SQL Built-In Functions And Stored Procedures

This 1992 book provides a thorough and systematic description of particle field holography. The use of holography to study very small objects in a dynamic volume is a technique of importance for scientists and engineers across a variety of disciplines for obtaining information about the size, shape and velocity of small objects such as dust particles, fuel droplets, raindrops, pollen, bubbles etc. Professor Vikram has made major contributions to the field, and here provides a coherent, comprehensive and self-contained treatment of the theory, practise and applications. The volume is written to satisfy the needs of researchers in the technique, practising engineers dealing with applications, and advanced students in science or engineering departments. All the necessary mathematical formulations, figures and photographs, experimental procedures and results, and literature citations are therefore included.

Understand the rapidly growing complexities of obstetric hematology and high-risk pregnancy management, with experts in the field. Now in its second edition, this comprehensive and essential guide focuses on providing the best support for patients and clinical staff, to prevent serious complications in pregnancy and the post-partum period for both mother and baby. Wide-ranging and detailed, the guide offers discussions on basic principles of best care, through to tackling lesser-known hematological conditions, such as cytopenias and hemoglobinopathies. Updated with color illustrations, cutting-edge research, accurate blood film reproductions, and practical case studies, the revised edition places invaluable advice into everyday context. This unique resource is essential reading for trainees and practitioners in obstetrics, anesthesia, and hematology, as well as midwives, nurses, and laboratory staff. Clarifying difficult procedures for disease prevention, the guide ensures safety when

Despite the growing scholarly interest in comparative public law, there remain relatively few works on the subject. Contemporary French Administrative Law aims to redress that imbalance, offering English-language readers an authoritative introduction to the key features of French administrative law and its institutions. The French legal system is among the most well-developed and influential in the world, and, as procedures continually adapt to European and international influences, it has never been more worthy of research, study and interrogation. This book employs a wide range of recent, illustrative cases to demonstrate how French administrative law works both in theory and in practice. Using a systematic approach and covering everything from judicial review to public contracts, this is a highly valuable text for any student or researcher with an interest in French law. The book is also available as Open Access.

This book concisely examines the use of elasticity in solving geotechnical engineering problems. In a highly illustrated and user-friendly format, it provides a thorough grounding in the linear theory of elasticity and an understanding of the applications, for upper level students in civil engineering and engineering geology. The first two chapters present a basic framework of the theory of elasticity and describe test procedures for the determination of elastic parameters for soils. Chapters 3 and 4 present the fundamental solutions of Boussinesque, Kelvin and Mindlin and use these to formulate solutions to problems of practical interest in geotechnical engineering. The book concludes with a sequence of appendices designed to provide the interested student with details of elasticity theory which are peripheral to the main text. Each chapter includes a set of questions for the student to answer.

This book concisely examines the use of elasticity in solving geotechnical engineering problems. In a highly illustrated and user-friendly format, it provides a thorough grounding in the linear theory of elasticity and an understanding of the applications, for upper level students in civil engineering and engineering geology. The first two chapters present a basic framework of the theory of elasticity and describe test procedures for the determination of elastic parameters for soils. Chapters 3 and 4 present the fundamental solutions of Boussinesque, Kelvin and Mindlin and use these to formulate solutions to problems of practical interest in geotechnical engineering. The book concludes with a sequence of appendices designed to provide the interested student with details of elasticity theory which are peripheral to the main text. Each chapter includes a set of questions for the student to answer.

The first complete survey of reclaimed wood, combining useful information, rich history, and design ideasThe first handbook on reclaimed wood, combining useful information, rich history, and design ideasWood reclaimed from old houses, factories, barns, water tanks, and boardwalks has become a valuable commodity, treasured for the patina that gives witness to its history. Our ancestors built well, using locally sourced lumber that expressed the culture and natural history of their region: oak and pine in the Northeast; hickory and cypress in the South; Douglas fir and redwood in the West. Reclaimed Wood: A Field Guide is the first complete visual handbook to this popular resource, covering history, culture, salvage, sources, contemporary uses (in buildings and furniture), and practical advice.

The 'ethical commonwealth', the central social element in Kant's account of religion, provides the church, as 'the moral people of God', with a role in establishing a cosmopolitan order of peace. This role functions within an interpretive realignment of Kant's critical project that articulates its central concern as anthropological: critically disciplined reason enables humanity to enact peacemaking as its moral vocation in history. Within this context, politics and religion are not peripheral elements in the critical project. They are, instead, complementary social modalities in which humanity enacts its moral vocation to bring lasting peace among all peoples.

