Lap lambert academic publishing jan 2010 (Oltre 1000 risultati)

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Interest in subjective well-being has led to a plethora of literature in recent years but there remains some debate about what precisely is meant by the term, and how it differs from a broader notion of well-being. This book examines these debates, alongside the methodological question of how one might attempt to empirically measure such concepts. In doing so, it takes us to Ukraine and roots these questions within the specific experience of transition which, research suggests, has not made people happier. Using new empirical evidence, it explores how our well-being is shaped by our relationships and shows how it differs from the specific notion of happiness, ultimately suggesting why it has been somewhat lacking in contemporary Ukraine. 240 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The grammaticality of a sentence has conventionally been treated in a binary way: either a sentence is grammatical or not. Yet, it is commonly acknowledged that a natural language, in its everyday use, is uttered along various degrees of grammatical acceptability, with utterances being more grammatical than others. A growing body of academic work focuses on studying intermediate levels of acceptability, sometimes referred to as ''gradience''. To date, the bulk of this work has concerned itself with the exploration of human assessments of syntactic gradience. This book explores the possibility to build a robust computational model that accords with these human judgements. A solution is presented to make an optimal use of the linguistic knowledge about a grammatical or non-canonical sentence, and rate that sentence according to grammatical judgements. This book should be of interest to linguists and computer scientists, whether academics or professionals in the Natural Language Processing industry, who are interested in the robust processing of syntactic knowledge about unrestricted language.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The incidence of chronic pain is common among older people and often disabling. The experience of chronic pain is complex, highly individual and the manner in which it is expressed is varied. Styles adapting to chronic pain conditions are diverse, ranging from positive adjustment ('coping') to less functional adaptations, with the latter being referred to as 'stoicism' and 'catastrophising'. This research was undertaken to investigate how the experience of chronic pain is constructed by older people who are coping and by nurses working with older people. The implications for nursing practice were pivotal to the project. Interviews and questionnaires were conducted to identify, through content and thematic analysis, the constructs used. Older people also completed questionnaires that presented a range of assessment tools, which were trialed and commented on. Nurses'' attitudes towards older people experiencing pain were also surveyed.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - The grammaticality of a sentence has conventionally been treated in a binary way: either a sentence is grammatical or not. Yet, it is commonly acknowledged that a natural language, in its everyday use, is uttered along various degrees of grammatical acceptability, with utterances being more grammatical than others. A growing body of academic work focuses on studying intermediate levels of acceptability, sometimes referred to as 'gradience'. To date, the bulk of this work has concerned itself with the exploration of human assessments of syntactic gradience. This book explores the possibility to build a robust computational model that accords with these human judgements. A solution is presented to make an optimal use of the linguistic knowledge about a grammatical or non-canonical sentence, and rate that sentence according to grammatical judgements. This book should be of interest to linguists and computer scientists, whether academics or professionals in the Natural Language Processing industry, who are interested in the robust processing of syntactic knowledge about unrestricted language.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - The incidence of chronic pain is common among older people and often disabling. The experience of chronic pain is complex, highly individual and the manner in which it is expressed is varied. Styles adapting to chronic pain conditions are diverse, ranging from positive adjustment ('coping') to less functional adaptations, with the latter being referred to as 'stoicism' and 'catastrophising'. This research was undertaken to investigate how the experience of chronic pain is constructed by older people who are coping and by nurses working with older people. The implications for nursing practice were pivotal to the project. Interviews and questionnaires were conducted to identify, through content and thematic analysis, the constructs used. Older people also completed questionnaires that presented a range of assessment tools, which were trialed and commented on. Nurses' attitudes towards older people experiencing pain were also surveyed.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Educational systems of developing countries ought to be evaluated using appropriate analytical and methodological criteria, determined within a local context. This study attempts to challenge the dominant paradigm that links education to 'Western' ideas of development. In doing so it analyzes the relationship between endogenous development and indigenous models of schooling. It attempts a comparative case-study analysis of two indigenous models of schooling in former colonies: Fe y Alegría of Venezuela and Servol of Trinidad and Tobago. These models are studied because they reflect local, cultural, social, and economic conditions. Attention is paid to community involvement, indigenous ideas about curriculum and programming, the link between education and work, and the link between local epistemologies and education outcomes. The study involves qualitative methods of analysis with particular emphasis on ethnographic methods. Documentary analysis is used to complement field research and participatory observation.