springer jul 2005 (58 Ergebnisse)

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Thisiswherewetrytoconvinceyoutobuythisbook,tellyouwhatittriestodo, define a few terms and generally set the scene - all of which makes this more like an introduction than a first chapter, but no-one reads introductions so we called it a chapter. If you have already bought the book and know what it does, feel free to skip to Chapter 2 where the action starts. Whyshouldyoubuythisbook TherearemanyAccessbooksonthemarket,whyshouldIbuythisone Doesithavemore informationthananyotherbook Errr, no, it actually has less than the big reference books you'll also find on the shelf. So,isitverycheap Well, it isn't as expensive as some but, no, it isn't particularly cheap either. Tobebrutallyfrank,you'renotdoingagreatjobofsellingthistome. Right, time for the hard sell. Bill worked for Microsoft as the Development Manager for the first three versions of Access. I (Mark) work as a database consultant, teach database theory and practice at two Universities and have written the UK Personal ComputerWorld's database column for more than ten years. We met (at a database conference, not unreasonably, given our interests) in the summer before Access 1. 0 was launched and found that we shared similar views on how databases should be designed and built. Since then we have writtenabooktogetherabouttherelationalmodelthatunderliesAccessandall other relational database systems (see below for the inevitable plug). But why write a book about Access itself when there are already so many around 3 1 Introduction Well, since Bill was in charge of the product's development, it was fair to assume that we had the technical side reasonably well covered.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Modern cryptology increasingly employs mathematically rigorous concepts and methods from complexity theory. Conversely, current research topics in complexity theory are often motivated by questions and problems from cryptology. This book takes account of this situation, and therefore its subject is what may be dubbed 'cryptocomplexity'', a kind of symbiosis of these two areas.This book is written for undergraduate and graduate students of computer science, mathematics, and engineering, and can be used for courses on complexity theory and cryptology, preferably by stressing their interrelation. Moreover, it may serve as a valuable source for researchers, teachers, and practitioners working in these fields. Starting from scratch, it works its way to the frontiers of current research in these fields and provides a detailed overview of their history and their current research topics and challenges.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - It is often said that mathematics and music go together, and that people with a special aptitude for mathematics often have similar gifts in music. Some music is very profound, and listeners find that there is far more in it than they appreciated at a first hearing. A similar point can be made about an understanding of mathematics.This book introduces the reader to various topics in mathematics and is intended for precocious high school students andcollege students justbeginning their study of mathematics. The topics discussed in this book include a variety of results in number theory involving squares, and also complex numbers, early algebraic ideas such as the Euclidean algorithm, geometricalconstructions created by the Greeks, and more recenttopics such as group theory.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - We all know the hard fact: neither wealth nor income is ever uniform for us all. Justified or not, they are unevenly distributed; few are rich and many are poor! Investigations for more than hundred years and the recent availability of the income distribution data in the internet (made available by the finance ministries of various countries; from the tax return data of the income tax departments) have revealed some remarkable features. Irrespective of many differences in culture, history, language and, to some extent, the economic policies followed in different countries, the income distribution is seen to fol low a particular universal pattern. So does the wealth distribution. Barring an initial rise in population with income (or wealth; for the destitutes), the population decreases either exponentially or in a log-normal way for the ma jority of 'middle income' group, and it eventually decreases following a power law (Pareto law, following Vilfredo Pareto's observation in 1896) for the rich est 5-10 % of the population! This seems to be an universal feature - valid for most of the countries and civilizations; may be in ancient Egypt as well! Econophysicists tried to view this as a natural law for a statistical ma- body-dynamical market system, analogous to gases, liquids or solids: classical or quantum.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Contemporary epistemological and cognitive studies, as well as recent trends in computer science and game theory have revealed an increasingly important and intimate relationship between Information, Interaction, and Agency.Agents perform actions based on the available information and in the presence of other interacting agents. From this perspective Information, Interaction, and Agency neatly ties together classical themes like rationality, decision-making and belief revision with games, strategies and learning in a multi-agent setting.Unified by the central notions Information, Interaction, and Agency, the essays in this volume provide refreshing methodological perspectives on belief revision, dynamic epistemic logic, von Neumann games, and evolutionary game theory; all of which in turn are central approaches to understanding our own rationality and that of other agents.