springer netherlands springer netherlands jun 2013 (57 Ergebnisse)

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Translated and updated from the seminal Spanish text on legal decisions affecting gender and sexuality in Latin America, this English edition is the only law text to focus specifically on the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and the transgender population in addition to women¿s rights more broadly. The volume provides close analysis of some of the most important decisions made by Latin American national courts, as well as those made by international legal bodies, that affect the rights and interests of these groups. Specially selected for their depth of argument and value as exemplars, the studies of good legal practice chart the path of the region¿s normative values of justice as they have evolved away from a partial, and patriarchal, exercise of the law. They show how cases with vastly differing contexts such as, property rights and domestic violence have resulted in a mixed body of Latin American law. Some decisions are protective of women¿s and minority rights. Some assess the wider social impacts of case law in which recognition of the discrete legal identities within households challenges established precepts, including religious ones. Other cases have been chosen as cautionary examples of bad decision-making and for the poverty of their legal debate. Updated to include the latest relevant jurisprudence from across the continent, this book is an informed, cohesive and comprehensive guide to understanding women¿s and gender-based rights in Latin America.¿Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 336 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This work examines mortality among young children in the period from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. It does so using several types and sources of informationfrom the census unit England and Wales, and from Ireland. The sources of information used in this study include memoirs, diaries, poems, church records and numerical accounts. They offer descriptions of the quality of life and child mortality over the three centuries under study. Additional sources for the nineteenth century are two census-derived numerical indexes of the quality of life. They are the VICQUAL index for England and Wales, and the QUALEIRE index for Ireland. Statistical procedures have been applied to the numbers provided by the sources with the aim to identify effects of and associations between such variables as gender, age, and social background. The book examines the results to consider the impact ofchildren¿s deaths upon parents and families, and concludes that there are differences andcontinuities across the centuries.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 76 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book fully describes a finite element method for netting. That describes the relation between forces and deformation of the netting. That takes into account forces due to the twine elasticity, the hydrodynamic forces, the catch effect, the mesh opening stiffness. This book is divided in 5 parts. The first section contains introduction on the finite element method, the second part is about equilibrium calculation, the third presents a triangular element for netting, the fourth and fifth are forcable and node element. The sixth presents few validation cases.¿Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 116 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Machine learning is concerned with the analysis of large data and multiple variables. However, it is also often more sensitive than traditional statistical methods to analyze small data. The first volume reviewed subjects like optimal scaling, neural networks, factor analysis, partial least squares, discriminant analysis, canonical analysis, and fuzzy modeling. This second volume includes various clustering models, support vector machines, Bayesian networks, discrete wavelet analysis, genetic programming, association rule learning, anomaly detection, correspondence analysis, and other subjects.Both the theoretical bases and the step by step analyses are described for the benefit of non-mathematical readers. Each chapter can be studied without the need to consult other chapters. Traditional statistical tests are, sometimes, priors to machine learning methods, and they are also, sometimes, used as contrast tests. To those wishing to obtain more knowledge of them, we recommend to additionally study (1) Statistics Applied to Clinical Studies 5th Edition 2012, (2) SPSS for Starters Part One and Two 2012, and (3) Statistical Analysis of Clinical Data on a Pocket Calculator Part One and Two 2012, written by the same authors, and edited by Springer, New York.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 248 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Jerome S. Bruner (1915- ) is one of the best known and most influential psychologists of the twentieth century. He has made significant contributions to cognitive psychology and educational theory.This book presents a brief introduction to Jerome Bruner¿s educational ideas and details their influences on our educational discourse and practice. It examines Bruner¿s ideas in the context of some key educational issues in the United States since the early twentieth century.Jerome Bruner: Developing a Sense of the Possible will be an inspiration, and vital call to action, to readers looking to better understand today¿s instructional and curriculum theories. It will help readers gain invaluable insight into the ways teaching and schools can be improved in the future.