springer aug 2009 (360 risultati)

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book contains a collection of seven thoroughly revised tutorial papers based on lectures given by leading researchers at the 5th International Summer School on the Reasoning Web, held in Brixen-Bressanone, Italy, from August 30 to September 4, 2009. The objective of the book is to provide a coherent introduction to semantic web methods and research issues with a particularemphasis on reasoning.The focus of this year's event was on the use of semantic technologies to enhance data access on the web. Topics covered include design and analysis of reasoning procedures for description logics; answer set programming basics, its modeling methodology and its principal extensions tailored for semantic web applications; languages for constraining and querying XML data; RDF database theory and efficient and scalable support for RDF/OWL data storage, loading, inferencing and querying; tractable description logics and their use for ontology-based data access; and the social semantic desktop, which defines a user's personal information environment as a source and end-point of the semantic web. 368 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - It's been thirty-five years since people last trod the dusty plains of the Moon. Over the course of six landings from 1969 to 1972, twelve men explored, four-wheeled, dug and hiked across the lunar surface. Now, NASA has plans for a seventh landing on the Moon. This time, they want to stay. NASA's plans, dubbed the Constellation architecture, involve the largest launch vehicle ever built, new types of propulsion, and a six-person vehicle to ferry crews from Earth to the Moon. But NASA's plans go far beyond Luna. Eventually, the lessons learned on the Moon's outpost at Shackleton Crater will teach us how to live-permanently-on the most Earthlike world in our solar system, Mars. NASA will have company: plans for future lunar exploration are being drawn by Europe, Japan, China and India.While specific hardware and mission details will be in flux for some time, the overarching goals, strategies and inspiration for the seventh landing will not change. This book will choose a typical scenario for getting to the Moon that embraces the spirit of exploration embodied by NASA's Constellation architecture. Each chapter moves from a general description to the specific nuts-and-bolts of engineering and science. The Seventh Landing reveals the very latest strategies for how we'll get to the Moon, what we know today, what we want to find out, and what life will be like at the first true outposts on the Moon and Mars.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Data management, knowledge discovery, and knowledge processing are core and hot topics in computer science. They are widely accepted as enabling technologies for modern enterprises, enhancing their performance and their decision making processes. Since the 1990s the Internet has been the outstanding driving force for application development in all domains. An increase in the demand for resource sharing (e. g. , computing resources, s- vices, metadata, data sources) across different sites connected through networks has led to an evolvement of data- and knowledge-management systems from centralized systems to decentralized systems enabling large-scale distributed applications prov- ing high scalability. Current decentralized systems still focus on data and knowledge as their main resource characterized by: heterogeneity of nodes, data, and knowledge autonomy of data and knowledge sources and services large-scale data volumes, high numbers of data sources, users, computing resources dynamicity of nodes These characteristics recognize: (i) limitations of methods and techniques developed for centralized systems (ii) requirements to extend or design new approaches and methods enhancing efficiency, dynamicity, and scalability (iii) development of large scale, experimental platforms and relevant benchmarks to evaluate and validate scaling Feasibility of these systems relies basically on P2P (peer-to-peer) techniques and agent systems supporting with scaling and decentralized control. Synergy between Grids, P2P systems and agent technologies is the key to data- and knowledge-centered systems in large-scale environments. 371 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Prusinkiewicz, Przemyslaw; Fowler, Deborah R. (illustratore). Neuware -The pigment patterns on tropical shells are of great beauty and diversity. Their mixture of regularity and irregularity is fascinating. A particular pattern seems to follow particular rules but these rules allow variations. No two shells are identical. The motionless patterns appear to be static, and, indeed, they consist of calci ed material. However, as will be shown in this book, the underlying mechanism that generates this beauty is eminently dynamic. It has much in common with other dynamic systems that generate patterns, such as a wind-sand system that forms large dunes, or rain and erosion that form complex rami ed river systems. On other shells the underlying mechanism has much in common with waves such as those commonly observed in the spread of an epidemic. A mollusk can only enlarge its shell at the shell margin. In most cases, only at this margin are new elements of the pigmentation pattern added. Therefore, the shell pattern preserves the record of a process that took place over time in a narrow zone at the growing edge. A certain point on the shell represents a certain moment in its history. Like a time machine one can go into the past or the future just by turning the shell back and forth. Having this complete historical record opens the possibility of decoding the generic principles behind this beauty. 