springer international publishing springer international publishing okt 2013 (153 Ergebnisse)

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The 24th century: humankind has become a spacefaring civilization, colonizing the solar system and beyond. While no alien forms of life have yet been encountered in this expansion into space, colonists suddenly encounter machines of alien origin - huge robots able to reproduce themselves. Called replicators by the colonists, they seem to have but a single goal: to destroy all organic life they come in contact with.Since the colonial governments have no means to fight this menace directly, they instead promise huge rewards to whoever destroys a replicator. As a result, the frontier attracts a new kind of adventurers, the Hunters, who work to find and destroy the replicators. Mike Edwards, a skilled young maintenance technician and robotics expert at a faraway outpost, will not only become one of them - but be the very first one to unlock the secret behind the replicators¿ origin and mission.The scientific and technical aspects underlying the plot - in particular space travel, robotics and self-replicating spacecraft - are introduced and discussed by the author in an extensive non-technical appendix.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 140 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Data warehouses consolidate various activities of a business and often form the backbone for generating reports that support important business decisions. Errors in data tend to creep in for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons include errors during input data collection and errors while merging data collected independently across different databases. These errors in data warehouses often result in erroneous upstream reports, and could impact business decisions negatively. Therefore, one of the critical challenges while maintaining large data warehouses is that of ensuring the quality of data in the data warehouse remains high. The process of maintaining high data quality is commonly referred to as data cleaning. In this book, we first discuss the goals of data cleaning. Often, the goals of data cleaning are not well defined and could mean different solutions in different scenarios. Toward clarifying these goals, we abstract out a common set of data cleaning tasks that often need to be addressed. This abstraction allows us to develop solutions for these common data cleaning tasks. We then discuss a few popular approaches for developing such solutions. In particular, we focus on an operator-centric approach for developing a data cleaning platform. The operator-centric approach involves the development of customizable operators that could be used as building blocks for developing common solutions. This is similar to the approach of relational algebra for query processing. The basic set of operators can be put together to build complex queries. Finally, we discuss the development of custom scripts which leverage the basic data cleaning operators along with relational operators to implement effective solutions for data cleaning tasks.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 88 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Ice and Fire: Great Comets to Comewas written because a special celestial event climaxes towards the end of 2013 ¿ the arrival, fresh from the Oort Cloud, of Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON). By all predictions ¿ even the most pessimistic ones ¿ this comet is set to be one of, perhaps the most, dazzling comet seen in modern history and has the astronomical world buzzing with anticipation.Skywatchers have already been primed for C/2012 (ISON) earlier in 2013 with the apparition of another naked-eye comet, C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS), and following C/2012 S1 (ISON) there is the prospect of 2012 K1 (PanSTARRS) reaching naked eye visibility in August 2014. Future bright cometary prospects are also discussed, taking into account the latest predictions.Examining the origin and nature of comets using examples of great cometsfrom the past, this book sets the scene for the arrival of Comet C/2012 S1 and those following it over the next few years in the inner Solar System.Skywatchers and amateur astronomers can learn how to follow, observe and record comets. There is also a guide on how to keep abreast of the latest cometary discoveries and how to use a variety of reputable sources, including publications, websites, programs and apps to visualize and plan observations.The role of the amateur in cometary discovery also is featured, as well as details on how professional astronomers plan to get the most ¿science¿ out of cometary apparitions, how and why professionals go about discovering comets, and upcoming plans to visit comets with space probes (and later, perhaps, human visits).Illustrations provide historic images of comets, images from space probes and images of the latest bright comets. Orbital plots and easy-to-follow sky charts are also included.This book is a unique guide that sets the scene by giving a comprehensive history of comets and examples of great comets throughout history and informs the reader about the nature and originsof this spectacular occurence.Expectations are fully covered by explaining not only what the regular person can expect to see, but how amateur astronomers can plan observations and what steps the professionals are taking to ¿get the most science¿ from this exciting event.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 308 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -In this book we give an overview of modeling techniques used to describe computer systems to mathematical optimization tools. We give a brief introduction to various classes of mathematical optimization frameworks with special focus on mixed integer linear programming which provides a good balance between solver time and expressiveness. We present four detailed case studies -- instruction set customization, data center resource management, spatial architecture scheduling, and resource allocation in tiled architectures -- showing how MILP can be used and quantifying by how much it outperforms traditional design exploration techniques. This book should help a skilled systems designer to learn techniques for using MILP in their problems, and the skilled optimization expert to understand the types of computer systems problems that MILP can be applied to.