technical aspects of historical developments of Machines and Mechanisms. History of IFToMM, the International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science is also outlined through the historical activities of some of its Commissions.

Download or read book Communities in Action written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2017-04-27 with total page 583 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Download or read book The Mechanisms of Governance written by Oliver E. Williamson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1996-02-29 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings together in one place the work of one of our most respected economic theorists, on a field in which he has played a large part in originating: the New Institutional Economics. Transaction cost economics, which studies the governance of contractual relations, is the branch of the New Institutional Economics with which Oliver Williamson is especially associated. Transaction cost economics takes issue with one of the fundamental building blocks in microeconomics: the theory of the firm. Whereas orthodox economics describes the firm in technological terms, as a production function, transaction cost economics describes the firm in organizational terms, as a governance structure. Alternative feasible forms of organization--firms, markets, hybrids, bureaus--are examined comparatively. The analytical action resides in the details of transactions and the mechanisms of governance. Transaction cost economics has had a pervasive influence on current economic thought about how and why institutions function as they do, and it has become a practical framework for research in organizations by representatives of a variety of disciplines. Through a transaction cost analysis, The Mechanisms of Governance shows how and why simple contracts give way to complex contracts and internal organization as the hazards of contracting build up. That complicates the study of economic organization, but a richer and more relevant theory of organization is the result. Many testable implications and lessons for public policy accrue to this framework. Applications of both kinds are numerous and growing. Written by one of the leading economic theorists of our time, The Mechanisms of Governance is sure to be an important work for years to come. It will be of interest to scholars and students of economics, organization, management, and law.

Download or read book Evaluating Evidence of Mechanisms in Medicine written by Veli-Pekka Parkkinen and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-07-13 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is open access under a CC BY license. This book is the first to develop explicit methods for evaluating evidence of mechanisms in the field of medicine. It explains why it can be important to make this evidence explicit, and describes how to take such evidence into account in the evidence appraisal process. In addition, it develops procedures for seeking evidence of mechanisms, for evaluating evidence of mechanisms, and for combining this evaluation with evidence of association in order to yield an overall assessment of effectiveness. Evidence-based medicine seeks to achieve improved health outcomes by making evidence explicit and by developing explicit methods for evaluating it. To date, evidence-based medicine has largely focused on evidence of association produced by clinical studies. As such, it has tended to overlook evidence of pathophysiological mechanisms and evidence of the mechanisms of action of interventions. The book offers a useful guide for all those whose work involves evaluating evidence in the health sciences, including those who need to determine the effectiveness of health interventions and those who need to ascertain the effects of environmental exposures.

Download or read book Explorations in the History and Heritage of Machines and Mechanisms written by Marco Ceccarelli and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-04-06 with total page 503 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book gathers the latest advances in the field of history of science and technology, as presented by leading international researchers at the 7th International Symposium on History of Machines and Mechanisms (HMM), held in Granada and Jaén, Spain on April 28-30, 2022. The Symposium, which was promoted by the permanent commission for the History of Machine and Mechanism Science (MMS) of IFToMM, provided an international forum to present and discuss historical developments in the field of MMS. The contents cover all aspects of the development of MMS from antiquity until the present era and its historiography: modern reviews of past works, engineers in history and their works, the development of theories, history of the design of machines and mechanisms, historical developments of mechanical design and automation, historical developments of teaching, the history of schools of engineering, the education of engineers. The contributions, which were selected by means of a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaborations.