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The grammaticality of a sentence has conventionally been treated in a binary way: either a sentence is grammatical or not. Yet, it is commonly acknowledged that a natural language, in its everyday use, is uttered along various degrees of grammatical acceptability, with utterances being more grammatical than others. A growing body of academic work focuses on studying intermediate levels of acceptability, sometimes referred to as ''gradience''. To date, the bulk of this work has concerned itself with the exploration of human assessments of syntactic gradience. This book explores the possibility to build a robust computational model that accords with these human judgements. A solution is presented to make an optimal use of the linguistic knowledge about a grammatical or non-canonical sentence, and rate that sentence according to grammatical judgements. This book should be of interest to linguists and computer scientists, whether academics or professionals in the Natural Language Processing industry, who are interested in the robust processing of syntactic knowledge about unrestricted language. 252 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The incidence of chronic pain is common among older people and often disabling. The experience of chronic pain is complex, highly individual and the manner in which it is expressed is varied. Styles adapting to chronic pain conditions are diverse, ranging from positive adjustment ('coping') to less functional adaptations, with the latter being referred to as 'stoicism' and 'catastrophising'. This research was undertaken to investigate how the experience of chronic pain is constructed by older people who are coping and by nurses working with older people. The implications for nursing practice were pivotal to the project. Interviews and questionnaires were conducted to identify, through content and thematic analysis, the constructs used. Older people also completed questionnaires that presented a range of assessment tools, which were trialed and commented on. Nurses'' attitudes towards older people experiencing pain were also surveyed. 232 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -People working in the informal sector, such as street vendors, are perceived as passive players rather than active individual entrepreneurs. In smaller developing countries like Nepal the informal sector forms a major aspect of the overall economy, providing employment to a large percentage of the urban population and providing cheaper goods and services to people of all income levels. This research looks into the economic, social and political situation of street vendors in the cities of Kathmandu and Lalitpur and examine ways to organize them. 116 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Since its independence, Indonesia has limited the forms of religious expression to six recognized religions based on the Pancasila. In spite of the policy, the existence of other religions are still practiced. One of these unrecognized religions is called the kebatinan. Shortly after independence the country has experienced the rise of the kebatinan movement, a phenomenon of re-emergence of local beliefs. This was a new religio-political phenomenon for the newborn country of Indonesia. The purpose of this book is to describe the religious movement of one of the kebatinan groups among the people in West Java, called the PACKU (Paguyuban Adat Cara Karuhun Urang) as the continuation of ADS (Agama Djawa Sunda) belief group. The values of the ADS continue to exist within a complexity of Indonesian National Religions and local animistic beliefs. Special attention will be given to how ADS ideology has been and continues to be religiously negotiated within organizations like the PACKU. This book explores the ways in which religion plays a significant role in resisting the loss of self and communal identity, by focusing on the religious leaders and their negotiations of the ADS ideology. 116 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The frequency assignment problem involves the assignment of discrete channels to the transmitters of a radio network. Frequency separation is necessary to avoid interference by other transmitters to the signal received from the wanted transmitter at the reception points. Unnecessary separation causes an excess requirement for spectrum. Good assignments minimise interference and the spectrum required. Some different variations of the problem are reviewed in this book. We mainly consider the 'Fixed Spectrum Problem', where there is a fixed available spectrum of frequencies and the aim is to minimise interference. For this problem we analise the 'Binary Constraints Model', where only interference from a single transmitter at a time is considered, and the more realistic 'Multiple Interference Model', where interferences from more than one transmitter are considered at the same moment. In particular, we analyse some Integer Programming formulation for the binary constraints model to understand whether they can be suitable for developing lower bounds. Some new algorithms for the multiple interference model are finally discussed. 96 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -LDPC Codes are considered to be serious competitors to turbo codes in terms of performance and complexity. They are specified by a sparse parity check matrix containing mostly 0s and relatively few 1s. In this book, LDPC codes used in the IEEE 802.16 standard physical layer were studied. Two novel techniques to enhance the performance of such codes are introduced. In the first technique, a novel parity check matrix for LDPC codes over GF(4) is proposed based on the binary parity check matrix used in the IEEE 802.16 standard . The proposed code has proven to outperform the binary code used in the IEEE 802.16 standard over both AWGN and SUI-3 channel model. In the second technique, high rate LDPC code is used, in a concatenated coding structure, as an outer code, with a convolutional code as an inner code. The performance of such a concatenated codes is compared with the commonly used one utilizing Reed-Solomon codes over the standard SUI-3 channel model, and show better performance. 88 pp. Englisch. …

