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      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        April 2023

        Speculation by Commodity Index Funds

        The Impact on Food and Energy Prices

        by Scott H. Irwin, Dwight R. Sanders

        Commodity futures prices exploded in 2007-08 and concerns about a new type of participant in commodity futures markets began to emerge. Market participants, regulators, and civic organizations began raising concerns that inflows from new "commodity index" investments were driving the increases in commodity prices instead of economic fundamentals. The main argument was that unprecedented buying pressure from these speculative long-only futures traders created massive bubbles that resulted in prices substantially exceeding fundamental value. At the time, it was not uncommon to link concerns about speculation and high prices to world hunger, food crises, and civil unrest. Naturally, this outcry resulted in numerous regulatory proposals to restrict speculation in commodity futures markets through transaction taxes, speculative position limits, and even the bizarre idea of a "virtual reserve" whereby a public agency would take futures positions opposite speculators. At the core, these assertions raised major economic questions about the efficiency of price discovery in commodity futures markets. Moreover, these so-called remedies did not come without a potential cost. Burdensome regulations would increase compliance and risk sharing costs across the global food system-lowering prices for producers and increasing costs to consumers. To guide this debate, a rigorous approach was needed to understand the dynamics between prices and commodity index activity. This book documents a curated selection of papers on the impact of index investment on commodity futures prices. The chronology of the papers roughly follows the timeline of our involvement in the world-wide debate about commodity speculation as it evolved after 2007. The 10 papers follow the evolving speculation debate with new author forwards highlighting the contribution and impact. Policy-makers, researchers, and market participants will find this not only as useful documentation of the debate; but, also a natural starting point when high commodity prices inevitably create the next speculation backlash.

      • Trusted Partner
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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        June 2021

        Justice and mercy

        Moral theology and the exercise of law in twelfth-century England

        by Philippa Byrne

        This book examines one of the most fundamental issues in twelfth-century English politics: justice. It demonstrates that during the foundational period for the common law, the question of judgement and judicial ethics was a topic of heated debate - a common problem with multiple different answers. How to be a judge, and how to judge well, was a concern shared by humble and high, keeping both kings and parish priests awake at night. Using theological texts, sermons, legal treatises and letter collections, the book explores how moralists attempted to provide guidance for uncertain judges. It argues that mercy was always the most difficult challenge for a judge, fitting uncomfortably within the law and of disputed value. Shining a new light on English legal history, Justice and mercy reveals the moral dilemmas created by the establishment of the common law.

      • Trusted Partner
        February 2018

        Talking about relativity to children

        by Li Miao

        This is a popular book on relativity written by physicist Li Miao for children. Einstein's revolution in science and technology has brought great changes to our world in the 20th century. It has changed our cognition of time, space, matter and motion. A series of fantastic predictions have come true one by one, including gravitational waves detected in recent years. In this book, starting from this world-famous event, uncle Miao tells his children about the incomprehensible concepts of gravity, space-time, speed of light, etc. There are a lot of wonderful illustrations in the book, together with a variety of interesting thought experiments, to help children understand this field which has a great impact on modern physics.

      • Trusted Partner
        November 2023

        One Welfare Animal Health and Welfare, Food Security and Sustainability

        by Rebeca García Pinillos, Stella Maris Huertas Canén

        This thought-provoking book explores the link between animals, people and their social and physical environments in relation to livestock farming, food safety, food security and sustainability. Providing an overview of livestock farming and animal related food production systems in a one welfare context, One Welfare: Animal Health and Welfare, Food Security and Sustainability begins by considering the interconnections of animals, humans and their environment. It then expands into the food production system, and considers the integration of positive welfare, stress, use of welfare indicators and the economic perspective. Written by a team of international experts, it connects theory with best practice examples and case studies from both organizations and individuals that have successfully implemented a one welfare approach. Essential reading for academics and practitioners who work within farming, food systems and international development, this ground-breaking text is also an important read for veterinary and animal welfare professionals.

