LibGuides: New Titles at the UConn Library Hartford: October 2024

From Sensing to Sentience: How Feeling Emerges From the Brain

A new theory of Neurobiological Emergentism that explains how sentience emerges from the brain. Sentience is the feeling aspect of consciousness. In From Sensing to Sentience, Todd Feinberg develops a new theory called Neurobiological Emergentism (NBE) that integrates biological, neurobiological, evolutionary, and philosophical perspectives to explain how sentience naturally emerges from the brain. Emergent properties are broadly defined as features of a complex system that are not present in the parts of a system when they are considered in isolation but may emerge as a system feature of those parts and their interactions. Tracing a journey of billions of years of evolution from life to the basic sensing capabilities of single-celled organisms up to the sentience of animals with advanced nervous systems, including all vertebrates (for instance, fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals), arthropods (insects and crabs), and cephalopods such as the octopus, Feinberg argues that sentience gradually but eventually emerged along diverse evolutionary lines with the evolution of sufficiently neurobiologically complex brains during the Cambrian period over 520 million years ago. Ultimately, Feinberg argues that viewing sentience as an emergent process can explain both its neurobiological basis as well its perplexing personal nature, thus solving the historical philosophical problem of the apparent "explanatory gap" between the brain and experience.

Revolutionizing Inclusive Education: Mindfulness, Neurodiversity, and Executive Functioning Skills

The push for inclusivity has revolutionized educational practices, policies, and frameworks. Schools are no longer merely institutions that impart knowledge; they are shaping societal values, promoting social justice, and preparing students to progress. This evolution is driven by the understanding that inclusive education benefits all students, not just those with disabilities or special needs. It promotes empathy, reduces prejudice, and equips students with the skills to contribute to a complex, interconnected world. Revolutionizing Inclusive Education: Mindfulness, Neurodiversity, and Executive Functioning Skills explores the life-changing potential of inclusive education. With a strong emphasis on the word "revolutionizing," the book challenges traditional practices and conventional thinking in the field of inclusive education. By integrating mindfulness practices, understanding neurodiversity, and developing executive functioning skills, the book offers a fresh and innovative approach to inclusive classrooms. Covering topics such as assistive technology, neurodivergent learners, and student well-being, this book is an essential resource for academicians, researchers, school administrators, educators, preservice teachers, and more.

The Stone Catchers: A Novel

In a span of minutes, the lives of four members of Brickton Community College change forever when an active shooter enters the campus and opens fire. Running on adrenaline and fear, the group--a crew of students and their teacher--subdues the perpetrator in a violent frenzy that leads to the man's death. Reeling from the shock of their collective actions, the group is thrown into turmoil when they realize that the person they have killed is someone they all knew. Narrated in alternating voices and set against the backdrop of an economically depressed Appalachian town, Laura Leigh Morris's The Stone Catchers explores the immeasurable pain and trauma experienced by the survivors of a school shooting. Forced to process the horror of the event, mourn, and to reconcile themselves to their newfound recognition as local heroes, the survivors grapple with the losses suffered by their community and their own actions. They come face to face with the unquantifiable cost gun violence exacts on the families, friends, and futures of a town fractured by tragedy.

Innovation in Social Care: New Approaches for Young People affected by Extra-Familial Risks and Harms

Based on the findings of the Innovate Project, this book asks how services can be re-envisioned and transformed through innovation. The authors offer insights into the core conditions necessary for socially just and practice-congruent social care innovation that responds to the distinctive, contemporary safeguarding concerns facing young people.

Atta Boy: A Novel

In December 2018, we meet Rudy Coyle, a bar owner's son from Flushing, Queens, in the throes of a major quarter-life crisis. Cut out of the family business, he gets a Hail Mary job as a night doorman in a storied Park Avenue apartment building, where he comes under the wing of the family in 4E, the Cohens. Jacob "Jake" Cohen, the fast-talking patriarch, is one of a generation of financiers who made hundreds of millions of dollars in the cutthroat taxi medallion industry in the early 2000s, largely by preying on the hopes and dreams of impoverished immigrant drivers. As Jake tries to stop the bleed from the debt crisis now plaguing his company, clawing back his assets from an increasingly dangerous coterie of Russian American associates, Rudy gets promoted from doorman to errand boy to bodyguard to something like Jake's right-hand man. By turns a gripping portrait of corruption and a tender family dramedy, Atta Boy combines the urban cool of Richard Price with the glossy, uptown charm of Taffy Brodesser-Akner. Here is a novel richly attuned to its time and place, but with something for everyone--high-wire prose and a story wedding ripped from the headlines, social realism with the warmth, angst, and humor of its indelible voices.