269 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - For any organization to perform and compete successfully, it must have the systems and processes in place to translate goals into achievable actions-and to measure and monitor results. Moreover, the organization must be able to adjust and adapt as market conditions, technologies, the competitive environment, government regulations, personnel, and other variables evolve, sometimes gradually and sometimes dramatically.In Delivering Results: Measuring What Matters, Babson College professors and management consultants, Lawrence Carr and Alfred Nanni, show managers how to avoid the common pitfalls and mistakes when setting corporate strategy, and instead create a management system-unique to their organization-that aligns internal resources with objectives, motivates and rewards employees, and continuously provides feedback. Illustrating their concepts with numerous real-life examples (both successes and failures), practical tools and models, and a glossary of key terms, the authors demonstrate that knowing how to create and direct management systems that deliver results is, in itself, a strategic resource.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware 252 pp. Deutsch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Embedded System Design: Modeling, Synthesis and Verification introduces a model-based approach to system level design. It presents modeling techniques for both computation and communication at different levels of abstraction, such as specification, transaction level and cycle-accurate level. It discusses synthesis methods for system level architectures, embedded software and hardware components. Using these methods, designers can develop applications with high level models, which are automatically translatable to low level implementations. This book, furthermore, describes simulation-based and formal verification methods that are essential for achieving design confidence. The book concludes with an overview of existing tools along with a design case study outlining the practice of embedded system design. Specifically, this book addresses the following topics in detail:. System modeling at different abstraction levels. Model-based system design. Hardware/Software codesign. Software and Hardware component synthesis. System verificationThis book is for groups within the embedded system community: students in courses on embedded systems, embedded application developers, system designers and managers, CAD tool developers, design automation, and system engineering.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Modern business cycle theory and growth theory uses stochastic dynamic general equilibrium models. In order to solve these models, economists need to use many mathematical tools. This book presents various methods in order to compute the dynamics of general equilibrium models. In part I, the representative-agent stochastic growth model is solved with the help of value function iteration, linear and linear quadratic approximation methods, parameterised expectations and projection methods. In order to apply these methods, fundamentals from numerical analysis are reviewed in detail. In particular, the book discusses issues that are often neglected in existing work on computational methods, e.g. how to find a good initial value.In part II, the authors discuss methods in order to solve heterogeneous-agent economies. In such economies, the distribution of the individual state variables is endogenous. This part of the book also serves as an introduction to the modern theory of distribution economics. Applications include the dynamics of the income distribution over the business cycle or the overlapping-generations model.In an accompanying home page to this book, computer codes to all applications can be downloaded. 702 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Embedded Software Development With C offers both an effectual reference for professionals and researchers, and a valuable learning tool for students by laying the groundwork for a solid foundation in the hardware and software aspects of embedded systems development.Key features include a resource for the fundamentals of embedded systems design and development with an emphasis on software, an exploration of the 8051 microcontroller as it pertains to embedded systems, comprehensive tutorial materials for instructors to provide students with labs of varying lengths and levels of difficulty, and supporting website including all sample codes, software tools and links to additional online references.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - This text presents mathematical biology as a field with a unity of its own, rather thanonly the intrusion of one science into another.It updates anearlier successful edition and greatly expands the concept of the 'computer biology laboratory,' giving students a general perspective of the field before proceeding to more specialized topics. The book focuses on problems of contemporary interest, such as cancer, genetics, and the rapidly growing field of genomics. It includes new chapters on parasites, cancer, and phylogenetics, along with an introduction to online resources for DNA, protein lookups, and popular pattern matching tools such as BLAST. In addition, the emerging field of algebraic statistics is introduced and its power illustrated in the context of phylogenetics.A unique feature of the book isthe integration of a computer algebra system into the flow of ideas in a supporting but unobtrusive role. Syntax for both the Maple and Matlab systems is provided in a tandem format. The use of a computer algebra system gives the students the opportunity to examine 'what if' scenarios, allowing them to investigate biological systems in a way never before possible. For students without access to Maple or Matlab, each topic presented is complete. Graphic visualizations are provided for all mathematical results.Mathematical Biology includes extensive exercises, problems and examples. A year of calculus with linear algebra is required to understand the material presented. The biology presented proceeds from the study of populations down to the molecular level; no previous coursework in biology is necessary. The book is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students studying mathematics or biology and for scientists and researchers who wish to study the applications of mathematics and computers in the natural sciences.