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 72 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This leading-edge study focuses on the latest techniques in analysing and representing the complex, multi-layered data now available to geographers studying urban zones and their populations. The volume tracks the successful results of the SPANGEO Project, which was set up in 2005 to standardize, and share, the syncretic, multinational mapping techniques already developed by geographers and computer scientists. SPANGEO sought new and responsive ways of visualising urban geographical and social data that reflected the fine-grained detail of the inputs. It allowed for visual representation of the large and complex networks and flows which are such an integral feature of the dynamism of urban geography. SPANGEO developed through the ¿visual analytics loop¿ in which geographers collaborated with computer scientists by feeding data into the design of visualisations that in turn spawned the urge to incorporate more varied data into the visualisation. This volume covers all the relevant aspects, from conceptual principles to the tools of network analysis and the actual results flowing from their deployment. Detailed case studies set out in this volume include spatial multi-level analyses of flows in airports and sea ports, as well as the fascinating scientific networks in European cities. The volume shows how the primary concern of geography¿the interaction of society with physical space¿has been revivified by the complexities of new cartographical and statistical methodologies, which allow for highly detailed mapping and far more powerful computer analysis of spatial relationships.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 236 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Biomedical research is increasingly carried out in low- and middle-income countries. International consensus has largely been achieved around the importance of valid consent and protecting research participants from harm. But what are the responsibilities of researchers and funders to share the benefits of their research with research participants and their communities After setting out the legal, ethical and conceptual frameworks for benefit sharing, this collection analyses seven historical cases to identify the ethical and policy challenges that arise in relation to benefit sharing. A series of recommendations address possible ways forward to achieve justice for research participants in low- and middle-income countries.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 264 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The focus of this book is on the epistemological and hermeneutic implications of data science and artificial intelligence for democracy and the Rule of Law. How do the normative effects of automated decision systems or the interventions of robotic fellow ¿beings¿ compare to the legal effect of written and unwritten law To investigate these questions the book brings together two disciplinary perspectives rarely combined within the framework of one volume. One starts from the perspective of ¿code and law¿ and the other develops from the domain of ¿law and literature¿. Integrating original analyses of relevant novels or films, the authors discuss how computational technologies challenge traditional forms of legal thought and affect the regulation of human behavior. Thus, pertinent questions are raised about the theoretical assumptions underlying both scientific and legal practice.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 212 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book shows how Rwandäs development model and the organisation of genocide are two sides of the same coin. In the absence of mineral resources, the elite organised and managed the labour of peasant producers as efficient as possible. In order to stay in power and benefit from it, the presidential clan chose a development model that would not change the political status quo. When the latter was threatened, the elite invoked the preservation of group welfare of the Hutu, called for Hutu unity and solidarity and relied on the great mass (rubanda nyamwinshi) for the execution of the genocide. A strategy as simple as it is horrific. The genocide can be regarded as the ultimate act of self-preservation through annihilation under the veil of self-defense.Why did tens of thousands of ordinary people massacred tens of thousands other ordinary people in Rwanda in 1994 What has agricultural policy and rural ideology to do with it What was the role of the Akazu, the presidential clan around president Habyarimana Did the civil war cause the genocide And what insights can a political economy perspective offer Based on more than ten years of research, and engaging with competing and complementary arguments of authors such as Peter Uvin, Alison Des Forges, Scott Strauss, René Lemarchand, Filip Reyntjens, Mahmood Mamdani and André Guichaoua, the author blends economics, politics and agrarian studies to provide a new way of understanding the nexus between development and genocide in Rwanda. Students and practitioners of development as well as everyone interested in the causes of violent conflict and genocide in Africa and around the world will find this book compelling toread.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 296 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book returns critical theory to its roots in both psychology and the social sciences. It shows some of the relationships between equality in a political and social sense and personal identity that either relates well to such equality, or rebels against it. All this reflects processes of social and cultural influence that involve not only random change but also processes of social and cultural evolution that themselves have effects regarding potentials for self-fulfillment and even public morality. This book provides a framework to help one study the interaction between individual aspirations and social opportunities.Jerome Braun, known for his writings in interdisciplinary social science, an approach he calls pragmatic critical theory, here provides a book that discusses issues relevant to the moral underpinnings of democratic society, including issues of social evolution and of culture and personality.This book will be of particular interest to scholars and students of Psychology (particularly in the areas of Psychology of Personality and Cultural Psychology), Sociology (especially those interested in Sociology of Alienation and Sociology of Culture, as well as Sociology of Mental Health), Anthropology (particularly in the area of Psychological Anthropology), Cultural Studies, and Social Theory in general.