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book looks into different procedures to produce single phase TiC0.67. TiC is an extremely hard and light material, with applications like cutting tools, wear parts and resistant coatings. It has been shown experimentally that TiC0.67 can be produced by mechanically alloying Ti and C powders. The aim of the project is to find a commercially viable option of producing TiC0.67. With this in mind, we try alternate methods like self propagating high temperature synthesis (SHS) and high temperature sintering in a controlled furnace atmosphere as options of interest. The precursor is then subjected to X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to check the phase of the advanced material. The second part of this book would focus on producing other precursors of interest such as Ti3AlC2, V2C and VC0.67 using the same methods. A detailed study of the different precursors is again done to check compatibility and commercial viability 64 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Resistance to antibiotics is highly prevalent in bacterial isolates worldwide, particularly in developing countries.Generally, bacteria acquire antibiotic resistance by genetic changes in the bacterial chromosome or by acquiring extra chromosomal DNA, such as plasmids.Through this study I have tried to evaluate the prevalence and antibiotic sensitivity pattern of E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolated from the gastrointestinal tract of hospitalized neonates. I have isolated these two pathogen sp. E. coli and K. pneumoniae and confirmed their identity through biochemical tests and API system. I have then characterized the E. coli strains with PCR, to determine whether they belong to the virulent B2 group. Plasmid profile of the E. coli strains has also been determined to understand better the genetic make up of this pathogen that might confer antibiotic resistance.I hope researchers and professionals in the relevant medical/clinical fields should find the data valuable in the context of their own clinical studies. 92 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Abstract Introduction A meta analysis was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety profile of, insulin with oral hypoglycaemic agents, versus insulin monotherapy, in type2 diabetes patient s management. Search strategy The following databases were searched: The Cochrane Library, Medline, Embase, Pub Med, High wire Press and Science Direct. Selection criteria Randomised controlled trials (RCTs of any design) with a minimum follow-up period two months, Over 18 year old men and women were recruited with type 2 diabetes mellitus as defined by the world health Organization (Alberti 1998), participants were not controlled on their current oral antidiabetic agents, mean that Hba1c 7% or a fasting plasma glucose 7 mmol/l. Conclusion Insulin with oral hypoglycaemic agents gives good glycaemic control as well as prevents weight gain and less hypoglycaemia than insulin monotherapy. 64 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Several of the classical sequences in enumerative combinatorics have q-generalizations arising as generating functions for statistics defined on finite discrete structures. When q = 1, these generating functions reduce to the original sequences. When q = -1, on the other hand, one gets the difference in cardinalities between those members of a set having an even value for some statistic (on the set) with those members having an odd value. The current text provides a systematic study of the case q = -1, giving both algebraic and combinatorial treatments. For the latter, appropriate sign-reversing involutions are defined on the associated class of discrete structures. Among the structures studied are permutations, binary sequences, Laguerre configurations, derangements, Catalan words, and finite set partitions. As a consequence of our results, we obtain bijective proofs of congruences involving Stirling, Bell, and Catalan numbers. This text studies an interesting problem in enumerative combinatorics and is suitable for an audience ranging from motivated undergraduates to researchers in the field. 88 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Research in ESLs perceptions of technology in language learning is still relatively new. In this book, the author examines the perceptions of beginning level ESL international students in a mid-size, pubic university in the Mid-Atlantic region about their experience in computer-assisted language learning. Individual case studies and cross-case study techniques were employed. Data collection involved a survey, interviews, observation, and researcher s reflective journal. The study raises a number of questions of interest to ESL educators and curriculum developers. What are the Learners perceptions of their learning experiences in a technology-assisted language learning curriculum What do they perceive to be the limitations of technology use How do they interact with various technologies in the classroom How do they actually make use of these technology applications To answer these questions, the findings were organized in four major categories: learners statements about their perceptions, a detailed description of the learners behaviors interacting with technology, their concerns about the limitations, and researcher s perceptions of these limitations. 112 pp. Englisch. …