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Bioinformatics involves specialized application of computer technology to investigative and conceptual problems in biology and medicine; neuroinformatics (NI) is the practice of bioinformatics in the neurosciences. Over the past two decades the biomedical sciences have been revolutionized by databases, data mining and data modeling techniques. The Human Genome Project, which depended on informatics methods, has been the most well recognized bioinformatics undertaking. Bioinformatics has since been applied all across biology and medicine, and has also transformed almost every avenue in neuroscience. Yet in neuropsychology, NI perspectives remain largely unrealized. Ironically, NI offers enormous potential to the essential praxis of neuropsychology - assessing cognitive behavior and relating cognition to neural systems. Neuroinformatics can be applied to neuropsychology as richly as it has been applied across the neurosciences.Neuroinformatics for Neuropsychology is the first book to explain the relevance and value of NI to neuropsychology. It systematically describes NI tools, applications and models that can enhance the efforts of neuropsychologists. It also describes the implications of NI for neuropsychology in the 21st century - fundamental shifts away from the conventional modes of research, practice and communication that have thus far characterized the field. One of the foremost experts on the subject: Illustrates the vital role NI is playing throughout the neurosciences.Provides a sampling of NI tools and applications in neuroscience research, and lays out current organization structures that support NI.Describes the lack of NI in neuropsychology, differentiates between NI systems for neuropsychology and conventional computerized assessment methods, and proposes criteria for neuropsychology-specific NI systems.DescribesNI applications and models currently in use in neuropsychology, and NI models for neuropsychology that are being pioneered in phenomics research.Discusses potential obstacles and aids to NI in neuropsychology, including issues such as data sharing, standardization of methods, and data ontology. Projects the future of neuropsychological research and practice in light of the new generation of the internet, Web 2.0, geared to collective knowledge building.A vital introduction to a profound technological practice, Neuroinformatics for Neuropsychology is important reading for clinical neuropsychologists, cognitive neuroscientists, behavioral neurologists, and speech-language pathologists. Researchers, clinicians, and graduate students interested in informatics for the brain-behavioral sciences will especially welcome this unique volume.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - In the United States, work is the key to economic success, as well as the major source of health care coverage and retirement security. While Europeans look to the State for these benefits, Americans for the most part do not. This system of employment-based benefits means that those disadvantaged in the labor market are also disadvantaged in terms of health care coverage and retirement security.The authors of this work examine the overrepresentation of Mexican Americans in low wage or service sector jobs, which rarely come with health insurance or retirement coverage. At all ages, Mexican Americans have lower rates of health insurance and retirement coverage than do other minority groups, such as African Americans or other Hispanic groups. Although employment in jobs that do not provide benefits is one major source of this disparity, other factors-including immigration history, citizenship status, and language proficiency-further block opportunities for upward mobility within the Mexican American population.In their analysis, the authors work to deemphasize the popular, cultural explanation for the economic disparities and focus on more practical, policy-based solutions. In each chapter, the authors identify and critique the factors that affect the economic security and health care access of individuals throughout the life course, suggesting policies for reform.This work will be of interest to anyone working in the fields of cultural studies, public healthand the sociology of work. With the focus on real world causes for the problems as well as potential solutions, policy-makers will also find this informative book an essential resource.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - The concept for this book came about following the publication of the volume Health Issues Confronting Minority Men Who Have Sex with Men, published by Springer in 2008. Consistent with its title, that work focused on speci c health issues identi ed by communities, researchers, and AIDS service providers that were and continue to be of concern . During the preparation of that volume, I received numerous telephone calls and e-mails from women in various parts of the country, asking why a book was not also being developed to address their often-neglected concerns. Accordingly,thetopicsaddressedinIdentitiesandSexualitiesofMinorityWomen were developed based on input from minority women who participated in focus groups conducted in diverse regions of the United States. These focus groups were held speci cally to provide an opportunity for sexual minority women in minority communities to identify those issues that from their perspective are most salient and relevant to their lives. It is notsurprising, in view of the variation in process by which the topics were identi ed, as well as the differences in perspective as- ciated with differences in sex and gender, that this resulting compilation of topics departs substantially from the focus of the companion text addressing health issues of minority men who have sex with men.