springer us jun 1999 (38 Ergebnisse)

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book is a tour-de-force on how human consciousness may have evolved. From the 'phantom pain' experienced by people who have lost their limbs to the uncanny faculty of 'blindsight,' Humphrey argues that raw sensations are central to all conscious states and that consciousness must have evolved, just like all other mental faculties, over time from our ancestors' bodily responses to pain and pleasure. 'Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 240 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - This book provides an upto date information on metric, connection and curva ture symmetries used in geometry and physics. More specifically, we present the characterizations and classifications of Riemannian and Lorentzian manifolds (in particular, the spacetimes of general relativity) admitting metric (i.e., Killing, ho mothetic and conformal), connection (i.e., affine conformal and projective) and curvature symmetries. Our approach, in this book, has the following outstanding features: (a) It is the first-ever attempt of a comprehensive collection of the works of a very large number of researchers on all the above mentioned symmetries. (b) We have aimed at bringing together the researchers interested in differential geometry and the mathematical physics of general relativity by giving an invariant as well as the index form of the main formulas and results. (c) Attempt has been made to support several main mathematical results by citing physical example(s) as applied to general relativity. (d) Overall the presentation is self contained, fairly accessible and in some special cases supported by an extensive list of cited references. (e) The material covered should stimulate future research on symmetries. Chapters 1 and 2 contain most of the prerequisites for reading the rest of the book. We present the language of semi-Euclidean spaces, manifolds, their tensor calculus; geometry of null curves, non-degenerate and degenerate (light like) hypersurfaces. All this is described in invariant as well as the index form.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -There has been a great deal of excitement in the last ten years over the emer gence of new mathematical techniques for the analysis and control of nonlinear systems: Witness the emergence of a set of simplified tools for the analysis of bifurcations, chaos, and other complicated dynamical behavior and the develop ment of a comprehensive theory of geometric nonlinear control. Coupled with this set of analytic advances has been the vast increase in computational power available for both the simulation and visualization of nonlinear systems as well as for the implementation in real time of sophisticated, real-time nonlinear control laws. Thus, technological advances havebolstered the impact of analytic advances and produced a tremendous variety of new problems and applications that are nonlinear in an essential way. Nonlinear controllaws have been implemented for sophisticated flight control systems on board helicopters, and vertical take offand landing aircraft; adaptive, nonlinearcontrollaws havebeen implementedfor robot manipulators operating either singly, or in cooperation on a multi-fingered robot hand; adaptive control laws have been implemented forjetengines andautomotive fuel injection systems, as well as for automated highway systems and air traffic management systems, to mention a few examples. Bifurcation theory has been used to explain and understand the onset of fiutterin the dynamics of aircraft wing structures, the onset of oscillations in nonlinear circuits, surge and stall in aircraft engines, voltage collapse in a power transmission network.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 700 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Changes in health care are at a breakneck pace. Regardless of the many changes we have collectively experienced, delivering health care has been, is, and will continue to be an enormously information-intensive process. Whether caring for a patient or a population, whether managing a clinic or a continuum, we are in a knowledge exchange business. A major task for our industry, and the task for chief information officers (CIOs), is to find and apply improved strategies and technologies for managing healthcare information. In a fiercely competitive healthcare marketplace, the pressures to suc ceed in this undertaking-and the rewards associated with success-are enormous. While the task is still daunting, we can all be encouraged by progress being made in information management. There are documented successes throughout health care, and there is growing recognition by healthcare chief executive officers and boards that information strategies, and their deployment, are essential to organizational efficiency, quite pos sibly organizational survival.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 236 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The present book is intended to be a systematic text on topological vector spaces and presupposes familiarity with the elements of general topology and linear algebra. The author has found it unnecessary to rederive these results, since they are equally basic for many other areas of mathematics, and every beginning graduate student is likely to have made their acquaintance. Simi larly, the elementary facts on Hilbert and Banach spaces are widely known and are not discussed in detail in this book, which is :plainly addressed to those readers who have attained and wish to get beyond the introductory level. The book has its origin in courses given by the author at Washington State University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Ttibingen in the years 1958-1963. At that time there existed no reasonably ccmplete text on topological vector spaces in English, and there seemed to be a genuine need for a book on this subject. This situation changed in 1963 with the appearance of the book by Kelley, Namioka et al. [1] which, through its many elegant proofs, has had some influence on the final draft of this manuscript. Yet the two books appear to be sufficiently different in spirit and subject matter to justify the publication of this manuscript; in particular, the present book includes a discussion of topological tensor products, nuclear spaces, ordered topological vector spaces, and an appendix on positive operators.