In this globetrotting tour of seventeen houses, discover how bamboo, one of the most sustainable building materials on the planet, can be used in ingenious ways in residential design.Bamboo is a perennial grass that grows rapidly and rivals steel, concrete, and wood in strength. Bamboo Contemporary shows the many ways this incredible material can be used to build sustainably. Featuring locales from China to the Czech Republic and the United States, the survey includes homes built entirely from bamboo as well as building projects and renovations that use bamboo as the primary component. Fascinating descriptions, documentary photography, and architectural drawings will appeal to aspirational lifestyle readers interested in sustainability and natural materials as well as design professionals.

This book examines the vital role of market towns in the medieval economy. It focuses on Exeter, and on how it served as an important link in a marketing chain that connected local, regional, and overseas trade. Although small by most standards (the population stood at around 3,100 in 1377), Exeter was the largest town in south-western England and had long played a central role in the marketing hierarchy of the region. Its functions can be illustrated through prosopographical analysis, a methodology which creates 'collective biographies' of specific groups of traders, thereby revealing the identity - status, occupation, residence - of buyers and sellers, the goods they exchanged, where they traded, and how they marketed their goods. Such an approach also helps to characterise the town's regional networks of trade and hinterland.

This book examines the vital role of market towns in the medieval economy. It focuses on Exeter, and on how it served as an important link in a marketing chain that connected local, regional, and overseas trade. Although small by most standards (the population stood at around 3,100 in 1377), Exeter was the largest town in south-western England and had long played a central role in the marketing hierarchy of the region. Its functions can be illustrated through prosopographical analysis, a methodology which creates 'collective biographies' of specific groups of traders, thereby revealing the identity - status, occupation, residence - of buyers and sellers, the goods they exchanged, where they traded, and how they marketed their goods. Such an approach also helps to characterise the town's regional networks of trade and hinterland.

Service encounters are ubiquitous in social interaction. We buy food and everyday items in supermarkets, convenience stores, or markets; we purchase merchandise in department stores; or we request information at a visitor information center. This book offers a comprehensive account of service encounters in commercial and non-commercial settings. Grounded in naturally occurring face-to-face interactions and drawing on a pragmatic-discursive approach, J. César Félix-Brasdefer sets out a framework for the analysis of transactional and relational talk in various contexts in the United States and Mexico. This book investigates cross-cultural and intra-lingual pragmatic variation during the negotiation of service. The author provides a broad review of research on service encounters to date, and analyzes characteristics of sales transactions, such as participants' roles, pragmatic and discourse functions of relational talk and address forms, the realization of politeness, and changes in align

Service encounters are ubiquitous in social interaction. We buy food and everyday items in supermarkets, convenience stores, or markets; we purchase merchandise in department stores; or we request information at a visitor information center. This book offers a comprehensive account of service encounters in commercial and non-commercial settings. Grounded in naturally occurring face-to-face interactions and drawing on a pragmatic-discursive approach, J. César Félix-Brasdefer sets out a framework for the analysis of transactional and relational talk in various contexts in the United States and Mexico. This book investigates cross-cultural and intra-lingual pragmatic variation during the negotiation of service. The author provides a broad review of research on service encounters to date, and analyzes characteristics of sales transactions, such as participants' roles, pragmatic and discourse functions of relational talk and address forms, the realization of politeness, and changes in align

Family and the Law in Eighteenth-Century Fiction offers challenging interpretations of the public and private faces of individualism in the eighteenth-century English novel. John P. Zomchick begins by surveying the social, historical and ideological functions of law and the family in England's developing market economy. He goes on to examine in detail their part in the fortunes and misfortunes of the protagonists in Defoe's Roxana, Richardson's Clarissa, Smollett's Roderick Random, Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield and Godwin's Caleb Williams. Zomchick reveals in these novels an attempt to produce a 'juridical subject': a representation of the individual identified with the principles and aims of the law, and motivated by an inherent need for affection and community fulfilled by the family. Their ambivalence towards that formulation indicates a nostalgia for less competitive social relations, and an emergent liberal critique of the law's operation in the service of society's elites.

