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Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book is based on the lecture notes from a course we taught at Penn State University during the fall of 2002. The main goal of the course was to give a complete and detailed proof of the Morse Homology Theorem (Theo rem 7.4) at a level appropriate for second year graduate students. The course was designed for students who had a basic understanding of singular homol ogy, CW-complexes, applications of the existence and uniqueness theorem for O.D.E.s to vector fields on smooth Riemannian manifolds, and Sard's Theo rem. We would like to thank the following students for their participation in the course and their help proofreading early versions of this manuscript: James Barton, Shantanu Dave, Svetlana Krat, Viet-Trung Luu, and Chris Saunders. We would especially like to thank Chris Saunders for his dedication and en thusiasm concerning this project and the many helpful suggestions he made throughout the development of this text. We would also like to thank Bob Wells for sharing with us his extensive knowledge of CW-complexes, Morse theory, and singular homology. Chapters 3 and 6, in particular, benefited significantly from the many insightful conver sations we had with Bob Wells concerning a Morse function and its associated CW-complex.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 340 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The past forty years of space research have seen a substantial improvement in our understanding of the Earth¿s magnetosphere and its coupling with the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic eld (IMF). The magnetospheric str- ture has been mapped and major processes determining this structure have been de ned. However, the picture obtained is too often static. We know how the magnetosphere forms via the interaction of the solar wind and IMF with the Earth¿s magnetic eld. We can describe the steady state for various upstream conditions but do not really understand the dynamic processes leading from one state to another. The main dif culty is that the magnetosphere is a comp- cated system with many time constants ranging from fractions of a second to days and the system rarely attains a steady state. Two decades ago, it became clear that further progress would require multi-point measurements. Since then, two multi-spacecraft missions have been launched ¿ INTERBALL in 1995/96 and CLUSTER II in 2000. The objectives of these missions d- fered but were complementary: While CLUSTER is adapted to meso-scale processes, INTERBALL observed larger spatial and temporal scales. However, the number of papers taking advantage of both missions simul- neously is rather small.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 344 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The past forty years of space research have seen a substantial improvement in our understanding of the Earth¿s magnetosphere and its coupling with the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic eld (IMF). The magnetospheric str- ture has been mapped and major processes determining this structure have been de ned. However, the picture obtained is too often static. We know how the magnetosphere forms via the interaction of the solar wind and IMF with the Earth¿s magnetic eld. We can describe the steady state for various upstream conditions but do not really understand the dynamic processes leading from one state to another. The main dif culty is that the magnetosphere is a comp- cated system with many time constants ranging from fractions of a second to days and the system rarely attains a steady state. Two decades ago, it became clear that further progress would require multi-point measurements. Since then, two multi-spacecraft missions have been launched ¿ INTERBALL in 1995/96 and CLUSTER II in 2000. The objectives of these missions d- fered but were complementary: While CLUSTER is adapted to meso-scale processes, INTERBALL observed larger spatial and temporal scales. However, the number of papers taking advantage of both missions simul- neously is rather small.Springer-Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 344 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Accosiative rings and algebras are very interesting algebraic structures. In a strict sense, the theory of algebras (in particular, noncommutative algebras) originated fromasingleexample,namelythequaternions,createdbySirWilliamR.Ha milton in1843. Thiswasthe rstexampleofanoncommutative¿numbersystem¿. During thenextfortyyearsmathematiciansintroducedotherexamplesofnoncommutative algebras, began to bring some order into them and to single out certain types of algebras for special attention. Thus, low-dimensional algebras, division algebras, and commutative algebras, were classi ed and characterized. The rst complete results in the structure theory of associative algebras over the real and complex elds were obtained by T.Molien, E.Cartan and G.Frobenius. Modern ring theory began when J.H.Wedderburn proved his celebrated cl- si cation theorem for nite dimensional semisimple algebras over arbitrary elds. Twenty years later, E.Artin proved a structure theorem for rings satisfying both the ascending and descending chain condition which generalized Wedderburn structure theorem. The Wedderburn-Artin theorem has since become a corn- stone of noncommutative ring theory. The purpose of this book is to introduce the subject of the structure theory of associative rings. This book is addressed to a reader who wishes to learn this topic from the beginning to research level. We have tried to write a self-contained book which is intended to be a modern textbook on the structure theory of associative rings and related structures and will be accessible for independent study.