Broadly speaking, The Oxford Handbook of Civil Society views the topic of civil society through three prisms: as a part of society (voluntary associations), as a kind of society (marked out by certain social norms), and as a space for citizen action and engagement (the public square or sphere).

We are living in a time in which innovation has become as frequent and unavoidable as never before. Innovative societies and economies, however, do not require narrow specializations of professions. What innovation is in urgent need of is cooperation with people of other professions. Thus it is imperative to apply systems thinking when specializations are to be combined. People have to be enabled and encouraged to work together creatively. In this book the Slovenian school of systems thinking around Matjaž Mulej demonstrates the importance of “requisite holism” to thinking, decision-making, and action. “Requisite holism” provides the seeds of innovation. Special focus is on those regions of the world that need innovation the most: regions who struggle to catch-up.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Conference on Hybrid Learning, ICHL 2008, held in Hong Kong, China, in August 2008. The 38 revised full papers presented together with 3 keynote lectures were carefully reviewed and selected from 142 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on hybrid education, model and pedagogies for hybrid learning, trends, pervasive learning, mobile and ubiquitous learning, hybrid learning experiences, hybrid learning systems, technologies, as well as contextual attitude and cultural effects.

This book contributes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Web-Based Learning, ICWL 2007, held in Edinburgh, UK, in August 2007. The 55 revised full papers presented together with 1 keynote talk were carefully reviewed and selected from about 180 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on personalized e-learning, learning resource organization and management, framework and standards for e-learning, test authoring, question generation and assessment, language learning, science education, visualization technologies for content delivery and learning behavior, practice and experience sharing, security, privacy and mobile e-learning, as well as blended learning.

A bestselling textbook in its first three editions, Continuum Mechanics for Engineers, Fourth Edition provides engineering students with a complete, concise, and accessible introduction to advanced engineering mechanics. It provides information that is useful in emerging engineering areas, such as micro-mechanics and biomechanics. Through a mastery of this volume’s contents and additional rigorous finite element training, readers will develop the mechanics foundation necessary to skillfully use modern, advanced design tools. Features: Provides a basic, understandable approach to the concepts, mathematics, and engineering applications of continuum mechanics Updated throughout, and adds a new chapter on plasticity Features an expanded coverage of fluids Includes numerous all new end-of-chapter problems With an abundance of worked examples and chapter problems, it carefully explains necessary mathematics and presents numerous illustrations, giving students and practicing professionals an excellent self-study guide to enhance their skills.