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Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Acknowledgments chapter 1 The Roots of Earth Sciences 1 Classical Scientific Thought 1 The Copernican Revolution 2 From Physics and Philosophy to Geology 4 The Age of the Earth 6 chapter 2 The Earth in the Context of Our Solar System 9 The Origins of the Solar System The Elements of the Solar System The Planets Circling the Sun chapter 3 The Formation of Earth and Moon 21 Similarities and Differences 21 Exploring the Moon chapter 4 The Interior of the Earth and the Role of Seismology Seismic Waves 28 The Earth¿s Interior 36 chapter 5 Rotation and Shape, Gravity and Tides 41 Describing the Earth¿s Shape Tides 44 Rotation 44 43 27 23 15 12 10 xiii xi chapter 6 The Earth¿s Magnetic Field 47 Establishing a Physical Concept Reversals of the Magnetic Field 51 Paleomagnetism chapter 7 Atom¿Mineral¿Rock 59 Crystallization 60 Minerals in Crust and Mantle 60 Rocks chapter 8 The Early Ages 71 The Archean 71 The Proterozoic 77 chapter 9 Radioactive Dating The Chemistry of Unstable Elements Determining the Age Applications of Radioactive Dating Techniques Carbon Dating 90 chapter10 Plate Tectonics Twentieth-Century Research Gathering Evidence 95 Drifting Plates 3 Pangea and Beyond 4 chapter11 The Crust of the Earth 7 The Moho 7 The Crust Hydrocarbons 4 Coal 9 Other Subsurface-based Resources 9 12 12 12 108 10 10 10 10 94 93 89 83 81 81 63 52 48 chapter12 Formation of Mountains and Basins Collisions Orogeny Sediment BasinsSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 220 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book is an introduction to two higher-categorical topics in algebraic topology and algebraic geometry relying on simplicial methods. It is based on lectures - livered at the Centre de Recerca Matem ati ca in February 2008, as part of a special year on Homotopy Theory and Higher Categories. Ieke Moerdijk¿s lectures constitute an introduction to the theory ofdendroidal sets, an extension of the theory of simplicial sets designed as a foundation for the homotopy theory of operads. The theory has many features analogous to the theory of simplicial sets, but it also reveals many new phenomena, thanks to the presence of automorphisms of trees. Dendroidal sets admit a closed symmetric monoidal structure related to the Boardman{Vogt tensor product. The lecture notes develop the theory very carefully, starting from scratch with the combinatorics of trees, and culminating with a model structure on the category of dendroidal sets for which the brant objects are the inner Kan dendroidal sets. The important concepts are illustrated with detailed examples.Springer Basel AG in Springer Science + Business Media, Heidelberger Platz 3, 14197 Berlin 196 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Asperger's has never been clearly defined, bordering autism on one side and high intelligence and verbal eccentricity on the other. The disease is a kind of cultural lightning rod. First, it's a condition onto which we project the very real and well-founded fears of social isolation inherent in mental illness. But also attached to it is a kind of admiration and envy and (among those who suffer from Asperger's) a kind of elitism, a sense of being one of the elect, in a world mainly peopled by neurotypicals.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 244 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Boeing's 737 is indisputably the most popular and arguably the safest commercial airliner in the world. But the plane had a lethal flaw, and only after several disastrous crashes and years of painstaking investigation was the mystery of its rudder failure solved. This book tells the story of how engineers and scientists finally uncovered the defect that had been engineered into the plane.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 316 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -We are poised at a major turning point in the history of information management via computers. Recent evolutions in computing, communications, and commerce are fundamentally reshaping the ways in which we humans interact with information, and generating enormous volumes of electronic data along the way. As a result of these forces, what will data management technologies, and their supporting software and system architectures, look like in ten years It is difficult to say, but we can see the future taking shape now in a new generation of information access platforms that combine strategies and structures of two familiar -- and previously quite distinct -- technologies, search engines and databases, and in a new model for software applications, the Search-Based Application (SBA), which offers a pragmatic way to solve both well-known and emerging information management challenges as of now. Search engines are the world's most familiar and widely deployed information access tool, used byhundreds of millions of people every day to locate information on the Web, but few are aware they can now also be used to provide precise, multidimensional information access and analysis that is hard to distinguish from current database applications, yet endowed with the usability and massive scalability of Web search. In this book, we hope to introduce Search Based Applications to a wider audience, using real case studies to show how this