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 392 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Stakeholders such as environmental directives and customer demands for reducing environmental impacts of a product require innovative and environmentally improved products. Therefore a systematic approach and effective methods and tools are needed in the early phase of product development.The basic elements for optimized process management in the design department are described in this book.The book provides twelve easy to follow steps for implementing ECODESIGN in a company. It gives clear advice how to integrate environmental considerations into product design and development, and combines ECODESIGN with Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Communication. Chapters on Product modeling, Life Cycle Assessment, ECODESIGN tasks, Product Improvement and Environmental Communication use the previously developed ECODESIGN PILOT (ecodesign.at/pilot) and show its application to a real product example.The book comes with two web tools: one is the ECODESIGN PILOT, used to find measures to environmentally improve a product within a short time. The other is the ECODESIGN PILOT's Assistant (ecodesign.at/assist): an expert system, which helps to find the right improvement strategy for a product.Audience: This book will be of interest to environmental and sustainability managers, engineers in research and product development, to designers, environmental experts, and consultants, as well as to students working in this field.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 160 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture has a long history of coordinating isotope aided research projects for improving animal productivity in developing countries. These projects have focused on enhancing the efficiency of animal production through better use of locally available feed resources and those that do not compete with human food. As a part of these efforts, the Joint Division has been actively involved in developing and simplifying approaches for measuring microbial protein supply to ruminant livestock. The contribution of microbial protein in meeting the overall requirement for protein in ruminants is significant, but understanding the contribution of microbial protein to the nutrition of ruminant livestock has been hampered by the lack of simple and accurate methods for measuring microbial protein production in vivo. A Consultants¿ Meeting was held in 1995 in Vienna to explore the feasibility of using nuclear and related techniques to develop and validate new approaches for measuring microbial protein supply in ruminant animals. Based on the available information, the consultants considered that the purine derivative excretion method, which is non-invasive and both simple to use and inexpensive compared with other available methods, had the potential for use in developing countries. However, development of models for various animal species and breeds and their validation were required before this technique could be advocated for use. 224 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This volume presents the most comprehensive international discussion of the role of markets in higher education ever published. It reflects on both the political and economic implications of the rising trend towards introducing market elements in higher education. The book draws together many leading international scholars in the economic and policy analysis of higher education to explore different theoretical perspectives and present new empirical evidence on market mechanisms in higher education in several Western countries.The authors present a dispassionate and ideologically neutral view of the advantages and disadvantages of the introduction of market-mechanisms in higher education and of its effects in terms of access, equity, quality of provision, student learning, research and scholarship, and so on. And they balance the performance of markets in higher education against the alternative of more, or a different kind of, governmental intervention.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 372 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -1. 0 INTRODUCTION This book provides an encompassing analysis of Subject Clitics (SCLs) by giving a detailed description of these elements in two varieties of Piedmontese, a Northern Italian Dialect: Astigiano and Turinese spoken in the areas of Asti and Turin respectively. It accounts for the structural position and function of these elements inside the computational system and for their morphological and distributional properties. It also provides an empirical and theoretical comparison between Piedmontese SCLs and SCLs in other Northern Italian Dialects (NIDs). of SCLs types in the NIDs have been regarded as Since the 1980s, the majority elements of agreement, in that they contribute to the realisation of subject verb agreement by expressing features of the subject similar, in a way, to verbal inflection. Nonetheless, SCLs are not to be assimilated to verbal affixes as they exhibit different properties. Most distinctively, they can be separated from the verb by other clitic elements and, in the case of the varieties considered here, SCLs are optional in all contexts and may be omitted in coordination. A more refined identification of SCLs separates SCLs which encode agreement features from those which do not and are related to pragmatic factors, as originally observed by Beninca (1994) with respect to the clitic a in Paduano The different morphological and syntactic properties that characterise SCLs across the NIDs have justified numerous accounts which regard them as head of their own projection.