springer international publishing sep 2015 (715 risultati)

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Sometime in the not-too-distant future . unbeknownst to Earth, the Galaxy is home to a number of spacefaring societies. This confederation enforces a strict protocol forbidding any contact with civilizations that have not yet achieved both a substantial spacefaring capability and sufficient maturity to control the technology explosion before triggering their own extinction.While this policy is intended to only bring in peaceful new members, matters change entirely when the confederation is threatened by some unknown entity - is the menace real or imagined The confederation decides to break with the rules and sends a delegate to Earth to hire one of the supposedly belligerent Earthlings to investigate and to revive the confederation¿s long-unused starfleet. The Earthman agrees, but demands a high price: should he succeed, the confederation will have to accept Earth as a new member. As the threat becomes ever more acute, the question soon becomes which mission will prove harder - saving the confederation or convincing it to accept the deal!The extensive appendix, written in non-technical language, reviews the scientific and technological topics underlying the plot - ranging from the Fermi paradox, space travel and artificial/collective intelligence to theories on possible universal convergences in technological and biological development.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 320 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -While confidential informants (CI's) can play a crucial role in police investigations, they also have the potential to cause great harm if they are dishonest. The process by which police agencies qualify a CI to work and the strength of agency policy may be the source of the problem. This Brief examines the integrity problem involving CIs in police operations within the United States, provides an overview of pitfalls and problems related to veracity and informant integrity including the difficulties in detecting when a CI is lying, and compares the provisions of actual published police policy to the model CI policy published by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). The analysis shows a wide divergence between actual police policy and the national standard promulgated by the IACP. The Brief provides policy recommendations for improving use of CIs that can potentially reduce or eliminate integrity problems that can lead to organizational accidents such as wrongful arrests and convictions, injuries or deaths. Some Courts have issued measures to ensure that information received from CIs is reliable by examining sworn testimony and documents related to their work. However, as this Brief explores, this judicial effort arises only after a police operation has taken place, and the use of force - even deadly force-has already been employed. The author proposes integrity testing beforehand, which would allow police to have a greater understanding of a CI's motivation, ability and veracity when conducting law enforcement operations. In addition, there are aspects of police policy that can enhance CI management such as training, supervision and entrapment that can further guard against integrity problems. Although integrity testing is not flawless, it does interpose an additional step in the CI management process that can help guard against wrongful conviction and perjury that harms the judicial process. 136 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Using a wealth of anecdotes, data from academic literature, and original research, this very accessible little book highlights how we all struggle to cope with the maelstrom of choices, influences and experiences that come our way. The authors have slogged through piles of dry research papers to provide many wonderful nuggets of information and surprising insights. For example: Why is an upside-down red triangle such a powerful warning sign on the road What is the best kind of alibi What makes the number 7 so special Why is it better to whisper words of love into the left ear Will that recent marriage last Why is it that the French eat snails but not slugs The reader will discover the amazing tools and shortcuts that millennia of evolution have built into our brains. And this knowledge is power! Knowing more about how the human mind connects the dots helps us understand why decision-making is so tricky. With insights from evolutionary psychology, we become better equipped to understand ourselves and others and to interact and communicate more effectively.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 200 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -In 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, in ''Cramming more components onto Integrated Circuits'' in Electronics Magazine (April 19, 1965), made the observation that, in the history of computing hardware, the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. Since its inception in 1965 until recent times, this law has been used in the semiconductor industry to guide investments for long-term planning as well as to set targets for research and development. These investments have helped in a productive utilization of wealth, which created more employment opportunities for semiconductor industry professionals. In this way, the development of Moore's Law has helped sustain the progress of today's knowledge-based economy. While Moore's Law has, on one hand, helped drive investments toward technological and economic growth, thereby benefiting the consumers with more powerful electronic gadgets, Moore's Law has indirectly also helped to fuel other innovationsin the global economy. However, the Law of diminishing returns is now questioning the sustainability of further evolution of Moore's Law and its ability to sustain the progress of today's knowledge based economy. The lack of liquidity in the global economy is truly bringing the entire industry to a standstill and the dark clouds of an economic depression are hovering over the global economy. What factors have been ignored by the global semiconductor industry leading to a demise of Moore's Law Do the existing business models prevalent in the semiconductor industry pose any problems Have supply chains made that progress unsustainable In today's globalized world, have businesses been able to sustain national interests while driving the progress of Moore's Law