springer netherlands springer netherlands jul 2014 (61 Ergebnisse)

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -In this edited open access book leading scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds wrestle with social science integration opportunities and challenges. This book explores the growing concern of how best to achieve effective integration of the social science disciplines as a means for furthering natural resource social science and environmental problem solving. The chapters provide an overview of the history, vision, advances, examples and methods that could lead to integration.The quest for integration among the social sciences is not new. Some argue that the social sciences have lagged in their advancements and contributions to society due to their inability to address integration related issues. Integration merits debate for a number of reasons. First, natural resource issues are complex and are affected by multiple proximate driving social factors. Single disciplinary studies focused at one level are unlikely to provide explanations that represent this complexity and are limited in their ability to inform policy recommendations. Complex problems are best explored across disciplines that examine social-ecological phenomenon from different scales. Second, multi-disciplinary initiatives such as those with physical and biological scientists are necessary to understand the scope of the social sciences. Too frequently there is a belief that one social scientist on a multi-disciplinary team provides adequate social science representation. Third, more complete models of human behavior will be achieved through a synthesis of diverse social science perspectives.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 288 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Managed realignment has been a preferred coastal management strategy in England in the 21st century and has also been increasingly implemented elsewhere. Climate change and environmental and financial concerns have led to a shift from the traditional ¿hold-the-line¿ approach of coastal protection towards more flexible soft engineering options. Managed realignment is a relatively new soft engineering alternative aiming to provide sustainable flood risk management with added environmental and socio-economic benefits by creating space for coastal habitats to develop more dynamically. The natural adaptive capacity of coastal habitats and the ecosystem services they provide underpin the sustainability of managed realignment. However, many definitions of managed realignment exist and the understanding of what the term actually represents in practice has evolved through time and varies regionally.This book clarifies the definitions and terminology used in the literature and proposes that managed realignment is used as a general term that encompasses the many different methods of implementation worldwide, including: removal, breach and realignment of defences; controlled tidal restoration (which includes regulated tidal exchange and controlled reduced tide); and managed retreat. These methods of implementation are explained and illustrated with examples from around the world. In addition to a general overview of emerging policies and current practices, specific chapters discuss approaches adopted in different locations, including the Netherlands, the UK and Maui (USA). The UK experience is presented from the perspectives of three sectors: the National Trust (a charity organisation that owns 10% of the coastline of England and Wales), the Environment Agency (the organisation responsible for implementing government policy concerning flood and erosion risk) and a private consultant involved in the planning, design and delivery of managed realignmentprojects. Taking a wider perspective to consider the range of implementation methods, the viability of managed realignment as a long-term coastal management strategy is discussed.Recent national and regional strategies worldwide give managed realignment an increasing role in climate change and flood risk management. Gaining stakeholders and public support is fundamental for the success of emerging coastal management strategies. However, public perception and stakeholders engagement are often cited as a factor limiting the wider uptake of managed realignment. Results from a recent survey are used to benchmark the current thinking about the potential, the performance and the limitations of managed realignment in the UK and elsewhere. Current opinions about managed realignment are often not clearly defined, partly due to many projects being relatively recent. There is a general perception of great potential to provide sustainable flood risk management with added environmental benefits. However, the views of stakeholders are considerably more negative and notably contrast with the views of practitioners and researchers. The only clear and dominant agreement across all groups of respondents is that better understanding about the long-term evolution of sites is needed.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 164 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This text is an introduction to the physics of collisional plasmas, as opposed to plasmas in space. It is intended for graduate students in physics and engineering . The first chapter introduces with progressively increasing detail, the fundamental concepts of plasma physic. The motion of individual charged particles in various configurations of electric and magnetic fields is detailed in the second chapter while the third chapter considers the collective motion of the plasma particles described according to a hydrodynamic model. The fourth chapter is most original in that it introduces a general approach to energy balance, valid for all types of discharges comprising direct current(DC) and high frequency (HF) discharges, including an applied static magnetic field. The basic concepts required in this fourth chapter have been progressively introduced in the previous chapters.The text is enriched with approx. 