Companion Modelling

This book introduces the companion modelling approach by presenting the stance that underpins it, the methods and tools used with stakeholders and the specific role of models during the process. It addresses the means to deal with the different levels of decision-making and to take into account the various power relationships. It proposes a methodology to assess the impact of the approach on the stakeholders involved in the process. The book includes 27 case studies and 7 teaching tools that describe the successful use of the approach in a variety of settings or teaching contexts. It is intended for researchers working on rural development or renewable resources management, as well as students and teachers.

Logical methods are used in all area of philosophy. By introducing and advancing central to topics in the discipline, The Bloomsbury Companion to Philosophical Logic emphasizes the crucial role logic plays in understanding philosophical problems. Covering stages in the history of logic and of modern logic, this comprehensive Companion looks ahead to new areas of research and explores issues pertaining to classical logic and its rivals, semantics for parts of natural language, and the application of logic in the theory of rationality. Experts in the field provide a mix of technical chapters that offer excellent encyclopaedias of results in the area and chapters of philosophical discussions that survey a range of philosophical positions. To facilitate further study, this volumes also includes a series of research tools such as a detailed index, an up-to-date list of resources and an annotated bibliography. Balancing technical exposition with philosophical discussion, The Bloomsbury Companion to Philosophical Logic not only provides students and lecturers with the basis of a course in philosophical logic, it offers anyone working in this key area of contemporary philosophy a valuable research resource.

This book pursues a multidisciplinary approach in order to evaluate the socio-ecological dimensions of infectious diseases in Southeast Asia. It includes 18 chapters written by respected researchers in the fields of history, sociology, ecology, epidemiology, veterinary sciences, medicine and the environmental sciences on six major topics: (1) Infectious diseases and societies, (2) Health, infectious diseases and socio-ecosystems; (3) Global changes, land use changes and vector-borne diseases; (4) Monitoring and data acquisition; (5) Managing health risks; and (6) Developing strategies. The book offers a valuable guide for students and researchers in the fields of development and environmental studies, animal and human health (veterinarians, physicians), ecology and conservation biology, especially those with a focus on Southeast Asia.

The effects of climate change, rapid urbanization, and aging infrastructure challenge water policymakers to confront a radical paradigm shift in water resources utilization. Recent advances in sensing, networking, processing, and control have provided the means for sustainable solutions in water management, and their implementation in water infrastructures is collectively referred to as "smart water grids." Smart water grids depend upon cyber-physical system principles to effectively respond to issues regarding the scalability and reliability of dynamic and inaccessible environments. As such, unique smart water grid issues associated with front-end signal processing, communication, control, and data analysis must be jointly addressed, while sophisticated techniques for data analytics must be introduced into cyber-physical systems research. This book provides a thorough description of the best practices for designing and implementing cyber-physical systems that are tailored to different aspects of smart water grids. It is organized into three distinct, yet complementary areas, namely: the theory behind water-oriented cyber-physical systems with an emphasis on front-end sensing and processing, communication technologies, and learning techniques over water data; the applications and emerging topics of cyber-physical systems for water urban infrastructures, including real-life deployments, modern control tools, and economic aspects for smart water grids; and the applications and emerging topics across natural environments, emphasizing the evolution of fresh water resources. The structured discussion yields a rich, comprehensive body of knowledge on this emerging topic of research and engineering. As water issues intensify on a global scale, this book offers an algorithmic and practical toolkit for intermediate and advanced readers as well as professionals and researchers who are active in, or interested in, learning more about smart water grids. Key Features: Emphasizes the multidisciplinary nature of this emerging topic, covering both theoretical and practical aspects of this area while providing insights on existing deployments, which can serve as design examples for new applications. Explores how modern signal processing and machine learning techniques can contribute and enrich the potential of smart water grids, well beyond conventional closed-loop control techniques. Highlights complementary aspects that will help shape the future of smart water grids, such as consumption awareness, economic aspects, and control tools in industrial water treatment as well as the impact of climate change on fresh water resources. Enables the reader to better understand this emerging topic, investing in current state-of-the-art and future technological roadmaps for smart water grids.

Assessing the vulnerability of human populations to global environmental change, particularly climate change, is now the main imperative of research and international action. However, much of the research into vulnerability is not designed to feed directly into decision making and policy, creating a gap between the knowledge created by researchers and what is required by decision makers. This book seeks to rectify this problem and bridge the gap. It discusses vulnerability as the central theme and brings together many different applications from disaster studies, climate change impact studies and several other fields and provides the most comprehensive synthesis of definitions, theories, formalization and applications to date, illustrated with examples from different disciplines, regions and periods, and from local through to regional, national and international levels. Case study topics cover sea level rise, vulnerability to changes in ecosystem services, assessing the vulnerability of human health and 'double exposure' to climate change and trade liberalization amongst other issues. Research outcomes stress that science-policy dialogues must be transparent to be effective and concentrate on a mutual understanding of the concepts used. A key research finding is that the most useful information for decision makers is that which shows the separate causes and drivers of vulnerability, rather than presenting vulnerability in an aggregated form. The book concludes with a unifying framework for analysing integrated methodologies of vulnerability assessment and guiding how research and policy can be linked to reduce vulnerability.

This book has been replaced by Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling, Fifth Edition, ISBN 978-1-4625-5191-0.

The research described in this book shows that conversation analysis can effectively model dialogue. Specifically, this work shows that the multidisciplinary field of communicative ICALL may greatly benefit from including Conversation Analysis. As a consequence, this research makes several contributions to the related research disciplines, such as conversation analysis, second-language acquisition, computer-mediated communication, artificial intelligence, and dialogue systems. The book will be of value for researchers and engineers in the areas of computational linguistics, intelligent assistants, and conversational interfaces.

Growth models are among the core methods for analyzing how and when people change. Discussing both structural equation and multilevel modeling approaches, this book leads readers step by step through applying each model to longitudinal data to answer particular research questions. It demonstrates cutting-edge ways to describe linear and nonlinear change patterns, examine within-person and between-person differences in change, study change in latent variables, identify leading and lagging indicators of change, evaluate co-occurring patterns of change across multiple variables, and more. User-friendly features include real data examples, code (for Mplus or NLMIXED in SAS, and OpenMx or nlme in R), discussion of the output, and interpretation of each model's results. User-Friendly Features *Real, worked-through longitudinal data examples serving as illustrations in each chapter. *Script boxes that provide code for fitting the models to example data and facilitate application to the reader's own data. *"Important Considerations" sections offering caveats, warnings, and recommendations for the use of specific models. *Companion website supplying datasets and syntax for the book's examples, along with additional code in SAS/R for linear mixed-effects modeling.