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - The creation of intelligent robots is surely one of the most exciting and ch- lenginggoals of Arti cial Intelligence. A robot is, rst of all, nothing but an inanimate machine with motors and sensors. In order to bring life to it, the machine needs to be programmed so as to make active use of its hardware c- ponents. This turns a machine into an autonomous robot. Since about the mid nineties of the past century, robot programming has made impressive progress. State-of-the-art robots are able to orient themselves and move around freely in indoor environments or negotiate di cult outdoor terrains, they can use stereo vision to recognize objects, and they are capable of simple object manipulation with the help of arti cial extremities. At a time where robots perform these tasks more and more reliably,weare ready to pursue the next big step, which is to turn autonomous machines into reasoning robots.Areasoning robot exhibits higher cognitive capabilities like following complex and long-term strategies, making rational decisions on a high level, drawing logical conclusions from sensor information acquired over time, devising suitable plans, and reacting sensibly in unexpected situations. All of these capabilities are characteristics of human-like intelligence and ultimately distinguish truly intelligent robots from mere autonomous machines.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - If mathematics is a language, then taking a topology course at the undergraduate level is cramming vocabulary and memorizing irregular verbs: a necessary, but not always exciting exercise one has to go through before one can read great works of literature in the original language.The present book grew out of notes for an introductory topology course at the University of Alberta. It provides a concise introduction to set theoretic topology (and to a tiny little bit of algebraic topology). It is accessible to undergraduates from the second year on, but even beginning graduate students can benefit from some parts.Great care has been devoted to the selection of examples that are not self-serving, but already accessible for students who have a background in calculus and elementary algebra, but not necessarily in real or complex analysis.In some points, the book treats its material differently than other texts on the subject: Baire's theorem is derived from Bourbaki's Mittag-Leffler theorem; nets are used extensively, in particular for an intuitive proof of Tychonoff's theorem; a short and elegant, but little known proof for the Stone-Weierstrass theorem is given.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - This book deals with combinatorial aspects of epistasis, a notion that existed for years in genetics and appeared in the eld of evolutionary algorithms in the early 1990s. Even thoughthe rst chapterputsepistasisintheperspective ofevolutionary algorithms and arti cial intelligence, and applications occasionally pop up in other chapters, thisbookisessentiallyaboutmathematics, aboutcombinatorialtechniques to compute in an e cient and mathematically elegant way what will be de ned as normalized epistasis. Some of the material in this book nds its origin in the PhD theses of Hugo Van Hove [97] and Dominique Suys [95]. The sixth chapter also contains material that appeared in the dissertation of Luk Schoofs [84]. Together with that of M. Teresa Iglesias [36], these dissertations form the backbone of a decade of mathematical ventures in the world of epistasis. The authors wish to acknowledge support from the Flemish Fund of Scienti c - search (FWO-Vlaanderen) and of the Xunta de Galicia. They also wish to explicitly mentiontheintellectualandmoralsupporttheyreceivedthroughoutthepreparation of this work from their family and their colleagues Emilio Villanueva, Jose Mar a Barja and Arnold Beckelheimer, as well as our local T T Xpert Jan Adriaenssens.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - School science is dominated by textbook-oriented approaches to teaching and learning. Some surveys reveal that students have to read, depending on academic level, between ten and thirty-six pages per week from their textbook. One therefore has to ask, To what degree do textbooks introduce students to the literary practices of their domain Few studies have addressed the quality of science curriculum materials, particularly textbooks, from a critical perspective. In this light, we are concerned in this book with better understanding the reading and interpretation practices related to visual materials - here referred to as inscriptions - that accompany texts. Our overarching questions included: 'What practices are required for reading inscriptions ' and 'Do textbooks allow students to develop levels of graphicacy required to critically read scientific texts ' Some of the more specific questions included: 'What are the practices of relating inscriptions, captions, and main text ,' and 'What practices are required to read inscriptions in school textbooks ' That is, we are interested not only in understanding what it takes to interpret, read, and understand visual materials (i.e., inscriptions), but also in understanding what it takes to engage inscriptions in a critical way. It is only when citizens can critically engage with language (texts, speech) and inscriptions that they become knowledgeable users of television, newspapers, and magazines, who can choose or leave aside particular expressions as part of the particular politics that they participate in.