Peter Lamont, "Extraordinary Beliefs: A Historical Approach to a Psychological Problem"
English | ISBN: 1107019338 | 2013 | 336 pages | PDF | 2 MB
Since the early nineteenth century, mesmerists, mediums and psychics have exhibited extraordinary phenomena. These have been demonstrated, reported and disputed by every modern generation. We continue to wonder why people believe in such things, while others wonder why they are dismissed so easily. Extraordinary Beliefs takes a historical approach to an ongoing psychological problem: why do people believe in extraordinary phenomena? It considers the phenomena that have been associated with mesmerism, spiritualism, psychical research and parapsychology. By drawing upon conjuring theory, frame analysis and discourse analysis, it examines how such phenomena have been made convincing in demonstration and report, and then disputed endlessly. It argues that we cannot understand extraordinary beliefs unless we properly consider the events in which people believe, and what people believe about them. And it shows how, in constructing and maintaining particular beliefs about particular phenomena, we have been in the business of constructing ourselves.

Maria Elena Buszek, "Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art"
English | ISBN: 0822347628 | 2011 | 320 pages | PDF | 15 MB
Contemporary artists such as Ghada Amer and Clare Twomey have gained international reputations for work that transforms ordinary craft media and processes into extraordinary conceptual art, from Amer's monumental stitched paintings to Twomey's large, ceramics-based installations. Despite the amount of attention that curators and gallery owners have paid to these and many other conceptual artists who incorporate craft into their work, few art critics or scholars have explored the historical or conceptual significance of craft in contemporary art. takes up that task. Reflecting on what craft has come to mean in recent decades, artists, critics, curators, and scholars develop theories of craft in relation to art, chronicle how fine-art institutions understand and exhibit craft media, and offer accounts of activist crafting, or craftivism. Some contributors describe generational and institutional changes under way, while others signal new directions for scholarship, considering craft in relation to queer theory, masculinity, and science. Encompassing quilts, ceramics, letterpress books, wallpaper, and textiles, and moving from well-known museums to home workshops and political protests, is an eclectic introduction to the "craft culture" referenced and celebrated by artists promoting new ways of thinking about the role of craft in contemporary art.

Extensions of First-Order Logic By Maria Manzano
2005 | 412 Pages | ISBN: 0521019028 | PDF + DJVU | 16 MB
Classical logic has proved inadequate in various areas of computer science, artificial intelligence, mathematics, philosopy and linguistics. This is an introduction to extensions of first-order logic, based on the principle that many-sorted logic (MSL) provides a unifying framework in which to place, for example, second-order logic, type theory, modal and dynamic logics and MSL itself. The aim is two fold: only one theorem-prover is needed; proofs of the metaproperties of the different existing calculi can be avoided by borrowing them from MSL. To make the book accessible to readers from different disciplines, whilst maintaining precision, the author has supplied detailed step-by-step proofs, avoiding difficult arguments, and continually motivating the material with examples. Consequently this can be used as a reference, for self-teaching or for first-year graduate courses.

Kathleen Mahon, Susanne Francisco, Stephen Kemmis, "Exploring Education and Professional Practice: Through the Lens of Practice Architectures"
English | 2016 | pages: 292 | ISBN: 9811022178 | PDF | 4,3 mb
This book was written to help people understand and transform education and professional practice. It presents and extends the theory of practice architectures, and offers a contemporary account of what practices are composed of and how practices shape and are shaped by the arrangements with which they are enmeshed in sites of practice. Through its empirically-based case chapters, the book demonstrates how the theory of practice architectures can be used as a theoretical, analytical, and transformational resource to generate insights that have important implications for practice, theory, policy, and research in education and professional practice. These insights relate to how practices are shaped by arrangements (and other practices) present in specific sites of practice, including early childhood education settings, schools, adult education, and workplaces. They also relate to how practices create distinctive intersubjective spaces, so that people encounter one another in particular ways (a) in particular semantic spaces, (b) that are realised in particular locations and durations in physical space-time, and © in particular social spaces. By applying such insights, readers can work towards changing practices by transforming the practice architectures that make them possible.

Exploring Britain's Hidden World: A Natural History of Seabed Habitats (Wild Nature Press) by Dr. Keith Hiscock
English | Mar 26, 2018 | ISBN: 0995567344 | 272 pages | PDF | 577 MB
Britain's shallow seas are a mysterious domain. They remain largely unseen and unexplored except by marine scientists and divers, who have been documenting their wondrous discoveries over many years. Now, a wealth of information about what lives on and in the seabed has been brought together in one sumptuously illustrated volume.

