Becker – författare

How combustible is the Korean crisis? Very, is the only sensible answer. In 1994, the united states came close to launching a pre-emptive strike against North Korea. Since then perhaps three million have died of starvation in the North, a disaster worse than Pol Pot's Cambodia. North Korea's leader Kim Jong-II is closer than ever to developing an inter-continental ballistic missile and an armoury of nuclear weapons. A perpetual merry go-round of international diplomacy has not brought peace within sight, despite the high expectations raised by the south's 'Sunshine Policy'. South Korea, arguably the greatest economic and political success story in Asia, confronts its evil twin in an extraordinary and little-understood drama. Managing this crisis has become the top priority for the United States and its greatest challenge. Jasper Becker reveals the historical roots of the current conflict and offers straightforward explanations of the motives and strategy of the major players. He sheds light on North Korea's continuing survival and lays out the rationale behind the often seemingly strange and bizarre policies pursued by North and South - and their larger neighbours. Providing crucial context for a little-understood region, this highly accessible and compact volume will be a valuable guide for all readers.

Sex is a fundamentally important biological variable. Recent years have seen significant progress in the integration of sex in many aspects of basic and clinical research, including analyses of sex differences in brain function. Significant advances in the technology available for studying the endocrine and nervous systems are now coupled with a more sophisticated awareness of the interconnections of these two communication systems of the body. A thorough understanding of the current knowledge, conceptual approaches, methodological capabilities, and challenges is a prerequisite to continued progress in research and therapeutics in this interdisciplinary area.Sex Differences in the Brain provides scientists with the basic tools for investigating sex differences in brain and behavior and insight into areas where important progress in understanding physiologically relevant sex differences has already been made. The book is arranged in three parts. The first part of the book introduces the study of sex differences in the brain, with an overview of how the brain, stress systems, and pharmacogenomics differ in males and females and how this information is important for the study of behavior and neurobiology of both genders. The second part presents examples of sex differences in neurobiology and behavior from both basic and clinical research perspectives, covering both humans and nonhuman animals. The final part discusses sex differences in the neurobiology of disease and neurological disorders.For interested individuals as well as those who are considering conducting research at the intersections of endocrinology, neuroscience, and other areas of biomedicine, the study of sex differences offers exciting and challenging questions and perspectives. This book is intended as a guide and resource for clinicians, scientists, and students.

The Aramaic-speaking Christian community of late antique and early Islamic period Mesopotamia developed a school culture that persisted for several centuries. Not unlike the Rabbinic academies, the East-Syrian schools were innovative as centres of learning where study was formally institutionalized, in contrast to the informal study circles of the past. This school culture played an important role in the early translation of Greek philosophical texts into Arabic in the ‘Abbasid period. The most influential and prominent of these schools was the School of Nisibis, and this volume provides an annotated translation of the major sources for the School. A polemical document composed by Simeon of Bet Arsham, a theological enemy of the School, describes the foundation of the School as a significant step in the supposed spread of ‘Nestorianism’ throughout the Sasanian Empire. The more extensive East-Syrian Cause of the Foundation of the Schools offers a history of learning from God’s creation of the world to the time of the text’s composition at the School of Nisibis in the late sixth century CE, recasting patriarchal, Israelite, ‘pagan’ and Christian history as a long series of schools. The last two chapters of the Ecclesiastical History describe the lives of the two most important head exegetes at the School. These sources have never been translated into English and this is the first time that any of them has received close historical, linguistic and thematic analysis.