flexible technology can be used to intelligently aggregate large volumes of unstructured data (like Web pages) and structured data (like database content), and to make that data available in a highly contextual, quasi real-time manner to a wide base of users for a varied range of purposes. We also hope to shed light on the general convergences underway in search and database disciplines, convergences that make SBAs possible, and which serve as harbingers of information management paradigms and technologies to come. Table of Contents: Search Based Applications / Evolving Business Information Access Needs / Origins and Histories / Data Models and Storage / Data Collection/Population / Data Processing / Data Retrieval / Data Security, Usability, Performance, Cost / Summary Evolutions and Convergences / SBA Platforms / SBA Uses and Preconditions / Anatomy of a Search Based Application / Case Study: GEFCO / Case Study: Urbanizer / Case Study: National Postal Agency / Future DirectionsSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 188 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Being able to recover the shape of 3D deformable surfaces from a single video stream would make it possible to field reconstruction systems that run on widely available hardware without requiring specialized devices. However, because many different 3D shapes can have virtually the same projection, such monocular shape recovery is inherently ambiguous. In this survey, we will review the two main classes of techniques that have proved most effective so far: The template-based methods that rely on establishing correspondences with a reference image in which the shape is already known, and non-rigid structure-from-motion techniques that exploit points tracked across the sequences to reconstruct a completely unknown shape. In both cases, we will formalize the approach, discuss its inherent ambiguities, and present the practical solutions that have been proposed to resolve them. To conclude, we will suggest directions for future research. Table of Contents: Introduction / Early Approaches toNon-Rigid Reconstruction / Formalizing Template-Based Reconstruction / Performing Template-Based Reconstruction / Formalizing Non-Rigid Structure from Motion / Performing Non-Rigid Structure from Motion / Future DirectionsSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 116 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Increasingly, biomedical scientists and engineers are involved in projects, design, or research and development that involve humans or animals. The book presents general concepts on professionalism and the regulation of the profession of engineering, including a discussion on what is ethics and moral conduct, ethical theories and the codes of ethics that are most relevant for engineers. An ethical decision-making process is suggested. Other issues such as conflicts of interest, plagiarism, intellectual property, confidentiality, privacy, fraud, and corruption are presented. General guidelines, the process for obtaining ethics approval from Ethics Review Boards, and the importance of obtaining informed consent from volunteers recruited for studies are presented. A discussion on research with animals is included. Ethical dilemmas focus on reproductive technologies, stem cells, cloning, genetic testing, and designer babies. The book includes a discussion on ethics and the technologies ofbody enhancement and of regeneration. The importance of assessing the impact of technology on people, society, and on our planet is stressed. Particular attention is given to nanotechnologies, the environment, and issues that pertain to developing countries. Ideas on gender, culture, and ethics focus on how research and access to medical services have, at times, been discriminatory towards women. The cultural aspects focus on organ transplantation in Japan, and a case study of an Aboriginal child in Canada; both examples show the impact that culture can have on how care is provided or accepted. The final section of the book discusses data collection and analysis and offers a guideline for honest reporting of results, avoiding fraud, or unethical approaches. The appendix presents a few case studies where fraud and/or unethical research have occurred. Table of Contents: Introduction to Ethics / Experiments with Human Subjects or Animals / Examples of Ethical Dilemmas in Biomedical Research / Technology and Society / Gender, Culture, and Ethics / Data Collection and AnalysisSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 84 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Object-oriented databases were originally developed as an alternative to relational database technology for the representation, storage, and access of non-traditional data forms that were increasingly found in advanced applications of database technology. After much debate regarding object-oriented versus relational database technology, object-oriented extensions were eventually incorporated into relational technology to create object-relational databases. Both object-oriented databases and object-relational databases, collectively known as object databases, provide inherent support for object features, such as object identity, classes, inheritance hierarchies, and associations between classes using object references. This monograph presents the fundamentals of object databases, with