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 368 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -1 The Purpose of This Text This text has been written in response to two trends that have gained considerable momentum over the past few years. The first is the decision by many undergraduate engineering and science departments to abandon the traditional programming course based on the aging Fortran 77 standard. This decision is not surprising, considering the more modem features found in languages such as Pascal and C. However, Pascal never developed a strong following in scientific computing, and its use is in decline. The new Fortran 90 standard defines a powerful, modem language, but this long-overdue redesign of Fortran has come too late to prevent many colleges and universities from switching to C. The acceptance of C by scientists and engineers is based perhaps as. much on their perceptions of C as an important language, which it certainly is, and on C programming experience as a highly marketable skill, as it is on the suitability of C for scientific computation. For whatever reason, C or its derivative C++ is now widely taught as the first and often only programming language for undergraduates in science and engineering. The second trend is the evolving nature of the undergraduate engineering curriculum. At a growing number of institutions, the traditional approach of stressing theory and mathematics fundamentals in the early undergraduate years, and postponing real engineering applications until later in the curriculum, has been turned upside down.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 500 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -MPEG-4 is the multimedia standard for combining interactivity, natural and synthetic digital video, audio and computer-graphics. Typical applications are: internet, video conferencing, mobile videophones, multimedia cooperative work, teleteaching and games. With MPEG-4 the next step from block-based video (ISO/IEC MPEG-1, MPEG-2, CCITT H.261, ITU-T H.263) to arbitrarily-shaped visual objects is taken. This significant step demands a new methodology for system analysis and design to meet the considerably higher flexibility of MPEG-4.Motion estimation is a central part of MPEG-1/2/4 and H.261/H.263 video compression standards and has attracted much attention in research and industry, for the following reasons: it is computationally the most demanding algorithm of a video encoder (about 60-80% of the total computation time), it has a high impact on the visual quality of a video encoder, and it is not standardized, thus being open to competition.Algorithms, Complexity Analysis, and VLSI Architectures for MPEG-4 Motion Estimation covers in detail every single step in the design of a MPEG-1/2/4 or H.261/H.263 compliant video encoder: Fast motion estimation algorithmsComplexity analysis toolsDetailed complexity analysis of a software implementation of MPEG-4 videoComplexity and visual quality analysis of fast motion estimation algorithms within MPEG-4Design space on motion estimation VLSI architecturesDetailed VLSI design examples of (1) a high throughput and (2) a low-power MPEG-4 motion estimator.Algorithms, Complexity Analysis and VLSI Architectures for MPEG-4 Motion Estimation is an important introduction to numerous algorithmic, architectural and system design aspects of the multimedia standard MPEG-4. As such, all researchers, students and practitioners working in image processing, video coding or system and VLSI design will find this book of interest.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 252 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This volume presents a completely new and very substantial body of information about the origin of agriculture and plant use in Africa. All the evidence is very recent and for the first time all this archaeobotanical evidence is brought together in one volume (at present the information is unpublished or published in many disparate journals, confer ence reports, monographs, site reports, etc. ). Early publications concerned with the origins of African plant domestication relied almost exclusively on inferences made from the modem distribution of the wild progenitors of African cultivars; there existed virtually no archaeobotanical data at that time. Even as recently as the early 1990s direct evidence for the transition to farming and the relative roles of indigenous versus Near Eastern crops was lacking for most of Africa. This volume changes that and presents a wide range of ex citing new evidence, including case studies from Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Uganda, Egypt, and Sudan, which range in date from 8000 BP to the present day. The volume ad dresses topics such as the role of wild plant resources in hunter-gatherer and farming com munities, the origins of agriculture, the agricultural foundation of complex societies, long-distance trade, the exchange of foods and crops, and the human impact on local vege tation-all key issues of current research in archaeology, anthropology, agronomy, ecol ogy, and economic history.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 300 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The authors' aim is to provide the reader with the very basic knowledge necessary to begin research on differential equations with professional ability. The selection of topics should provide the reader with methods and results that are applicable in a variety of different fields. The text is suitable for a one-year graduate course, as well as a reference book for research mathematicians. The book is divided into four parts. The first covers fundamental existence, uniqueness, smoothness with respect to data, and nonuniqueness. The second part describes the basic results concerning linear differential equations, the third deals with nonlinear equations. In the last part the authors write about the basic results concerning power series solutions. Each chapter begins with a brief discussion of its contents and history. The book has 114 illustrations and 206 exercises. Hints and comments for many problems are given.