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 300 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Ecology of Shallow Lakes brings together current understanding of the mechanisms that drive the diametrically opposite states of water clarity, shown by the cover paintings, found in many shallow lakes and ponds. It gives an outline of the knowledge gained from field observations, experimental work, and restoration studies, linked by a solid theoretical framework. The book focuses on shallow lakes, but the lucid treatment of plankton dynamics, resuspension, light climate and the role of vegetation is relevant to a much wider range of aquatic systems. The models that are used remain simple and most analyses are graphical rather than algebraic. The text will therefore appeal to students, scientists and policy makers in the field of ecology, fisheries, pollution studies and water management, and also to theoreticans who will benefit from the many real-world examples of topics such as predation and competition theory, bifurcation analysis and catastrophe theory. Perhaps most importantly, the book is a remarkable example of how large field experiments and simple models can catalyze our insight into complex ecosystems. Marten Scheffer wrote this book while at the Institute of Inland Water Management and Waste Treatment, RIZA, Lelystad, The Netherlands. He is currently at the Department of Water Quality Management and Aquatic Ecology of the Wageningen Agricultural University. Reviews `Much rarer are textbooks that so succinctly sum up the state-of-the-art knowledge about a subject that they become instant `bibles'. This book is one of these. It is probably one of the best biological textbooks I have read. Scheffer masterfully pulls all this information together under one cover and presents a coherent account, which will serve as a benchmark for the subject. The reader will not gain any great insight into the breeding biology of pike from this book, nor learn much about dragonflies or newts. They will, however, come to understand the essential nature of shallow lakes or, as the author puts it, `how shallow lakes work'. Overall, this book will be of great interest to practical and theoretical ecologists, students and managers in all fields of biology. All freshwater ecologists should certainly read it.' Simon Harrison in Journal of Ecology, 86 `The book by Scheffer can be seen as a milestone in the recognition of shallow lakes as a research topic in its own right. Scheffer uses three approaches concurrently to unravel the functioning of shallow lakes: 1) statistical analysis of large datasets from a variety of lakes; 2) simple abstract models made up of a few non-linear ordinary differential equations, which he calls `mini-models'; and 3) logical reasoning based on a mixture of results from fieldwork, experiments and models. What is new is that Scheffer links mathematics very nicely with what one feels is a correct description of the functioning of a shallow lake. Employing logical reasoning, Scheffer combines all these sources of knowledge into a general, coherent picture of the functioning of a shallow lake.' Wolf Mooij in Aquatic Ecology, 32Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 380 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Anyone who doubts that astronomy is enjoying a golden age has only to browse the pages of Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, Vol. 5. Our golden age is defined not only by the enormity of new discoveries of dark energy, dark matter, extra-solar planets, and the evolution of Mars, but also by the breadth, diversity, and creativity within our community. This volume records our history, in a period of such rapid change and growth that individual astronomers are hard-pressed to keep abreast of their own fields and neighborhoods, much less of developments world-wide. Since the 1950's, changes in the landscape of astronomy are manifold. We have witnessed two epochs of big telescope construction, the 4-meter class telescopes of the '60s and '70s and the 8-to lO-meter class telescopes of the '90s, continuing through today. We accomplished the transition from photographic to digital data, and we continue to improve the size and sen sitivity of astronomical detectors. We have witnessed the flowering of radio astronomy and the opening of the full electromagnetic spectrum through space astronomy. We have seen the growth of national and international astronomy facilities, and a dramatic broadening of the accessibility of data, both through observing facilities available through open competition based on scientific merit and through deep, rich archives of data.