a specific focus on conceptual modeling of object database designs. After an introduction to the fundamental concepts of object-oriented data, the monograph provides a review of object-oriented conceptualmodeling techniques using side-by-side Enhanced Entity Relationship diagrams and Unified Modeling Language conceptual class diagrams that feature class hierarchies with specialization constraints and object associations. These object-oriented conceptual models provide the basis for introducing case studies that illustrate the use of object features within the design of object-oriented and object-relational databases. For the object-oriented database perspective, the Object Data Management Group data definition language provides a portable, language-independent specification of an object schema, together with an SQL-like object query language. LINQ (Language INtegrated Query) is presented as a case study of an object query language together with its use in the db4o open-source object-oriented database. For the object-relational perspective, the object-relational features of the SQL standard are presented together with an accompanying case study of the object-relational features of Oracle. For completeness of coverage, an appendix provides a mapping of object-oriented conceptual designs to the relational model and its associated constraints. Table of Contents: List of Figures / List of Tables / Introduction to Object Databases / Object-Oriented Databases / Object-Relational DatabasesSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 176 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Combating neural degeneration from injury or disease is extremely difficult in the brain and spinal cord, i.e. central nervous system (CNS). Unlike the peripheral nerves, CNS neurons are bombarded by physical and chemical restrictions that prevent proper healing and restoration of function. The CNS is vital to bodily function, and loss of any part of it can severely and permanently alter a person's quality of life. Tissue engineering could offer much needed solutions to regenerate or replace damaged CNS tissue. This review will discuss current CNS tissue engineering approaches integrating scaffolds, cells and stimulation techniques. Hydrogels are commonly used CNS tissue engineering scaffolds to stimulate and enhance regeneration, but fiber meshes and other porous structures show specific utility depending on application. CNS relevant cell sources have focused on implantation of exogenous cells or stimulation of endogenous populations. Somatic cells of the CNS are rarely utilized for tissue engineering; however, glial cells of the peripheral nervous system (PNS) may be used to myelinate and protect spinal cord damage. Pluripotent and multipotent stem cells offer alternative cell sources due to continuing advancements in identification and differentiation of these cells. Finally, physical, chemical, and electrical guidance cues are extremely important to neural cells, serving important roles in development and adulthood. These guidance cues are being integrated into tissue engineering approaches. Of particular interest is the inclusion of cues to guide stem cells to differentiate into CNS cell types, as well to guide neuron targeting. This review should provide the reader with a broad understanding of CNS tissue engineering challenges and tactics, with the goal of fostering the future development of biologically inspired designs.Table of Contents: Introduction / Anatomy of the CNS and Progression of Neurological Damage / Biomaterials for Scaffold Preparation / Cell Sources for CNS TE / Stimulation and Guidance / Concluding RemarksSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 124 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Bacterial reporters are live, genetically engineered cells with promising application in bioanalytics. They contain genetic circuitry to produce a cellular sensing element, which detects the target compound and relays the detection to specific synthesis of so-called reporter proteins (the presence or activity of which is easy to quantify). Bioassays with bacterial reporters are a useful complement to chemical analytics because they measure biological responses rather than total chemical concentrations. Simple bacterial reporter assays may also replace more costly chemical methods as a first line sample analysis technique. Recent promising developments integrate bacterial reporter cells with microsystems to produce bacterial biosensors.This lecture presents an in-depth treatment of the synthetic biological design principles of bacterial reporters, the engineering of which started as simple recombinant DNA puzzles, but has now become a more rational approach of choosing and combining sensing, controlling and reporting DNA 'parts'. Several examples of existing bacterial reporter designs and their genetic circuitry will be illustrated. Besides the design principles, the lecture also focuses on the application principles of bacterial reporter assays. A variety of assay formats will be illustrated, and principles of quantification will be dealt with. In addition to this discussion, substantial reference material is supplied in various Annexes.Table of Contents: Short History of the use of Bacteria for Biosensing and Bioreporting / Genetic Engineering Concepts / Measuring with Bioreporters / EpilogueSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 168 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The presence of oriented features in images often conveys important information about the scene or the objects contained; the analysis of oriented patterns is an important task in the general framework of image understanding. As in many other applications of computer vision, the general framework for the understanding of oriented features in images can be divided into low- and high-level analysis. In the context of the study of oriented features, low-level analysis includes the detection of oriented features in images; a measure of the local magnitude and orientation of oriented features over the entire region of analysis in the image is called the orientation field. High-level analysis relates to the discovery of patterns in the orientation field, usually by associating the structure perceived in the orientation field with a geometrical model. This book presents an analysis of several important methods for the detection of oriented features in images, and a discussion of the phase portrait method for high-level analysis of orientation fields. In order to illustrate the concepts developed throughout the book, an application is presented of the phase portrait method to computer-aided detection of architectural distortion in mammograms. Table of Contents: Detection of Oriented Features in Images / Analysis of Oriented Patterns Using Phase Portraits / Optimization Techniques / Detection of Sites of Architectural Distortion in MammogramsSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 168 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This lecture presents a study of the microarchitecture of contemporary microprocessors. The focus is on implementation aspects, with discussions on their implications in terms of performance, power, and cost of state-of-the-art designs. The lecture starts with an overview of the different types of microprocessors and a review of the microarchitecture of cache memories. Then, it describes the implementation of the fetch unit, where special emphasis is made on the required support for branch prediction. The next section is devoted to instruction decode with special focus on the particular support to decoding x86 instructions. The next chapter presents the allocation stage and pays special attention to the implementation of register renaming. Afterward, the issue stage is studied. Here, the logic to implement out-of-order issue for both memory and non-memory instructions is thoroughly described. The following chapter focuses on the instruction execution and describes the different functional units that can be found in contemporary microprocessors, as well as the implementation of the bypass network, which has an important impact on the performance. Finally, the lecture concludes with the commit stage, where it describes how the architectural state is updated and recovered in case of exceptions or misspeculations. This lecture is intended for an advanced course on computer architecture, suitable for graduate students or senior undergrads who want to specialize in the area of computer architecture. It is also intended for practitioners in the industry in the area of microprocessor design. The book assumes that the reader is familiar with the main concepts regarding pipelining, out-of-order execution, cache memories, and virtual memory. Table of Contents: Introduction / Caches / The Instruction Fetch Unit / Decode / Allocation / The Issue Stage / Execute / The Commit Stage / References / Author BiographiesSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 120 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Telecommunications is a major global industry, and this unique book chronicles the development of this complex technology from the electric telegraph to the Internet in a simple, accessible, and entertaining way. The book opens with the early years of the electric telegraph. The reader will learn how the Morse telegraph evolved into an international network that spanned the globe, starting with the development of international undersea cables, and the heroic attempts to lay a trans-Atlantic cable. The book describes the events that led to the invention of the telephone, and the subsequent disputes over who had really invented it. It takes a look at some of the most important applications that have appeared on the Internet, the mobile revolution, and ends with a discussion of future key developments in the telecommunications industry.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 320 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Many people think there is only one ¿right¿ way to teach geometry. For two millennia, the ¿right¿ way was Euclid¿s way, and it is still good in many respects. But in the 1950s the cry ¿Down with triangles!