Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Publications
  3. Cambridge Elements
  4. Published Elements

Refine listing

Refine listing

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

2158 results in Cambridge Elements

Page 90 of 108

Morality and Practical Reasons

Morality and Practical Reasons
  • Douglas W. Portmore
  • Published online:
    12 February 2021
    Print publication:
    04 March 2021
  • As Socrates famously noted, there is no more important question than how we ought to live. The answer to this question depends on how the reasons that we have for living in various different ways combine and compete. To illustrate, suppose that I've just received a substantial raise. What should I do with the extra money? I have most moral reason to donate it to effective charities but most self-interested reason to spend it on luxuries for myself. So, whether I should live my life as I have most moral reason to live it or as I have most self-interested reason to live it depends on how these and other sorts of reasons combine and compete to determine what I have most reason to do, all things considered. This Element seeks to figure out how different sorts of reasons combine and compete to determine how we ought to live.
Public Service Motivation and Public Opinion

Public Service Motivation and Public Opinion
  • Examining Antecedents and Attitudes
  • Jaclyn S. Piatak, Stephen B. Holt
  • Published online:
    12 February 2021
    Print publication:
    11 March 2021
  • Practitioners, policymakers, and scholars across fields and disciplines seek to understand factors that shape public opinion and public service values, especially in today's polarized context. Yet we know little about how the two relate. Research on public service motivation (PSM), a drive to help others grounded in public institutions, has grown to examine career decisions and behaviors within and outside the workplace, but does the influence of PSM extend to individual values? Using data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study surrounding the 2016 US presidential election, we first examine the antecedents of PSM; how do individual characteristics as well as socioeconomic and sociocultural factors influence levels of PSM? Second, we describe the role PSM plays in shaping public opinion on policy preferences, budget priorities, and political behaviors. Findings have implications for both understanding who has PSM as well as how PSM shapes public preferences, attitudes, and behaviors.
Foundations of Quantum Mechanics

Foundations of Quantum Mechanics
  • Emily Adlam
  • Published online:
    11 February 2021
    Print publication:
    18 February 2021
  • Quantum mechanics is an extraordinarily successful scientific theory. But more than 100 years after it was first introduced, the interpretation of the theory remains controversial. This Element introduces some of the most puzzling questions at the foundations of quantum mechanics and provides an up-to-date and forward-looking survey of the most prominent ways in which physicists and philosophers of physics have attempted to resolve them. Topics covered include nonlocality, contextuality, the reality of the wavefunction and the measurement problem. The discussion is supplemented with descriptions of some of the most important mathematical results from recent work in quantum foundations, including Bell's theorem, the Kochen-Specker theorem and the PBR theorem.
Disarticulation and Preservation of Fossil Echinoderms: Recognition of Ecological-Time Information in the Echinoderm Fossil Record

Disarticulation and Preservation of Fossil Echinoderms: Recognition of Ecological-Time Information in the Echinoderm Fossil Record
  • William I. Ausich
  • Published online:
    09 February 2021
    Print publication:
    11 February 2021
  • The history of life on earth is largely reconstructed from time-averaged accumulations of fossils. A glimpse at ecologic-time attributes and processes is relatively rare. However, the time-sensitive and predictability of echinoderm disarticulation makes them model organisms to determine post-mortem transportation and allows recognition of ecological-time data within paleocommunity accumulations. Unlike many other fossil groups, this has allowed research on many aspects of echinoderms and their paleocommunities, such as the distribution of soft tissues, assessment of the amount of fossil transportation prior to burial, determination of intraspecific variation, paleocommunity composition, estimation of relative abundance of taxa in paleocommunities, determination of attributes of niche differentiation, etc. Crinoids and echinoids have received the most amount of taphonomic research, and the patterns present in these two groups can be used to develop a more thorough understanding of all echinoderm clades.
How Important are Superior Numbers?

How Important are Superior Numbers?
  • A Reappraisal of Lanchester's Square Law
  • David L. I. Kirkpatrick
  • Published online:
    06 February 2021
    Print publication:
    04 March 2021
  • A century ago Frederick Lanchester formulated a mathematical model of combat which suggested that the combat power of a military force was proportional to the product of the individual effectiveness of the units in the force and the square of the number of units deployed. This model reinforced a long-established faith in the importance of superior numbers. However, successive historical studies failed to identify any clear relationship between the numbers and losses in opposing forces. This Element analyses American Civil War battles, and shows that the ratio of losses incurred was inversely proportional to the ratio of numbers effectively engaged. This result demonstrates that the numbers of fighting units in a military force are less important than the ability of those units to get into action and inflict losses on the enemy. This result demonstrates the limitations of the Square Law, and should prevent it from being applied indiscriminately.
Baroque Music in Post-War Cinema