Explicit Learning in the L2 Classroom: A Student-Centered Approach By Ronald P. Leow
2015 | 300 Pages | ISBN: 0415707056 | PDF | 3 MB
Explicit Learning in the L2 Classroom offers a unique five-prong (theoretical, empirical, methodological, pedagogical, and model building) approach to the issue of explicit learning in the L2 classroom from a student-centered perspective. To achieve this five-prong objective, the book reports the theoretical underpinnings, empirical studies, and the research designs employed in current research to investigate the constructs of attention and awareness in SLA with the objectives to (1) propose a model of the L2 learning process in SLA that accounts for the cognitive processes employed during this process and (2) provide pedagogical and curricular implications for the L2 classroom. The book also provides a comprehensive treatise of research methodology that is aimed at not only underscoring the major features of conducting robust research designs with high levels of internal validity but also preparing teachers to become critical readers of published empirical research.

Explanation in the Social Sciences: A Theorical and Empirical Introduction By Leonardo Parri
2014 | 119 Pages | ISBN: 8849841256 | PDF | 41 MB
A natural or social phenomenon is explained when one presents its description (what?), finds the laws which account for its causes (why?) and provides the micro-level mechanisms underpinning its occurrence (how?). Usually, social sciences explain thanks to theoretical models which are later on logically discussed and empirically tested. Phenomena like strikes, charities, wars or inflation are accounted for through models which causally connect social variables. However, a complete explanation is reached only if the actions and interactions underpinning the social event are also pointed out. Thus, causal explanations based on variables must be supplemented with intentional explanations based on rational actions aiming at instrumental or value-goals. Eventually, the author illustrates the way history accounts for the events of the past, by means of analytical narrations, where unique occurrences are combined with causal and intentional social scientific explanations. The book, by means of clear arguments and simple reasoning, provides a basic introduction to the above mentioned philosophical and methodological topics. Many empirical examples, tables and figures make the assimilation of the subject-matter easier.

Exoplanets - 101 Spacescapes by Lonnie Pelletier
English | December 31, 2016 | ISBN: N/A | ASIN: B00RO2MYOC | 115 pages | EPUB | 1.94 Mb
Very few artists have applied their technique with a focus on those worlds yet unknown. Relating to the beautiful and sublime, with 101 paintings as both astronomy and art - along with factual text, the book subsections are: 1. Worlds Like Our Own, 2. Galaxies And Solitude, 3. Burning, Explosive Worlds, 4. Other Life, 5. Dwarf Cosmic Bodies, 6. Gases, Minerals and Nebulae and 7. Space Travel and City Forms. The painting style is Outer Space Expressionism which is incredibly futuristic and factual!

Sybil L. Hart, "Evolutionary Perspectives on Infancy "
English | ISBN: 3030759997 | 2022 | 394 pages | PDF | 7 MB
This unique volume is one of the first of its kind to examine infancy through an evolutionary lens, identifying infancy as a discrete stage during which particular types of adaptations arose as a consequence of certain environmental pressures. Infancy is a crucial time period in psychological development, and evolutionary psychologists are increasingly recognizing that natural selection has operated on all stages of development, not just adulthood. The volume addresses this crucial change in perspective by highlighting research across diverse disciplines including developmental psychology, evolutionary developmental psychology, anthropology, sociology, nutrition, and primatology. Chapters are grouped into four sections:

Everywhere and Nowhere: Contemporary Feminism in the United States By Jo Reger
2012 | 256 Pages | ISBN: 0199861994 | PDF | 2 MB
Challenging the idea that feminism in the United States is dead or in decline, Everywhere and Nowhere examines the contours of contemporary feminism. Through a nuanced investigation of three feminist communities, Jo Reger shows how contemporary feminists react to the local environment currently shaping their identities, tactics, discourse, and relations with other feminist generations. By moving the analysis to the community level, Reger illustrates how feminism is simultaneously absent from the national, popular culture--"nowhere"--and diffused into the foundations of American culture--"everywhere." Reger addresses some of the most debated topics concerning feminists in the twenty-first century. How do contemporary feminists think of the second-wave generation? Has contemporary feminism succeeded in addressing racism and classism, and created a more inclusive movement? How are contemporary feminists dealing with their legacy of gender, sex, and sexuality in a world of fluid identity and queer politics? The answers, she finds, vary by community.Everywhere and Nowhere offers a clear, empirical analysis of the state of contemporary feminism while also revealing the fascinating and increasingly complex development of community-level feminist groups in the United States.