¿ was heard in France and new geometry books appeared, packed with linear algebra but with no diagrams. Was this the new ¿right¿ way, or was the ¿right¿ way something else again, perhaps transformation groups In this book, I wish to show that geometry can be developed in four fundamentally different ways, and that all should be used if the subject is to be shown in all its splendor. Euclid-style construction and axiomatics seem the best way to start, but linear algebra smooths the later stages by replacing some tortuous arguments by simple calculations. And how can one avoid projective geometry It not only explains why objects look the way they do; it also explains why geometry is entangled with algebra. Finally, one needs to know that there is not one geometry, but many, and transformation groups are the best way to distinguish between them. Two chapters are devoted to each approach: The rst is concrete and introductory, whereas the second is more abstract. Thus, the rst chapter on Euclid is about straightedge and compass constructions; the second is about axioms and theorems. The rst chapter on linear algebra is about coordinates; the second is about vector spaces and the inner product.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 244 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Most of the interesting and difficult problems in statistical mechanics arise when the constituent particles of the system interact with each other with pair or multi particle energies. The types of behaviour which occur in systems because of these interactions are referred to as cooperative phenomena giving rise in many cases to phase transitions. This book and its companion volume (Lavis and Bell 1999, referred to in the text simply as Volume 2) are princi pally concerned with phase transitions in lattice systems. Due mainly to the insights gained from scaling theory and renormalization group methods, this 1 subject has developed very rapidly over the last thirty years. In our choice of topics we have tried to present a good range of fundamental theory and of applications, some of which reflect our own interests. A broad division of material can be made between exact results and ap proximation methods. We have found it appropriate to include some of our discussion of exact results in this volume and some in Volume 2. The other main area of discussion in this volume is mean-field theory leading to closed form approximations. Although this is known not to give reliable results close to a critical region, it often provides a good qualitative picture for phase dia grams as a whole. For complicated systems some kind of mean-field method is often the only tractable method available.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 384 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -'Once upon a time there was no Universe,' began the Storyteller. . . .'First Snow White encounters one of the Little People, then one of the Even Smaller People, and finally one of the Truly Infinitesimal People. And no matter how diligently she searches, the only dwarves she can find are collapsed stars! Clearly, she¿s not at home in her well-known Brothers Grimm fairy tale, but instead in a strange new landscape that features quantum behavior, the wavelike properties of particles, and the Uncertainty Principle. She (and we) must have entered, in short, one of the worlds created by Robert Gilmore, the physicist and fabulist who brought us the classic 'Alice in Quantumland.'Whether he¿s recasting such classic tales as 'Jack and the Quarkstalk,' 'Waking Beauty,' or 'Cinderenda and the Death of Stars,' Gilmore shows us that there¿s more than one way to shed light on the strange profundities of modern physics and cosmology, and what they have to tell us about the nature of time and space and motion. Black holes, dying stars, traveling backward through time to the Big Bang - they¿re all here in accessible, instructive, and charmingly illustrated retellings.Robert Gilmore has published three previous books with Copernicus, 'Alice in Quantumland,' 'Scrooge¿s Cryptic Carol,' and 'The Wizard of Quarks.' He is a Visiting Research Fellow, with a special focus on the public understanding of science, at Bristol University in England. He has also worked in particle physics at Brookhaven, Stanford, and CERN in Geneva.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 244 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -A geometry able to include mountains and clouds now exists. I put it together in 1975, but of course it incorporates numerous pieces that have been around for a very long time. Like everything in science, this new geometry has very, very deep and long roots. Benoît B. Mandelbrot Introduction This enhanced and expanded edition of THE COLOURS OF INFINITY features an additional chapter on the money markets by the fractal master himself, Professor Benoît Mandelbrot. The DVD of the film associated with this book has been re-mastered especially for this edition with exquisite new fractal animations, which will take your breath away! Driven by the curious enthusiasm that engulfs many fractalistas, in 1994, Nigel Lesmoir-Gordon overcame enormous obstacles to raise the finance for, then shoot and edit the groundbreaking TV documentary from which this book takes its name. The film has been transmitted on TV channels in over fifty countries around the world. This book is not just a celebration of the discovery of the Mandelbrot set, it also brings fractal geometry up to date with a gathering of the thoughts and enthusiasms of the foremost writers and researchers in the field. As Ian Stewart makes clear in the opening chapter, there were antecedents for fractal geometry before 1975 when Mandelbrot gave the subject its name and began to develop the underlying theory.