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 328 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Botrytis cinerea and other Botrytis species are important pathogens of nursery plants, vegetables, ornamental, field and orchard crops and stored and transported agricultural products. Over the last 125 years, Botrytis spp. have been investigated by an increasing number of specialists in diverse fields including chemistry, biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, genetics, morphology and histology, taxonomy, host-parasite interaction, ecology and epidemiology and they have been the subject of an immense number of published studies. Considerable effort is invested in protecting the agricultural produce against Botrytis before and after harvest. The market size for anti-Botrytis products is currently estimated at US$ 15-25 million in recent years. The intensity of anti-Botrytis measures taken by farmers continued unabated throughout the last 20 years but our understanding of the processes that govern Botrytis life cycles, pathogenicity and epidemiology have become comprehensive. During the compilation of this book the aim was to create a most comprehensive treatise on the rapidly developing science of Botrytis and to serve as a stimulus to future research for the benefit of agriculture and horticulture and all those who serve these industries; i.e. researchers and students, farm advisers and agriculture specialists.The book is the result of intensive work of 43 authors, all of whom are leading scientists in the Botrytis sciences. Each chapter describes a particular aspect of fungal biology and its impact on disease processes and host response. New technologies have arisen that when applied to long-standing problems or to test new hypotheses have been most rewarding and many of these are covered in this book. The chapters are cross linked so that readers can follow associated material to better understand the practical implications of the advances made in fundamental science. The twenty inter-connected chapters of the book are grouped according to three major themes: the fungus and its pathogenicity factors; plant reactions to infection; and epidemiology and management of important Botrytis-incited diseases. This book adopts a multidisciplinary approach to integrate the state-of-the-art knowledge in all key areas of common interest in the fungi and their plant interactions. The book includes detailed reviews of Botrytis spp. and the diseases they cause in plant systems and provides a comprehensive description of these fungal necrotrophs, including their diversity of response to the environment, their speciation and relatedness, sources of variation for evolution and molecular genetics and genomics. Aspects of Botrytis-host interactions, pathogenicity factors, the plant's reactions to infection, morphology and cellular organization, signaling, key enzymes, reactive oxygen species and oxidative processes in disease on-set, secondary metabolites as plant defense substances and the role of phytohormones in such reactions are emphasized in the book. Several innovative approaches for disease management of this group of destructive pathogens and methods of detection, epidemiological studies and chemical and biological control are also discussed.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 448 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Wolfgang Glatzer Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitiit Franlifurt am Main, Germany ABSTRACT Challenges for the quality of life in the contemporary world were the focus of the Fifth International Quality of Life-Conference in Frankfurt am Main in the year 2003, hosted and organized by the Interna tional Society for Quality of Life Studies. The first part of this introductory article is concerned with a general assessment of contemporary quality of life research. At present, the concept of quality of life is a kind of umbrella which keeps together a reasonable number of international social scientists who have similar research interests. The second part of the introduction describes the topics of this book: The five chapters are concerned with the societal goal discussion on quality of life, the scientific monitoring of quality of life, the economic challenges for quality of life, its cultural challenges, and finally the options and restrictions for improving quality of life. Altogether, the contributions are related to present interna tional investigations and discussions of basic questions of quality of life. ATTENTION FOR QUALITY OF LIFE Challenges for the quality of life in the contemporary world were the focus at the Fifth International Quality of Life-Conference in Frankfurt am Main in the year 2003, hosted and organized by the International Society for Quality of Life Studies. There are new threats and new prospects for the quality of life in each generation, and securing and improving quality of life is a never-ending task.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 376 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -On April 22-23, 1988, approximately 432,000 gallons of San Joaquin Valley crude oil spilled from an aboveground storage tank at a Shell Oil Company refinery into the surrounding environment, including the northern reaches of San Francisco Bay (the Martinez spill). Pursuant to the settlement of the resulting litigation (United States/California v. Shell Oil Co., No. C89-4220, (N.D. Cal1990)), Shell Oil Company provided funding for, among other things, studies to improve future response strategies to oil spills and ensure better restoration of resources and services affected by such spills. The California Oil Spill Contingent Valuation Study was one of the studies funded by the settlement. The purpose of the California Oil Spill (COS) Contingent