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 484 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book presents the second part of a two-volume series devoted to a sys tematic exposition of some recent developments in the theory of discrete time Markov control processes (MCPs). As in the first part, hereafter re ferred to as 'Volume I' (see Hernandez-Lerma and Lasserre [1]), interest is mainly confined to MCPs with Borel state and control spaces, and possibly unbounded costs. However, an important feature of the present volume is that it is essentially self-contained and can be read independently of Volume I. The reason for this independence is that even though both volumes deal with similar classes of MCPs, the assumptions on the control models are usually different. For instance, Volume I deals only with nonnegative cost per-stage functions, whereas in the present volume we allow cost functions to take positive or negative values, as needed in some applications. Thus, many results in Volume Ion, say, discounted or average cost problems are not applicable to the models considered here. On the other hand, we now consider control models that typically re quire more restrictive classes of control-constraint sets and/or transition laws. This loss of generality is, of course, deliberate because it allows us to obtain more 'precise' results. For example, in a very general context, in 4.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 296 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Prediction of a random field based on observations of the random field at some set of locations arises in mining, hydrology, atmospheric sciences, and geography. Kriging, a prediction scheme defined as any prediction scheme that minimizes mean squared prediction error among some class of predictors under a particular model for the field, is commonly used in all these areas of prediction. This book summarizes past work and describes new approaches to thinking about kriging.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 276 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The short history of the International Working Conference on Educating Professionals for Network Centric Organizations is a good illustration of the tremendous rate of development of global networking, its impact and of its deep penetration into management of business, industty and administration. In 1996, when the theme and name of the conference had been set, there was yet no heavy use of networks in the fields just mentioned. However, it has been already established well enough to enable those with a visionary sense to feel that it will be an important subject and it could be an interesting theme for a conference to be held within two years. It seemed a risky decision at the time but it turned out to be very successful when conducted in 1998. It has been stated that 'it took until 1997 for the business world to discover the Internet'. In less than two years, the Internet and the Intranets are a vital component for running major parts of the business world. This fast pace puts some pressure on writing papers and holding a conferenc- effort has to be made to have meaningful contents despite the changes. A time span of 9 months between writing a paper and having it published, seemed once to be very short, but it is not so any more when referring to a dynamic issue like global networking.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 244 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -By the end of the 19th century both beaver species had been extirpated from large portions of their native ranges. The global decline in beaver populations was the direct re sult of exploitation by humans. Now, at the end of the 20th century, protection, manage ment, and reintroduction programs, coupled with a decline in the demand for beaver fur and other products, have allowed beaver populations to increase dramatically. Since bea vers actively modify their local environment their activities can conflict with human land use. Because of this, the beaver, once considered a unique and exotic component of wet lands, is now often considered a nuisance species. The history, as well as the current status, of beaver populations in Europe and North America provide insight into how con servation programs work, and into how humans and wildlife interact. The initial plenary lecture of the Euro-American Mammal Congress (July, 1998) was presented by Dr. Michael L. Rosenzweig, a professor at the University of Arizona. Dr. Rosenzweig discussed how humans have used and continue to use natural resources, in cluding wildlife and wildland. He provided evidence indicating that the current model of reservation conservation could not provide a long-term solution to the human-wild life/wildland conflict. Dr. Rosenzweig emphasized that what is required is a move away from purely exploitive activities (I would call this exploitive ecology) and the develop ment of a reconciliation ecology with wildlife.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 196 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The importance of polyamines for all living cells has been recognized since spermine was discovered in human semen more than 300 years ago. Polyamine research intensified when analytical methods were developed for their determination, particularly in tissues and biological fluids. Discovering their close correlation with cancer, and that polyamine concentrations change during the cell cycle, gave reason for further research in this topic.Polyamines in Health and Nutrition concentrates on the direction of polyamine research which has the capacity to influence and benefit our health and which can explain some of the discrepancies and failures of earlier research. It is important to recognize the dietary contribution to the polyamine body pool and to investigate how the polyamine content of the diet can be changed, with the ultimate aim of using this information to improve our health.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 356 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This is a history of the use of Bayes theoremfrom its discovery by Thomas Bayes to the rise of the statistical competitors in the first part of the twentieth century. The book focuses particularly on the development of one of the fundamental aspects of Bayesian statistics, and in this new edition readers will find new sections on contributors to the theory. In addition, this edition includes amplified discussion of relevant work.