100 figures, and alphabetical index and 45 fully resolved problems. Mathematical and physical appendices provide complementary information or allow to go deeper in a given subject.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 504 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book disentangles the complex meanings of responsibility in nanotechnology development by focusing on its theoretical and empirical dimensions. The notion of responsibility is extremely diversified in the public discourse of nanoscale technologies. Addressed are major disciplinary perspectives working on nanotechnology, e.g. philosophy, sociology, and political science, as well as the major multidisciplinary areas relevant to the innovation process, e.g. technology assessment and ethics. Furthermore, the interplay between such expertises, disciplines, and research programmes in providing a multidisciplinary understanding of responsibility is emphasized.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 220 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Ouverts a I'ensemble de la communaute internationale, les symposia ASTM-EURATOM sur la dosimetrie des rayonnements de reilcteur traitent de tous les sujets de dosimetrie dans tous les systemes a neutron: dosimetrie des experiences en reacteur, codes d'ajustement, precision, etalons et intercomparaison, donnees nucleaires, techniques de mesure, correlation de dommages radio-induits, echauffement nucleaire, etc . appliques principalement aujourd'hui aux problemes des reacteurs a eau legere, des reacteurs a neutrons rapides et aux systemes a fusion. Les travaux en dosimetrie, tout comme I'ensemble du domaine de I'energie atomique, sont moins caracterises aujourd'hui par des idees scientifiques franchement nouvelles que par la necessite d'echange, de cooperation, de collaboration, appliques a la satisfaction de besoins de type industriel ou quasi-industriel. L'organisation de nos symposia a suivi cette evolution.Nombre de ceux qui y ont participe ont un souvenir emu du ler symposium a Petten en 1975, qui fut une reussite complete.L'organisation et Ie devouement du CCR de Petten y avait beaucoup contribue. Et puis, aussi, c'etait un commencement, c'etait Ie premier de nos symposia . Les symposia suivants, alternativement aux USA et en EUROPE, a rythme sensiblement bi-annuel, ont du faire face progressivement a un besoin plus grand d'echange et de discussion par petits groupes, ainsi qu'a afflux croissant de propositions de communications de valeur. L'organisation a du s'adapter en consequence. Ce 5eme sy~posium ASTM EURATOM represente, de part sa belle reussite, une etape importante de cette evolution et un garant de la maturation correspondante.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 1080 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book explores schools and how they can function as social institutions that advance the interests and life chances of all young people, especially those who are already the most marginalized and at an educational disadvantage. Social justice is a key theme as the book examines the needs of youth, the concept of school culture, school/community relations, socially critical pedagogy, curriculum and leadership and a socially critical approach to work. The Socially Just School is based upon four decades of intensive writing and researching of young lives. This work presents an alternative to the damaging school reform in which schools are made to serve the interests of the economy, education systems, the military, corporate or national interests.Readers will discover the hallmarks of socially just schools: They educationally engage young people regardless of class, race, family or neighbourhood location and they engage them around their own educational aspirations. They regard all young people as being morally entitled to a rewarding and satisfying experience of school, not only those whose backgrounds happen to fit with the values of schools. They treat young people as having strengths and being ¿at promise¿ rather than being ¿at risk¿ and with ¿deficits¿ or as ¿bundles of pathologies¿ to be remedied or ¿fixed¿. They are ¿active listeners¿ to the lives and cultures of their students and communities and they construct learning experiences that are embedded in young lives.This highly readable book will appeal to students and scholars in education and sociology, as well as to teachers and school administrators with an interest in social justice.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 208 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Few faculty members in academic medical centers are formally prepared for their roles as teachers. This work is an introductory text designed to provide medical teachers with the core concepts of effective teaching practice and information about innovations for curriculum design, delivery and assessment. It offers brief, focused chapters with content that is assimilated easily by the reader. The topics are relevant to basic science and clinical teachers and the work does not presume readers possess prerequisite knowledge of education theory or instructional design. The authors emphasize the application of concepts to teaching practice. Topics include: Facilitating Student Learning; Teaching Large Groups; Teaching in Small Groups; Flipping the Classroom; Problem-Based Learning; Team-Based Learning; Teaching Clinical Skills; Teaching with Simulation; Teaching with Practicals and Labs; Teaching with Technological Tools; Teaching to Develop Scientific Engagement in Medical Students; Designing a Course; Establishing and Teaching Elective Courses; Designing Global Health Experiences; Assessing Student Performance; Documenting the Trajectory of Your Teaching and Teaching as Scholarship. This is a complete revision of the first edition of this work with new chapters and up to date information. Similar to the first edition, chapters were written by leaders in medical education and research who draw upon extensive professional experience and the literature on best practices in education. Although designed for teachers, the work reflects a learner-centered perspective and emphasizes outcomes for student learning. The book is accessible and visually interesting and the work contains information that is current, but not time-sensitive. Each chapter concludes with references, many include recommendations for additional reading, and the work includes an appendix with resources for medical education.