Could the semiconductor industry help the entire global economy move toward a radiance of the new crimson dawn, beyond the veil of the darkest night by sustaining the progress of Moore's Law The entire semiconductor industry isnow clamoring for a fresh approach to overcome existing barriers to the progress of Moore's Law, and this book delivers just that. Moore's Law can easily continue for the foreseeable future if the chip manufacturing industry becomes sustainable by having a balanced economy. The sustainable progress of Moore's Law advocates the ''heresy'' of transforming the current economic orthodoxy of monopoly capitalism into free-market capitalism. The next big thing that everybody is looking forward to after mobile revolution is the ''Internet of Things'' (IoT) revolution. While some analysts forecast that the IoT market would achieve 5.4 billion connections worldwide by 2020, the poor consumer purchasing power in global economy makes this forecast truly questionable. Sustaining Moore's Law presents a blueprint for sustaining the progress of Moore's Law to bring about IoT Revolution in the global economy.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 112 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The study of people, information, and communication technologies and the contexts in which these technologies are designed, implemented, and used has long interested scholars in a wide range of disciplines, including the social study of computing, science and technology studies, the sociology of technology, and management information systems. As ICT use has spread from organizations into the larger world, these devices have become routine information appliances in our social lives, researchers have begun to ask deeper and more profound questions about how our lives have become bound up with technologies. A common theme running through this research is that the relationships among people, technology, and context are dynamic, complex, and critically important to understand. This book explores social informatics (SI), one important and dynamic approach that researchers have used to study these complex relationships. SI is 'the interdisciplinary study of the design, uses and consequences of information technology that takes into account their interaction with institutional and cultural contexts' (Kling 1998, p. 52; 1999). SI provides flexible frameworks to explore complex and dynamic socio-technical interactions. As a domain of study related largely by common vocabulary and conclusions, SI critically examines common conceptions of and expectations for technology, by providing contextual evidence.This book describes the evolution of SI research and identifies challenges and opportunities for future research. In what might be seen as an example of socio-technical 'natural selection,' SI emerged in six different locations during the 1980s and 1990s: Norway, Slovenia, Japan, the former Soviet Union, the UK and, last, the U.S. As SI evolved, the version popularized in the US became globally dominant. The evolution of SI is presented in five stages: emergence, foundational, expansion, coherence, and transformation. Thus, we divide SI research into five major periods: an emergence stage, when various forms of SI emerged around the globe, an early period of foundational work which grounds SI (Pre-1990s), a period of expansion (1990s), a robust period of coherence and influence by Rob Kling (2000¿2005), and a period of transformation (2006¿present).Following the description of the five periods we discuss the evolution throughout the periods under five sections: principles, concepts, approaches, topics, and findings. Principles refer to the overarching motivations and labels employed to describe scholarly work. Approaches describe the theories, frameworks, and models employed in analysis, emphasizing the multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary nature of SI. Concepts include specific processes, entities, themes, and elements of discourse within a given context, revealing a shared SI language surrounding change, complexity, consequences, and social elements of technology. Topics label the issues and general domains studied within social informatics, ranging from scholarly communication to online communities to information systems. Findings from seminal SI works illustrate growing insights over time and demonstrate how repeatable explanations unify SI. In the concluding remarks, we raise questions about the possible futures of SI research.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 112 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Social media greatly enables people to participate in online activities and shatters the barrier for online users to create and share information at any place at any time. However, the explosion of user-generated content poses novel challenges for online users to find relevant information, or, in other words, exacerbates the information overload problem. On the other hand, the quality of user-generated content can vary dramatically from excellence to abuse or spam, resulting in a problem of information credibility. The study and understanding of trust can lead to an effective approach to addressing both information overload and credibility problems. Trust refers to a relationship between a trustor (the subject that trusts a target entity) and a trustee (the entity that is trusted). In the context of social media, trust provides evidence about with whom we can trust to share information and from whom we can accept information without additional verification. With trust, we make the mental shortcut by directly seeking information from trustees or trusted entities, which serves a two-fold purpose: without being overwhelmed by excessive information (i.e., mitigated information overload) and with credible information due to the trust placed on the information provider (i.e., increased information credibility). Therefore, trust is crucial in helping social media users collect relevant and reliable information, and trust in social media is a research topic of increasing importance and of practical significance. This book takes a computational perspective to offer an overview of characteristics and elements of trust and illuminate a wide range of computational tasks of trust. It introduces basic concepts, deliberates challenges and opportunities, reviews state-of-the-art algorithms, and elaborates effective evaluation methods in the trust study. In particular, we illustrate properties and representation models of trust, elucidate trust prediction with representative algorithms, and demonstrate real-world applications where trust is explicitly used. As a new dimension of the trust study, we discuss the concept of distrust and its roles in trust computing.