Yoga, tantra and other forms of Asian meditation are practised in modernized forms throughout the world today, but most introductions to Hinduism or Buddhism tell only part of the story of how they developed. This book is an interpretation of the history of Indic religions up to around 1200 CE, with particular focus on the development of yogic and tantric traditions. It assesses how much we really know about this period, and asks what sense we can make of the evolution of yogic and tantric practices, which were to become such central and important features of the Indic religious scene. Its originality lies in seeking to understand these traditions in terms of the total social and religious context of South Asian society during this period, including the religious practices of the general population with their close engagement with family, gender, economic life and other pragmatic concerns.

This book offers a broad overview of the potential of continuum mechanics to describe a wide range of macroscopic phenomena in real-world problems. Building on the fundamentals presented in the authors’ previous book, Continuum Mechanics using Mathematica®, this new work explores interesting models of continuum mechanics, with an emphasis on exploring the flexibility of their applications in a wide variety of fields.

Java 8 Recipes offers solutions to common programming problems encountered while developing Java-based applications. Fully updated with the newest features and techniques available, Java 8 Recipes provides code examples involving Lambdas, embedded scripting with Nashorn, the new date-time API, stream support, functional interfaces, and much more. Especial emphasis is given to features such as lambdas that are newly introduced in Java 8. Content is presented in the popular problem-solution format: Look up the programming problem that you want to solve. Read the solution. Apply the solution directly in your own code. Problem solved! The problem-solution approach sets Java 8 Recipes apart. Java 8 Recipes is focused less on the language itself and more on what you can do with it that is useful. The book respects your time by always focusing on a task that you might want to perform using the language. Solutions come first. Explanations come later. You are free to crib from the book and apply the code examples directly to your own projects. Covers the newly-released Java 8, including a brand new chapter on lambdas Focuses especially on up-and-coming technologies such as Project Nashorn and Java FX 2.0 Respects your time by focusing on practical solutions you can implement in your own code

Learning is the foundation of the human experience. It begins at birth and never stops, a continuous and malleable link across life stages of human development. Disparities in learning access and outcomes around the world have deep consequences for income, social mobility, health, and well-being. For international development practitioners faced with today's unprecedented environmental and geopolitical pressures, learning should be viewed as a touchstone and target for those seeking to truly effect global change. This book traces the path of international development work—from its pre-colonial origins to the emergence of economics as the dominant discipline in the field—and lays out a new agenda for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners, from early education through adulthood. Learning as Development is an attempt to rethink international education in a changing world.

In order to work toward eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals significantly include universal primary education, gender equality, and empowering women. Effective early literacy instruction plays a critical role in achieving these goals. From around the globe, this issue presents evidence-based, culturally sensitive and cost-effective practices in reading instruction and intervention in the early grades. Not only will this issue heighten awareness of the challenges faced but it will provide valuable information to help guide and improve diverse global education programs and research, especially in developing regions and for children living in poverty or disadvantage in all nations. Presenting several experiences from small- and large-scale reading improvement programs, it: Focuses on low- and middle-income countries, Describes challenges in implementing, studying, and scaling them up, Informs expectations on how quickly and easily reading performance can change, and Provides results and evidence of effectiveness. This is the 155th volume in this Jossey-Bass series New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development. Its mission is to provide scientific and scholarly presentations on cutting edge issues and concepts in this subject area. Each volume focuses on a specific new direction or research topic and is edited by experts from that field.

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