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        Science & Mathematics
        March 2022

        Encyclopedia of Scale Insect Pests

        by Takumasa Kondo, Gillian Watson

        Scale insects feed on plant juices and can easily be transported to new countries on live plants. They sometimes become invasive pests, costing billions of dollars in damage to crops worldwide annually, and farmers try to control them with toxic pesticides, risking environmental damage. Fortunately, scale insects are highly susceptible to control by natural enemies so biological control is possible. They have unique genetic systems, unusual metamorphosis, a broad spectrum of essential symbionts, and some are sources of commercial products like red dyes, shellac and wax. There is, therefore, wide interest in these unusual, destructive, beneficial, and abundant insects. The Encyclopedia of Scale Insect Pests is the most comprehensive work on worldwide scale insect pests, providing detailed coverage of the most important species (230 species in 26 families, 36% of the species known). Advice is provided on collection, preservation, slide-mounting, vouchering, and labelling of specimens, fully illustrated with colour photographs, diagrams and drawings. Pest species are presented in two informal groups of families, the 'primitive' Archaeococcids followed by the more 'advanced' Neococcids, covered in phylogenetic order. Each family is illustrated and diagnosed based on features of live and slide-mounted specimens, with information on numbers of genera and species, main hosts, distribution, and biology. For the important pest species, coverage includes information on the morphology of live and slide-mounted specimens, common names, principal synonyms, geographical distribution, plant hosts, plant damage and economic impact, reproductive biology, dispersal, and management strategies including biological, cultural and chemical control, sterile insect techniques, regulatory control, early warning systems and field monitoring. An additional complete list of scale insect pests worldwide is provided, comprising 642 species in 28 scale insect families (about 8% of the 8396 species of living scales known), with information on plant hosts, geographical distribution and validation sources. Beneficial uses of scale insects as sources of red dyes, natural resins and waxes, as agents for invasive weed control. The importance of their honeydew to bees for making honey, and as a food source to other animals, are included. Academic researchers, students, entomologists, pest management officials in agribusiness or government including plant quarantine identifiers, extensionists, farmers, field scientists and ecologists will all benefit from this book.

      • Trusted Partner
        January 1999

        Running Today's Factory

        A Proven Strategy for Lean Manufacturing (Print-on-Demand)

        by Standard, Charles; Davis, Dale

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        June 2021

        Critical security in the Asia-Pacific

        by Anthony Burke, Matt McDonald

        In the wake of 9/11, the Asian crisis and the 2004 tsunami, traditional analytical frameworks are increasingly unable to explain how individuals and communities are rendered insecure, or advance individual, global or environmental security. In the Asia-Pacific, the accepted wisdom of realism has meant that analyses rarely move beyond the statist, militarist and exclusionary assumptions that underpin traditional realpolitik. This innovative new book challenges these limitations and addresses the missing problems, people and vulnerabilities of the Asia-Pacific region. It also turns a critical eye on traditional interstate strategic dynamics. Critical security in the Asia-Pacific applies both a critical theoretical approach that interrogates the deeper assumptions underpinning security discourses, and a human-centred policy approach that focuses on the security, welfare and emancipation of individuals and communities. Leading Asia-Pacific researchers combine to apply these frameworks to the most pressing issues in the region, from the Korean peninsula to environmental change, Indonesian conflict, the 'war on terror' and the plight of refugees. The result is a sophisticated and accessible account of often-neglected realities of marginalization in the region, and a compelling argument for the empowerment and security of the most vulnerable.

      • Trusted Partner
        2023

        High Blood Pressure

        Standardised risk assessment

        by Pharm. D. Ina Richling and Dr. Constanze Schäfer MHA

        The „Standardised risk assessment of high blood pressure“ enables every pharmacy to easily expand its range of services. This tool provides the pharmacy staff with the basis for providing such a service. It contains clear information on the development of hypertension and guideline-based drug therapy. Step by step, the user is guided through practical blood pressure measurement according to standard operating procedures through to individual advice and subsequent billing. This tool contains the following supplementary information: - Legal requirements for handling medical devices and/or blood pressure monitors - Frequently asked questions and case examples - What one should know about quality management - Work aids and forms as copy templates

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        2022

        Ukraine from above (in English)

        by Bogdan Logvynenko (idea), Volodymyr Gavrysh (design)

        Over several years of expeditions, the Ukraїner team took thousands of photos of Ukraine from a drone. Many different screens have already seen our footage: from Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) to city buses in Warsaw. With the help of these images, we aim to share the beauty of Ukraine with the world. This photo book shows Ukraine from a bird's eye view. Fields, forests, coasts, snow-capped mountains, patterns of city streets – all these shots show amazing diversity and cause aesthetic awe. Despite the fact that enemy shells are still flying in the Ukrainian sky, we are already trying to make the whole world fall in love with it. The book is published only in English and is called “Ukraine from above”.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        January 2019