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The book comprises a brief theoretical review and presents four empirical studies relating to the question of whether brain areas can be specialized for reading. This question has been studied within the broader context of cognitive neuroscience, both in patients with acquired disorders of reading (alexia), and with the use of functional imaging techniques. An important account postulates that an area in the mid-fusiform gyrus - the so-called visual word form area - is specialized for reading (in literate adults). Extant evidence for and against such specialization is briefly reviewed and found inconclusive. The reported empirical studies of patients with pure alexia, as well as a functional imaging study of word and picture recognition, challenges the notion of selectivity for word or letter processing in the visual domain. However, the findings do suggest that reading may be disproportionately affected by damage to more general purpose visual recognition processes. 76 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book presents the results of a study on perceived occupational stress amongst female nurses working in a general hospital in the Eastern Cape Province. The central aim of the study was to understand if and how nurses perceived and experienced work related stress in the hospital. A sample of convenience was used consisting of six voluntary registered female nurses with ages ranging from 29 and 50 years. Semi-structured, in-depth individual interviews were conducted with the six participants, with data analyzed for thematic content. Main themes and sub-themes within the main themes were identified and discussed. Based on the findings of this study, recommendations for future research are offered. 108 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This Project will provide us with a picture of Special educational needs in the context of Children with muscular dystrophy in Mauritius. The main aims and objectives of the study are to analyze whether children suffering from Muscular dystrophy benefit from special education in Mauritius and what sort of Government intervention exists to address the problem. The study also provides innovative information to the public and creates awareness on the situation of the educational system concerning children with Muscular dystrophy. The methodology was mainly covered by qualitative research methods. For instance, unstructured interviews were carried out to gather first-hand information on special educational issues of Children with Muscular dystrophy. The main result of this project is that access to special or even mainstream education is a major challenge for Muscular dystrophy sufferers. 88 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Since winning medals at Olympic Games has become an objective that all countries want to achieve, a lot of empirical research has been devoted to the factors that result in some countries to perform better than others. Against this background, this Master Dissertation gives a quantitative lisrel-analysis of the following topics: 1. To what extent are welfare characteristics predictors of Olympic medal success 2. If so, what measure of welfare is most relevant in this respect 3. How do the above mechanisms change over time In particular, how can the Los Angeles Summer Games (1984) be compared with the Athens Summer Games (2004) in this respect 88 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book is based on a study to determine and identify audience s perceptions and awareness on gender role stereotypes in advertisements. The degree and frequency levels of gender role stereotypes in Malaysian television s advertisements were tabulated. Gender role stereotypes have not been fully and extensively explored in Malaysia. This is dissipative as advertising is a very powerful genre in persuading and manipulating the audience. 120 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Supply chain coordination and shipping conditions have a substantial impact on food quality of produce supply chains, especially when supply chains cross international borders. After harvesting, shipping conditions are the primary determinants of food quality for highly perishable commodities such as tomatoes. Based on food marketing research, food quality for highly perishable commodities is becoming one of the most important issues in today s food markets. With the help of a discrete-event simulation software (SIMUL8®), a simulated supply chain distribution model, including tomato harvesting, packing, shipping and distributing, was developed to analyze overall supply chain performance, and Simetar was used to estimate associated costs and benefits for each participant in this supply chain. Finally, benefit-cost ratios were simulated to assess the adoption of temperature controlling technology on tomato supply chain marketing implications. The results show that tomato keeping quality can be improved from 2.7 days to 5.4 days on average when temperature range within marine containers is controlled better. 84 pp. Englisch. …

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Australia has been very successful in bringing large numbers of people from a broad range of countries, races and religious beliefs to its shores and in making them feel 'at home'. Recent events have brought into question whether the philosophy of multiculturalism is as firmly embedded in the national identity as many had thought. This work attempts to assess what this means for the successful incorporation of multiculturalism into Australia's national identity and what consequences this might have for Australia as it faces the new century in a globalised world. 92 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book is a discourse on the capital market and its interactive framework of acquisition and issuance of financial assets for investors and issuers of capital assets. The monograph consists of four essays in financial economics that offer a spectrum of revisions to the existing literature. Chapter 1 is a delineation of the capital markets over the past half century and major developments on these markets on issues that pertain to the investor s opportunity set and the corporation s capital-raising availability set. Chapter 2 is a rework on the Markowitz-Roy-Tobin structure of the efficient frontier and of the Separation Theorem. Taking the paradigm from a 2-asset to an n-asset portfolio, revision-theoretic exercises are performed under a comparative-statics framework, and the effect of a perceived risk/return change is explored. Chapter 3 questions the legitimacy of existing capital structure literature, points out the obfuscation of Modigliani-Miller s Value Invariance Proposition, and corrects the major result. Chapter 4 is a re-examination of MM s analysis with taxes. It is demonstrated that the literature needs correcting, and modifications on the classic results are shown. 