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 132 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The main purpose of the book is to provide insight into an area that humans often take for granted. There are wonderful and exciting stories of organisms using chemical signals as a basis of a sophisticated communication system. In many instances, chemical signals can provide more detailed and accurate information than any other mode of communication, yet this world is hidden from us because of our focus on visual and auditory signals.¿ Although we have a diversity of senses available to us, humans are primarily auditory and visual animals. These stimuli are sent to the more cognitive areas of our brain where they are immediately processed for information. We use sounds to communicate and music to excite or soothe us. Our vision provides us with communication, entertainment, and information about our world. Even though our world is dominated by other stimulus energies, we have chosen, in an evolutionary sense, either auditory or visual signals to carry our most important information. This is not the case for most other organisms. Chemical signals, mediated through the sense of smell and taste, are typically more important and are used more often than other sensory signals. The world of communication using chemicals is an alien world for us. We are unaware of how important chemical signals are to other organisms and we often overlook the influence of chemical signals in our own life. Part of this naïveté about chemical signals is due to our cultural focus on visual and auditory signals, but a larger part of our collective ignorance is the lack of information about chemical communication in both popular and scientific writings. The popular press and popular writings virtually ignore the chemical senses, especially in regard to their role or influence for humans and our human culture. Academic books and textbooks are no better.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 232 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book captures the complex world of planetary moons, which are more diverse than Earth's sole satellite might lead you to believe. New missions continue to find more of these planetary satellites,making an up to date guide more necessary than ever.Why do Mercury and Venus have no moons at all Earth's Moon, of course, is covered in the book with highly detailed maps.Then we move outward to the moons of Mars, then on to many of the more notable asteroid moons, and finally to a list of less-notable ones.All the major moons of the gas giant planets are covered in great detail, whilethe lesser-known satellites of these worlds are also touched on.Readers will learn of the remarkable trans-Neptunian Objects ¿ Pluto, Eris, Sedna, Quaoar ¿including many of those that have been given scant attention in the literature.More than just objects to read about,the planets'satellites provide us with important information about the history of the solar system. Projects to help uslearn more aboutthe moons are includedthroughout the book.Most amateur astronomers can name some of the more prominent moons in the solar system, but few are intimately familiar with the full variety that exists in our backyard: 146 and counting. As our understanding of the many bodies in our solar system broadens, this is an invaluable tour of our expanding knowledge of the moons both near and far.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 328 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Observers no longer need to wonder what they will turn their attention to each night of the year with this updated text of a beloved favorite from Sir Partick Moore. His night-by-night account of the stars is the best possible guide an observer could ask for, and now includes the latest data for the years 2015-2020, preserving and extending Sir Patrick Moore's legacy.This new edition of his classic text makes it easy to see why Sir Patrick Moore was such a helpful guide to generations of budding astronomers, professional and amateur alike. For every night of the year Patrick gives the reader details of interesting objects that can be seen from Earth. It is a book for people with a wide interest in practical astronomy, those who may not have specialized in a specific area of astronomy and wish to expand their knowledge in all areas. Moore updated his book in a second edition in 2005, giving astronomical events through 2010, but a more current version has been desperately lacking. This third edition includes Sir Patrick¿s original text but revises its time-sensitive material and adds all of the points of interest that change from year to year, such as eclipses, occultations, planetary positions, and so on.Sir Patrick Moore left behind an enormous legacy, including the world's longest-running television series with the same original presenter, the BBC's The Sky at Night, and more than 70 written works. His influence on the world of amateur astronomy was phenomenal, and his knowledge and passion led many to take up observing as a life-long hobby. This book, ¿The Observer¿s Year, 366 Nights of the Universe¿ was, he said, one of his personal favorites. It now features a tribute to Patrick Moore's legacy as well as including what has changed in astronomy since the previous edition ten years ago.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 412 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This is the third edition of a well-receivedtextbook on modern physics theory. This book provides an elementary but rigorous and self-contained presentation of the simplest theoretical framework that will meet the needs of undergraduate students. In addition, a number of examples of relevant applications and an appropriate list of solved problems are provided.Apart from a substantial extension of the proposed problems, the new edition provides more detailed discussion on Lorentz transformations and their group properties, a deeper treatment of quantum mechanics in a central potential, and a closer comparison of statistical mechanics in classical and in quantum physics.The first part of the book is devoted to special relativity, with a particular focus on space-time relativity and relativistic kinematics. The second part deals with Schrödinger's formulation of quantum mechanics. The presentation concerns mainly one-dimensional problems, but some three-dimensional examples are discussed in detail. The third part addresses the application of Gibbs¿ statistical methods to quantum systems and in particular to Bose and Fermi gases.