This introductory chapter, encyclopaedic in nature, covers the main aspects of catastrophe (CAT) risk from a qualitative perspective, offering an overview of what will be explored in quantitative terms in the subsequent chapters. It starts with the definition of the fundamental terms and concepts, such as peril, hazard, risk, uncertainty, probability, and CAT model. It then describes the historical development of catastrophe risk science, which was often influenced by the societal impact of some infamous catastrophes. The main periods are as follows: from ancient myths to medieval texts, mathematization (eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) and computerization (twentieth century). Finally, it provides an exhaustive list of perils categorized by their physical origin, including geophysical, hydrological, meteorological, climatological, biological, extraterrestrial, technological, and socio-economic perils. In total, 42 perils are covered, with historical examples and consequences for people and structures discussed for each one of them.

This chapter provides an introduction to dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). It covers the incidence and prevalence of the most common forms of dementia, and explains the underlying causes in terms of different types of proteinopathy. Risk factors for development of dementia are reviewed, along with protective factors. The role of age is also considered as different subtypes of dementia peak during different age ranges. The contribution of genetics and epigenetics is reviewed, along with the importance of blood supply, sleep, and inflammation. The theory of cognitive and neuronal reserve is introduced as one of the factors which can predict which people are more or less likely to develop dementia and MCI. Connectomics and the arrangement of the brain into circuits is covered, along with developments in neuro-imaging.

Many states, almost invariably among those most ignored in international relations theory, exhibit some inconsistent and initially incoherent behaviour on the world stage. In particular, some of them have appeared to invite international scrutiny of domestic practices on which their governments rely to stabilize domestic affairs and to stay in power, but for which they could be punished, often by the very state or organization whose attention they request. The introduction provides an overview of the book’s argument and its implications for international relations theory and practice, especially when these states are miscoded as strong supporters of the norms they in fact violate as part of their domestic stabilization. When powerful actors make concessions in order to acquire a success case within their global missions of rights promotion, democratization or good governance reforms, they may also contribute to a slow erosion of those same norms.

This chapter sets the stage for the studies. It presents the outlines of the general framework, gives a brief account of the argument, introduces the gist of the empirical approach, and provides an overview of the volume.

This chapter provides an overview of the book and summary of keey issues and lessons.

This chapter introduces the context and rationale for the book, noting the increased media and policy focus over the last decade, as well as the broader sociopolitical context of the Covid-19 pandemic, post-Brexit, and post-Trump milieux. The case is made for revisiting and challenging the dominant national frame for understanding academic freedom, noting the internationalisation and massification of higher education globally. The outline of the book is situated as addressing this gap and examining three theoretical and interrelated challenges: i) the presumed dichotomy between freedom and diversity/inclusion, ii) the relative lack of attention to the role of academic freedom in knowledge production, and iii) the lack of recognition of the transnational nature of academic freedom.

Given the fact that in humans the communication of information about emotional states is ubiquitous, people might be forgiven for assuming that pragmatic accounts of linguistic communication would include quite well-developed views of not only the role of emotion in inference, but also how information about emotional states is communicated. However, for a range of reasons, those working in pragmatics have tended to persist with the view that the mental processes behind reason and passions exist in somehow separate domains. As a result, the emotional dimension to linguistic communication has tended to play very much a subordinate role to the rational or cognitive one. Indeed, in many accounts it plays no role at all. This chapter provides an overview of the issues discussed in the book. These all point towards our principal motivation: our belief that emotional or expressive meaning, along with other affect-related, ineffable dimensions of communication, play such a huge role in human interaction that any pragmatic theory worth its salt must account for them.

This chapter serves as a general introduction and overview. It defines the fork in the road and outlines Mozambiques historical context. It goes on to identifying eight key proximate causes and deep factors that determine the basic institutional weaknesses of the country, which are in focus throughout the remainder of the volume.

Chapter 1 introduces the importance of metaphor to an understanding of time and, in that context, introduces two gaps in our understanding of spatial metaphors for time that the current volume aims to fill.

Chapter 1 introduces what the fair process effect entails, and what it does not entail. Important caveats when studying the effect are noted. The chapter further explains that, given the current state of knowledge and the impressive body of research, the fair process effect now can be used effectively to start developing approaches and interventions to start countering important instances of societal discontent, in particular, distrust, polarization, and conspiracy thinking.

The framework of this book reflects the complexity of the situation of the species at different scales. To position the Little Owl in the cultural context we look at the history and cultural traditions connected to the species. We describe the taxonomy and subspecies to settle some taxonomic discussions of the species based upon major genetic, morphological and biogeographical findings. The distribution of the different subspecies and recent population estimates for the Western Palearctic are given to illustrate the geographic diversity. The habitat is described and its relationships with the species. Food as principle biotic factor delivers the crucial energy input for the birds. Abiotic factors such as breeding cavities and perches show their importance for breeding and foraging efficiency to minimize the energetic cost. Next we focus on the breeding season, discussing clutch size, hatching and fledging success in relation to the age of the birds. We then describe behavior mainly based upon two decades of webcam observations. Next we zoom in on limiting factors that influence populations in a given geographic environment, e.g., immigration, re-introduction or supplementation, and mechanisms of interaction between local populations, such as migration, meta-populations and sinks/sources. After describing the main causes for declines in the species, we summarize knowledge into a conservation and management strategy. We conclude this chapter with an overview of the key points raised, with an overview of the most important open questions and suggestions for future studies.

This chapter provides a concise but comprehensive overview of body focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs), focusing on the two disorders recognized in the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual (DSM 5), hairpulling disorder (HPD), also known as trichotillomania, and skin picking disorder (SPD), also known as excoriation disorder. It addresses diagnostic issues, causation, demographics, course of the disorders, comorbidity, prevalence, emotional and interpersonal sequelae, and phenomenology. Furthermore, common misconceptions about BFRBs are addressed, providing the reader with a solid information base upon which to build effective treatment.

The aim of this book is to provide a linguistic description of borrowings in informal American English and to serve as a practical resource documenting this type of language. These foreign-origin expressions, comprising both slang and colloquialism, constitute a vibrant sociolinguistic phenomenon resulting from language contact, and function as an important yet rarely discussed lexical contribution to American English. Their significance stems from the sociolinguistic significance of informal language in the United States, the strong presence of borrowings in American speech reflecting the immigrant nature of the country and the growing role of ethnic minorities, as well as the increasingly common use of this type of lexicon among larger segments of American society.

This chapter provides a unified discussion of the framework for model validation. It describes how model validation developed over time across various disciplines. It then describes the various approaches that are applied for validation of risk management models at financial institutions.

Overview of the book including reasons for writing it, what it addresses, and summary of content in different chapters.

Chapter 1 discusses the problem of finding research projects, introduces the breadth of tools available for solving that problem, and offers a roadmap for the rest of the book.

This chapter provides an overview of electromigration in metals, starting from the early studies on bulk metals to the current studies on copper interconnects. Asmicroelectronics technology advances, electromigration becomes an important reliability problem for on-chip interconnects, evolving from the microscale to the nanoscale in copper lines. Key concepts are introduced, including the electron wind force, the Blech short-length effects, and copper damascene interconnects.

This opening chapter introduces the concept of a scheme of arrangement, discusses the historical development of the mechanism, and looks at a high level at the ways in which schemes are used in modern corporate law, by way of introduction to the detailed discussion in the remainder of the book.