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 160 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This lecture presents a modern approach for the computation of Mathieu functions. These functions find application in boundary value analysis such as electromagnetic scattering from elliptic cylinders and flat strips, as well as the analogous acoustic and optical problems, and many other applications in science and engineering. The authors review the traditional approach used for these functions, show its limitations, and provide an alternative 'tuned' approach enabling improved accuracy and convergence. The performance of this approach is investigated for a wide range of parameters and machine precision. Examples from electromagnetic scattering are provided for illustration and to show the convergence of the typical series that employ Mathieu functions for boundary value analysis.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 136 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -With its theme, 'Our Information, Always and Forever,' Part I of this book covers the basics of personal information management (PIM) including six essential activities of PIM and six (different) ways in which information can be personal to us. Part I then goes on to explore key issues that arise in the 'great migration' of our information onto the Web and into a myriad of mobile devices. Part 2 provides a more focused look at technologies for managing information that promise to profoundly alter our practices of PIM and, through these practices, the way we lead our lives. Part 2 is in five chapters: - Chapter 5. Technologies of Input and Output. Technologies in support of gesture, touch, voice, and even eye movements combine to support a more natural user interface (NUI). Technologies of output include glasses and 'watch' watches. Output will also increasingly be animated with options to 'zoom'. - Chapter 6. Technologies to Save Our Information. We can opt for 'life logs' to record our experiences with increasing fidelity. What will we use these logs for And what isn¿t recorded that should be - Chapter 7. Technologies to Search Our Information. The potential for personalized search is enormous and mostly yet to be realized. Persistent searches, situated in our information landscape, will allow us to maintain a diversity of projects and areas of interest without a need to continually switch from one to another to handle incoming information. - Chapter 8. Technologies to Structure Our Information. Structure is key if we are to keep, find, and make effective use of our information. But how best to structure And how best to share structured information between the applications we use, with other people, and also with ourselves over time What lessons can we draw from the failures and successes in web-based efforts to share structure - Chapter 9. PIM Transformed and Transforming: Stories from the Past, Present and Future. Part 2 concludes with a comparison between Licklider¿s world of information in 1957 and our own world of information today. And then we consider what the world of information is likely to look like in 2057. Licklider estimated that he spent 85% of his 'thinking time' in activities that were clerical and mechanical and might (someday) be delegated to the computer. What percentage of our own time is spent with the clerical and mechanical What about in 2057 Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 184 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Reading is a complex human activity that has evolved, and co-evolved, with technology over thousands of years. Mass printing in the fifteenth century firmly established what we know as the modern book, with its physical format of covers and paper pages, and now-standard features such as page numbers, footnotes, and diagrams. Today, electronic documents are enabling paperless reading supported by eReading technologies such as Kindles and Nooks, yet a high proportion of users still opt to print on paper before reading. This persistent habit of 'printing to read' is one sign of the shortcomings of digital documents -- although the popularity of eReaders is one sign of the shortcomings of paper. How do we get the best of both worlds The physical properties of paper (for example, it is light, thin, and flexible) contribute to the ease with which physical documents are manipulated; but these properties have a completely different set of affordances to their digital equivalents. Paper can befolded, ripped, or scribbled on almost subconsciously -- activities that require significant cognitive attention in their digital form, if they are even possible. The nearly subliminal interaction that comes from years of learned behavior with paper has been described as lightweight interaction, which is achieved when a person actively reads an article in a way that is so easy and unselfconscious that they are not apt to remember their actions later. Reading is now in a period of rapid change, and digital text is fast becoming the predominant mode of reading. As a society, we are merely at the start of the journey of designing truly effective tools for handling digital text. This book investigates the advantages of paper, how the affordances of paper can be realized in digital form, and what forms best support lightweight interaction for active reading. To understand how to design for the future, we review the ways reading technology and reader behavior have both changed and remainedconstant over hundreds of years. We explore the reasoning behind reader behavior and introduce and evaluate several user interface designs that implement these lightweight properties familiar from our everyday use of paper. We start by looking back, reviewing the development of reading technology and the progress of research on reading over many years. Drawing key concepts from this review, we move forward to develop and test methods for creating new and more effective interactions for supporting digital reading. Finally, we lay down a set of lightweight attributes which can be used as evidence-based guidelines to improve the usability of future digital reading technologies. By the end of this book, then, we hope you will be equipped to critique the present state of digital reading, and to better design and evaluate new interaction styles and technologies.