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 256 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference on Games and Learning Alliance, GALA 2014, held in Bucharest, Romania, in July 2014. The 15 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 26 submissions. The papers presented cover a variety of aspects and knowledge fields. They are grouped into four sessions: pedagogy, technology, design, and applications.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 200 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Augmented Environments for Computer-Assisted Interventions, held in conjunction with MICCAI 2015, in Munich, Germany in October 2015. The 15 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 21 submissions.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 168 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Workshop on Reachability Problems, RP 2015, held in Warsaw, Poland, in September 2015. The 14 papers presented together with 6 extended abstracts in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 23 submissions. The papers cover a range of topics in the field of reachability for infinite state systems; rewriting systems; reachability analysis in counter/timed/cellular/communicating automata; Petri nets; computational aspects of semigroups, groups, and rings; reachability in dynamical and hybrid systems; frontiers between decidable and undecidable reachability problems; complexity and decidability aspects; predictability in iterative maps and new computational paradigms.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 200 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Although it has influenced the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) since its origins, humanistic HCI has come into its own since the early 2000s. In that time, it has made substantial contributions to HCI theory and methodologies and also had major influence in user experience (UX) design, aesthetic interaction, and emancipatory/social change-oriented approaches to HCI. This book reintroduces the humanities to a general HCI readership; characterizes its major epistemological and methodological commitments as well as forms of rigor; compares the scientific report vs. the humanistic essay as research products, while offering some practical advice for peer review; and focuses on two major topics where humanistic HCI has had particular influence in the field¿user experience and aesthetics and emancipatory approaches to computing. This book argues for a more inclusive and broad reach for humanistic thought within the interdisciplinary field of HCI, and its lively and engaging style will invite readers into that project.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 188 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -While the classic model checking problem is to decide whether a finite system satisfies a specification, the goal of parameterized model checking is to decide, given finite systems ¿¿¿¿(n) parameterized by n ¿ ¿, whether, for all n ¿ ¿, the system ¿¿¿¿(n) satisfies a specification. In this book we consider the important case of ¿¿¿¿(n) being a concurrent system, where the number of replicated processes depends on the parameter n but each process is independent of n. Examples are cache coherence protocols, networks of finite-state agents, and systems that solve mutual exclusion or scheduling problems. Further examples are abstractions of systems, where the processes of the original systems actually depend on the parameter. The literature in this area has studied a wealth of computational models based on a variety of synchronization and communication primitives, including token passing, broadcast, and guarded transitions. Often, different terminology is used in the literature, and results are based on implicit assumptions. In this book, we introduce a computational model that unites the central synchronization and communication primitives of many models, and unveils hidden assumptions from the literature. We survey existing decidability and undecidability results, and give a systematic view of the basic problems in this exciting research area.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 172 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book is dedicated to Professor Ernst--Rüdiger Olderog on the occasion of his 60th birthday. This volume is a reflection on Professor Olderog's contributions to the scientific community. It provides a sample of research ideas that have been influenced directly by Ernst-Rüdiger Olderog's work. After a laudatio section that provides a brief overview of Ernst-Rüdiger Olderog's research, the book is comprised of five parts with scientific papers written by colleagues and collaborators of Professor Olderog. The papers address semantics, process algebras, logics for verification, program analysis, and synthesis approaches.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 292 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of Current Trends in Web Engineering, ICWE Workshops 2015 which was held in June 2015 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The 16 revised full papers were selected form 23 submissions and cover topics on natural language processing for informal text, pervasive Web technologies, trends and challenges, and mining in the social Web.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 216 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of theSecond International Conference on Data Science, ICDS 2015, held in SydneyAustralia, during August 8-9, 2015.The 19 revised full papers and 5 short papers presentedwere carefully reviewed and selected from 31 submissions. The papers focus onthe following topics: mathematical issues in data science; big data issues andapplications; data quality and data preparation; data-driven scientificresearch; evaluation and measurement in data service; big data mining andknowledge management; case study of data science; social impacts of datascience.