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 700 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Among all the interests in parallelism, there is an essential and fundamental one that has remained largely unexplored, namely the question of how to design parallel programs from their specification. And that is what this book is about. It proposes a method for the formal development of parallel programs - multiprograms as we have preferred to call them -, and it does so with a minimum of formal gear, viz. with the predicate calculus and with the meanwhile well-established theory of Owicki and Gries. The fact that one can get away with just this theory will probably not convey anything to the uninitiated, but it may all the more come as a surprise to those who were exposed earlier to correctness of multiprograms. Contrary to common belief, the Owicki/Gries theory can indeed be effectively put to work for the formal development of multiprograms, regardless of whether these algorithms are distributed or not. That is what we intend to exemplify with this book.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 396 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Quantitative Feedback Design of Linear and Nonlinear Control Systems is a self-contained book dealing with the theory and practice of Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT). The author presents feedback synthesis techniques for single-input single-output, multi-input multi-output linear time-invariant and nonlinear plants based on the QFT method. Included are design details and graphs which do not appear in the literature, which will enable engineers and researchers to understand QFT in greater depth. Engineers will be able to apply QFT and the design techniques to many applications, such as flight and chemical plant control, robotics, space, vehicle and military industries, and numerous other uses. All of the examples were implemented using Matlab® Version 5.3; the script file can be found at the author's Web site.QFT results in efficient designs because it synthesizes a controller for the exact amount of plant uncertainty, disturbances and required specifications. Quantitative Feedback Design of Linear and Nonlinear Control Systems is a pioneering work that illuminates QFT, making the theory - and practice - come alive.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 396 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The birth of this monograph is partly due to the persistent efforts of the General Editor, Dr. Klaus Timmerhaus, to persuade the authors that they encapsulate their forty or fifty years of struggle with the thermal properties of materials into a book before they either expired or became totally senile. We recognize his wisdom in wanting a monograph which includes the closely linked properties of heat capacity and thermal expansion, to which we have added a little 'cement' in the form of elastic moduli. There seems to be a dearth of practitioners in these areas, particularly among physics postgraduate students, sometimes temporarily alleviated when a new generation of exciting materials are found, be they heavy fermion compounds, high temperature superconductors, or fullerenes. And yet the needs of the space industry, telecommunications, energy conservation, astronomy, medical imaging, etc. , place demands for more data and understanding of these properties for all classes of materials - metals, polymers, glasses, ceramics, and mixtures thereof. There have been many useful books, including Specific Heats at Low Tempera tures by E. S. Raja Gopal (1966) in this Plenum Cryogenic Monograph Series, but few if any that covered these related topics in one book in a fashion designed to help the cryogenic engineer and cryophysicist. We hope that the introductory chapter will widen the horizons of many without a solid state background but with a general interest in physics and materials.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 356 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -International concern in scientific, industrial, and governmental communities over traces of xenobiotics in foods and in both abiotic and biotic environments has justified the present triumvirate of specialized publications in this field: comprehensive reviews, rapidly published research papers and progress reports, and archival documentations. These three international publications are inte grated and scheduled to provide the coherency essential for nonduplicative and current progress in a field as dynamic and complex as environmental contamina tion and toxicology. This series is reserved exclusively for the diversified litera ture on ''toxic'' chemicals in our food, our feeds, our homes, recreational and working surroundings, our domestic animals, our wildlife and ourselves. Tre mendous efforts worldwide have been mobilized to evaluate the nature, pres ence, magnitude, fate, and toxicology of the chemicals loosed upon the earth. Among the sequelae of this broad new emphasis is an undeniable need for an articulated set of authoritative publications, where one can find the latest impor tant world literature produced by these emerging areas of science together with documentation of pertinent ancillary legislation. Research directors and legislative or administrative advisers do not have the time to scan the escalating number of technical publications that may contain articles important to current responsibility. Rather, these individuals need the background provided by detailed reviews and the assurance that the latest infor mation is made available to them, all with minimal literature searching.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 180 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Learning on Silicon combines models of adaptive information processing in the brain with advances in microelectronics technology and circuit design. The premise is to construct integrated systems not only loaded with sufficient computational power to handle demanding signal processing tasks in sensory perception and pattern recognition, but also capable of operating autonomously and robustly in unpredictable environments through mechanisms of adaptation and learning.This edited volume covers the spectrum of Learning on Silicon in five parts: adaptive sensory systems, neuromorphic learning, learning architectures, learning dynamics, and learning systems. The 18 chapters are documented with examples of fabricated systems, experimental results from silicon, and integrated applications ranging from adaptive optics to biomedical instrumentation.As the first comprehensive treatment on the subject, Learning on Silicon serves as a reference for beginners and experienced researchers alike. It provides excellent material for an advanced course, and a source of inspiration for continued research towards building intelligent adaptive machines.