Baroque Music in Post-War Cinema
  • Performance Practice and Musical Style
  • Donald Greig
  • Published online:
    04 February 2021
    Print publication:
    04 March 2021
  • Studies of pre-existing music in narrative cinema often focus on a single film, composer or director. The approach here adopts a wider perspective, placing a specific musical repertoire - baroque music - in the context of its reception to explore its mobilisation in post-war cinema. It shows how various revivals have shaped musical fashion, and how cinema has drawn on resultant popularity and in turn contributed to it. Close analyses of various films raise issues of baroque musical style and form to question why eighteenth-century music remains an exception to dominant film-music discourses. Account is taken of changing modern performance practice and its manifestation in cinema, particularly in the biopic. This question of the reimagining of baroque repertoire leads to consideration of pastiches and parodies to which cinema has been particularly drawn, and subsequently to the role that neobaroque music has played in more recent films.
Women across Cultures

Women across Cultures
  • Common Issues, Varied Experiences
  • Hilary M. Lips
  • Published online:
    02 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 February 2021
  • Psychology's study of women has revealed some themes that span cultures and countries, yet women's lived experiences in different cultures can be dramatically different. This Element explores, from a psychological perspective, women's issues in cultural contexts. Beginning with the question of public and private identity (i.e., who 'counts' as a woman), it goes on to examine embodiment, sexuality, reproduction, family roles, economic participation and power, violence, leadership, and feminist activism. It concludes with a brief discussion of women's complicated relationship to culture: as both keepers and sometimes prisoners of cultural traditions - particularly in the context of migration to different cultures. Running through the Element are two general themes: the pervasiveness of a gender hierarchy that often privileges men over women, and the ways in which women's lived experience varies within cultures according to the intersection of gender with other categories that affect expectations, norms, power and privilege.
Phantom Pains and Prosthetic Narratives

Phantom Pains and Prosthetic Narratives
  • From George Dedlow to Dante
  • Alastair Minnis
  • Published online:
    02 February 2021
    Print publication:
    18 February 2021
  • 'Phantom limb pain' designates the sensations which seem to emanate from limbs that in reality are missing. The phrase was coined by the American Civil War surgeon, Weir Mitchell, in reference to his fictional amputee, George Dedlow. Contemporary neuroscience holds that the brain encloses a schema which covers the whole body, and asserts its unity even if certain parts are missing. Reading backwards from Dedlow's sufferings, Alastair Minnis traces the medieval precedents and parallels, focusing on Augustine and Dante, who subscribed to the notion of a 'body in the soul'. Dante's souls in purgatory self-prosthesize with aerial phantoms as they long for the full embodiment which only the resurrection can bring. Is a complete body necessary for personhood? And how can the gamut of human feelings be run if parts or the entirety of one's body does not exist? Combining medieval studies and contemporary neuroscience, this absorbing study explores the fascinating and surprising history of phantom pain.
Reconstructing Precambrian pCO2 and pO2 Using Paleosols

Reconstructing Precambrian pCO2 and pO2 Using Paleosols
  • Nathan D. Sheldon, Ria L. Mitchell, Rebecca M. Dzombak
  • Published online:
    02 February 2021
    Print publication:
    04 March 2021
  • Paleosols formed in direct contact with the Earth's atmosphere, so they can record the composition of the atmosphere through weathering processes and products. Herein we critically review a variety of different approaches for reconstructing atmospheric O2 and CO2 over the past three billion years. Paleosols indicate relatively low CO2 over that time, requiring additional greenhouse forcing to overcome the 'faint young Sun' paradox in the Archean and Mesoproterozoic, as well as low O2 levels until the Neoproterozoic. Emerging techniques will revise the history of Earth's atmosphere further and may provide a window into atmospheric evolution on other planets.
Functional Micromorphology of the Echinoderm Skeleton

Functional Micromorphology of the Echinoderm Skeleton
  • Przemyslaw Gorzelak
  • Published online:
    02 February 2021
    Print publication:
    11 February 2021
  • Echinoderms elaborate a calcite skeleton composed of numerous plates with a distinct microstructure (stereom) that can be modelled into different shapes thanks to the use of a transient amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) precursor phase and the incorporation of an intraorganic matrix during biomineralization. A variety of different types of stereom microarchitecture have been distinguished, each of them optimized for a specific function. For instance, a regular, galleried stereom typically houses collagenous ligaments, whereas an irregular, fine labyrinthic stereom commonly bears muscles. Epithelial tissues, in turn, are usually associated with coarse and dense stereom microfabrics. Stereom can be preserved in fossil echinoderms and a wide array of investigating methods are available. As many case studies have shown, a great deal of important paleobiological and paleoecological information can be decoded by studying the stereom microstructure of extinct echinoderms.
Robert Lepage's Intercultural Encounters