Valuation (CV) Study was 'to execute and document a contingent valuation study of natural resource damages associated with offshore, coastal, or estuarine oil spills in California' (State of California, Department of Justice, Contract Number 89-2126). The COS CV study developed an estimate of per household ex ante economic value for a program to prevent a specified set of natural resource injuries to those species of birds and intertidal life that are consistently affected by oil spills along California's Central Coast. The principal investigators on the COS study team were Richard T. Carson of the University of California, San Diego, and W. Michael Hanemann of the University of California, Berkeley. The study's project manager was Kerry M.Springer Basel AG in Springer Science + Business Media, Heidelberger Platz 3, 14197 Berlin 272 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Dear reader, In the past few years we have observed an interesting mutual interest of two fields of research and development in each other. Life sciences area researchers discovered the opportunities offered my micro- and nanotechnology, while people from the microfluidics and BIOMEMS area discovered the application potential of these technologies in cell biology. Unfortunately, these two research communities share little in common: they read and publish in different scientific journals, have incompatible jargons, attend separate conferences, and have a different scientific approach and culture. This is most strikingly illustrated when you give a MEMS researcher some cells to experiment with, or hand over a couple of chips to a cell biologist. Or imagine explaining a microengineer different intracellular apoptotic pathway or a cell biologist about tensile stress in underetched LPCVD membranes. And yet, there is an enormous potential of combining the expertises available in these two fields. It is our goal to illustrate this potential with this book focusing on microfluidics technologies for ¿cellomics¿, research on or with cells. In our view, the field is still too immature to compile a textbook for students, and this volume is rather meant to be a collection of first class papers of leaders in this emerging field. This volume will enable researchers from both communities to get a rapid ¿state of the art¿ overview, and also to get an impression what kind of possibilities this area offers. Micro- and nanotechnologists will get inspiration about applications, life science researchers about technological capabilities.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 380 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This volume collects papers presented, as invited and contributed talks or posters, at the workshop on ¿The NEW Rosetta targets. Obs- vations, simulations and instrument performances¿, which was held in CaprionOctober13-15,2003. Morethan100scientistscoveringdi erent elds, such as optical and radio astronomy, laboratory experiments and modelling of comet physics and processes, as well as several Principal Investigators of the instruments on board Rosetta, participated to this highly interdisciplinary workshop. The Rosetta mission was programmed for launch in January 2003 towards the short period comet 46P/Wirtanen and the asteroids 140 Siwa and 4979 Otawara. However, due to problems with the Ariane V launcher, the launch was postponed and the European Space Agency had to identify new mission targets, suitable for a launch window at the end of February 2004. The short period comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenkowaschosenasprimarytargetforthenewbaseline, together with one or two asteroids to be selected, depending on the v available after the Rosetta probe interplanetary orbit insertion. After the succe- ful launch of the mission on March 2nd, 2004, the new baseline foresees a double y-by with asteroids 21 Lutetia and 2867 Steins, on the way towards the rendezvous with the primary target, that will be reached in 2014. The papers included in this volume cover di erent complementary elds: observations of the new Rosetta targets, laboratory experiments, theoreticalsimulationofcometenvironmentandprocesses,performances of the experiments on board Rosetta spacecraft, also in view of the new mission target(s). Afterthepostponementofthemissionlaunch,comet67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko was the subject of an intense observation campaign, - tween February and June 2003.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 328 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -In general, the history of virtue theory is well-documented (Sherman, 1997; O¿Neill, 1996). Its relationship to medicine is also recorded in our work and in that of others (Pellegrino and Thomasma, 1993b; 1996; Drane, 1994; Ellos, 1990). General publications stress the importance of training the young in virtuous practices. Still, the popularity of education in virtue is widely viewed as part of a conservative backlash to modern liberal society. Given the authorship of some of these works by professional conservatives like William Bennett (1993; 1995), this concern is authentic. One might correspondingly fear that greater adoption of virtue theory in medicine will be accompanied by a corresponding backward-looking social agenda. Worse yet, does reaffirmation of virtue theory lacquer over the many challenges of the postmodern world view as if these were not serious concerns After all, recreating the past is the ¿retrö temptation of our times. Searching for greater certitude than we can now obtain preoccupies most thinkers today. One wishes for the old clarity and certitudes (Engelhardt, 1991). On the other hand, the same thinkers who yearn for the past, like Engelhardt sometimes seems to do, might stress the unyielding gulf between past and present that creates the postmodern reaction to all systems of Enlightenment thought (1996).Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 584 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer (1564-1642) This book is a second edition of ¿Classical Electromagnetic Theory¿ which derived from a set of lecture notes compiled over a number of years of teaching elect- magnetic theory to fourth year physics and electrical engineering students. These students had a previous exposure to electricity and magnetism, and the material from the rst four and a half chapters was presented as a review. I believe that the book makes a reasonable transition between the many excellent elementary books such as Gri th¿s Introduction to Electrodynamics and the obviously graduate level books such as Jackson¿s Classical Electrodynamics or Landau and Lifshitz¿ Elect- dynamics of Continuous Media. If the students have had a previous exposure to Electromagnetictheory, allthematerialcanbereasonablycoveredintwosemesters. Neophytes should probable spenda semester on the rst four or ve chapters as well as, depending on their mathematical background, the Appendices B to F. For a shorter or more elementary course, the material on spherical waves, waveguides, and waves in anisotropic media may be omitted without loss of continuity.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 436 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Predicates and their Subjects is an in-depth study of the syntax-semantics interface focusing on the structure of the subject-predicate relation. Starting from where the author's 1983 dissertation left off, the book argues that there is syntactic constraint that clauses (small and tensed) are constructed out of a one-place unsaturated expression, the predicate, which must be applied to a syntactic argument, its subject. The author shows that this predication relation cannot be reduced to a thematic relation or a projection of argument structure, but must be a purely syntactic constraint. Chapters in the book show how the syntactic predication relation is semantically interpreted, and how the predication relation explains constraints on DP-raising and on the distribution of pleonastics in English. The second half of the book extends the theory of predication to cover copular constructions; it includes an account of the structure of small clauses in Hebrew, of the use of `be' in predicative and identity sentences in English, and concludes with a study of the meaning of the verb `be'.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 372 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -At the origin of this volume, a simple question: what to make of that surprisingly monotonous series of statements produced by our societies and our philosophers that all converge in one theme - the importance of difference To clarify the meaning of the difference at stake here, we have tried to rephrase it in terms of the two major and mutually competing paradigms provided by the history of phenomenology only to find both of them equally unable to accommodate this difference without violence. Neither the ethical nor the ontological approach can account for a subject that insists on playing a part of its own rather than following the script provided for it by either Being or the Good. What appears to be, from a Heideggerian or Levinasian perspective, an unwillingness to open up to what offers to deliver us from the condition of subjectivity is analysed in these pages as a structure in its own right. Far from being the wilful, indifferent and irresponsive being its critics have portrayed it to be, the so-called 'postmodern' subject is essentially finite, not even able to assume the transcendence to which it owes its singularity. This inability is not a lack - it points instead to a certain unthought shared by both Heidegger and Levinas which sets the terms for a discussion no longer our own. Instead of blaming Heidegger for underdeveloping 'being-with', we should rather stress that his account of mineness may be, in the light of contemporary philosophy, what stands most in need of revision. And, instead of hailing Levinas as the critic whose stress on the alterity of the Other corrects Heidegger's existential solipsism, the problems into which Levinas runs in defining that alterity call for a different diagnosis and a corresponding change in the course that phenomenology has taken since. Instead of preoccupying itself with the invisible, we should focus on the structures of visibility that protect us from its terror.The result An account of difference that is neither ontological nor ethical, but 'mè-ontological', and that can help us understand some of the problems our societies have come to face (racism, sexism, multiculturalism, pluralism). And, in the wake of this, an unexpected defence of what is at stake in postmodernism and in the question it has refused to take lightly: who are we Finally, an homage to Arendt and Lyotard who, if read through each other's lenses, give an exact articulation to the question with which our age struggles: how to think the 'human condition' once one realizes that there is an 'inhuman' side to it