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 276 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This volume presents two Leibnizian writings, the Specimen of Philosophical Questions Collected from the Law and the Dissertation on Perplexing Cases. These works, originally published in 1664 and 1666, constitute, respectively, Leibniz¿s thesis for the title of Master of Philosophy and his doctoral dissertation in law. Besides providing evidence of the earliest development of Leibniz¿s thought and amazing anticipations of his mature views, they present a genuine intellectual interest, for the freshness and originality of Leibniz¿s reflections on a striking variety of logico-philosophical puzzles drawn from the law. The Specimen addresses puzzling issues resulting from apparent conflicts between law and philosophy (the latter broadly understood as comprising also mathematics, as well as empirical sciences). The Dissertation addresses cases whose solution is puzzling because of the convoluted logical form of legal dispositions and contractual clauses, or because of conflicting priorities between concurring parties. In each case, Leibniz dissects the problems with the greatest ingenuity, disentangling their different aspects, and proposing solutions always reasonable and sometimes surprising. And he does not refrain from peppering his intellectual acrobatics with some humorous comments.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 264 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book is the sixth in a series covering bet practices in community quality-of-life (QOL) indicators. The cases in this volume describe communities that have launched their own community indicators programs. Elements that are included in the descriptions are the history of the community indicators work within the target region, the planning of community indicators, the actual indicators that were selected, the data collection process, the reporting of the results, and the use of the indicators to guide community development decisions and public policy. ¿Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 296 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book provides new insights on cities and the nature of urban development, and the role of knowledge management in urban growth. It considers how knowledge informs policies and supports decision making, and can assist in addressing the drivers of urban change. The way that knowledge is produced and used in urban development is analysed, with examples drawn from a range of European countries.This book illustrates how the development and implementation of policies for urban areas can draw on knowledge management, even as the knowledge economy itself stimulates the evolution of the city as a place of innovation and creativity. Whilst knowledge grows in importance, so do urban issues, particularly in economic and political contexts at both European and national levels.These essays explore growth in the range of knowledge available in urban contexts, the ways to generate new knowledge from a wide range of stakeholders, and how these can make an effective contribution to decision making processes in urban development.The attractiveness of cities and surrounding areas to knowledge based forms of industry and investment and the competitiveness and performance of cities are a matter of major concern for national governments. In a sense it has become too important to leave to city politicians, and it is a topic requiring sustained reflection. This book gives the reader a detailed understanding of the issues involved and prompts further reflections.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 192 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -In recent decades radiobiologists¿ efforts have been directed at identifying the mechanisms of radiation effects; the general mechanisms have since been studied extensively. This book describes and analyzes radiation-induced adaptation as processes produced in cells, tissues, and populations. This viewpoint helps to understand the nature and factors of induced processes, to determine the characteristics of observed radiation effects and their limitations. The investigations presented here were founded on proper lab experiments, ecological studies of plant population growth near an operating nuclear power plant and a thorough epidemiological examination of human populations living in territories polluted fifty years ago, as well as on relevant published data. This research demonstrates the radiation-induced adaptation processes that continue even when the radiation itself is no longer at a critical background level. The investigations utilized the method of statistical modeling on the basis of distributions on the number of abnormalities. This method allows us to investigate the processes induced by low-dose factors when accompanied by Darwinian selection in different systems; the distribution parameters can then be used to study the characteristics of adaptation processes and system resistance.The consequences of background-level radiation continue to provoke debate, and the mathematical bases of the adaptation model are shown, while due consideration is paid to the components of adaptation: instability, selection, and proliferation. The book will be especially useful to specialists in radiation pollution, ecology, epidemiology, and radiology for studies of radiation-induced processes; the method presented here can also be adapted to investigate low-dose effects in other fields. In addition, the book presents a number of reviews in the fields of radiation biology, including pioneering investigations in Russia which were previously unavailable to Westernscientists.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 204 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book addresses environmental and climate change induced migration from the vantage point of migration studies, offering a broad spectrum of approaches for considering the environment/climate/migration nexus. Research on the subject is still frequently narrowed down to climate change vulnerability and the environmental push factor. The book establishes the interconnections between societal and environmental vulnerability, and migration and capability, allowing appreciation of migration in the frame of climate as a case of spatial and social mobility, that is, as a strategy of persons and groups to deal with a grossly unequal distribution of life chances across the world. In their introduction, the editors fan out the current debate and state the need to transcend predominantly policy-oriented approaches to migration. The first section of the volume focuses on ¿Methodologies and Methods¿ and presents very distinct approaches to think climate induced migration. Subsequent chapters explore the sensitivity of existing migration flows to climate change in Ghana and Bangladesh, the complex relationship