The Premium edition of our popular annual study guide that provides all the info students need to succeed on the AP Calculus AB Exam―with 7 full-length practice tests for maximum scoring success.AP Calculus AB Premium Prep, 2023 is dedicated to the calculus topics students need to master to succeed on the AB test, including functions, graphs, limits, derivatives, and integrals. The exam covers the material taught in a full-year course, and this edition reflects all the topics covered by the exam, the curriculum structure, and the exam setup and question types.

Given the controversies and difficulties which preceded the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty, it is easy to forget that the Treaty is a complex legal document in need of detailed analysis for its impact to be fully understood. Jean-Claude Piris, the Director General of the Legal Service of the Council of the European Union, provides such an analysis, looking at the historical and political contexts of the Treaty, its impact on the democratic framework of the EU and its provisions in relation to substantive law. Impartial legal analysis of the EU's functions, its powers and the treaties which govern it make this the seminal text on the most significant recent development in EU law.

Given the controversies and difficulties which preceded the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty, it is easy to forget that the Treaty is a complex legal document in need of detailed analysis for its impact to be fully understood. Jean-Claude Piris, the Director General of the Legal Service of the Council of the European Union, provides such an analysis, looking at the historical and political contexts of the Treaty, its impact on the democratic framework of the EU and its provisions in relation to substantive law. Impartial legal analysis of the EU's functions, its powers and the treaties which govern it make this the seminal text on the most significant recent development in EU law.

For a number of years, French mathematicians have run regular number theory conferences to which they have invited number theorists from many countries. To repay their hospitality, the London Mathematical Society arranged for the 1980 'Journees Arithmeiques' to be held in Exeter. The papers published here are either based on the main invited lectures or on selected research talks given at the conference. They cover all branches of the subject: combinatorial and elementary methods; analytic number theory; transcendence theory; Galois module theory and algebraic number theory in general; elliptic curves and modular functions; local fields; additive number theory; Diophantine geometry, and uniform distribution. It will be necessary reading for all those undertaking research in number theory.

Indians are everywhere and nowhere in the US South. Cloaked by a rhetoric of disappearance after Indian Removal, actual southeastern tribal groups are largely invisible but immortalized in regional mythologies, genealogical lore, romanticized stereotypes, and unpronounceable place names. These imaginary 'Indians' compose an ideological fiction inextricable from that of the South itself. Often framed as hindrances to the Cotton Kingdom, Indians were in fact active participants in the plantation economy and chattel slavery before and after Removal. Dialectical tropes of Indigeneity linger in the white southern imagination in order to both conceal and expose the tangle of land, labor, and race as formative, disruptive categories of being and meaning. This book is not, finally, about the recovery of the region's lost Indians, but a reckoning with their inaccessible traces, ambivalent functions, and the shattering implications of their repressed significance for modern southern identity.

Why did eighteenth-century writers employ digression as a literary form of diversion, and how did their readers come to enjoy linguistic and textual devices that self-consciously disrupt the reading experience? Darryl P. Domingo answers these questions through an examination of the formative period in the commercialization of leisure in England, and the coincidental coming of age of literary self-consciousness in works published between approximately 1690 and 1760. During this period, commercial entertainers tested out new ways of gratifying a public increasingly eager for amusement, while professional writers explored the rhetorical possibilities of intrusion, obstruction, and interruption through their characteristic use of devices like digression. Such devices adopt similar forms and fulfil similar functions in literature as do diversions in culture: they 'unbend the mind' and reveal the complex reciprocity between commercialized leisure and commercial literature in the age of Swift

Written specifically for graduate students and practitioners beginning social science research, Statistical Modeling and Inference for Social Science covers the essential statistical tools, models and theories that make up the social scientist's toolkit. Assuming no prior knowledge of statistics, this textbook introduces students to probability theory, statistical inference and statistical modeling, and emphasizes the connection between statistical procedures and social science theory. Sean Gailmard develops core statistical theory as a set of tools to model and assess relationships between variables - the primary aim of social scientists - and demonstrates the ways in which social scientists express and test substantive theoretical arguments in various models. Chapter exercises guide students in applying concepts to data, extending their grasp of core theoretical concepts. Students will also gain the ability to create, read and critique statistical applications in their fields of inte