Robert Lepage's Intercultural Encounters
  • Christie Carson
  • Published online:
    02 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 February 2021
  • This study returns to the origins of Robert Lepage's directorial work and his first cross-cultural interaction with a Shakespearean text to provide some background for his later work. This early work is situated within the political and social context of Quebec and Canada in the 1980s. Constitutional wrangling and government policies of bilingualism, biculturalism and multiculturalism all had a profound impact on this director, helping to forge his priorities and working methods. In 2018 two of Lepage's productions were cancelled due to concerns about cultural appropriation. Lepage responded by stating his view that the artist is as above the concerns of political correctness. While this approach was deemed acceptable in the 1980s, this study looks at the dangers posed by approaching cross-cultural creation from this standpoint in the 21st century.
Rational Choice Using Imprecise Probabilities and Utilities

Rational Choice Using Imprecise Probabilities and Utilities
  • Paul Weirich
  • Published online:
    02 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 February 2021
  • An agent often does not have precise probabilities or utilities to guide resolution of a decision problem. I advance a principle of rationality for making decisions in such cases. To begin, I represent the doxastic and conative state of an agent with a set of pairs of a probability assignment and a utility assignment. Then I support a decision principle that allows any act that maximizes expected utility according to some pair of assignments in the set. Assuming that computation of an option's expected utility uses comprehensive possible outcomes that include the option's risk, no consideration supports a stricter requirement.
The Iron Speciation Paleoredox Proxy

The Iron Speciation Paleoredox Proxy
  • Simon W. Poulton
  • Published online:
    02 February 2021
    Print publication:
    04 March 2021
  • In one form or another, iron speciation has had a long history as a paleoredox proxy. The technique has been refined considerably over the years, and the most recent scheme is unique in its potential to distinguish three major oceanic redox states - oxygenated, ferruginous and euxinic. This Element covers the theory behind the proxy, methods involved in applying the technique, and potential complications in interpreting Fe speciation data. A series of case studies are also provided, which highlight how more advanced consideration of the data, often in concert with other techniques, can provide unprecedented insight into the redox state of ancient oceans.
Big Data

Big Data
  • Wolfgang Pietsch
  • Published online:
    29 January 2021
    Print publication:
    18 February 2021
  • Big Data and methods for analyzing large data sets such as machine learning have in recent times deeply transformed scientific practice in many fields. However, an epistemological study of these novel tools is still largely lacking. After a conceptual analysis of the notion of data and a brief introduction into the methodological dichotomy between inductivism and hypothetico-deductivism, several controversial theses regarding big data approaches are discussed. These include, whether correlation replaces causation, whether the end of theory is in sight and whether big data approaches constitute entirely novel scientific methodology. In this Element, I defend an inductivist view of big data research and argue that the type of induction employed by the most successful big data algorithms is variational induction in the tradition of Mill's methods. Based on this insight, the before-mentioned epistemological issues can be systematically addressed.
Organizational Learning from Performance Feedback: A Behavioral Perspective on Multiple Goals

Organizational Learning from Performance Feedback: A Behavioral Perspective on Multiple Goals
  • A Multiple Goals Perspective
  • Pino G. Audia, Henrich R. Greve
  • Published online:
    28 January 2021
    Print publication:
    18 February 2021
  • This Element synthesizes the current state of research on organizational learning from performance feedback and develops a new perspective that deals with the influence of multiple goals. In keeping with the centrality of motives in Cyert & March's influential model, this new perspective rests on a foundation of individual level behaviors that are responsive to mechanisms at the organizational and environmental level of analysis. A key aim is to lay out an agenda for a new wave of empirical research on the interconnections of decision-makers, organizations, and the environment that influence organizational responses to performance.
The Chromium Isotope System as a Tracer of Ocean and Atmosphere Redox