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 220 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Epidermal Cell Tumors: The Basics will serve as an effective and efficient handbook for the student of dermatopathology, and as a practical bench reference for the practicing diagnostician who desires rapid access to criteria that are useful in differentiating histologically similar entities. The reader will be able to focus upon a single histologic observation, i.e., inflammatory conditions without epidermal changes, and use this as a starting point from which to build a differential diagnosis based upon pattern recognition. As each entity is addressed, there will be a concise discussion of the basic clinical findings and epidemiologic associations. This will be followed by a histologic description, highlighting areas that serve to discriminate between the entity under discussion and similar ones. Any immunologic studies that might augment the diagnostic sensitivity or specificity will be discussed.The chapters are thematically based and consist of essential bullet points arranged in organized outlines allowing for easy access and direct comparison between entities. The salient histologic features are depicted with abundant high quality, full-color photomicrographs placed immediately adjacent to the appropriate histologic bullet points. This volume will serve as an effective and efficient handbook for the student of dermatopathology, and as a practical bench reference for the practicing diagnostician who desires rapid access to criteria that are useful in differentiating histologically similar entities. The elaborate pictorial documentation will also enable the book to serve as an atlas of the commonest dermatologic disorders.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Linear Algebra is intended for a one-term course at the junior or senior level. It begins with an exposition of the basic theory of vector spaces and proceeds to explain the fundamental structure theorems for linear maps, including eigenvectors and eigenvalues, quadric and hermitian forms, diagonalization of symmetric, hermitian, and unitary linear maps and matrices, triangulation, and Jordan canonical form. The book also includes a useful chapter on convex sets and the finite-dimensional Krein-Milman theorem. The presentation is aimed at the student who has already had some exposure to the elementary theory of matrices, determinants, and linear maps. However, the book is logically self-contained. In this new edition, many parts of the book have been rewritten and reorganized, and new exercises have been added.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 308 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This is a book about representing symmetry in quantum mechanics. The book is on a graduate and/or researcher level and it is written with an attempt to be concise, to respect conceptual clarity and mathematical rigor. The basic structures of quantum mechanics are used to identify the automorphism group of quantum mechanics. The main concept of a symmetry action is defined as a group homomorphism from a given group, the group of symmetries, to the automorphism group of quantum mechanics. The structure of symmetry actions is determined under the assumption that the symmetry group is a Lie group. The Galilei invariance is used to illustrate the general theory by giving a systematic presentation of a Galilei invariant elementary particle. A brief description of the Galilei invariant wave equations is also given.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 124 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Much like their authors, the ideas behind books can grow and change on the way from proposal to manuscript. I originally planned to join the discussion on care and economics at a different, more policy-oriented level, hoping to identify the conditions under which caring services are taken to the market. In approaching the task, however, I realized that economic science lacked an overall concept of caring. Economists' notions of caring and their knowledge of its basic elements and structural characteristics were fragmented. Caring activities were treated in the context of household work, unpaid work, or subsistence and informal work. None of the different approaches shared a common frame of reference. This has made it impossible to study caring activities across the various realms of the economy, independent of whether provided in a family setting, purchased on the market, or supplied by the state or society. I therefore found I had to begin my questioning earlier, at the level of basic understandings and concepts.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 156 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Capital theory is a cornerstone of modern economics. Its ideas are fundamental for dynamic equilibrium theory and its concepts are applied in many branches of economics like game theory, resource and environmental economics, although this may not be recognized on a first glance. In this monograph, an approach is presented, which allows to derive important results of capital theory in a coherent and readily accessible framework. A special emphasis is given on infinite horizon and overlapping generations economics. Irreversibility of time, or the failure of the market system appear in a different light if an infinite horizon framework is applied. To bridge the gap between pure and applied economic theory, the structure of our theoretical approach is integrated in a computable general equilibrium model.