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 136 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The Kalman filter is the Bayesian optimum solution to the problem of sequentially estimating the states of a dynamical system in which the state evolution and measurement processes are both linear and Gaussian. Given the ubiquity of such systems, the Kalman filter finds use in a variety of applications, e.g., target tracking, guidance and navigation, and communications systems. The purpose of this book is to present a brief introduction to Kalman filtering. The theoretical framework of the Kalman filter is first presented, followed by examples showing its use in practical applications. Extensions of the method to nonlinear problems and distributed applications are discussed. A software implementation of the algorithm in the MATLAB programming language is provided, as well as MATLAB code for several example applications discussed in the manuscript.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 84 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -In our digital world, integrated circuits are present in nearly every moment of our daily life. Even when using the coffee machine in the morning, or driving our car to work, we interact with integrated circuits. The increasing spread of information technology in virtually all areas of life in the industrialized world offers a broad range of attack vectors. So far, mainly software-based attacks have been considered and investigated, while hardware-based attacks have attracted comparatively little interest. The design and production process of integrated circuits is mostly decentralized due to financial and logistical reasons. Therefore, a high level of trust has to be established between the parties involved in the hardware development lifecycle. During the complex production chain, malicious attackers can insert non-specified functionality by exploiting untrusted processes and backdoors. This work deals with the ways in which such hidden, non-specified functionality can be introducedinto hardware systems. After briefly outlining the development and production process of hardware systems, we systematically describe a new type of threat, the hardware Trojan. We provide a historical overview of the development of research activities in this field to show the growing interest of international research in this topic. Current work is considered in more detail. We discuss the components that make up a hardware Trojan as well as the parameters that are relevant for an attack. Furthermore, we describe current approaches for detecting, localizing, and avoiding hardware Trojans to combat them effectively. Moreover, this work develops a comprehensive taxonomy of countermeasures and explains in detail how specific problems are solved. In a final step, we provide an overview of related work and offer an outlook on further research in this field.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 116 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Design for security is an essential aspect of the design of future computers. However, security is not well understood by the computer architecture community. Many important security aspects have evolved over the last several decades in the cryptography, operating systems, and networking communities. This book attempts to introduce the computer architecture student, researcher, or practitioner to the basic concepts of security and threat-based design. Past work in different security communities can inform our thinking and provide a rich set of technologies for building architectural support for security into all future computers and embedded computing devices and appliances. I have tried to keep the book short, which means that many interesting topics and applications could not be included. What the book focuses on are the fundamental security concepts, across different security communities, that should be understood by any computer architect trying to design or evaluate security-awarecomputer architectures.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 112 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Research on social networks has exploded over the last decade. To a large extent, this has been fueled by the spectacular growth of social media and online social networking sites, which continue growing at a very fast pace, as well as by the increasing availability of very large social network datasets for purposes of research. A rich body of this research has been devoted to the analysis of the propagation of information, influence, innovations, infections, practices and customs through networks. Can we build models to explain the way these propagations occur How can we validate our models against any available real datasets consisting of a social network and propagation traces that occurred in the past These are just some questions studied by researchers in this area. Information propagation models find applications in viral marketing, outbreak detection, finding key blog posts to read in order to catch important stories, finding leaders or trendsetters, information feed ranking,etc. A number of algorithmic problems arising in these applications have been abstracted and studied extensively by researchers