        Taste of theory

        by Zhao Qiang

        The author is Zhao Qiang, deputy editor-in-chief of Global Times. The manuscript features more than 30 political essays created by the author during his studies at the Party School of the Communist Party of China. For example, "Confidence in the system, how do you feel confident", "I really admire you, respect for truth from facts", etc .; "Theoretical study, not too utilitarian", "Popular, and then popular", etc., in-depth thinking on how to use the weapon of theory; The author changed the face of the theoretical article that was boring, hard and cold, and refused to be thousands of miles away. The reasoning was based on trivial matters, making the article have a strong sense of responsibility, the weight of the theory and the ease of the form.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        August 2023

        Critical theory and legal autopoiesis

        The case for societal constitutionalism

        by Gunther Teubner, Diana Göbel

        This volume collects and revises the key essays of Gunther Teubner, one of the world's leading sociologists of law. Written over the past twenty years, these essays examine the 'dark side' of functional differentiation and the prospects of societal constitutionalism as a possible remedy. Teubner's claim is that critical accounts of law and society require reformulation in the light of the sophisticated diagnoses of late modernity in the writings of Niklas Luhmann, Jacques Derrida and select examples of modernist literature. Autopoiesis, deconstruction and other post-foundational epistemological and political realities compel us to confront the fact that fundamental democratic concepts such as law and justice can no longer be based on theories of stringent argumentation or analytical philosophy. We must now approach law in terms of contingency and self-subversion rather than in terms of logical consistency and rational coherence.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        May 2023

        The problem of literary value

        by Robert J. Meyer-Lee

      • Trusted Partner
        Sport & leisure industries
        March 2003

        Service Quality in Leisure and Tourism

        by Christine Williams, John Buswell

        This book aims to develop an awareness of the underpinning theories of quality as applicable to leisure and tourism,including its characteristics and typology. Suitable for students and researchers, it shows how to evaluate critically the numerous quality management systems and techniques available within the context of the leisure and tourism business environment.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 2018

        Security sector reform in transforming societies

        Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro

        by Timothy Edmunds

        This book is about the relationship between societies and their security forces at times of great political and societal change. It uses the experiences of Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro to examine the control, management and reform of armed forces, police and intelligence agencies in the aftermath of conflict and authoritarianism. The book assesses the theory and practice of security sector reform programmes in the context of Europe and the Western Balkans, the relationship between security sector reform and normative international policy more generally, and the broader dynamics of post-conflict and post-authoritarian transformation. In so doing it addresses two underlying questions. First, how and in what ways does reform in the security sector interrelate with processes of domestic political and societal transformation, particularly democratisation. Second, how and in what ways do these processes relate and respond to internationally-driven efforts to promote a particular type of security sector reform as a component of wider peacebuilding and democracy promotion strategies.

      • Trusted Partner
        October 2024

        Biodiversity and Conservation Along an East African Railway

        A Survey of the Dar es Salaam-Makutupora Standard Gauge Railway, Tanzania

        by Catherine Aloyce Masao, Joel Nobert, Flora John Magige, Edmond Alavaisha, S. Zainabu Bungwa, Philbert Anitha Byabato, Deusdedith Fidelis, Elikana John, Jasson John, Julius Mohamed Kibaja, Heriel Moshy, Athumani Fatina Mturi, R. Juma Mwangi, Henry Ndangalasi, Wilrik Ngalasoni, Alberto Bruno Nyundo, Chacha Werema, Felix A. Shayo, N A Mbwambo

        It is well known that infrastructure development projects can boost the economy and reduce the cost of trade in both developing and developed economies, however, infrastructure projects can also cause biodiversity loss. This book is the result of an important biodiversity survey conducted along an East African railway in Tanzania. The building of the railway, still under construction, has already led to habitat loss, habitat degradation and landscape change which may have affected biodiversity. The book includes recommendations to mitigate the effect of railway construction by protecting biodiversity and ecosystem services which could have major implications across Africa and other regions. The area covered by the survey focuses on the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) running through the Pugu and Ruvu South Forest Reserves towards Maktupora-Dodoma, plus data on large mammals through to Isaka-Shinyanga. The Pugu forests boast high biodiversity of both flora and fauna, some of which are endemic to the area. There are both plant and animal species that are of major conservation concern so there is urgent need to consolidate information to help formulate suitable conservation measures. The data collected covers plants, invertebrates, amphibians, birds, and mammals for terrestrial and aquatic environments along the SGR. This work is timely as there are many more ongoing SGR construction projects in Tanzania and across Africa, as such construction activities inevitably involve some habitat modification and destruction that may have a negative impact on biodiversity. National and international scientists, decision and policy makers, as well as ecologists and conservation managers involved in large infrastructure projects will find this book invaluable. The book provides baseline information and can be used as a case study for other infrastructure development projects around the world.

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