between migration, demographic change and coping capacities in Canada, methodological challenges of a household survey on the significance of migration and remittances for adaptation in the Hindu Kush region and an econometric study of the aftermath of the 1998 floods in Bangladesh. The second part, ¿Areas of Concern: Politics and Human Rights¿, deepens the analysis of discourses as well as of the implications of proposed and implemented policies. Contributors discuss such topics as environmental migration as a multi-causal problem, climate migration as a consequence in an alarmist discourse and climate migration as a solution. A study of an integrated relocation program in Papua New Guinea is followed by chapters on the promise and the flaws of planned relocation policy, global policy on protection of environmental migrants including both internallydisplaced peoples and those who cross international borders. A concluding chapter places human agency at centre stage and explores the interplay between human rights, capability and migration.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 280 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Crime, terrorism and security are in the forefront of current societal concerns. This edited volume presents research based on social network techniques showing how data from crime and terror networks can be analyzed and how information can be extracted. The topics covered include crime data mining and visualization; organized crime detection; crime network visualization; computational criminology; aspects of terror network analyses and threat prediction including cyberterrorism and the related area of dark web; privacy issues in social networks; security informatics; graph algorithms for social networks; general aspects of social networks such as pattern and anomaly detection; community discovery; link analysis and spatio-temporal network mining. These topics will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in the general area of security informatics. The volume will also serve as a general reference for readers that would want to become familiar with current research in the fastgrowing field of cybersecurity.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 292 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Research into gastrointestinal motility has received renewed interest in part due to recent advances in the techniques for measuring the structure and function of gastrointestinal cells, tissue and organs. The integration of this wealth of data into biophysically based computation models can aid in interpretation of experimental and clinical measurements and the refinement of measurement techniques.The contents of this book span multiple scales - from cell, tissue, organ, to whole body and is divided into four broad sections covering: i) gastrointestinal cellular activity and tissue structure; (ii) techniques for measuring, analyzing and visualizing high-resolution extra-cellular recordings; (iii) methods for sensing gastroelectrical activity using non-invasive bio-electro-magnetic fields and for modulating the underlying gastric electrical activity and finally (iv) methods for assessing manometric and videographic motility patterns and the application of these data for predicting the flow and mixing behavior of luminal contents by using computational fluid dynamic techniques.This book aims to provide both an overview of historical and existing research techniques as well as to highlight future directions and challenges for the community as a whole. It will be suitable for clinicians to understand the cellular and biophysical underpinnings of gastric emptying, gastroenterologists, surgeons, bioengineers and all scientists with interests in gastrointestinal motility research.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 276 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book contributes to the literature on Geographical Indications (GIs) by providing key theoretical reflections from a five-year review process on the potential of GIs for agri-food products in Southern Africa. The contributors reflect on diverse GI processes and dynamics which operate at the local, national and international levels, thus enriching the understanding of GI dynamics and of the variety of policy options available for GI protection in Southern countries. Following a discussion of the legal framework and governance of national GI schemes in Southern countries, the book emphasizes the main dimensions underlying the development of GIs and their potential for enhancing sustainable rural development and market access in particular. This provides the structure for the chapters that build on the different experiences of Southern African industries that have embarked on GI strategies. The book includes chapters on designing an appropriate legal framework and governance system for the development of GIs in Southern countries.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 156 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The Red Lake is a natural barrier lake at the foot of the Hasmasu Mare Mountains in the Eastern Carpathian Range in Romania. It was formed when the Bicaz River was blocked by a natural dam resulting from two landslides during an extreme heavy storm in 1837. This book presents an interdisciplinary and comprehensive study on the physical, chemical, geographical and ecological aspects of Red Lake (Lacu Rosu). The first three chapters cover the formation and geological setting and its relationship with the Bicaz Gorges-Haghimas national park. Subsequent chapters present the sedimentological, morphological and hydrological evolution of this unique natural laboratory and climatological setting. The final chapters deal with ecological aspects of Red Lake waters and adjacent ecosystems such as wetlands and water resource management issues.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 248 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book is based on the premise that marketing is central to understanding and advancing companies, businesses, countries, major economic areas and every-day problems. It opposes the view held by some social scientists that the positive effects of marketing in a society are a product of capitalist enterprises and that marketing involves excessive exploitation and is a tool for creating and maintaining their power structures. To illustrate its point, the book examines successful marketing practices with implications for consumers¿ quality of life. Its compilation of cases from all over the world provides a unique and concise review of best practices in marketing and their impact on QOL. Each case in the book presents a specific social problem and discusses details of the marketing strategy adopted to resolve it, as well as the results obtained both for society at large and in terms of the citizens¿ quality of life. In addition, each case addresses the theoretical background of thespecific area of marketing used in the case.