under the garb of influence maximization. This book starts with a detailed description of well-established diffusion models, including the independent cascade model and the linear threshold model, that have been successful at explaining propagation phenomena. We describe their properties as well as numerous extensions to them, introducing aspects such as competition, budget, and time-criticality, among many others. We delve deep into the key problem of influence maximization, which selects key individuals to activate in order to influence a large fraction of a network. Influence maximization in classic diffusion models including both the independent cascade and the linear threshold models is computationally intractable, more precisely #P-hard, and we describe several approximation algorithms and scalable heuristics that have been proposed in the literature. Finally, we also deal with key issues that need to be tackled in order to turn this research into practice, such as learning the strength with which individuals in a network influence each other, as well as the practical aspects of this research including the availability of datasets and software tools for facilitating research. We conclude with a discussion of various research problems that remain open, both from a technical perspective and from the viewpoint of transferring the results of research into industry strength applications.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 180 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The purpose of this CIME summer school was to present current areas of research arising both in the theoretical and applied setting that involve fully nonlinear partial different equations. The equations presented in the school stem from the fields of Conformal Mapping Theory, Differential Geometry, Optics, and Geometric Theory of Several Complex Variables.The school consisted of four courses: Extremal problems for quasiconformal mappings in space by Luca Capogna, Fully nonlinear equations in geometry by Pengfei Guan, Monge-Ampere type equations and geometric optics by Cristian E. Gutiérrez, and On the Levi Monge Ampere equation by Annamaria Montanari.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 224 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This work considers a small random perturbation of alpha-stable jump type nonlinear reaction-diffusion equations with Dirichlet boundary conditions over an interval. It has two stable points whose domains of attraction meet in a separating manifold with several saddle points. Extending a method developed by Imkeller and Pavlyukevich it proves that in contrast to a Gaussian perturbation, the expected exit and transition times between the domains of attraction depend polynomially on the noise intensity in the small intensity limit. Moreover the solution exhibits metastable behavior: there is a polynomial time scale along which the solution dynamics correspond asymptotically to the dynamic behavior of a finite-state Markov chain switching between the stable states.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 180 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This monograph discusses the existence and regularity properties of local times associated to a continuous semimartingale, as well as excursion theory for Brownian paths. Realizations of Brownian excursion processes may be translated in terms of the realizations of a Wiener process under certain conditions. With this aim in mind, the monograph presents applications to topics which are not usually treated with the same tools, e.g.: arc sine law, laws of functionals of Brownian motion, and the Feynman-Kac formula.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 148 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book describes and illustrates the application of several asymptotic methods that have proved useful in the authors' research in electromagnetics and antennas. We first define asymptotic approximations and expansions and explain these concepts in detail. We then develop certain prerequisites from complex analysis such as power series, multivalued functions (including the concepts of branch points and branch cuts), and the all-important gamma function. Of particular importance is the idea of analytic continuation (of functions of a single complex variable); our discussions here include some recent, direct applications to antennas and computational electromagnetics. Then, specific methods are discussed. These include integration by parts and the Riemann-Lebesgue lemma, the use of contour integration in conjunction with other methods, techniques related to Laplace's method and Watson's lemma, the asymptotic behavior of certain Fourier sine and cosine transforms, and the Poisson summation formula (including its version for finite sums). Often underutilized in the literature are asymptotic techniques based on the Mellin transform; our treatment of this subject complements the techniques presented in our recent Synthesis Lecture on the exact (not asymptotic) evaluation of integrals.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 208 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -In its early years, the field of computer vision was largely motivated by researchers seeking computational models of biological vision and solutions to practical problems in manufacturing, defense, and medicine. For the past two decades or so, there has been an increasing interest in computer vision as an input modality in the context of human-computer interaction. Such vision-based interaction can endow interactive systems with visual capabilities similar to those important to human-human interaction, in order to perceive non-verbal cues and incorporate this information in applications such as interactive gaming, visualization, art installations, intelligent agent interaction, and various kinds of command and control tasks. Enabling this kind of rich, visual and multimodal interaction requires interactive-time solutions to problems such as detecting and