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 288 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -An emerging trend in the automobile industry is its convergence with information technology (IT). Indeed, it has been estimated that almost 90% of new automobile technologies involve IT in some form. Smart driving technologies that improve safety as well as green fuel technologies are quite representative of the convergence between IT and automobiles. The smart driving technologies include three key elements: sensing of driving environments, detection of objects and potential hazards and the generation of driving control signals including warning signals.Although radar-based systems are primarily used for sensing the driving environments, the camera has gained importance in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).This book covers system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs¿including both algorithms and hardware¿related with image sensing and object detection by using the camera for smart driving systems. It introduces a variety of algorithms such as lens correction, super resolution, image enhancement and object detections from the images captured by low-cost vehicle camera. This is followed by implementation issues such as SoC architecture, hardware accelerator, software development environment and reliability techniques for automobile vision systems.This book is aimed for the new and practicing engineers in automotive and chip-design industries to provide some overall guidelines for the development of automotive vision systems.It will also help graduate students understand and get started for the research work in this field.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 300 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The integrin family is composed of 24 members and approximately ten years ago (2003) we published a book devoted to the nine I domain integrin subunits. In this second edition, I am pleased that most of the original authors have been able to contribute to the updated version.I domain containing integrins include collagen receptors and leukocyte receptors. In 2003 the knockout mouse phenotypes for all of the I domain integrins had not yet been published; they are now, and are summarized and discussed in this edition.Interestingly, a recent 10 integrin mutation in dogs has indicated that collagen-binding integrins in the musculoskeletal system might have much more severe phenotypes in larger animals/humans compared to the mild integrin phenotypes observed in collagen-binding integrin deficient mice. This finding is further discussed in the book.In the cancer field, the microenvironment is taking center stage, and here collagen receptors on fibroblasts are predicted to play important roles in paracrine signaling, in regulating tissue stiffness and matrix remodeling.New technologies, new mouse models in combination with analyses of I integrins in larger animals/humans are thus predicted to increase our knowledge about this group of receptors. With this in mind we look forward to another 10 years of research with I domain integrins.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 196 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book brings together numerous contributions to the field of magnetoelectric (ME) composites that have been reported so far. Theoretical models of ME coupling in composites relate to the wide frequency range: from low-frequency to microwave ones and are based on simultaneous solving the elastostatic/elastodynamic and electrodynamics equations. Suggested models enable one to optimize magnetoelectric parameters of a composite. The authors hope to provide some assimilation of facts into establish knowledge for readers new to the field, so that the potential of the field can be made transparent to new generations of talent to advance the subject matter.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 120 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -SYNER-G, a multidisciplinary effort funded by the European Union, allowed the development of an innovative methodological framework for the assessment of physical as well as socio-economic seismic vulnerability and risk at urban and regional level. The results of SYNER-G are presented in two books both published by Springer, the present and a second one, entitled ¿SYNER-G: Typology Definition and Fragility Functions for Physical Elements at Seismic Risk: Buildings, Lifelines, Transportation Networks and Critical Facilities¿(\*), which provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art of the fragility curves, an alternative way to express physical vulnerability of elements at risk.In this second volume of SYNER-G, the focus has been on presenting a unified holistic methodology for assessing vulnerability at systems level considering interactions between elements at risk (physical and non-physical) and between different systems. The proposed methodology and tool encompasses in an integrated fashion all aspects in the chain, from hazard to the vulnerability assessment of components and systems and to the socio-economic impacts of an earthquake, accounting for most relevant uncertainties within an efficient quantitative simulation scheme. It systematically integrates the most advanced fragility functions to assess the vulnerability of physical assets for buildings, utility systems, transportation networks and complex infrastructures such as harbours and hospitals. The increasing impact due to interactionsbetween different components and systems is treated in a comprehensive way, providing specifications for each network and infrastructure. The proposed socio-economic model integrates social vulnerability into the physical systems modelling approaches providing to decision makers with a dynamic platform to capture post disaster emergency issues like shelter demand and health impact decisions.Application examples at city and regional scale have provided thenecessary validation of the methodology and are also included in the book.The present volume, with its companion volume on fragility functions, represent a significant step forward in the seismic vulnerability and risk assessment of complex interacting urban and regional systems and infrastructures. These volumes are not only of interest to scientists and engineers but also to the insurance industry, decision makers and practitioners in the sector of civil protection and seismic risk management.