The Chromium Isotope System as a Tracer of Ocean and Atmosphere Redox
  • Kohen W. Bauer, Noah J. Planavsky, Christopher T. Reinhard, Devon B. Cole
  • Published online:
    26 January 2021
    Print publication:
    25 February 2021
  • The stable chromium (Cr) isotope system has emerged over the past decade as a new tool to track changes in the amount of oxygen in earth's ocean-atmosphere system. Much of the initial foundation for using Cr isotopes (δ53Cr) as a paleoredox proxy has required recent revision. However, the basic idea behind using Cr isotopes as redox tracers is straightforward—the largest isotope fractionations are redox-dependent and occur during partial reduction of Cr(VI). As such, Cr isotopic signatures can provide novel insights into Cr redox cycling in both marine and terrestrial settings. Critically, the Cr isotope system—unlike many other trace metal proxies—can respond to short-term redox perturbations (e.g., on timescales characteristic of Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles). The Cr isotope system can also be used to probe the earth's long-term atmospheric oxygenation, pointing towards low but likely dynamic oxygen levels for the majority of Earth's history.
The Changing Dynamic of Government–Nonprofit Relationships

The Changing Dynamic of Government–Nonprofit Relationships
  • Advancing the Field(s)
  • Kirsten A. Grønbjerg, Steven Rathgeb Smith
  • Published online:
    23 January 2021
    Print publication:
    11 February 2021
  • We advance nonprofit scholarship by using the conceptual framework of policy fields to examine differences across nonprofit fields of activity. We focus on the structure of relationships among four sectors (government, nonprofit, market, informal) and how relationships differ across policy fields (here health, human services, education, arts and culture, and religion). The fields differ notably in the economic share that each sector holds and the functional division of labor among the sectors. Systemic differences also exist in how the nonprofit sector interacts with the government, market, and informal sectors. The policy fields themselves operate within national contexts of distinctive economic and political configurations. The framework explores how government-nonprofit relationships differ across policy fields, the factors responsible for this variation, and offers predictive capacity to generate hypotheses and research designs for additional research. We provide insights on how nonprofit organizations differ in key sub-fields with direct relevance for policy and practice.
Information Metamaterials

Information Metamaterials
  • Tie Jun Cui, Shuo Liu
  • Published online:
    23 January 2021
    Print publication:
    18 February 2021
  • Metamaterials have attracted enormous interests from both physics and engineering communities in the past 20 years, owing to their powerful ability in manipulating electromagnetic waves. However, the functionalities of traditional metamaterials are fixed at the time of fabrication. To control the EM waves dynamically, active components are introduced to the meta-atoms, yielding active metamaterials. Recently, a special kind of active metamaterials, digital coding and programmable metamaterials, are proposed, which can achieve dynamically controllable functionalities using field programmable gate array (FPGA). Most importantly, the digital coding representations of metamaterials set up a bridge between the digital world and physical world, and allow metamaterials to process digital information directly, leading to information metamaterials. In this Element, we review the evolution of information metamaterials, mainly focusing on their basic concepts, design principles, fabrication techniques, experimental measurement and potential applications. Future developments of information metamaterials are also envisioned.
Ecosemiotic Landscape

Ecosemiotic Landscape
  • A Novel Perspective for the Toolbox of Environmental Humanities
  • Almo Farina
  • Published online:
    22 January 2021
    Print publication:
    18 February 2021
  • The distinction between humans and the natural world is an artefact and more a matter of linguistic communication than a conceptual separation. This Element proposes ecosemiotics as an epistemological tool to better understand the relationship between human and natural processes. Ecosemiotics with its affinity to the humanities, is presented here as the best disciplinary approach for interpreting complex environmental conditions for a broad audience, across a multitude of temporal and spatial scales. It is proposed as an intellectual bridge between divergent sciences to incorporate within a unique framework different paradigms. The ecosemiotic paradigm helps to explain how organisms interact with their external environments using mechanisms common to all living beings that capture external information and matter for internal usage. This paradigm can be applied in all the circumstances where a living being (man, animal, plant, fungi, etc.) performs processes to stay alive.
The Virus Paradigm

The Virus Paradigm
  • A Planetary Ecology of the Mind
  • Roberto Marchesini
  • Translated by Sarah De Sanctis
  • Published online:
    21 January 2021
    Print publication:
    18 February 2021
  • In recent years, the word 'virus' has lost its biological perimeter of reference to acquire a much broader – could say 'paradigmatic' – meaning. The term 'virus' can be seen as a key word or an explanatory model also for processes that go beyond the infectious sphere. Every event appears to have a viral character: from the way information is transmitted to the processes of cultural globalization, from the impact of human beings on the planet to the subversion of ecosystems, from pandemic risks to the demographic increase on the planet. This seems to be indeed the Age of the Virus. Its model can be applied to most of the phenomena that characterize the twenty-first. Its profile – its looming and invisible nature, its ability to use other people's resources to spread and to transform into a dangerous doppelganger – is perfect to represent the fears of the contemporary age.

Page 90 of 108