Why did eighteenth-century writers employ digression as a literary form of diversion, and how did their readers come to enjoy linguistic and textual devices that self-consciously disrupt the reading experience? Darryl P. Domingo answers these questions through an examination of the formative period in the commercialization of leisure in England, and the coincidental coming of age of literary self-consciousness in works published between approximately 1690 and 1760. During this period, commercial entertainers tested out new ways of gratifying a public increasingly eager for amusement, while professional writers explored the rhetorical possibilities of intrusion, obstruction, and interruption through their characteristic use of devices like digression. Such devices adopt similar forms and fulfil similar functions in literature as do diversions in culture: they 'unbend the mind' and reveal the complex reciprocity between commercialized leisure and commercial literature in the age of Swift

Trauma patients present a unique challenge to anesthesiologists, since they require resource-intensive care, often complicated by pre-existing medical conditions. This fully revised new edition focuses on a broad spectrum of traumatic injuries and the procedures anesthesiologists perform to care for trauma patients perioperatively, surgically, and post-operatively. Special emphasis is given to assessment and treatment of co-existing disease, including surgical management of trauma patients with head, spine, orthopedic, cardiac, and burn injuries. Topics such as training for trauma (including use of simulation) and hypothermia in trauma are also covered. Six brand new chapters address pre-hospital and ED trauma management, imaging in trauma, surgical issues in head trauma and in abdominal trauma, anesthesia for oral and maxillofacial trauma, and prevention of injuries. The text is enhanced with numerous tables and 300 illustrations showcasing techniques of airway management, shock resus

Written specifically for graduate students and practitioners beginning social science research, Statistical Modeling and Inference for Social Science covers the essential statistical tools, models and theories that make up the social scientist's toolkit. Assuming no prior knowledge of statistics, this textbook introduces students to probability theory, statistical inference and statistical modeling, and emphasizes the connection between statistical procedures and social science theory. Sean Gailmard develops core statistical theory as a set of tools to model and assess relationships between variables - the primary aim of social scientists - and demonstrates the ways in which social scientists express and test substantive theoretical arguments in various models. Chapter exercises guide students in applying concepts to data, extending their grasp of core theoretical concepts. Students will also gain the ability to create, read and critique statistical applications in their fields of inte

Number theory is one of the oldest and most appealing areas of mathematics. Computation has always played a role in number theory, a role which has increased dramatically in the last 20 or 30 years, both because of the advent of modern computers, and because of the discovery of surprising and powerful algorithms. As a consequence, algorithmic number theory has gradually emerged as an important and distinct field with connections to computer science and cryptography as well as other areas of mathematics. This text provides a comprehensive introduction to algorithmic number theory for beginning graduate students, written by the leading experts in the field. It includes several articles that cover the essential topics in this area, and in addition, there are contributions pointing in broader directions, including cryptography, computational class field theory, zeta functions and L-series, discrete logarithm algorithms, and quantum computing.

Number theory is one of the oldest and most appealing areas of mathematics. Computation has always played a role in number theory, a role which has increased dramatically in the last 20 or 30 years, both because of the advent of modern computers, and because of the discovery of surprising and powerful algorithms. As a consequence, algorithmic number theory has gradually emerged as an important and distinct field with connections to computer science and cryptography as well as other areas of mathematics. This text provides a comprehensive introduction to algorithmic number theory for beginning graduate students, written by the leading experts in the field. It includes several articles that cover the essential topics in this area, and in addition, there are contributions pointing in broader directions, including cryptography, computational class field theory, zeta functions and L-series, discrete logarithm algorithms, and quantum computing.

Because of their intuitive layout, extensive mathematical capabilities, and convenient graphics, spreadsheets provide an easy, straightforward route to scientific computing. This textbook for undergraduate and entry-level graduate chemistry and chemical engineering students uses Excel, the most powerful available spreadsheet, to explore and solve problems in general and chemical data analysis. This is the only up-to-date text on the use of spreadsheets in chemistry. The book discusses topics including statistics, chemical equilibria, pH calculations, titrations, and instrumental methods such as chromatography, spectrometry, and electroanalysis. It contains many examples of data analysis, and uses spreadsheets for numerical simulations, and testing analytical procedures. It also treats modern data analysis methods such as linear and non-linear least squares in great detail, as well as methods based on Fourier transformation. The book shows how matrix methods can be powerful tools in dat