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Computational Genome Analysis: An Introduction presents the foundations of key problems in computational molecular biology and bioinformatics. It focuses on computational and statistical principles applied to genomes, and introduces the mathematics and statistics that are crucial for understanding these applications. The book is appropriate for a one-semester course for advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students, and it can also introduce computational biology to computer scientists, mathematicians, or biologists who are extending their interests into this exciting field.This book features:- Topics organized around biological problems, such as sequence alignment and assembly, DNA signals, analysis of gene expression, and human genetic variation- Presentation of fundamentals of probability, statistics, and algorithms- Implementation of computational methods with numerous examples based upon the R statistics package- Extensive descriptions and explanations to complement the analytical development- More than 100 illustrations and diagrams (some in color) to reinforce concepts and present key results from the primary literature- Exercises at the end of chaptersFrom the reviews:'The book is useful for its breadth. An impressive variety of topics are surveyed.' Short Book Reviews of the ISI, June 2006'It is a very good book indeed and I would strongly recommend it both to the student hoping to take this study further and to the general reader who wants to know what computational genome analysis is all about.' Mark Bloom for the JRSS, Series A, Volume 169, p. 1006, October 2006'Richard C. Deonier, Simon Tavare and Michael S. Waterman provide us wtih a 'roll up your sleeves and get dirty' (as the authors phrase it in their preface) introduction to the field of computational genome analysis.The bookis carefully written and carefully edited.' Ralf Schmid for Genetic Research, Volume 87, p. 218, 2006.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - The Molecular Mechanisms of Axenfeld-Rieger Syndrome describes the current research and clinical findings of the heterogeneous disorder termed Axenfeld-Rieger Syndrome (ARS). The book provides an in-depth analysis of this phenotypic diverse disorder and is designed to detail the current molecular and biochemical research involved in studying genetic defects. This book brings together the complete analysis of a human genetic defect using humans, mouse and chick epigenetic and genetic studies, combined with cell culture and in vitro analyses. It is a comprehensive study of a unique set of genes and their mutant activities. A molecular basis for the genetic and phenotypic anomalies observed in ARS patients is provided, with especially detailed descriptions of eye, tooth, and heart development.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Based on a unique research study, this volume examines the later life development of Holocaust survivors from Israel and the US. Through systematic interviews, the authors noted researchers and clinicians collected data about the lives of these survivors and how they compared to peers who did not share this experience. The orientation of the book synthesizes several conceptual approaches gerontological and life span development, stress research, and traumatology, and also reflects the varied disciplines of the authors, spanning psychology, social work, and sociology. The result is a multi-faceted view of their subject with an understanding of the individual, society, and the interaction of the two, tempered by the authors own Holocaust experiences. Chapters cover a range of areas including stress and coping of these survivors, reviews of their heath and mental health, an examination of their social integration, as well as a review of the multiple predictors of psychological well-being and adaptation to aging. This book will be of interest to psychologists, social workers, sociologists, psychiatrists, and all those who study both trauma and aging.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - It is widely acknowledged that the cost of validation and testing comprises a s- nificant percentage of the overall development costs for electronic systems today, and is expected to escalate sharply in the future. Many studies have shown that up to 70% of the design development time and resources are spent on functional verification. Functional errors manifest themselves very early in the design flow, and unless they are detected up front, they can result in severe consequence- both financially and from a safety viewpoint. Indeed, several recent instances of high-profile functional errors (e. g. , the Pentium FDIV bug) have resulted in - creased attention paid to verifying the functional correctness of designs. Recent efforts have proposed augmenting the traditional RTL simulation-based validation methodology with formal techniques in an attempt to uncover hard-to-find c- ner cases, with the goal of trying to reach RTL functional verification closure. However, what is often not highlighted is the fact that in spite of the tremendous time and effort put into such efforts at the RTL and lower levels of abstraction, the complexity of contemporary embedded systems makes it difficult to guarantee functional correctness at the system level under all possible operational scenarios. The problem is exacerbated in current System-on-Chip (SOC) design meth- ologies that employ Intellectual Property (IP) blocks composed of processor cores, coprocessors, and memory subsystems. Functional verification becomes one of the major bottlenecks in the design of such systems.