(\*) Pitilakis K, Crowley E, Kaynia A (eds) (2014) SYNER-G: Typology definition and fragility functions for physical elements at seismic risk, Series: Geotechnical, Geological and Earthquake Engineering 27, ISBN 978-94-007-7872-6, Springer Science+Business Media, Dordrecht.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 412 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This volume contains thirteen articles on advances in applied mathematics and computing methods for engineering problems. Six papers are on optimization methods and algorithms with emphasis on problems with multiple criteria; four articles are on numerical methods for applied problems modeled with nonlinear PDEs; two contributions are on abstract estimates for error analysis; finally one paper deals with rare events in the context of uncertainty quantification. Applications include aerospace, glaciology and nonlinear elasticity.Hereinis a selection of contributions from speakers at two conferences on applied mathematics held in June 2012 at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. The first conference, ¿Optimization and PDEs with Industrial Applications¿ celebrated the seventieth birthday of Professor Jacques Périaux of theUniversity of Jyväskylä and Polytechnic University of Catalonia (Barcelona Tech) and the second conference, ¿Optimization and PDEs with Applications¿ celebrated the seventy-fifth birthday of Professor Roland Glowinski of the University of Houston.This work should be of interest to researchers and practitioners as well as advanced students or engineers in computational and applied mathematics or mechanics.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 260 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The Pacific Arctic region is experiencing rapid sea ice retreat, seawater warming, ocean acidification and biological response. Physical and biogeochemical modeling indicates the potential for step-function changes to the overall marine ecosystem. This synthesis book was coordinated within the Pacific Arctic Group, a network of international partners working in the Pacific Arctic. Chapter topics range from atmospheric and physical sciences to chemical processing and biological response to changing environmental conditions. Physical and biogeochemical modeling results highlight the need for data collection and interdisciplinary modeling activities to track and forecast the changing ecosystem of the Pacific Arctic with climate change.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 468 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The minimum temperature in the natural universe is 2.7 K. Laboratory refrigerators can reach temperatures in the microkelvin range. Modern industrial refrigerators cool foods at 200 K, whereas space mission payloads must be capable of working at temperatures as low as 20 K. Superconducting magnets used for NMR work at 4.2 K.Hence the properties of materials must be accurately known also at cryogenic temperatures.This book provides a guide for engineers, physicists, chemists, technicians who wish to approach the field of low-temperature material properties. The focus is on the thermal properties and a large spectrum of experimental cases is reported. The book presents updated tables of low-temperature data on materials and a thorough bibliography supplements any further research.Key Features include:° Detailed technical description of experiments° Description of the newest cryogenic apparatus° Offers data on cryogenic properties of the latest new materials° Current reference reviewSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 228 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Successive food, economic and environmental crises have prompted the world Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) bodies to spring into action. Faced with the clear failure of public development aid to reduce inequalities and hunger, especially in Africa, wide consensus has been achieved from the World Bank to the G8 via the UN, the European Union and the African Union these past five years on the need to improve agricultural production through sustainable rural development which shows respect for Man and Nature. The ARD has set itself the goal of supporting the implementation of technical, social and institutional responses to sustainable development through a partnership encouraging the pooling of knowledge, increased skills and the autonomy of key players.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 88 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The Dead Sea transform is an active plate boundary connecting the Red Sea seafloor spreading system to the Arabian-Eurasian continental collision zone. Its geology and geophysics provide a natural laboratory for investigation of the surficial, crustal and mantle processes occurring along transtensional and transpressional transform fault domains on a lithospheric scale and related to continental breakup. There have been many detailed and disciplinary studies of the Dead Sea transform fault zone during the last20 years and this book brings them together.This book is an updated comprehensive coverage of the knowledge, based on recent studies of the tectonics, structure, geophysics, volcanism, active tectonics, sedimentology and paleo and modern climate of the Dead Sea transform fault zone. It puts together all this new information and knowledge in a coherent fashion.