Aarti Gupta – författare

A critical assessment of whether transparency is a broadly transformative force in global environmental governance or plays a more limited role.

Transparency—openness, secured through greater availability of information—is increasingly seen as part of the solution to a complex array of economic, political, and ethical problems in an interconnected world. The “transparency turn” in global environmental governance in particular is seen in a range of international agreements, voluntary disclosure initiatives, and public-private partnerships. This is the first book to investigate whether transparency in global environmental governance is in fact a broadly transformative force or plays a more limited, instrumental role.

After three conceptual, context-setting chapters, the book examines ten specific and diverse instances of “governance by disclosure.” These include state-led mandatory disclosure initiatives that rely on such tools as prior informed consent and monitoring, measuring, reporting and verification; and private (or private-public), largely voluntary efforts that include such corporate transparency initiatives as the Carbon Disclosure Project and such certification schemes as the Forest Stewardship Council. The cases, which focus on issue areas including climate change, biodiversity, biotechnology, natural resource exploitation, and chemicals, demonstrate that although transparency is ubiquitous, its effects are limited and often specific to particular contexts. The book explores in what circumstances transparency can offer the possibility of a new emancipatory politics in global environmental governance.

Functional verification has become an important aspect of the chip design process. Significant resources, both in industry and academia, are devoted to the design complexity and verification endeavors.

SAT-Based Scalable Formal Verification Solutions discusses in detail several of the latest and interesting scalable SAT-based techniques including: Hybrid SAT Solver, Customized Bounded/Unbounded Model Checking, Distributed Model Checking, Proofs and Proof-based Abstraction Methods, Verification of Embedded Memory System & Multi-clock Systems, and Synthesis for Verification Paradigm. These techniques have been designed and implemented in a verification platform Verisol (formally called DiVer) and have been used successfully in industry. This book provides algorithmic details and engineering insights into devising scalable approaches for an effective realization. It also includes the authors’ practical experiences and recommendations in verifying the large industry designs using VeriSol.

The book is primarily written for researchers, scientists, and verification engineers who would like to gain an in-depth understanding of scalable SAT-based verification techniques. The book will also be of interest for CAD tool developers who would like to incorporate various SAT-based advanced techniques in their products.

 Lastly, the older adults incarcerated in prisons is a group that is growing in numbers. They have unique needs at the intersection of the geriatric and forensic services, but are often marginalized by both services. The combination of poor quality of life and increasing costs makes the care of older adults in the criminal justice system makes this topic an important public health concern. There is a pressing need for better training of prison staff in issues of geriatric psychiatry. Assessment of criminal responsibility and competence to stand trial in aging offenders are other complex but under-studied issues.

 This proposed book will provide a comprehensive view of ethical, medicolegal, and forensic issues that will be useful in clinical practice. There will be three sub-sections, each focusing on ethical, medicolegal and forensic issues respectively. The first section will focus on ethical issues. Its first chapters will provide an overview of the how age and the process of aging influence decision-making and introduce unique ethical dimensions to clinical care. This will be followed by a discussion of the concepts of informed consent and capacity evaluation. The next chapters will focus on common scenarios that arise in the care of elderly patients and offer a practical approach to understanding and managing them. These will include assessments of the capacity to make medical decisions, the capacity to live independently, manage finances, drive a vehicle, have sexual relations etc. A chapter on ethical issues specific to dementia will outline issues related to diagnostic disclosure and genetic testing. Research ethics issues in geriatric psychiatry will also be outlined.

 The next section of the book will focus on surrogate decision making in an older adult who has been deemed to lack the capacity to serve one or more functions independently. The first chapters in this sub-section will focus on patient directed advance health care planning tools, namely, living will and power of attorney. This will be followed by an overview of default surrogate making. Guardianship will subsequently be covered. A separate chapter will cover the issue of elder abuse and discuss an approach to assessing it.

 The last section of the book will cover forensic issues in geriatric psychiatry. The first chapter will discuss aging older adults in the criminal justice system from an epidemiological perspective. The growing numbers of incarcerated older adults, their illness burden, the challenges in the diagnosis and management of neurocognitive disorders in the prison setting will be elucidated. The following chapter will discuss competence to stand trial with reference to elderly offenders. This will be followed by a discussion of the concepts of medical reprieve, compassionate release as well as model programs and policies currently in the works for older incarcerated adults.