100 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In this study, investor decision theory was used as the basis for a survey that demonstrates the barriers faced by those promoting microfinance institutions and public capital markets as the mechanism for implementing grassroots development theory. Grassroots development theory promotes entrepreneurship across the base of a developing country s population by encouraging capital infusion at the local instead of national or industry level and promoting local ownership and local capital building. A common method for implementing grassroots theory in developing countries is through microfinance institutions. Investor decision theory, supported by the data from this study, raises concerns over the validity of grassroots development theory as a valid tool for economic growth in developing countries. While individual MFIs have encouraging performance, the aggregate of MFI loans globally are too small to measurably impact developing nations economies. Thus, for grassroots development theories to be implemented successfully, there needs to be an expansion of MFIs capitalization structure. Publicly traded mutual funds offer a method to access this capital. 108 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The importance of hospitality spaces within urban regeneration processes has remained largely overlooked in current urban discourse; and this is in spite of the dramatic physical transformation of cities over the past fifteen years - alongside recorded increases of hospitality spaces which are central. This study examines key themes underpinning UK urban regeneration policies over the past decade urbanisation, gentrification, post-modern consumption, place promotion, and sanitisation; and considers practical implications derived from the presence and provision of hospitality spaces alongside these themes - in terms of their capacity to contribute to the establishment of urban spatial quarters of differentiation and of standardisation specifically. Two urban quarters of Manchester [UK] provide the cases for this ethnographic research study, whose presence of contrasting typologies of hospitality spaces could be said to have respectively exemplified these outcomes. The study concludes that hospitality spaces have played crucially important roles within processes of urban regeneration, and are increasingly central to the creation of urban quarters 116 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The current study investigates the possibility of making the Advertising Services Business become one of the pillars of the Mauritian Outsourcing industry. It mainly concentrates on the talent of advertising agencies in Mauritius and focuses on gauging the extent to which the industry best practices in the advertising sector are being applied. Our country s economy has been courageously facing the 2008 world economic crunch and astounded the world with a considerable economic growth. This growth has been fueled with the strong vision and innovation of the leaders of Mauritius. This vision has to be maintained through constant trial of creating new opportunities out of the strength of our know-how. Given that trends of outsourcing/ off-shoring in the world are growing so rapidly with highly sophisticated strategies and that the only available resource in Mauritius is its valuable human knowledge it has become imperative for the economic players to diversify their approach, likewise Advertising Services Sector should be able to shoulder with the innovators around the world so as to become competitive and help maximize the economic potential of our knowledge base society. 108 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The 1996 Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act introduced fixed payments which unlike previous payment programs are designed to be decoupled from production decisions. In general, economists believe that fixed payments, which account for one-third of total United States government payments to farmers, are an efficient way to transfer income to targeted recipients. Further, fixed payments are believed to generate only minimal distortions in resource allocation decisions. This study, based on data from a national survey of farm households, examines how farm households allocate the proceeds from a fixed payment. In addition, it examines what factors best explain how farm households indicate that they would allocate the hypothetical payment. Results indicate that the extent to which fixed payments can be considered decoupled depends on a variety of factors that describe the farm business, operator, and household. 100 pp. Englisch. …

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The remaining good native vegetation (more than 50% native plant cover) is estimated to be less than 2% of the land mass of Mauritius. With human colonization, large number of alien species has been introduced in Mauritius, contributing greatly to the degradation of our native flora and fauna, with the strawberry guava (Psidium cattleianum Sabine) one of the most aggressive invasive alien plant. The aim of this study was to determine species richness, stem density and basal area of alien species within 1-ha of non-managed native forest of Brise Fer in view of improving our understanding of their impact on the native woody plant species to suggest possible improvement of conservation management. Invasive alien plants have growing populations and they are, to a great extent, responsible for the reduction in growth and regeneration of native species, conservational measures such as, the weeding; is a must to maintain native species diversity and restoring forest ecosystems impacted by alien species. 76 pp. Englisch.…