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - AGENT INTELLIGENCE THROUGH DATA MINING offers a self-contained overview of a relatively young but important area of research: the intersection of agent technology and data mining. This intersection leads to considerable advancements in the area of information technologies, drawing the increasing attention of both research and industrial communities. It can take two forms: a) the more mundane use of intelligent agents for improved data mining and; b) the use of data mining for smarter, more efficient agents. The second approach is the main focus of this volume.Knowledge, routinely created and maintained by today s applications, is hidden in voluminous data repositories that can be extracted by data mining. The next step is to transform this discovered knowledge into the inference mechanisms or simply the behavior of agents and multi-agent systems. AGENT INTELLIGENCE THROUGH DATA MINING addresses this issue, as well as the arguable challenge of generating intelligence from data while transferring it to a separate, possibly autonomous, software entity. Following a brief review of data mining and agent technology fields, this book presents a methodology for developing multi-agent systems, describes available open-source tools to support this process, and demonstrates the application of the methodology on three different cases.AGENT INTELLIGENCE THROUGH DATA MINING is designed for a professional audience composed of researchers and practitioners in industry. This volume is also suitable for graduate-level students in computer science.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Nanotechnology has received tremendous interest over the last decade, not only from the scientific community but also from a business perspective and from the general public. Although nanotechnology is still at the largely unexplored frontier of science, it has the potential for extremely exciting technological innovations that will have an enormous impact on areas as diverse as information technology, medicine, energy supply and probably many others. The miniturization of devices and structures will impact the speed of devices and information storage capacity. More importantly, though, nanotechnology should lead to completely new functional devices as nanostructures have fundamentally different physical properties that are governed by quantum effects. When nanometer sized features are fabricated in materials that are currently used in electronic, magnetic, and optical applications, quantum behavior will lead to a set of unprecedented properties. The interactions of nanostructures with biological materials are largely unexplored. Future work in this direction should yield enabling technologies that allows the study and direct manipulation of biological processes at the (sub) cellular level.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Why we are the 'other women' This book recognizes a reality, our reality, that of the 'other women'. Why are we the 'other women' Because we are women who, given the fact that we have not had the chance to obtain an academic education, were silenced and have remained outside of the spaces for public debate about women. This exclusion is worse if we are immigrants or belong to an ethnic minority. Those of us who are housewives, domestic workers or factory workers, because we do not have academic degrees, do not have spaces in which our voices can be heard, where we can say what we want. At times women whose voices are heard, because they have been able to go to university or have been leaders in the feminist movement, speak for all of the other women who have not been able to get a formal education, without asking us what it is we really want or think. Through our participation in educational and cultural centers and associations, many of us have formed associations and women's groups. In this way, we are creating spaces where we can discuss issues that we are concerned about: solidarity among women, demands for better widows' pensions, exploitation of domestic workers, etc. And we are organizing ourselves to get our voices, demands and opinions about these issues out there into the public debate.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Data mining and knowledge discovery (DMKD) is a rapidly expanding field in computer science. It has become very important because of an increased demand for methodologies and tools that can help the analysis and understanding of huge amounts of data generated on a daily basis by institutions like hospitals, research laboratories, banks, insurance companies, and retail stores and by Internet users. This explosion is a result of the growing use of electronic media. But what is data mining (DM) A Web search using the Google search engine retrieves many (really many) definitions of data mining. We include here a few interesting ones. One of the simpler definitions is: 'As the term suggests, data mining is the analysis of data to establish relationships and identify patterns' [1]. It focuses on identifying relations in data. Our next example is more elaborate: An information extraction activity whose goal is to discover hidden facts contained in databases. Using a combination of machine learning, statistical analysis, modeling techniques and database technology, data mining finds patterns and subtle relationships in data and infers rules that allow the prediction of future results. Typical applications include market segmentation, customer profiling, fraud detection, evaluation of retail promotions, and credit risk analysis [2].