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Global Values Education: Teaching Democracy and Peace , which is the seventh volume in the 12-volume book series Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research, presents scholarly research on major discourses in v alues edu- tion globally. It provides an easily accessible, practical yet scholarly source of information about the international concern in the field of globalisation and c- parative education. Above all, the book offers the latest findings to the critical issues concerning major discourses in comparative education in values education in the global culture. It is a sourcebook of ideas for researchers, practitioners and policy makers in values education, multiculturalism and moral education. It offers a timely overview of current issues affecting values education, comparative edu- tion and education policy research in the global culture. It provides directions in values education, and policy research, relevant to transformational educational reforms in the twenty-first century (see also Zajda & Rust, 2009). This book critically examines the overall interplay between values education, globalisation, dominant ideologies and implications for policy research (see also Apple, 2004). It draws upon recent studies in the areas of globalisation, equity, social justice and the role of the State (Zajda, Biraimah, & Gaudelli, 2008). It explores conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches applicable in the research covering values education, globalisation, equity and multicultural education. Various book chapters critique the dominant discourses and debates pertaining to values education, multiculturalism and relevant comparative education discourses.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Distributed Intelligent Systems: A Coordination Perspective comprehensively answers commonly asked questions about coordination in agent-oriented distributed systems. Characterizing the state-of-the-art research in the field of coordination with regard to the development of distributed agent-oriented systems is a particularly complex endeavour; while existing books deal with specific aspects of coordination, the major contribution of this book lies in the attempt to provide an in-depth review covering a wide range of issues regarding multi-agent coordination in Distributed Artificial Intelligence. Key features:Unveils the lack of coherence and order that characterizes the area of research pertaining to coordination of distributed intelligent systemsExamines coordination models, frameworks, strategies and techniques to enable the development of distributed intelligent agent-oriented systemsProvides specific recommendations to realize more widespread deployment of agent-based systems.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed childhood behavioral disorder. Moreover, many students receiving special education assistance are reported to have ADHD. Children with ADHD may experience significant school adjustment difficulties and achievement problems. Problem behaviors associated with attention deficits and hyperactivity often have a negative impact on the classroom, and, therefore, may compromise the learning environment for many, if not all, students. There is a critical need for school professionals to identify, assess, and treat students with ADHD.Identifying, Assessing, and Treating ADHD at School brings science to practice, providing school professionals invaluable information to meet the needs of children with ADHD. This volume, designed as a practical, easy-to-use reference for school psychologists and other mental health and educational professionals:Explains why school psychologists and their colleagues need to be prepared and able to identify and serve students with ADHD.Identifies the prevalence, influences, and associated conditions.Provides a review of screening, referral, and diagnostic assessment processes.Offers guidance on conducting psychoeducational assessments.Reviews evidence-based treatments.Offers practical guidance on setting up programs that address individual and classroom issues.School psychologists and other education and mental health professionals will find Identifying, Assessing, and Treating ADHD at School an exceptional resource in working to enhance the mental health and academic development of students.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Educational equity and quality are not only research issues which cut across different disciplines but are major determinants of socio-economic and human development in both industrial and developing countries. The status and role of mathematics, a subject which has long enjoyed a privileged status in school curricula worldwide due to its perceived role in science and technology, render equity and quality in mathematics education at the heart of human development. This is reflected by governments' relatively large investments in improving the quality of mathematics education and extending it to marginalized and underprivileged groups. The purpose of Toward Equity in Quality in Mathematics Education is four-fold. First, the book examines the constructs of equity and quality and their interdependence from different perspectives. Second, it develops a conceptual framework for studying and analyzing the two constructs. Third, it examines, consolidates, and re-structures the literature on equity and quality in mathematics education. Finally, using data from TIMSS 2003, the book investigates the within and across country impact of the different equity-related factors on mathematics achievement in a sample of countries representative of worldwide geographical and cultural regions.Towards Equity in Quality in Mathematics Educationuses a multi-dimensional conceptual framework to study and analyze issues in equity and quality. The framework consists of five perspectives hypothesized as determinants of equity in quality in mathematics education: Mathematical, societal, educational, ideological, and genetic. The framework can be thought of as a pyramid with mathematics as its base and the societal, educational, ideological, and genetic perspectives as its faces. Thus, each point within this pyramid represents a unique equity in quality situation i.e. with different coordinates with respect to mathematical,societal, educational, ideological, and genetic perspectives.Towards Equity in Quality in Mathematics Education is useful for teachers and researchers in mathematics education.