recognizing faces and facial expressions, determining a person's direction of gaze and focus of attention, tracking movement of thebody, and recognizing various kinds of gestures. In building technologies for vision-based interaction, there are choices to be made as to the range of possible sensors employed (e.g., single camera, stereo rig, depth camera), the precision and granularity of the desired outputs, the mobility of the solution, usability issues, etc. Practical considerations dictate that there is not a one-size-fits-all solution to the variety of interaction scenarios; however, there are principles and methodological approaches common to a wide range of problems in the domain. While new sensors such as the Microsoft Kinect are having a major influence on the research and practice of vision-based interaction in various settings, they are just a starting point for continued progress in the area. In this book, we discuss the landscape of history, opportunities, and challenges in this area of vision-based interaction; we review the state-of-the-art and seminal works in detecting and recognizing the human body and its components; we explore both static and dynamic approaches to 'looking at people' vision problems; and we place the computer vision work in the context of other modalities and multimodal applications. Readers should gain a thorough understanding of current and future possibilities of computer vision technologies in the context of human-computer interaction.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 136 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Motivated by the many and long-standing contributions of H. Gerber and E. Shiu, this book gives a modern perspective on the problem of ruin for the classical Cramér¿Lundberg model and the surplus of an insurance company. The book studies martingales and path decompositions, which are the main tools used in analysing the distribution of the time of ruin, the wealth prior to ruin and the deficit at ruin. Recent developments in exotic ruin theory are also considered. In particular, by making dividend or tax payments out of the surplus process, the effect on ruin is explored.Gerber-Shiu Risk Theory can be used as lecture notes and is suitable for a graduate course. Each chapter corresponds to approximately two hours of lectures.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 104 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This unique book presents a nontechnical view of the history of mechanics, from the Big Bang to present day. The impact of mechanics on the evolution of a variety of subjects is vividly illustrated, including astronomy, geology, astrophysics, anthropology, archeology, ancient history, Renaissance art, music, meteorology, modern structural engineering, mathematics, medicine, warfare, and sports. While enormous in scope, the subject matter is covered (with ample photographic support) at a level designed to capture the interest of both the learned and the curious. The book concludes with a creative and thoughtful examination of the current state of mechanics and possibilities for the future of mechanics.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 436 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -While most texts on real analysis are content to assume the real numbers, or to treat them only briefly, this text makes a serious study of the real number system and the issues it brings to light. Analysis needs the real numbers to model the line, and to support the concepts of continuity and measure. But these seemingly simple requirements lead to deep issues of set theory¿uncountability, the axiom of choice, and large cardinals. In fact, virtually all the concepts of infinite set theory are needed for a proper understanding of the real numbers, and hence of analysis itself.By focusing on the set-theoretic aspects of analysis, this text makes the best of two worlds: it combines a down-to-earth introduction to set theory with an exposition of the essence of analysis¿the study of infinite processes on the real numbers. It is intended for senior undergraduates, but it will also be attractive to graduate students and professional mathematicians who, until now, have been contentto 'assume' the real numbers. Its prerequisites are calculus and basic mathematics.Mathematical history is woven into the text, explaining how the concepts of real number and infinity developed to meet the needs of analysis from ancient times to the late twentieth century. This rich presentation of history, along with a background of proofs, examples, exercises, and explanatory remarks, will help motivate the reader. The material covered includes classic topics from both set theory and real analysis courses, such as countable and uncountable sets, countable ordinals, the continuum problem, the Cantor¿Schröder¿Bernstein theorem, continuous functions, uniform convergence, Zorn's lemma, Borel sets, Baire functions, Lebesgue measure, and Riemann integrable functions.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 260 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book takes readers on a tour through modern methods in image analysis and reconstruction based on level set and PDE techniques, the major focus being on morphological and geometric structures in images. The aspects covered include edge-sharpening image reconstruction and denoising, segmentation and shape analysis in images, and image matching. For each, the lecture notes provide insights into the basic analysis of modern variational and PDE-based techniques, as well as computational aspects and applications.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 332 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the 5th International ICST Conference on Personal Satellite Services, PSATS 2013, held in Toulouse, France, in June 2013. The 18 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. They are grouped in the following topical sections: satellite for emergency and aero communication, satellite for networking, resource management, and air interface.