which, instead of being its mere negation, turns out to be that without which it would come to lose its humanity Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 324 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Modern North American sturgeons and paddlefish are the result of 100 million years of evolution. Once an integral part of aboriginal culture, their numbers were decimated by overfishing and habitat destruction during the past two centuries.This book details the extensive science aimed at helping these remarkable species recover from the brink of extinction, and describes the historical, biological, and ecological importance of North American sturgeon and paddlefish. The text is enhanced by photographs and detailed line drawings.This comprehensive volume will be an invaluable resource for researchers, educators, and consultants, in academic and government settings, who work to further scientific understanding of these fishes. No other single compilation has documented current information in such detail.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 336 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -At all times physicians were bound to pursue not only medical tasks, but to reflect also on the many anthropological and metaphysical aspects of their discipline, such as on the nature of life and death, of health and sickness, and above all on the vital ethical dimensions of their practice. For centuries, almost for two millennia, how ever, those who practiced medicine lived in a relatively clearly defined ethical and implicitly philosophical or religious 'world-order' within which they could safely turn to medical practice, knowing right from wrong, or at least being told what to do and what not to do. Today, however, the situation has radically changed, mainly due to three quite different reasons: First and most obviously, physicians today are faced with a tremendous development of new possibilities and techniques which allow previously unheard of medical interventions (such as cloning, cryo-conservation, ge netic interference, etc. ) which call out for ethical reflection and wise judgment but regarding which there is no legal and medical ethical tradition. Traditional medical education did not prepare physicians for coping with this new brave world of mod em medicine. Secondly, there are the deep philosophical crises and the philosophical diseases of medicine mentioned in the preface that lead to a break-down of firm and formative legal and ethical norms for medical actions.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 444 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Gamma-ray astronomy has undergone an enormous progress in the last 15 years. The success of satellite experiments like NASA's Comp ton Gamma-Ray Observatory and ESA's INTEGRAL mission, as well as of ground-based instruments have open new views into the high-energy Universe. Different classes of cosmic gamma-ray sources have been now detected at different energies, in addition to young radio pulsars and gamma-ray bursts, the classical ones. The new sources include radio quiet pulsars, microquasars, supernova remnants, starburst galaxies, ra dio galaxies, flat-spectrum radio quasars, and BL Lacertae objects. A large number of unidentified sources strongly suggests that this brief enumeration is far from complete. Gamma-ray bursts are now estab lished as extragalactic sources with tremendous energy output. There is accumulating evidence supporting the idea that massive stars and star forming regions can accelerate charged particles up to relativistic ener gies making them gamma-ray sources. Gamma-ray astronomy has also proved to be a powerful tool for cosmology imposing constraints to the background photon fields that can absorb the gamma-ray flux from dis tant sources. All this has profound implications for our current ideas about how particles are accelerated and transported in both the local and distant U niverse. The evolution of our knowledge on the gamma-ray sky has been so fast that is not easy for the non-specialist scientist and the graduate student to be aware of the full potential of this field or to grasp the fundamentals of a given topic in order to attempt some original contribution.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 424 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Micrometeorology is a branch of meteorology that is concerned with atmospheric phenomena and processes near the ground at scales of tens of meters to several kilometers. Progress in micrometeorologyismade throughexperimentalinvestigationofthesephenomenaandquantitative studyattemptingtobringordertoexperimentaldata. Studiesofsurfa- air ux play a crucial role in this endeavor. The current paradigm of micrometeorology builds on two premises: (i) that scale separation exists so that the microscale phenomena can be treated more or less in isolation of phenomena occurring at larger scales, and (ii) that these phenomena are in uenced by the surface to such an extent that ¿external factors¿ can be ignored. Quantitative studies have been based on the assumption of horizontal homogeneity, which inevitably biases the investigation toward over-idealization of the real world by restricting it to perfectly at topography and daytime, fair weather conditions. This bias was noted by John Philip 40 years ago: ¿Experimenters attempt to avoid [advection] by working on sites downwind of extensive ¿homogeneous¿ areas. Sometimes advection is invoked to explain otherwise inexplicable observations.