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Organization design is a key feature of management theory and practice. It addresses the challenges of constructing and maintaining effective organizations. Essential to organizational design is the assumption that it can improve organizations.Faced with the ever-accelerating pace of technological change and the restructuring of markets, many firms have been questioning their own organization. This book is the third to emerge from a series of workshops on organization design, featuring new empirical research and theoretical insights. The chapters are organized around four central themes: 1) Towards New Organizational Forms, 2) Dynamics of Adaptation and Change, 3) Theoretical and Practical issues, 4) Fit and Performance. Collectively, the chapters reflect the state of the art of OD as well as provide a further step towards the evolution of this important field of research.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - As VLSI technology moves to the nanometer scale for transistor feature sizes, the impact of manufacturing imperfections result in large variations in the circuit performance. Traditional CAD tools are not well-equipped to handle this scenario, since they do not model this statistical nature of the circuit parameters and performances, or if they do, the existing techniques tend to be over-simplified or intractably slow. Novel Algorithms for Fast Statistical Analysis of Scaled Circuits draws upon ideas for attacking parallel problems in other technical fields, such as computational finance, machine learning and actuarial risk, and synthesizes them with innovative attacks for the problem domain of integrated circuits. The result is a set of novel solutions to problems of efficient statistical analysis of circuits in the nanometer regime.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - The academic study of diamonds is as multi-faceted as the precious stones themselves. Mineralogists and geographers have written about them, as have historians and economists and students of art and fashion. They each shine their light on a different aspect of this source of luminous radiance. But who would venture to describe the entire complicated worldwide system starting in the diamond mines and ending with the consumers of Western metropolises In The Mazzel Ritual: Culture, Customs and Crime in the Diamond Trade,Russian-Israeli cultural anthropologist and criminologist Dina Siegel follows the route of a diamond from the mines of Africa to the shops of Europe and the United States, as it passes through countless hands and places and is smuggled, stolen, cut, polished, sold, exchanged and, finally, worn as jewelry. In the course of this long and exciting journey, a wide range of people face all sorts of risks and criminality, as well as various moral and ethical judgments. Siegel describes the range of ethnic groups that are active in the diamond trade and the culture and customs that are specific to this business. She analyses the dangers and threats to the industry and aims to uncover the strategies and tactics to deal with them. Finally, this story of risk, trust and crime examines the vulnerability of diamond production and distribution to illicit and criminal activities.This book is about the diamond business itself as well as about those involved in it. It tells the story of people who simply cannot stay away from this expensive and alluring commodity.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Community quality-of-life (QOL) indicators continue to gain attention and interest in their use as many communities and regions design and apply them. Evolving from early use as data systems, indicators are increasingly being integrated into overall planning and other public policy activities. Their use is found not only in monitoring and evaluation applications, but also in the context of increasing citizen partici- tion in guiding communities towards achieving desired goals. Indeed, the emphasis in many indicator applications now includes linking actions to outcomes - making sure that the indicators are integrated, useful and effective in helping communities address QOL issues. The use of QOL indicators to consider a full spectrum of c- munity and regional well-being is exciting and the focus on integration is certain to bring new and innovative applications to the forefront. This is the third book in a series covering best practices in community QOL indicators. Each volume presents individual cases (chapters) of communities at the local or regional levels that have designed and implemented community indicators programs. In Volume I, we present eight chapters from a variety of contexts - from the county level in the U. S. , to the large megalopolis of Sao Paulo, to looking at a cross section of communities throughout Europe. Also included are three chapters from Canada, a leader in applying community indicator systems.