Transforming Education with Virtual Reality

TRANSFORMING EDUCATION WITH VIRTUAL REALITY The book provides an in-depth and comprehensive knowledge reviewof the use of virtual reality in the education industry and businesses. Virtual reality (VR) technology has thoroughly transformed education by providing engaging and immersive ways for students to experience their education and by offering visual learning, creative development, etc., to enhance their studies. Moreover, with increasing accessibility, both students and educators can utilize it for effective teaching and learning. By embracing this VR-related technology, teachers can transform traditional classrooms into lively ones. Businesses can also leverage VR for skilling, up-skilling, and re-skilling. This book is divided into two parts. Part I discusses the opportunities, challenges, and application of VR technology, and Part II focuses on reimagining education with the metaverse. Readers will find in this book: a description of the relationship between virtual reality and student behavior; a review of VR-enabled tools and techniques for an immersive environment; a discussion on VR in the context of vocational education by developing a conceptual framework and roadmap for its adoption; an overview of the advantages, disadvantages, and mechanisms of VR through a detailed analysis showing a comparison of the strong and weak points of the technologies being used in education; a look at the future of learning in the context of VR; a description of the relevance of VR in emerging economies with the help of bibliometric analysis and discusses its future potential; a review of Metaverse as a new education avatar showcasing diverse educational experiences and how to reimagine teaching; an explanation of the relevance of emerging digital technologies in upskilling employees in fashion retail to impart an immersive experience for customers; a proposed framework for mapping the use of VR for students with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Audience The book is designed for information technologists, educational researchers, teachers, policymakers, government officials, and business managers.

Honeymoons in Temporary Locations

Eclectic, experimental, and wildly imaginative climate fictions from a familiar world hauntingly transformed Climate disaster-induced fugue states, mutinous polar bears, support groups for recently displaced millionaires, men who hear trees, and women who lose their wives on environmental refugee resettlement trips. In these dispatches from a weirding world, the absurd and fantastic are increasingly indistinguishable from reality. Exploring this liminal moment, Ashley Shelby's collection of climate fictions imagines a near future that is both unnervingly familiar and subversively strange. Set in the same post-climate-impact era, these stories range from playfully satirical to poignantly humane, bending traditional narrative forms and coming together into a brilliant and unusual contemplation of our changing world. Featuring the Hugo-nominated novelette "Muri," Honeymoons in Temporary Locations processes the unthinkable through riotous inventions like guided tours of submerged cities, Craigslist ads placed by climate refugees, and cynical pharmaceutical efforts to market a drug to treat solastalgia, the existential distress caused by environmental change. Shelby reengineers the dystopic bleakness that characterizes so much climate fiction by embracing an eclectic experimentalism leavened with humor, irony, and the inevitable bathos that characterizes the human experience. Unexpected and clever, this innovative collection confirms her status as a visionary writer whose work expands the forms, attitudes, and possibilities of climate fiction.

The Last Mile: Turning Public Policy Upside Down

"The Last Mile explores the gaps and dichotomy between drafted policies and their implementation and the last mile challenges which often make public services inaccessible to the poorest and most vulnerable sections of society. It provides an in-depth overview of the dynamics between communities, research and consultation and the implementation of policies for development. Rich in empirical data and case studies from different government programmes and reports, this book examines the implementation of government service programmes for poverty reduction, women's empowerment, income generation for the poor, among others, from a people's perspective. It highlights the need for policies and institutions to align their methods to community needs. Offering guidelines for redesigning as well as solutions to counter challenges related to lack of trust and effective communication, human resource management, capacity development, redressal mechanisms, and facilitating the last mile connection, the author delineates effective ways for integrating new technologies in policy implementation. The book also addresses legacy issues in institutions and re-orienting policy for better governance, transparency and building trust. Part of the 'Public Policy in India' series, this book, by a senior practitioner, will be an essential resource for students and researchers of development studies, sociology, public policy and governance, economics and South Asian studies. This book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license"-- Provided by publisher.

From Sensing to Sentience: How Feeling Emerges From the Brain

A new theory of Neurobiological Emergentism that explains how sentience emerges from the brain. Sentience is the feeling aspect of consciousness. In From Sensing to Sentience, Todd Feinberg develops a new theory called Neurobiological Emergentism (NBE) that integrates biological, neurobiological, evolutionary, and philosophical perspectives to explain how sentience naturally emerges from the brain. Emergent properties are broadly defined as features of a complex system that are not present in the parts of a system when they are considered in isolation but may emerge as a system feature of those parts and their interactions. Tracing a journey of billions of years of evolution from life to the basic sensing capabilities of single-celled organisms up to the sentience of animals with advanced nervous systems, including all vertebrates (for instance, fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals), arthropods (insects and crabs), and cephalopods such as the octopus, Feinberg argues that sentience gradually but eventually emerged along diverse evolutionary lines with the evolution of sufficiently neurobiologically complex brains during the Cambrian period over 520 million years ago. Ultimately, Feinberg argues that viewing sentience as an emergent process can explain both its neurobiological basis as well its perplexing personal nature, thus solving the historical philosophical problem of the apparent "explanatory gap" between the brain and experience.

Revolutionizing Inclusive Education: Mindfulness, Neurodiversity, and Executive Functioning Skills

The push for inclusivity has revolutionized educational practices, policies, and frameworks. Schools are no longer merely institutions that impart knowledge; they are shaping societal values, promoting social justice, and preparing students to progress. This evolution is driven by the understanding that inclusive education benefits all students, not just those with disabilities or special needs. It promotes empathy, reduces prejudice, and equips students with the skills to contribute to a complex, interconnected world. Revolutionizing Inclusive Education: Mindfulness, Neurodiversity, and Executive Functioning Skills explores the life-changing potential of inclusive education. With a strong emphasis on the word "revolutionizing," the book challenges traditional practices and conventional thinking in the field of inclusive education. By integrating mindfulness practices, understanding neurodiversity, and developing executive functioning skills, the book offers a fresh and innovative approach to inclusive classrooms. Covering topics such as assistive technology, neurodivergent learners, and student well-being, this book is an essential resource for academicians, researchers, school administrators, educators, preservice teachers, and more.