¿ (J. Meteorol. 16, 535).Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 268 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Interested in how an efficient search engine works Want to know what algorithms are used to rank resulting documents in response to user requests The authors answer these and other key information retrieval design and implementation questions.This book is not yet another high level text. Instead, algorithms are thoroughly described, making this book ideally suited for both computer science students and practitioners who work on search-related applications. As stated in the foreword, this book provides a current, broad, and detailed overview of the field and is the only one that does so. Examples are used throughout to illustrate the algorithms.The authors explain how a query is ranked against a document collection using either a single or a combination of retrieval strategies, and how an assortment of utilities are integrated into the query processing scheme to improve these rankings. Methods for building and compressing text indexes, querying and retrieving documents in multiple languages, and using parallel or distributed processing to expedite the search are likewise described.This edition is a major expansion of the one published in 1998. Besides updating the entire book with current techniques, it includes new sections on language models, cross-language information retrieval, peer-to-peer processing, XML search, mediators, and duplicate document detection.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 356 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Interested in how an efficient search engine works Want to know what algorithms are used to rank resulting documents in response to user requests The authors answer these and other key information retrieval design and implementation questions.This book is not yet another high level text. Instead, algorithms are thoroughly described, making this book ideally suited for both computer science students and practitioners who work on search-related applications. As stated in the foreword, this book provides a current, broad, and detailed overview of the field and is the only one that does so. Examples are used throughout to illustrate the algorithms.The authors explain how a query is ranked against a document collection using either a single or a combination of retrieval strategies, and how an assortment of utilities are integrated into the query processing scheme to improve these rankings. Methods for building and compressing text indexes, querying and retrieving documents in multiple languages, and using parallel or distributed processing to expedite the search are likewise described.This edition is a major expansion of the one published in 1998. Besides updating the entire book with current techniques, it includes new sections on language models, cross-language information retrieval, peer-to-peer processing, XML search, mediators, and duplicate document detection.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 356 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -In the quest for higher data density in information technology manipulation of magnetization by other means than magnetic fields has become an important challenge. This lead to a startling revival of the magnetoelectric effect, which characterizes induction of a polarization by a magnetic field or of a magnetization by an electric field. The magnetoelectric crosslink of material properties opens just those degrees of freedom which are needed for the mutual control of magnetic and electric states. The book gives a state-of-the-art review on magnetoelectrics research, classifies current research tendencies, and points out possible future trends. Novel compounds and growth techniques and new theoretical concepts for the understanding of magnetoelectric coupling phenomena are introduced. Highlights are the discovery of 'gigantic' magnetoelectric effects which are strong enough to trigger electric or magnetic phase transitions; the concept of magnetochirality; and development 'structural' magnetoelectric effects in artificial multiphase compounds. The book is addressed to condensed-matter physicists with a particular focus on experts in highly correlated systems.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 360 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Effective Learning and Teaching of Writing is a handbook on research on the effective teaching and learning of writing. It is a reference for researchers and educators in the domain of written composition in education. Effective Learning and Teaching of Writing covers all age ranges and school settings and it deals with various aspects of writing and text types. Research methodology varies from experimental studies to reflective classroom practitioners¿ research.This new volume in the series Studies in Writing brings together researchers from all kinds of disciplines involved in writing research and countries in their endeavour to improve the teaching of written composition. It is the result of co-operation of researchers all over the world and shows that in spite of the differences in educational regions over the world, research in writing shares similar problems, and tries to find answers, and generate new questions. The body of knowledge in this volume will inspire researchers and teachers to improve research and practice.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 684 pp. Englisch.