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Broadband is a key enabler of the information society, increasing productivity and competitiveness across all sectors of the economy. Unlike traditional n- rowband connections, broadband provides high speed, always-on connections to the Internet and supports innovative content and services. Direct consumer welfare gains from mass-market adoption of broadband across the EU could easily reach 50 billion euros or more per annum. This is quite apart from the more profound societal shifts that ubiquitous broadband could bring. It may allow the individual to distribute content and ideas independent of traditional media and bring together communities of interest without regard to borders. Public policy for broadband will have a big impact on whether and how quickly these bene ts are realised. Getting policy right could bring large bene ts for consumers, rms and the economy at large; getting policy wrong risks s- ing both the rollout of broadband and new innovative services, and thus the realisation of the EU's e-Europe vision. In this book, we focus on the residential market for broadband access in EU countries, analysing the current and prospective level of competition and dr- ing implications for public policy. A key aim is to understand better the relative importance of facilities-based and access-based provision in fostering com- tition and promoting take-up of broadband services.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Motion-Free Super-Resolution is a compilation of very recent work on various methods of generating super-resolution (SR) images from a set of low-resolution images. The current literature on this topic deals primarily with the use of motion cues for the purpose of generating SR images. These cues have, it is shown, their advantages and disadvantages. In contrast, this book shows that cues other than motion can also be used for the same purpose, and addresses both the merits and demerits of these new techniques. Motion-Free Super-Resolution supersedes much of the lead author's previous edited volume, 'Super-Resolution Imaging,' and includes an up-to-date account of the latest research efforts in this fast-moving field. This sequel also features a style of presentation closer to that of a textbook, with an emphasis on teaching and explanation rather than scholarly presentation.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - A tutorial approach to using the UML modeling language in system-on-chip designBased on the DAC 2004 tutorial, applicable for students and professionalsContributions by top-level international researchersThe best work at the first UML for SoC workshopUnique combination of both UML capabilities and SoC design issuesCondenses research and development ideas that are only found in multiple conference proceedings and many other books into one placeWill be the seminal reference work for this area for years to come.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Natural duality theory is one of the major growth areas within general algebra. This text provides a short path to the forefront of research in duality theory. It presents a coherent approach to new results in the area, as well as exposing open problems.Unary algebras play a special role throughout the text. Individual unary algebras are relatively simple and easy to work with. But as a class they have a rich and complex entanglement with dualisability. This combination of local simplicity and global complexity ensures that, for the study of natural duality theory, unary algebras are an excellent source of examples and counterexamples.A number of results appear here for the first time. In particular, the text ends with an appendix that provides a new and definitive approach to the concept of the rank of a finite algebra and its relationship with strong dualisability.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - This book is simultaneously a theoretical study in morphosyntax and an in-depth empirical study of Hebrew. Based on Hebrew data, the book defends the status of the root as a lexical and phonological unit and argues that roots, rather than verbs or nouns, are the primitives of word formation. A central claim made throughout the book is the role of locality in word formation, teasing apart word formation from roots and word formation from existing words syntactically, semantically and phonologically.The book focuses on Hebrew, a language with rich verb morphology, where both roots and noun- and verb-creating morphology are morphologically transparent. The study of Hebrew verbs is based on a corpus of all Hebrew verb-creating roots, offering, for the first time, a survey of the full array of morpho-syntactic forms seen in the Hebrew verb. While the focus of this study is on how roots function in word-formation, a central chapter studies the information encoded by the Hebrew root, arguing for a special kind of open-ended value, bounded within the classes of meaning analyzed by lexical semanticists.