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 444 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Although the monograph Progress in Optimization I: Contributions from Aus tralasia grew from the idea of publishing a proceedings of the Fourth Optimiza tion Day, held in July 1997 at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, the focus soon changed to a refereed volume in optimization. The intention is to publish a similar book annually, following each Optimization Day. The idea of having an annual Optimization Day was conceived by Barney Glover; the first of these Optimization Days was held in 1994 at the University of Ballarat. Barney hoped that such a yearly event would bring together the many, but widely dispersed, researchers in Australia who were publishing in optimization and related areas such as control. The first Optimization Day event was followed by similar conferences at The University of New South Wales (1995), The University of Melbourne (1996), the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (1997), and The University of Western Australia (1998). The 1999 conference will return to Ballarat University, being organized by Barney's long-time collaborator Alex Rubinov. In recent years the Optimization Day has been held in conjunction with other locally-held national or international conferences. This has widened the scope of the monograph with contributions not only coming from researchers in Australia and neighboring regions but also from their collaborators in Europe and North America.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Ethnic and international foods have gradually been integrated into the daily diet in North America. However, the existing literature of flavor characteristics and chemistry of such foods remains fragmentary and diverse. This book presents a summary of the current status of knowledge in this area.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 284 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -As is well known, Pontryagin's maximum principle and Bellman's dynamic programming are the two principal and most commonly used approaches in solving stochastic optimal control problems. \* An interesting phenomenon one can observe from the literature is that these two approaches have been developed separately and independently. Since both methods are used to investigate the same problems, a natural question one will ask is the fol lowing: (Q) What is the relationship betwccn the maximum principlc and dy namic programming in stochastic optimal controls There did exist some researches (prior to the 1980s) on the relationship between these two. Nevertheless, the results usually werestated in heuristic terms and proved under rather restrictive assumptions, which were not satisfied in most cases. In the statement of a Pontryagin-type maximum principle there is an adjoint equation, which is an ordinary differential equation (ODE) in the (finite-dimensional) deterministic case and a stochastic differential equation (SDE) in the stochastic case. The system consisting of the adjoint equa tion, the original state equation, and the maximum condition is referred to as an (extended) Hamiltonian system. On the other hand, in Bellman's dynamic programming, there is a partial differential equation (PDE), of first order in the (finite-dimensional) deterministic case and of second or der in the stochastic case. This is known as a Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 464 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - An unusually understandable survey of the forces or perception and feeling that determine the purchases we make; the roles played by fashion, fads, and status; and the psychological needs that they fulfill. The book discusses how children become consumers and how they change as they age. Research based throughout, it shows how ads use classical conditioning, harnessing psychological motivation to create image and sell products.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Significant research activities have taken place in the areas of local and global optimization in the last two decades. Many new theoretical, computational, algorithmic, and software contributions have resulted. It has been realized that despite these numerous contributions, there does not exist a systematic forum for thorough experimental computational testing and evaluation of the proposed optimization algorithms and their implementations. Well-designed nonconvex optimization test problems are of major impor tance for academic and industrial researchers interested in algorithmic and software development. It is remarkable that eventhough nonconvex models dominate all the important application areas in engineering and applied sci ences, there is only a limited dass of reported representative test problems. This book reflects our long term efforts in designing a benchmark database and it is motivated primarily from the need for nonconvex optimization test problems. The present collection of benchmarks indudes test problems from literature studies and a large dass of applications that arise in several branches of engineering and applied science. 460 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -On November 9-11, 1998,85 participants, representing 17 countries, gathered in Aubum Hills, Michigan, at the Chrysler Tech Center, to attend a workshop 'SSM'98' (or Sculptured Surface Machining '98) organized by IFIP Working Group 5.3. This was the first major workshop on sculptured surface machining since the CAM-I sponsored conference 'Machining Impossible Surfaces' held in 1981. The purpose of the SSM'98 workshop, entitled 'Machining Impossible Shapes', was to promote a cross-fertilization of ideas among three communities: industrial users, CAM software developers and academic researchers. There were 17 participants who were 'industrial users', 15 represented CAM software developers, 4 were from the machine tool industry, with the remainder being academic researchers. The format of the meeting included 40 presentations in 9 sessions, 4 keynote speeches and a sufficient amount of time for informal discussion amongst the participants. One of the most valuable aspects of the workshop was the opportunity for participants to meet informally and to discuss their mutual interests. This led to two 'participant organized' sessions on five axis machining and on machine tool controllers.