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 304 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The Europäische Akademie Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler GmbH is concerned with the scientific study ofthe consequences of scientific and technological advance for the individual, society and the natural environment and, therefore, not least with the study of consequences of recent developments in life-sciences and medical disci plines. The Europäische Akademie intends to contribute to find a rational way for society to deal with the consequences of scientific progress. This aim is mainly realised by proposing recommendations for options of action with long-term social acceptance. The work of the Europäische Akademie mostly takes place in tempo rary interdisciplinary project groups, whose members are recognised scientists from European universities and other independent institutes. In the light of recent discussions on the validity of scientific assumptions con cerning the extrapolation ofharmful effects into the low-dose range the Europäis che Akademie set up a project on 'Lew-Dose Exposures in the Environment their Risk Assessments and Regulatory Processes' in January 2001. Experts ofradiobi ology, toxicology, medical epidemiology, modelling,jurisprudence, psychology and philosophy from different European countries wcre brought together to discuss cur rent scientific developments in environmental standard setting and risk evaluation of substances and ionising radiation at very low doses in order to ensure rational, efficient, and fair decisions. I am glad that by means ofthis memorandum, that continues our work on envi ronmental standards and after our recommendations with respect to the regulation ofcombined agents we can now focus on the effects and the regulation ofharmful agents in the very low-dose range.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 492 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Technology Assessment processes can be taken as a paradigm for interdisciplinary research. It is expected that interdisciplinary Technology Assessment is able to find solutions for actual sociopolitical problems that go beyond those expected from one individual scientific discipline alone. The common notion, that for tasks like this different disciplinary perspectives should be brought together, confronts the fact that there is no common notion on how interdisciplinary research should be done. In the present volume European experts of Technology Assessment present their perspectives on interdisciplinary research. Many focus on methodology, policy consulting, and participation of stakeholders, non-experts and citizens. Others present concrete case studies concerning climate change and health care. Each contribution is commented by an other scientist. The result is a discussion-like examination of the connection between interdisciplinarity and the main subjects of Technology Assesment.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 240 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -A completely revised and updated version of this book was published in 2015 under the title 'The Strategy Planning Process'.A company's strategies define its future direction, specifying not only target market positions for many years to come, but also the key competitive advantages both at the level of market offers and of resources. Developing future strategies is an important and complex task, which is the core issue in this book. After a short introduction to strategic planning, a heuristic process for determining future strategies is presented. This process is divided into eight steps, and for each of these steps, detailed recommendations for problem-solving are provided and illustrated through many concrete examples. The new edition is improved.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 384 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -One of the keys to successful business process engineering is tight alignment of processes with organisational goals and values. Historically, however, it has always been difficult to relate different levels of organizational processes to the strategic and operational objectives of a complex organization with many interrelated and interdependent processes and goals. This lack of integration is especially well recognized within the Human Resource Management (HRM) discipline, where there is a clearly defined need for greater alignment of HRM processes with the overall organizational objectives. Value-Focused Business Process Engineering is a monograph that combines and extends the best on offer in Information Systems and Operations Research/Decision Sciences modelling paradigms to facilitate gains in both business efficiency and business effectiveness.