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Community indicators projects are plentiful. These projects capture the quality of life in towns, cities, counties, metropolitan regions, and larger geographic regions. Community quality-of-life (QOL) indicators are increasingly being integrated into overallplanningandotherpublicpolicyactivities.Thecommunityindicatorsproject reports are used not only in monitoring and evaluation applications but also in the context of increasing citizen participation in guiding communities towards achieving desired goals. This is the fourth book in a series covering best practices in community QOL indicators. Each volume presents individual cases (chapters) of communities at the local or regional levels that have designed and implemented community indi- tors programs. In Volume IV, we present nine chapters from a variety of contexts: cities such as the City of Phoenix (Arizona, USA), Jacksonville (Florida, USA), and Bristol (UK), suburban communities areas such as Long Island (New York, USA) and Sydney (Australia), larger regions such as Vancouver (Canada), and townships such as Sobantu (South Africa).

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Generally individuals in history are known for a particular reason - they somehow influenced history. Very little is known about the ordinary person who lived in the past. But historical archaeologists - through their interpretation of the material culture and historic record - can study the past on an individual level. This brings archaeological interpretation from a micro to a macro level - as opposed to the traditional level of society to community to individual interpretation.The cases presented in this volume engage material culture that is owned or used by a single person and is thus associated with an individual at some point in its uselife. The volume takes bodkins, shoes, beads, cloth, religious items, grave goods, as well as subassemblages from well-defined contexts from New England, the Chesapeake, New Orleans, Hawaii, Spanish colonial America, and London in the pursuit of the individual and the textured interpretation this analytical scale provides.This volume promises to present innovative approaches to a host of archaeological materials, drawing widely on the range of archaeological research for the historical period today. Capitalizing on several topics and research threads with great currency, such as the examination of material culture and interest in various and intersecting lines of identity construction, as well as presenting an international and multiregional approach to these topics, this volume will be of interest to archaeologists, anthropologists, material culture scholars, and social historians interested in a wide variety of time periods and subfields.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - This is the 2009 volume in the Advances in Business Education & Training Book Series. The Series aims to foster advancement in the field and to serve as an international forum for scholarly and state-of-the-art research and development.This volume offers challenging thoughts on constructing meaningful learning both within the academy and in collaboration with outside stakeholders. It comprises two major sections: research into business education and best practice in business education. The research contributions explore the incorporation of theoretical frameworks and the exploitation of clicker technology in classroom practice, the integration of reflective writing into work placements to support learning, the exposure of ideas about morally leading change and its impact on leadership aspirations, large group business learning, self-theories, goal orientations and achievement motivations, and Chinese students' perceptions of intercultural competence in tutors. Other research contributions look beyond the business school to explore entrepreneurs' perceptions of their existing business model. The best practice contributions discuss master thesis supervision, MBA study tours designed to increase global exposure, the use of authentic learning materials in career writing courses, and cross cultural innovations.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Con gurational mechanics has attracted quite a bit of attention from various - search elds over the recent years/decades. Having been regarded in its infancy of the early years as a somewhat obscureand almost mystic eld of researchthat could only be understood by a happy few of insiders with a pronounced theoretical inc- nation, con gurational mechanics has developed by now into a versatile tool that can be applied to a variety of problems. Since the seminal works of Eshelby a general notion of con gurational - chanics has been developed and has successfully been applied to many pr- lems involving various types of defects in continuous media. The most pro- nent application is certainly the use of con gurational forces in fracture - chanics. However, as con gurational mechanics is related to arbitrary mat- ial inhomogeneities it has also very successfully been applied to many ma- rials science and engineering problems such as phase transitions and inelastic deformations. Also the modeling of materials with micro-structure evolution is an important eld, in which con gurational mechanics can provide a better understanding of processes going on within the material. Besides these mechanically, physically, and chemically motivated applications, ideas from con gurational mechanics are now increasingly applied within computational mechanics.