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 400 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -It has been estimated that there are more microbial cells inhabiting the human body than there are eukaryotic cells of which it is made up. This normal microflora usually co-exists relatively peacefully with the host and does not cause infection. The mechanisms by which this co-existence is achieved are still not properly understood and the interaction between the normal microflora and the host is far from simple. For a variety of reasons, however, this interaction can be disturbed and often results in the microflora becoming pathogens. The study of the diseases then caused is important both in terms of treatment and in terms of contributing to our understanding of the mechanisms by which the normal microflora usually interacts with the host.This title brings together an international list of contributors, all of whom have active research interests in the normal microflora. Each of the chapters reviews current knowledge about a specific group or organism within the microflora and the diseases they can cause. Microflora of the skin, respiratory tract, oral cavity, gastrointestinal system and genital tract are all discussed and the impact of molecular methods on our understanding of the normal microflora is emphasised throughout the book.Medical microbiologists, dental specialists, infectious disease specialists, nutritionists and gastroenterologists will all find this book of immense interest and value, as will epidemiologists, dermatologists and general microbiologists.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 540 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -In the field of compressed gases and related equipment, there is an expanding core of essential knowledge that people handling and using these materials should be familiar with or should know where to find. The focus ofthis book concerns the properties and the accepted means oftransportation, storage, and handlingofcompressed gases. This handbook is simultaneously intended as an overview ofthe subject and a source ofsupplementary information. It is also intended to serve as a guide to perti nent federal regulatory requirements and published standards of the Compressed Gas Association and other standards-developing organizations. The Association advises readers that the CGA technical publications remain the official statement ofpolicy on a particular matter. Reference is made throughout this text to the numerous technical publications published by the Compressed Gas Association. Some ofthese publications have been incorporated by reference into federal, state, provincial, and local regulations. Since the CGA publications are reviewed on a periodic basis, whenever the textofthis handbook conflicts with corresponding information in the CGA technical pamphlets, the most recently printed material shall take precedence.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 724 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Gastrointestinal motility has evolved from an esoteric laboratory tool into a sophisti cated diagnostic technique that is now widely used clinically to guide in management of complex gastrointestinal problems. Today, it is the most rapidly growing subspecialty within gastroenterology. Previously, many of the gastrointestinal motility problems were either ignored or attributed to a disturbance of 'psyche.' But with the growing knowledge and understanding of how a dysfunction of the gastrointestinal muscle and nerves can cause disease, we are at the threshold of a revolution in our approach to the diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal motility disorders. The purpose of this book is to serve as a useful, up-to-date reference manual and guide for the diagnostic and therapeutic approach towards common adult and pediatric gastrointestinal motility problems. In order to enhance the understanding of these disor ders, a problem-oriented approach has been chosen, and wherever possible the authors have provided clinical case scenarios to illustrate their message. The emphasis has been on how to diagnose and treat motility disorders rather than to provide an encyclopedic infor mation. The reference list at the end of each chapter should enable the enthusiast to seek further information. Some of the material presented in this book has been derived from the proceedings of the annual University ofIowa College of Medicine GI Motility Symposia.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 324 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -'Near time' -an interval that spans the last 100,000 years or so of earth history-qualifies as a remarkable period for many reasons. From an anthropocentric point of view, the out standing feature of near time is the fact that the evolution, cultural diversification, and glob al spread of Homo sapiens have all occurred within it. From a wider biological perspective, however, the hallmark of near time is better conceived of as being one of enduring, repeat ed loss. The point is important. Despite the sense of uniqueness implicit in phrases like 'the biodiversity crisis,' meant to convey the notion that the present bout of extinctions is by far the worst endured in recent times, substantial losses have occurred throughout near time. In the majority of cases, these losses occurred when, and only when, people began to ex pand across areas that had never before experienced their presence. Although the explana tion for these correlations in time and space may seem obvious, it is one thing to rhetori cally observe that there is a connection between humans and recent extinctions, and quite another to demonstrate it scientifically. How should this be done Traditionally, the study of past extinctions has fallen largely to researchers steeped in such disciplines as paleontology, systematics, and paleoecology. The evaluation of future losses, by contrast, has lain almost exclusively within the domain of conservation biolo gists. Now, more than ever, there is opportunity for overlap and sharing of information.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 420 pp. Englisch.