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 372 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The book is the outcome of a unique venture: a team of Chinese geographers and a team of American geographers collaborated on a new Comparative Geography of China and the United States. The book meets a high demand for comparative information about China and the United States, as the home of the two leading economies in a globalizing world. Comparisons of the two countries include the similarities and differences in their physical environments and natural hazards, the growth and changing spatial distribution of population and ethnic groups in China and the U.S., traditions and contemporary regional expressions of agriculture and food production as well as the rapidly changing urban and industrial patterns in both countries. The book also highlights the two countries¿ interconnectedness, in trade and in the exchange of cultural, social, scientific & technological information. The volume serves as a major resource in geographic education as it contributes to a better and more comprehensive understanding of the formation and development of the two countries¿ basic geographical patterns and processes.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 404 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Analysing and synthesising vast data sets from a multitude of disciplines including climate science, economics, hydrology and agricultural research, this volume seeks new methods of combining climate change mitigation, adaptation, development, and poverty reduction in ways that are effective, efficient and equitable. A guiding principle of the project is that new alliances of state and non-state sector partners are urgently required to establish cooperative responses to the threats posed by climate change. This volume offers a vital policy framework for linking our response to this change with progressive principles of global justice and sustainable development.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 404 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Arguing that our attachment to Aristotelian modes of discourse makes a revision of their conceptual foundations long overdue, the author proposes the consideration of unacknowledged factors that play a central role in argument itself. These are in particular the subjective imprint and the dynamics of argumentation. Their inclusion in a four-dimensional framework (subjective-objective, structural-procedural) and the focus on thesis validity allow for a more realistic view of our discourse practice. Exhaustive analyses of fascinating historical and contemporary arguments are provided. These range from Columbus¿s advocacy of the Western Passage to India, over the trial of King Louis XVI during the French Revolution, to today¿s highly charged controversies surrounding euthanasia and embryo research.Excavating foundational issues such as the purpose of argument itself (assent of an audience or critical examination of validity claims) and the contested role of argument as a generator of knowledge, the book culminates in a discussion of the relationship between rationality and reasonableness and criticizes the restrictions of ¿rational¿ argument relying on fixed logical, economic or cultural criteria that in reality are mutable. Here, a true, open argument requires the infusion of Paul Lorenzen¿s principle of ¿transsubjectivity¿, which recognizes but transcends the partiality of the individual and which can be seen in the pragmatic and expanding consensus that humanity can control itself to safeguard the future of a fragile, damaged world.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 508 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book analyses and elaborates on learning processes within work environments and explores professional learning. It presents research indicating general characteristics of the work environment that support learning, as well as barriers to workplace learning. Themes of professional development, lifelong learning and business organisation emerge through the chapters and contributions explore theoretical and empirical analyses on the boundary between working and learning in various contexts and with various methodological approaches.Readers will discover how current workplace learning approaches can emphasise the learning potential of the work environment and how workplaces can combine the application of competence that is working, with its acquisition or learning. Through these chapters, we learn about the educational challenge to design workplaces as environments of rich learning potential without neglecting business demands.Expert authors explore how learning and working are both to be considered as two common aspects of an individual¿s activity. Complexity, significance, integrity and variety of assigned work tasks as well as scope of action, interaction and feedback within its processing, turn out to be crucial work characteristics, amongst others revealed in these chapters.Part of the Professional and Practice-based Learning series, this bookwill appeal to anyone with an interest in workplaces as learning environments: those within government, community or business agencies and within the research communities in education, psychology, sociology and business management will find it of great interest.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 412 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book addresses the methodological issues involved in responsible innovation andprovides anoverview of recent applications of multidisciplinary research. Responsible innovation involves research into the ethical and societal aspects of new technologies (e.g. ICT, nanotechnology, biotechnology and brain sciences) and of changes in technological systems (e.g. energy, transport, agriculture and water). This research is highly multidisciplinary. It involves close collaboration between researchers in such diverse fields as ethics, social science, law, economics, applied science, engineering - as well as innovative, design-oriented and policy-relevant. Although there is a trend to engage ethicists and social scientists early in technology development, most literature in the field of Technology Assessment or Ethics of Technology is still aimed at one discipline whereas this book incorporates different approaches and to discuss experiences, lessons and more general theoretical issues.