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 224 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the proceedings of the First Asia Pacific Conference on Business Process Management held in Beijing, China, in August 2013.In all, 19 contributions from seven countries were submitted. Following an extensive review process by an international Program Committee, seven full papers and one short paper were accepted for publication in this book and presentation at the conference. In addition, a keynote by Wil van der Aalst is also included.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 136 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book provides an analysis of the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Pringle case. It focuses on the three main aspects of the ruling. First, it examines the part of the judgment concerning the validity of the European Council Decision 2011/199 - adopted under the simplified revision procedure (Article 48(6) TEU) - which provides for the possibility to establish a financial stability mechanism. Second, it evaluates the new rules developed by the Court in order to interpret agreements concluded exclusively by the member states, such as the ESM Treaty. Third, it assesses the Court¿s interpretation of the main provisions of the so-called economic pillar of the Economic and Monetary Union and the fundamental rules provided for by the Treaties (nature of competence, financial assistance, institutional balance, judicial review charter of fundamental rights etc.) with regard to the ESM treaty provisions.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 84 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -¿Decades go by and nothing happens; then weeks go by and decades happen¿. This apt saying encapsulates the dramatic convulsions taking place across the Arab world that first erupted in 2011 in Tunisia and which rapidly spread to other countries. These events have affected the lives of ordinary citizens in many more ways than had been intended when the ¿Arab Spring¿ broke out, with the endgame still not very clear as demonstrated in countries like Egypt, Syria and Libya.By comparison, with some exceptions, the six countries comprising the Gulf Cooperation Council have been relatively unaffected by the general turbulence and uncertainties lapping around them. However, geopolitical shifts involving global superpower rivalries, combined with revolutionary breakthroughs in the non-conventional hydrocarbon energy sector are threatening to challenge the importance of the Arabian Gulf as the world¿s leading suppliers of energy, putting their economies under fiscal stress. The author examines such challenges by:¿Providing the first in-depth statistical analytical assessment of the GCC countries using monthly data over the period 2001 -2013 for the three risk categories- economic, financial and political risks- and their sub ¿components so as to enable policymakers enhance components with low risk , while addressing components with perceived higher risk¿Assessing FDI and capital inflows and outflows before and after the ¿Arab Spring¿ , and how to encourage FDI inflows¿Inter ¿Arab and GCC trade and synergies in power transmission , transportation links and establishing new hubs of centers of manufacturing excellence¿Exploring private sector-led growth models to reduce forecasted unemployment.Being complacent is not an option for the GCC. The aim of the book is that having a better understanding of each of the GCC countries¿ individual riskparameters will enable the GCC meet future challenges and reduce the chances of a negative ¿Arab Spring¿ occurring in the region.Mohamed Ramady is a Visiting Associate Professor at the Department of Finance and Economics, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. His main research interests are the economics of the Middle East and Saudi Arabia in particular, as well as money and banking He also held senior positions with international financial institutions in the Arabian Gulf and Europe.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 304 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book focuses on the notion of ¿vintage innovation¿ and its application in various old technology-based communities of practice. Some communities of practice resist and react to technological change by adopting new technological products (¿vintage products¿) that extend the lifetime of their old, favored products and practices. There are a number of potential reasons for such strategic reactions, which are analyzed by the author. The book opens by reviewing the nature of technological change. Old technology-based communities of practice and their typical reactions to technological change are then discussed, and the concept of vintage innovation, introduced and explained. The book presents four case studies of communities of users in which vintage innovation emerged: analog photographers, radio amateurs, arcade videogame players, and disc jockeys.¿Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 120 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book presents major texts by Prof. Dr. Lourdes Arizpe Schlosser, a pioneering Mexican anthropologist, on the occasion of her 70th birthday. She is a leading researcher into indigenous peoples, an innovator in women¿s studies and a global scientific leader who has inspired the international research and policy communities. Throughout her distinguished career she has analysed ethnicism and indigenous peoples, women in migratory flows, cultural and social sustainability and intangible cultural heritage as social capital, placing these issues on the world agenda for research and policy. Several of the 12 major texts in this volume have been published since 1972 in the US, Europe, Latin America and India; some were first published in Spanish and are available in English for the first time. This anthology also includes recent unpublished texts on culture, development and international cultural policy delivered at high-level international meetings.