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - One of the most civilized nations in history, China has a long-standing writing tradition and many Chinese texts have become world treasures. However, the way the Chinese teach writing in various countries in contemporary times is little known to the outside world, especially in Western countries. Undoubtedly, the Chinese have had an established traditional method of writing instruction. However, recent social and political developments have created the perception amongst both practitioners and researchers of a need for change. Whilst certain socio-political changes, both in Mainland China and in the territories, acted as agents for reform of the teaching of composition, the shape these reforms are taking has been due to many different influences, coming both from inside the countries themselves and from foreign sources. Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore have each developed their own approach to the teaching of composition.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - As the drug abuse epidemic evolves, so do the tools needed to understand and treat it. Accordingly, Epidemiology of Drug Abuse takes the long view, cogently outlining what the book calls 'the natural history of drug abuse' and redefining its complex phenomena to reflect our present-day knowledge. Twenty-six eminent contributors discuss the state and future of the field, balancing the practical concerns involved in gathering drug abuse data with the ethics of using the information.- Current thinking on pathways and etiology, as well as medical, psychological, and social sequelae of drug abuse- Proven, up-to-date methodologies for assessment- Challenges of gathering data from high-risk and other user populations- Sampling and application issues- Uses, sources, and limitations of treatment data- Analytical papers applying the methodologies to specific and global studies - The role of epidemiology studies in developing prevention strategiesWith this multifaceted approach to the subject, Epidemiology of Drug Abuse provides researchers and educators with a reference that sheds significant light on infrequently covered areas. In addition, its breadth and accessibility of coverage make it a teaching text suitable to courses in epidemiology, public health, and drug abuse.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Thisisnowthefourtheditionof'TheBasicsofS-Plus'since1997.S-Plus saw a steady growth in popularity, and it established itself in many edu- tional and business places as a major data analysis tool.S-Plus is valued for its modern, interactive data analysis environment, whether it is the p- mary system or a complement to other standards like SAS (the latter is in particular true for the industry we work in, pharmaceuticals). We have followed the various releases with new editions of our book, introducing over time major changes like the incorporation of S Version 4 (the underlying language), Trellis graphs, a graphical user interface, in particular for the Windows operating system, and a chapter on R and its di erencestoS-Plus(thatareminorforthematerialcoveredinthisbook). Thiseditionisanupdatefromedition3tocovernewfunctionsandfeatures ofS-Plus Version 7.0 (working from the beta release for MS Windows and Linux), adding more practical tips and examples, and correcting a few mistakes. We are very grateful to all our readers, in particular those sending us suggestions, comments, and any other kind of feedback. You will see some of these re ected in the book.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Knowledge Management and Management Learning: Extending the Horizons of Knowledge-Based Management examines a range of topical considerations in the field by utilizing dynamic and non-linear systems behavior or the complexity paradigm. From this examination have come a number of new and promising relevant extensions to knowledge management and its practice. Many of the topics have been pulled from 'real world' situations in actual companies, and therefore these topical treatments reflect quantitative and qualitative research done within the knowledge management framework of actual company experience. Offered are a series of topical treatments that extend the parameters of knowledge management and examine the practical implications of these extensions.The book begins with an extended introduction and theoretical framework. The contributing authors have written chapters that add to both the framework and the practical consequences of knowledge management. Within this context, the book illustrates why and how of knowledge management is important for companies.