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 416 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Leaving school, whether to move on to training, work or education, is a fundamental rite of passage the world over. This volume draws on a wealth of international sources and studies in its analysis of the ¿transitions¿ young students make as they move on from their secondary schooling. It identifies how these transitions are planned for by policymakers, enacted by school staff and engaged with by students themselves. With data from a range of nations with advanced industrial economies, the book delineates how the policies relating to these transitions need to be conceived and implemented, how the transitions themselves are negotiated by young people, and how they might be shaped to meet the varied needs of the students they are designed to help. The authors argue that the relationship, often complex, between what schools provide in the way of preparation, and the ways in which students take up what is on offer, is the crucial nexus for understanding the experience of transitions by young people, and for enhancing that experience. With a host of case studies of transition policies themselves, as well as evaluative data on how they were received by the school leavers whom they were designed for, this valuable addition to the educational literature deserves to be read by all those with roles in preparing the young for their journey into a complex adult world full of pitfalls as well as opportunity.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 288 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -With the advance of biomedicine, certain individuals and groups are vulnerable because of their incapacities to defend themselves. The International Bioethics Committee as a UNESCO working group has for the last several years dedicated to deepen this principle of human vulnerability and personal integrity. This book serves to supplement this effort with a religious perspective given a great number of the world¿s population is affiliated with some religious traditions. While there is diversity within each of these traditions, all of them carry in them the mission to protect the weak, the underprivileged, and the poor. Thus, here presented is a collection of papers written by bioethics experts from six major world religions¿Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism¿who were gathered to discuss the meaning and implications of the principle of vulnerability in their respective traditions.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 276 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The past several decades of rapid organizational change and global economic activity beseech a fresh understanding of work conditions and mental health across all nations and regions. This volume addresses psychosocial factors at work, legislation, frameworks, research innovations and common perceptions in the Asia Pacific countries. It presents new research on psychosocial factors at work from an Asia Pacific perspective, introducing exciting new research on workaholism, bullying, work-life balance and conflict, work demands classifications, and psychosocial safety climate. Insights regarding workplace psychosocial factors, worker health and well-being have evolved mainly within North American and European cultural contexts and developed industrial countries. This state of the art account of knowledge development in the Asia Pacific region will stimulate new insights for researchers and policy makers to improve the quality of workers¿ lives worldwide.'This very informative book highlights the significance and uniqueness of job stress problems encountered by workers of different countries in the Asia Pacific region. Occupational health researchers all around the world will find this book a great inspiration for future research.'Yawen Cheng, ScD, Institute of Health Policy and Management, Taiwan¿Initiatives and interventions reported from collaborative projects present useful hints for filling gaps in policies and practices for managing psychosocial risk factors in diverse work-life situations in the Asia Pacific region¿.Dr. Kazutaka Kogi, President, International Commission of Occupational HealthSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 408 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The three concepts central to this volume¿practice, learning and change¿have received very different treatments in the educational literature, an oversight directly confronted here. While learning and change have been extensively theorised, their various contexts articulated and analysed, practice is notably underrepresented. Where much of the literature on learning and change takes the notion of ¿practice¿ as an unexamined given, its co-location as a term with various classifiers, as in ¿legal practice¿ and ¿teaching practice¿, render it curiously devoid of semantic force.In this book, ¿practice¿ is the super-ordinate organising idea. Drawing on what has been termed the ¿practice turn in contemporary theory¿, the work develops a conceptual framework for researching learning in, and on, practice. It challenges received notions of practice, questioning the assumptions, elisions, conflations and silences on the subject. In so doing, it offers fresh insights into learning and change, and how they relate to practice. In tandem with this conceptual work, the book details site-ontological studies of practice and learning in diverse professional and workplace contexts, examining the work of occupations as various as doctors, chefs and orchestral musicians. It demonstrates the value of theorising practice, learning and change, as well as exploring the connections between them amid our evolving social and institutional structures.