Because of their intuitive layout, extensive mathematical capabilities, and convenient graphics, spreadsheets provide an easy, straightforward route to scientific computing. This textbook for undergraduate and entry-level graduate chemistry and chemical engineering students uses Excel, the most powerful available spreadsheet, to explore and solve problems in general and chemical data analysis. This is the only up-to-date text on the use of spreadsheets in chemistry. The book discusses topics including statistics, chemical equilibria, pH calculations, titrations, and instrumental methods such as chromatography, spectrometry, and electroanalysis. It contains many examples of data analysis, and uses spreadsheets for numerical simulations, and testing analytical procedures. It also treats modern data analysis methods such as linear and non-linear least squares in great detail, as well as methods based on Fourier transformation. The book shows how matrix methods can be powerful tools in dat

This is a comprehensive and practical guide to the ethical issues raised by different kinds of medical research, and is the first such book to be written with the needs of the researcher in mind. Clearly structured and written in a plain and accessible style, the book covers every significant ethical issue likely to be faced by researchers and research ethics committees. The author outlines and clarifies official guidelines, gives practical advice on how to adhere to these, and suggests procedures in areas where official recommendations are vague or absent. This invaluable handbook will help researchers identify and address the ethical issues at an early stage in the design of their studies, to avoid unnecessary delay and to safeguard the wellbeing of patients and healthy volunteers. It will also be extremely useful to members of research ethics committees.

The study of spatial processes and their applications is an important topic in statistics and finds wide application particularly in computer vision and image processing. This book is devoted to statistical inference in spatial statistics and is intended for specialists needing an introduction to the subject and to its applications. One of the themes of the book is the demonstration of how these techniques give new insights into classical procedures (including new examples in likelihood theory) and newer statistical paradigms such as Monte-Carlo inference and pseudo-likelihood. Professor Ripley also stresses the importance of edge effects and of lack of a unique asymptotic setting in spatial problems. Throughout, the author discusses the foundational issues posed and the difficulties, both computational and philosophical, which arise. The final chapters consider image restoration and segmentation methods and the averaging and summarising of images. Thus, the book will find wide appeal

Originally published in 1994, this was the first volume to look in depth at the way the brain responds to trauma and subsequently integrates and influences behavioural, metabolic, neurohumoral, cardiovascular and immune functions. At the time, the role of the brain in the control and integration of the responses to injury and infection was becoming increasingly clear. It had been established that some of these responses, such as fever and neuroendocrine changes, responded to the direct influence of the central nervous system. These, and other advances, provided fresh insights into this area and formed a basis for the more effective understanding and clinical management of trauma patients. In this volume, the authors, all international authorities in their fields, discuss data from experimental and clinical studies and considered the implications of these findings for the treatment of the trauma patient.

Originally published in 1994, this was the first volume to look in depth at the way the brain responds to trauma and subsequently integrates and influences behavioural, metabolic, neurohumoral, cardiovascular and immune functions. At the time, the role of the brain in the control and integration of the responses to injury and infection was becoming increasingly clear. It had been established that some of these responses, such as fever and neuroendocrine changes, responded to the direct influence of the central nervous system. These, and other advances, provided fresh insights into this area and formed a basis for the more effective understanding and clinical management of trauma patients. In this volume, the authors, all international authorities in their fields, discuss data from experimental and clinical studies and considered the implications of these findings for the treatment of the trauma patient.

In Bach's Germany musical counterpoint was an art involving much more than the sophisticated use of advanced compositional techniques. A range of theological, cultural, social and political meanings attached themselves to the use of complex procedures such as canon and double counterpoint. This book explores the significance of Bach's counterpoint in a range of interrelated contexts: its use as a means of reflecting on death; its parallels to alchemy; its vexed status in the galant music culture of the first half of the eighteenth century; its value as a representation of political power; and its central importance in the creation of Bach's image in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Touching on a wide array of contemporary literary, philosophical, critical, and musical texts, the book includes new readings of many of Bach's late works in order to re-evaluate the status and meaning of counterpoint in Bach's work and legacy.