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 200 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -¿¿ ¿This briefexamines the influence and prestige of scholars and works in the field of Criminology and Criminal Justice, as well as changes in influence and prestige over a period of 25 years, based on citation analysis. Methods of measuring scholarly influencecan behighly controversial, but the authors of this work clearly outline their methodology, developed over years of experience working with this area of study. Through their expertise in Criminology and Criminal Justice,they are able to solve problems that affect or confoundmanytraditional forms of citation analysis,such as irregularly cited references or self-citations.Itincludes 25 years of data (1986 through 2010) on the most-cited scholars and works in major American and international Criminology and Criminal Justice journals, and provides an objective measure of influence and prestige.Through an analysis of the data, the authors alsodocument the intellectual development of criminology and criminal justice as a field of study since 1986. They highlight the development of research trendsand indicate areas for future research. This book is designed for use by scholars and academics in the fields of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and the methodology will be of interest to researchers in related disciplines, including Sociology and Social Psychology.Cohn, Farrington, and Iratzoqui provide an invaluable service in unpacking the criminological enterprise. Using systematic citational analysis, they illuminate the core patterns of scholarly influence that have shaped the field¿s development. This volume is an essential resource for all those wishing to understand which scholars and writings have done most¿within and across time periods¿to affect thinking about crime and justice.Francis T. CullenDistinguished Research ProfessorUniversity of CincinnatiCitation analyses have becomeone of the most significant measures of scholarly influence. They are especially useful for revealing major trends over time regarding authors and the topics of interest to the wider field.Cohn,Farrington, and Iratzoqui's Most Cited Scholars in Criminology and Criminal Justice, 1986-2010provides the most up-to-date, comprehensive, and longitudinal investigation of scholarly influence in criminology/criminal justice. This resource is a most interesting read, one that supplies not a mere counting of citations but clear ideas about where the field has been centered and where it is trending into the future.Alex R. PiqueroAshbel Smith Professor of CriminologyUniversity of Texas at DallasSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 124 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This brief focuses on network planning and resource allocation by jointly considering cost and energy sustainability in wireless networks with sustainable energy. The characteristics of green energy and investigating existing energy-efficient green approaches for wireless networks with sustainable energy is covered in the first part of this brief. The book then addresses the random availability and capacity of the energy supply. The authors explore how to maximize the energy sustainability of the network and minimize the failure probability that the mesh access points (APs) could deplete their energy and put the network out of service due to the unreliable energy supply. This brief also studies network resource management issues in green wireless networks to minimize cost. It jointly considers the relay node (RN) placement and sub-carrier allocation (RNP-SA) issues in wireless networks with sustainable energy, and then formulates the problem into a mixed integer non-linear programming problem. Concise and informative, this brief is a useful resource for professionals or researchers studying wireless networks, communication networks, and energy efficiency. Advanced-level students interested in energy technology or communications engineering will also find the material valuable.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 72 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book presents an update and revision of the book Water Shall Flow from the Rock - Hydrogeology and Climate in the Lands of the Bible by A. Issar,published by Springer-Verlag in 1990. The enormous quantity and quality of new data added since 1990 called for a thorough update. Another reason for this work is the better understanding achieved since the initial book was published about the role which climate plays in shaping the history of the Lands of the Bible. Albeit the fact that the impact of climate change was touched upon rather widely in the first book, still, without interweaving the new data and understanding, the picture would have remained partial.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 136 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The experts of the International Working Group-Landau Network Centro Volta (IWG-LNCV) discuss aspects of cyber security and present possible methods of deterrence, defense and resilience against cyber attacks. This SpringerBrief covers state-of-the-art documentation on the deterrence power of cyber attacks and argues that nations are entering a new cyber arms race. The brief also provides a technical analysis of possible cyber attacks towards critical infrastructures in the chemical industry and chemical safety industry. The authors also propose modern analyses and a holistic approach to resilience and security of Industrial Control Systems. The combination of contextual overview and future directions in the field makes this brief a useful resource for researchers and professionals studying systems security, data security and data structures. Advanced-level students interested in data security will also find this brief a helpful guide to recent research.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 88 pp. Englisch.