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - This unique book, drawing on the author's lifetime experience, critically evaluates the extensive literature on the field of Metal-Catalysed Reactions of Hydrocarbons. Emphasis is placed on reaction mechanisms involving hydrogenation, hydrogenolysis, skeletal and positional isomerisation, and exchange reactions. The motivation for fundamental research in heterogeneous catalysis is to identify the physicochemical characteristics of active centres for the reaction being studied, to learn how these may be modified or manipulated to improve the desired behavior of the catalyst, and to recognize and control those aspects of the catalyst's structure that limit its overall performance. By restricting the subject of the book to hydrocarbons, Bond has progressively developed the subject matter to include areas of importance both to researchers and to those working in the industry.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - This monograph focuses on the application of the solution strategy known as branch-and-bound to problems of combinatorial data analysis. Combinatorial data analysis problems typically require either the sel- tion of a subset of objects from a larger (master) set, the grouping of a collection of objects into mutually exclusive and exhaustive subsets, or the sequencing of objects. To obtain verifiably optimal solutions for this class of problems, we must evaluate (either explicitly or implicitly) all feasible solutions. Unfortunately, the number of feasible solutions for problems of combinatorial data analysis grows exponentially with pr- lem size. For this reason, the explicit enumeration and evaluation of all solutions is computationally infeasible for all but the smallest problems. The branch-and-bound solution method is one type of partial enume- tion solution strategy that enables some combinatorial data analysis pr- lems to be solved optimally without explicitly enumerating all feasible solutions. To understand the operation of a branch-and-bound algorithm, we d- tinguish complete solutions from partial solutions. A complete solution is one for which a feasible solution to the optimization problem has been produced (e. g. , all objects are assigned to a group, or all objects are - signed a sequence position). A partial solution is an incomplete solution (e. g. , some objects are not assigned to a group, or some objects are not assigned a sequence position).

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - From the reviews of the First Edition: 'This excellent book is based on several sets of lecture notes written over a decade and has its origin in a one-semester course given by the author at the ETH, Zürich, in the spring of 1970. The author's aim was to present some of the best features of Markov processes and, in particular, of Brownian motion with a minimum of prerequisites and technicalities. The reader who becomes acquainted with the volume cannot but agree with the reviewer that the author was very successful in accomplishing this goal.The volume is very useful for people who wish to learn Markov processes but it seems to the reviewer that it is also of great interest to specialists in this area who could derive much stimulus from it. One can be convinced that it will receive wide circulation.' (Mathematical Reviews) This new edition contains 9 new chapters which include new exercises, references, and multiple corrections throughout the original text.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Sustainability of pension systems, intergeneration fiscal equity under population aging, and accounting for health care benefits for future retirees are examples of problems that cannot be solved without understanding the nature of population forecasts and their uncertainty. Similarly, the accuracy of population estimates directly affects both the distributions of formula-based government allocations to sub-national units and the apportionment of political representation. The book develops the statistical foundation for addressing such issues. Areas covered include classical mathematical demography, event history methods, multi-state methods, stochastic population forecasting, sampling and census coverage, and decision theory. The methods are illustrated with empirical applications from Europe and the U.S.For statisticians the book provides a unique introduction to demographic problems in a familiar language. For demographers, actuaries, epidemiologists, and professionals in related fields, the book presents a unified statistical outlook on both classical methods of demography and recent developments. To facilitate its classroom use, exercises are included. Over half of the book is readily accessible to undergraduates, but more maturity may be required to benefit fully from the complete text. Knowledge of differential and integral calculus, matrix algebra, basic probability theory, and regression analysis is assumed.Juha M. Alho is Professor of Statistics, University of Joensuu, Finland, and Bruce D. Spencer is Professor of Statistics and Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University. Both have contributed extensively to statistical demography and served in advisory roles and as statistical consultants in the field.