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 276 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book highlights the application of nature-based algorithms in natural resource management. The book includes the methodologies to apply what natural flora or fauna do to optimize their survival. The same technique was used to optimize renewable energy generation from water resources, maximization of profit from crop harvesting, forest resource management and decision-making studies. These studies can be used as an example for finding solutions of the other maximization or minimization problems which are common in natural resource management.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 360 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Modern industrial agriculture is not sustainable because of its heavy reliance on petroleum, a non-renewable source of the energy used in farming, and because of pollution caused by petroleum products such as fertilizers and pesticides. A systems analysis of farming suggests that agriculture will be more sustainable when services of nature, such as nutrient recycling by soil micro-organisms and natural controls of insects, replace the services now provided by energy from petroleum. Examples are drawn from the Southeastern USA, but lessons learned can be applied worldwide.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 264 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This work provides a critical look at business practice in the early 21st century and suggests changes that are both practical and normatively superior. Several chapters present a reflection on business ethics from a societal or macro-organizational point of view. It makes a case for the economic and moral superiority of the sustainability capitalism of the European Union over the finance-based model of the United States. Most major themes in business ethics are covered and some new ones are introduced, including the topic of the right way to teach business ethics. The general approach adopted in this volume is Kantian. Alternative approaches are critically evaluated.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 256 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Normativity has long been conceived as more properly pertaining to the domain of thought than to the domain of nature. This conception goes back to Kant and still figures prominently in contemporary epistemology, philosophy of mind and ethics. By offering a collection of new essays by leading scholars in early modern philosophy and specialists in contemporary philosophy, this volume goes beyond the point where nature and normativity came apart, and challenges the well-established opposition between these all too neatly separated realms. It examines how the mind¿s embeddedness in nature can be conceived as a starting point for uncovering the links between naturally and conventionally determined standards governing an agent¿s epistemic and moral engagement with the world. The original essays are grouped in two parts. The first part focuses on specific aspects of theories of perception, thought formation and judgment. It gestures towards an account of normativity that regards linguistic conventions and natural constraints as jointly setting the scene for the mind¿s ability to conceptualise its experiences. The second part of the book asks what the norms of desirable epistemic and moral practices are. Key to this approach is an examination of human beings as parts of nature, who act as natural causes and are determined by their sensibilities and sentiments. Each part concludes with a chapter that integrates features of the historical debate into the contemporary context.¿Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 216 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics 2013 discusses current methodological debates on the synergy of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics research. The volume presents insightful pragmatic analyses of corpora in new technological domains and devotes some chapters to the pragmatic description of spoken corpora from various theoretical traditions.The Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics series will give readers insight into how pragmatics can be used to explain real corpus data, and, in addition, how corpora can explain pragmatic intuitions, and from there, develop and refine theory. Corpus Linguistics can offer a meticulous methodology based on mathematics and statistics, while Pragmatics is characterized by its efforts to interpret intended meaning in real language. This yearbook offers a platform to scholars who combine both research methodologies to present rigorous and interdisciplinary findings about language in real use.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 304 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Hoping to help transform engineering into a more socially just field of practice, this book offers various perspectives and strategies while highlighting key concepts and themes that help readers understand the complex relationship between engineering education and social justice. This volume tackles topics and scopes ranging from the role of Buddhism in socially just engineering to the blinding effects of ideologies in engineering to case studies on the implications of engineered systems for social justice.This book aims to serve as a framework for interventions or strategies to make social justice more visible in engineering education and enhance scholarship in the emerging field of Engineering and Social Justice (ESJ). This creates a ¿toolbox¿ for engineering educators and students to make social justice a central theme in engineering education.