Download or read book In Search of Mechanisms written by Carl F. Craver and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-10-03 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neuroscientists investigate the mechanisms of spatial memory. Molecular biologists study the mechanisms of protein synthesis and the myriad mechanisms of gene regulation. Ecologists study nutrient cycling mechanisms and their devastating imbalances in estuaries such as the Chesapeake Bay. In fact, much of biology and its history involves biologists constructing, evaluating, and revising their understanding of mechanisms. With In Search of Mechanisms, Carl F. Craver and Lindley Darden offer both a descriptive and an instructional account of how biologists discover mechanisms. Drawing on examples from across the life sciences and through the centuries, Craver and Darden compile an impressive toolbox of strategies that biologists have used and will use again to reveal the mechanisms that produce, underlie, or maintain the phenomena characteristic of living things. They discuss the questions that figure in the search for mechanisms, characterizing the experimental, observational, and conceptual considerations used to answer them, all the while providing examples from the history of biology to highlight the kinds of evidence and reasoning strategies employed to assess mechanisms. At a deeper level, Craver and Darden pose a systematic view of what biology is, of how biology makes progress, of how biological discoveries are and might be made, and of why knowledge of biological mechanisms is important for the future of the human species.

Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Mechanisms and Mechanical Philosophy written by Stuart Glennan and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-07-06 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientists studying the burning of stars, the evolution of species, DNA, the brain, the economy, and social change, all frequently describe their work as searching for mechanisms. Despite this fact, for much of the twentieth century philosophical discussions of the nature of mechanisms remained outside philosophy of science. The Routledge Handbook of Mechanisms and Mechanical Philosophy is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems, and debates in this exciting subject and is the first collection of its kind. Comprising over thirty chapters by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into four Parts: Historical perspectives on mechanisms The nature of mechanisms Mechanisms and the philosophy of science Disciplinary perspectives on mechanisms. Within these Parts central topics and problems are examined, including the rise of mechanical philosophy in the seventeenth century; what mechanisms are made of and how they are organized; mechanisms and laws and regularities; how mechanisms are discovered and explained; dynamical systems theory; and disciplinary perspectives from physics, chemistry, biology, biomedicine, ecology, neuroscience, and the social sciences. Essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy of science, the Handbook will also be of interest to those in related fields, such as metaphysics, philosophy of psychology, and history of science.

Download or read book Distinguished Figures in Mechanism and Machine Science written by Marco Ceccarelli and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-01-01 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses technological developments by distinguished figures in the history of MMS (mechanism and machine science). It includes biographies of well-known scientists, describing their efforts, experiences and achievements and offering a modern interpretation of their legacy. This volume includes scientists from a wide range of time periods, academic disciplines, and geographical backgrounds, such as Giovanni Bianchi, Homer, Taqi Al-Din, Jacques de Vaucanson, Ma Jun, Xu Baosheng, Alexander Alexandrovich Golovin, Francesco di Giorgio and Cesare Rossi. Covering a wide range of figures within the field of history of mechanical engineering, with a particular focus on MMS, this fourth volume is of interest to, and will inspire the work (historical or not) of many.

Download or read book Building New York s Sewers written by Joanne Abel Goldman and published by Purdue University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As new theories on the transmission of disease heightened concerns over public health and urban sanitation, physicians and professional engineers pressured the city to provide comprehensive sewage facilities. The locally oriented Common Council resisted the effort because it would entail the creation of administrative bodies that would have the authority to make city-wide decisions.

Download or read book Evolution written by Jonathan Bard and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2021-12-31 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolution is the single unifying principle of biology and core to everything in the life sciences. More than a century of work by scientists from across the biological spectrum has produced a detailed history of life across the phyla and explained the mechanisms by which new species form. This textbook covers both this history and the mechanisms of speciation; it also aims to provide students with the background needed to read the research literature on evolution. Students will therefore learn about cladistics, molecular phylogenies, the molecular-genetical basis of evolutionary change including the important role of protein networks, symbionts and holobionts, together with the core principles of developmental biology. The book also includes introductory appendices that provide background knowledge on, for example, the diversity of life today, fossils, the geology of Earth and the history of evolutionary thought. Key Features Summarizes the origins of life and the evolution of the eukaryotic cell and of Urbilateria, the last common ancestor of invertebrates and vertebrates. Reviews the history of life across the phyla based on the fossil record and computational phylogenetics. Explains evo-devo and the generation of anatomical novelties. Illustrates the roles of small populations, genetic drift, mutation and selection in speciation. Documents human evolution using the fossil record and evidence of dispersal across the world leading to the emergence of modern humans.