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - During the last half of the nineteenth century, a number of social and economic factors converged that resulted in the rural village of Deerfield, Massachusetts becoming almost entirely female. This drastic shift in population presents a unique lens through which to study gender roles and social relations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The lessons gleaned from this case study will provide new insight to the study of gender relations throughout other historical periods as well.Through an intensive examination of both historical and archaeological evidence, the author presents a clear picture of the gendered social relations in Deerfield over the span of seventy years. While gender relations in urban settings have been studied extensively, this unique work provides the same level of examination to gender relations in a rural setting. Likewise, where previous studies have often focused only on relations between married men and women, the unique case of Deerfield provides insight into the experiences of single women, particularly widows and 'spinsters'. This work presents a unique contribution that will be essential for anyone studying the historical archaeology of gender, or gender roles in the Victorian era and beyond.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Teaching and learning mathematics is a political act in which children, teachers, parents, and policy makers are made visible as subjects. As they learn about mathematics, children are also learning about themselves - who they are, who they might become. We can choose to listen or not to what children have to say about learning mathematics. Such choices constitute us in relations of power. Mathematical know-how is widely regarded as essential not only to the life chances of individuals, but also to the health of communities and the economic well-being of nations. With the globalisation of education in an increasingly market-oriented world, mathematics has received intensified attention in the first decade of the twenty-first century with a shifting emphasis on utilitarian aspects of mathematics. This is reflected in the reconceptualisation of mathematical competence as mathematical literacy, loosely conceived as those ways of thinking, reasoning and working 'mathematically' that allow us to engage effectively in everyday situations, in many occupations, and the cut and thrust of world economies as active, empowered and participatory citizens. It is no surprise then that mathematics has become one of the most politically charged subjects in primary school curricula worldwide. We are experiencing an unprecedented proliferation of regional and national strategies to establish benchmarks, raise standards, enhance achievement, close gaps, and leave no child behind in mathematics education. Industries have sprung up around the design, administration and monitoring of standardised assessment to measure and compare children's mathematical achievement against identified benchmarks and each other.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - 'New Visions of Nature' focuses on the emergence of these new visions of complex nature in three domains. The first selection of essays reflects public visions of nature, that is, nature as it is experienced, encountered, and instrumentalized by diverse publics. The second selection zooms in on micro nature and explores the world of contemporary genomics. The final section returns to the macro world and discusses the ethics of place in present-day landscape philosophy and environmental ethics.The contributions to this volume explore perceptual and conceptual boundaries between the human and the natural, or between an 'out there' and 'in here.' They attempt to specify how nature has been publicly and genomically constructed, known and described through metaphors and re-envisioned in terms of landscape and place. By parsing out and rendering explicit these divergent views, the volume asks for a re-thinking of our relationship with nature.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Feminist Ethics and Social and Political Philosophy: Theorizing the Non-Ideal is a collection of feminist essays that self-consciously develop non-idealizing approaches to either ethics or social and political philosophy (or both). Characterizing feminist ethics and social and political philosophy as marked by a tendency to be non-idealizing serves to thematize the volume, while still allowing the essays to be diverse enough to constitute a representation of current work in the fields of feminist ethics and social and political philosophy.Each of the essays either serves as an instance of work that is rooted in actual, non-ideal conditions, and that, as such, is able to consider any of the many questions relevant to subordinated people; or reflects theoretically on the significance of non-idealizing as an approach to feminist ethics or social and political philosophy.The volume will be of interest to feminist scholars from all disciplines, to academics who are ethicists and political philosophers as well as to graduate students.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - A flexagon is a motion structure that has the appearance of a ring of hinged polygons. It can be flexed to display different pairs of faces, usually in cyclic order. Flexagons can be appreciated as toys or puzzles, as a recreational mathematics topic, and as the subject of serious mathematical study. Workable paper models of flexagons are easy to make and entertaining to manipulate. The mathematics of flexagons is complex, and how a flexagon works is not immediately obvious on examination of a paper model. Recent geometric analysis, included in the book, has improved theoretical understanding of flexagons, especially relationships between different types. This profusely illustrated book is arranged in a logical order appropriate for a textbook on the geometry of flexagons. It is written so that it can be enjoyed at both the recreational mathematics level, and at the serious mathematics level. The only prerequisite is some knowledge of elementary geometry, including properties of polygons. A feature of the book is a compendium of over 100 nets for making paper models of some of the more interesting flexagons, chosen to complement the text. These are accurately drawn and reproduced at half full size. Many of the nets have not previously been published. Instructions for assembling and manipulating the flexagons are included.