¿Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 296 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The main topic of the book is a reconstruction of the evolution of nervous systems and brains as well as of mental-cognitive abilities, in short ¿intelligence¿ from simplest organisms to humans. It investigates to which extent the two are correlated. One central topic is the alleged uniqueness of the human brain and human intelligence and mind. It is discussed which neural features make certain animals and humans intelligent and creative: Is it absolute or relative brain size or the size of ¿intelligence centers¿ inside the brains, the number of nerve cells inside the brain in total or in such ¿intelligence centers¿ decisive for the degree of intelligence, of mind and eventually consciousness And which are the driving forces behind these processes Finally, it is asked what all this means for the classical problem of mind-brain relationship and for a naturalistic theory of mind.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 340 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Assessment is a fundamental issue in research in science education, in curriculum development and implementation in science education as well as in science teaching and learning.This book takes a broad and deep view of research involving assessment in science education, across contexts and cultures (from whole countries to individual classrooms) and across forms and purposes (from assessment in the service of student learning to policy implications of system wide assessment). It examines the relationships between assessment, measurement and evaluation; explores assessment philosophies and practices in relation to curriculum and scientific literacy/learning; and details the relationships between assessment and science education policy.The third in a series, Valuing Assessment in Science Education has chapters from a range of international scholars from across the globe and staff from Monash University, King¿s College London and University of Waikato. The two previousbooks in the series examined research relevant to the re-emergence of values in science education and teaching across the spectrum of science education as well as across cultural contexts through the professional knowledge of science teaching. This third book now moves to examine different aspects of generating understanding about what science is learnt, how it is learnt, and how it is valued.Valuing Assessment in Science Education will appeal to all those with some engagement with and/or use of research in science education, including research students, academics, curriculum development agencies, assessment authorities, and policy makers. It will also be of interest to all classroom science teachers who seek to keep abreast of the latest research and development and thinking in their area of professional concern.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 384 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Representing the coordinated work of a research group from four different Italian University departments which conducted the Eco-Management for Food (EMAF) Project, this book offers a systematic approach for managing and improving the environmental aspects of agri-food processes and products using Product-Oriented Environmental Management Systems (POEMS).Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 352 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Overall, this book illustrates the complexities of the regulation and deregulation of genes mediated through epigenetics in the development and progression of human malignancies. All the articles have been carefully chosen to represent several cancer systems with state of our knowledge on the role of epigenetic deregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) and their target mRNAs along with epigenetic deregulation of mRNAs. This book also illustrates the role of several dietary agents, collectively called nutraceuticals or natural agents in modulating the epigenetic reprogramming of miRNAs and mRNAs for the prevention and/or treatment of human malignancies. It is well known that genetic aberrations, especially inherited through parents (somatic genetic alterations) contribute to the development of less than 10% of all cancer yet epigenetic alterations in genes especially through selective methylation and acetylation appears to be responsible for the development and progression of the vast majority of all cancers. Therefore, understanding the role of epigenetics in the regulation of genes especially through deregulated expression of miRNAs as presented in this book will allow scientists to devise targeted therapeutic strategies for re-expression of the lost genes or down-regulate the genes that are over-expressed in order to eradicate cancer. It is hoped that targeting epigenetics will not only target cancer cells but it will also target the tumor microenvironment (more like the entire tumor environment such as the entire host) for achieving better treatment outcomes for patients diagnosed with cancer which will lead to achieve the long-term objective for complete eradication of cancer. This book contains fifteen chapters which begins with the concept of systems and network biology for investigating the epigenetics of cancer followed by a series of articles on the role of miRNAs and their target genes in the biology of pancreatic cancer and other cancers such as breast, kidney, prostate and and colon. Since it is becoming increasingly clear that cancer stem cells (CSCs) are important in the development and progression of cancer, and CSCs are important in therapeutic resistance, treatment failure and tumor recurrence, thus the importance of CSCs and epigenetics has been highlighted by a very timely article on epigenetic variations of stem cell markers in cancer including miRNAs. Moreover, just targeting heterogeneous cancer cell populations may not be optimal to eradicate tumors and for which one must take a holistic approach for developing drugs that could also target the tumor microenvironment and tumor dormancy that are regulated through epigenetics. Keeping abreast with this thought process the concluding chapter provides a concept towards curative cancer therapy with maspin, which could be a unique window of opportunity to target tumor dormancy. Therefore, it suggest that targeting the tumor dormancy and the tumor microenvironment using novel therapeutics specifically by targeting epigenetics would become the future of medicine.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 300 pp. Englisch.