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 308 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This volumedescribes a culture-fair perspective on positive psychology research and practice in Latin America.It provides a deep understanding of the ways in which context can affect practice, intervention and research results. The development of Positive Psychology in areas such as test adaptation and construction, prediction of academic achievement and empowerment of children at risk is presented. Furthermore, topics related to positive communities and citizenship behaviors are included.The volume is organized into four sections. The first sectionpresents the importance of test adaption and construction in order to assess Positive Psychology constructs, with a special focus on well-being as a core construct. The second sectionsummarizes a group of research studies carefully designed to predict academic achievement applying Positive Psychology constructs. The third section outlines a set of studies intended to develop flow, resilience, social skills and positive emotionsin children at risk. And finally the fourth and last section introduces two points of view focused on communities in order to assess positive dimensions and to promote positive behaviors.This volume, aimed at researchers and Psychology, Education, Health and the Social Sciences students, is a useful tool for people interested in the development of Positive Psychology in Latin American countries.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 288 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This valuable addition to the literature offers readers a comprehensive overview of recent brain imaging research focused on reading, writing and mathematics¿a research arena characterized by rapid advances that follow on the heels of fresh developments and techniques in brain imaging itself. With contributions from many of the lead scientists in this field, a number of whom have been responsible for key breakthroughs, the coverage deals with the commonalities of, as well as the differences between, brain activity related to the three core educational topics. At the same time, the volume addresses vital new information on both brain and behavior indicators of developmental problems, and points out the new directions being pursued using current advances in brain imaging technologies as well as research-based interventions. The book is also a tribute to a new Edmund, J Safra Brain center for the study of learning Disabilities at the University of Haifa-Israel.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 340 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Developmental Education is an approach to education in school that aims at promoting children¿s cultural development and their abilities to participate autonomously and well-informed in the cultural practices of their community. From the point of view of Cultural-historical Activity theory (CHAT), a play-based curriculum has been developed over the past decades for primary school, which presents activity contexts for pupils in the classroom that create learning and teaching opportunities for helping pupils with appropriating cultural knowledge, skills, and moral understandings in meaningful ways. The approach is implemented in numerous Dutch primary schools classrooms with the explicit intention to support the learning of both pupils and teachers. The book focuses especially on education of young children (4 ¿ 8 years old) in primary school and presents the underpinning concepts of this approach, and chapters on examples of good practices in a variety of subject matter areas, such as literacy (vocabulary acquisition, reading, writing), mathematics, and arts. Successful implementation of Developmental Education in the classroom strongly depends on dynamic assessment and continuous observations of young pupils¿ development. Strategies for implementation of both the teaching practices and assessment strategies are discussed in detail in the book.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 320 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The chapters in this volume allow readers to develop a broad understanding of theissues around language variation and to recognise pedagogical implications of this work in multilingual contexts.The authors explore how variations in Englishes around the world relate to issues in English language teaching and learning. The English language has always existed alongside other languages. However, the last 200 years have shown a dramatic increase in the range, extent and context of contact between English and other languages. As a result of this contact, we find marked variations in Englishes around the world. The first part includes chapters of importance in studying English language variation in the context of education. The second part builds on an understanding of variation and identifies pedagogical possibilities that respect language variation and yet empower English language learners in diverse contexts.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 248 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The role of women in Islamic societies, not to mention in the religion itself, is a defining issue. It is also one that remains resistant to universal dogma, with a wide range of responses to women¿s social roles across the Islamic world. Reflecting this heterogeneity, the editor of this volume has assembled the latest research on the issue, which combines contemporary with historical data.The material comes from around the world as well as from Muslim and non-Muslim researchers. It takes in work from majority Muslim nations such as Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestine, Tunisia and Turkey, as well as countries with troubled interfaith relations such as India and Israel. Nations with minority Muslim populations such as France, the UK, Canada and Australia, are also represented. The work also features varying Islamic sub-groups such as the two main ones, Sunni and Shi¿a, as well as less well known populations such as the Ismaili Muslims. In each case, the work is underpinned by the very latest socio-theological insights and empirical data.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 260 pp. Englisch.