Do you need to know how to develop more efficient digital communication systems? Based on the author's experience of over thirty years in industrial design, this practical guide provides detailed coverage of synchronization subsystems and their relationship with other system components. Readers will gain a comprehensive understanding of the techniques needed for the design, performance analysis and implementation of synchronization functions for a range of different modern communication technologies. Specific topics covered include frequency-looked loops in wireless receivers, optimal OFDM timing phase determination and implementation, and interpolation filter design and analysis in digital resamplers. Numerous implementation examples help readers to develop the necessary practical skills, and slides summarizing key concepts accompany the book online. This is an invaluable guide and essential reference for both practicing engineers and graduate students working in digital communication

The transition from studying calculus in schools to studying mathematical analysis at university is notoriously difficult. In this third edition of Numbers and Functions, Professor Burn invites the student reader to tackle each of the key concepts in turn, progressing from experience through a structured sequence of more than 800 problems to concepts, definitions and proofs of classical real analysis. The sequence of problems, of which most are supplied with brief answers, draws students into constructing definitions and theorems for themselves. This natural development is informed and complemented by historical insight. Carefully corrected and updated throughout, this new edition also includes extra questions on integration and an introduction to convergence. The novel approach to rigorous analysis offered here is designed to enable students to grow in confidence and skill and thus overcome the traditional difficulties.

Poetry, defined as language divided into lines, is found in most known human cultures. This masterful survey of poetry and its constituent components demonstrates the functions performed by metre, rhyme, alliteration and parallelism, arguing that each line of a poem fits as a whole unit into the limited capacity of human working memory. Using examples from around the world, Fabb surveys the wide varieties of poetry and the ways they are performed, including those in songs and signed literatures. Focusing on language, form and memory, he helps us understand why poetry is a particularly valued way of using language. A fresh exploration of poetry, the book will be welcomed by students and researchers of literature, linguistics and psychology, as well as anyone interested in poetry.

This book presents a model of computing and a measure of computational complexity which are intended to facilitate analysis of computations performed by people, machines, or a mixed system of people and machines. The model is designed to apply directly to models of economic theory, which typically involve continuous variables and smooth functions, without requiring analysis of approximations. The model permits analysis of the feasibility and complexity of the calculations required of economic agents in order for them to arrive at their decisions. The treatment contains applications of the model to game theory and economics, including comparison of the complexities of different solution concepts in certain bargaining games, and the trade-off between communication and computation in an example of an Edgeworth Box economy.

The search for the origins of language was one of the most pressing philosophical issues of the eighteenth century. What has often escaped notice, however, is the fact that music figures prominently in this search. This study analyses instances of thinking or reasoning about music and music theory as they appear within the logical and narrative structure of contemporary texts, including writings by Rousseau, Diderot, Rameau and Condillac. These can only be properly understood as part of an interdisciplinary project, as situated within a field of larger cultural issues and concerns. The author is interested in the ways in which music functions within this discursive framework to facilitate links between language and meaning, and between conceptions of an original society and an ideal social order.

This book presents a model of computing and a measure of computational complexity which are intended to facilitate analysis of computations performed by people, machines, or a mixed system of people and machines. The model is designed to apply directly to models of economic theory, which typically involve continuous variables and smooth functions, without requiring analysis of approximations. The model permits analysis of the feasibility and complexity of the calculations required of economic agents in order for them to arrive at their decisions. The treatment contains applications of the model to game theory and economics, including comparison of the complexities of different solution concepts in certain bargaining games, and the trade-off between communication and computation in an example of an Edgeworth Box economy.

This book was originally published in 1982. Plant growth curves are progressions of plant size against time. This book reviews the theory, practice and applications of the use of fitted mathematical functions in plant growth analysis: a subject which, despite relatively distant origins, only came into prominence following the widespread availability of computing support. The author provides a very broad approach to the subject, and includes an extended coverage of the philosophical and scientific links between this topic and related fields of activity in plant science. The work is written simply for the experimenter who grows plants and makes sequential observations on them, assuming only moderate mathematical, statistical and computational expertise, and showing how much may be achieved by modest means.

International courts have proliferated in the international system, with over one hundred judicial or quasi-judicial bodies in existence today. This book develops a rational legal design theory of international adjudication in order to explain the variation in state support for international courts. Initial negotiators of new courts, 'originators', design international courts in ways that are politically and legally optimal. States joining existing international courts, 'joiners', look to the legal rules and procedures to assess the courts' ability to be capable, fair and unbiased. The authors demonstrate that the characteristics of civil law, common law and Islamic law influence states' acceptance of the jurisdiction of international courts, the durability of states' commitments to international courts, and the design of states' commitments to the courts. Furthermore, states strike cooperative agreements most effectively in the shadow of an international court that operates according