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 284 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The Europaische Akademie zur Erforschung von Folgen wissenschaftlich-techni scher Entwicklungen Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler GmbH (european academy) is con cerned with the scientific study of the consequences of scientific and technological advance for the individual and social life and for the natural environment. The main focus is to examine foreseeable mid-and long-term processes that are especially influenced by natural-and engineering sciences and the medical disciplines. The academy fulfills this task by organizing interdisciplinary expert discussions. Another important issue of the work of the Europaische Akademie concerns the methodology of Technology Assessment as a general issue. This is the main reason that the european academy organized during the past two years a project funded by the European Commission on Technology Assessment. Methods and Impact (TAMI). Together with partners from all over Europe a common understanding of what Tech nology Assessment (TA) is supposed to do was developed. Most importantly it was acknowledged that the core of any TA activity has to be a sound scientific under standing of the relevant phenomena. Communication then is of cordial importance to reach the relevant decision makers as well as the general public. It is true that this phase of the TA process has been treated with too little attention for many years. The communication processes between scientific advisers and policy makers have hence to be further scrutinized.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 272 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -I have endeavored to provide a comprehensive introduction to a wide - riety of statistical methods for the analysis of repeated measurements. I envision this book primarily as a textbook, because the notes on which it is based have been used in a semester-length graduate course I have taught since1991.Thiscourseisprimarilytakenbygraduatestudentsinbiostat- tics and statistics, although students and faculty from other departments have audited the course. I also anticipate that the book will be a useful r- erence for practicing statisticians. This assessment is based on the positive responses I have received to numerous short courses I have taught on this topic to academic and industry groups. Althoughmyintentistoprovideareasonablycomprehensiveoverviewof methodsfortheanalysisofrepeatedmeasurements,Idonotviewthisbook as a de nitive ¿state of the art¿ compendium of research in this area. Some general approaches are extremely active areas of current research, and it is not feasible, given the goals of this book, to include a comprehensive summary and list of references. Instead, my focus is primarily on methods that are implemented in standard statistical software packages. As a result, thelevelofdetailonsometopicsislessthaninotherbooks,andsomemore recent methods of analysis are not included. One particular example is the topic of nonlinear mixed models for the analysis of repeated measurements (Davidian and Giltinan, 1995; Vonesh and Chinchilli, 1996). With respect to some of the more recent methods of analysis, I do attempt to mention some of the areas of current research.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 440 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -S-Cube¿s Foundations for the Internet of Services Today¿s Internet is standing at a crossroads. The Internet has evolved from a source of information to a critical infrastructure which underpins our lives and economies. The demand for more multimedia content, more interconnected devices, more users, a richer user experience, services available any time and anywhere increases the pressure on existing networks and service platforms. The Internet needs a fundamental rearrangement to be ready to meet future needs. One of the areas of research for the Future Internet is the Internet of S- vices, a vision of the Internet where everything (e. g. , information, software, platforms and infrastructures) is available as a service. Services available on the Internet of Services can be used by anyone (if they are used according to the policies de ned by the provider) and they can be extended with new services by anyone. Advantages of the Internet of Services include the p- sibility to build upon other people¿s e orts and the little investment needed upfront to develop an application. The risk involved in pursuing new business ideas is diminished, and might lead to more innovative ideas being tried out in practice. It will lead to the appearance of new companies that are able to operate in niche areas, providing services to other companies that will be able to focus on their core business.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 392 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Database technology and entity-relationship (ER) modeling have meanwhile reached the level of an established technology. This book presents the achievements of research in this field in a comprehensive survey. It deals with the entity-relationship model and its extensions with regard to an integrated development and modeling of database applications and, consequently, the specification of structures, behavior and interaction. Apart from research on the ER model and the syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of database modeling the book also presents techniques for the translation of the ER model into classical database models and languages such as relational, hierarchical, and network models and languages, and also into object-oriented models. The book is of interest for all database theoreticians as well as practitioners who are provided with the relevant foundations of database modeling.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 640 pp. Englisch.