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 204 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Information Processing in Cells and Tissues, IPCAT 2015, held in San Diego, CA, USA, in September 2015.The 19 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 22 submissions. They were organized in topical sections named: biochemical information processing; collective and distributed behavior; patterning and rhythm generation; biochemical regulatory networks; metabolomics and phenotypes; and neural modelling and neural networks.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 244 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Modeling Decisions for Artificial Intelligence, MDAI 2015, held in Skövde, Sweden, in September 2015. The 18 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 38 submissions. They discuss theory and tools for modeling decisions, as well as applications that encompass decision making processes and information fusion techniques.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 272 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Locating empirical information on specific service industry characteristics is not an easy task, even for an individual familiar with various sources of data. This book is a quick source of information on service industry statistics across many nations of the world. The reader is introduced to finding key sources of data, building analytical ratios from diverse sources, and understanding the advantages and disadvantages of data selection methods in the service sector. The global nature of the data compiled in this book, especially an extensive coverage of the United States, makes it an invaluable resource to active researchers and stakeholders in the service industry as well as those who seek to enter it.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 252 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book shows the effectiveness of multiregional demography for studying the spatial dynamics of migration and population redistribution. It examines important questions in demographic analysis and shows how the techniques of multiregional analysis can lead to answers that sometimes contradict conventional wisdom.The book reconsiders conclusions reached in the literature regarding several fundamental common sense demographic questions in migration and population redistribution, including: Is it mostly migration or ¿aging-in-place¿ that has been driving Floridäs elderly population growth Do the elderly return ¿home¿ after retirement more than the non-elderly do Does longer life lead to longer ill-health Do simple population projection models outperform complex ones For each demographic question it reconsiders, the book begins with a simple empirical numerical example and with it illustrates how a uniregional specification can bias findings to favor a particular, and possibly incorrect, conclusion. It then goes on to show how a multiregional analysis can better illuminate the dynamics that underlie the observed population totals and lead to a more informed conclusion.Offering insights into the effectiveness of multiregional demography, this book serves as a valuable resource for students and researchers searching for a better way to answer questions in demographic analysis and population dynamics.¿Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 132 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book explains how income growth and better environmental qualities go hand in hand, and reviews the drivers and barriers to sustainable innovation on the basis of real-life cases. It discusses why innovation-based income growth reduces environmental impacts and how the huge global markets for sustainable innovation are currently hampered by protectionist policies. Subsequently, diverse sustainable innovators are presented in ascending order of the complexity of interactions between innovators and stakeholders. In this context, innovating consumers who create communities of peers in solar powered mobility are examined in the first case. It also focuses on regional tacit inventors, who spur innovation in tourism mobility thanks to the informal policies but whose efforts are obstructed by the formalities of the European Union. Artists with an interest in both innovations and the environment develop art services that deliver experiences of environmental qualities. Though these experiences have gone unrecognised so far, they are nonetheless socially beneficial. The book also shows how technology suppliers develop four different patterns of sanitation, each with its own pros and cons for the specific community¿s needs and conditions. It discusses how project developers also make innovations in office systems, including socially beneficial ones that do away with the need to commute. It includes an analysis of interactions between consumers pursuing ethical consumption and international trailblazers in corporate responsibility and concludes that it is more rewarding to support social entrepreneurs than to attempt to moralise consumers. Further analysis of interactions between sustainable investors and innovators reveals different groups¿ opinions about policies and markets, helping to explains their weak influence on policies. Mushrooming local energy initiatives are now evolving into energy service companies, producing shifts on energy markets. Why theseinnovators emerge and how certain policies are blocking them are explained. The policies of the United States and European Union are compared with regard to the main barriers to and drivers of, the renewable energy business. Though the US invests more money and takes more risks, it is less cost-effective in terms of the number of enterprises and jobs, thanks to the feed-in tariffs in Europe. Lastly, the book also discusses policies that invest in education, skills, knowledge and know-how exchange, but instead abolish perverse subventions of vested interests to create conditions for sustainable development.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 208 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Exploring complex and intelligent analytical and mathematical methods, this book examines how different approaches can be used to optimize program management in the construction industry. It presents an in-depth study of the different program management methods, ranging from simple decision-making techniques and statistics analysis to the more complex linear programming and demonstrates how knowledge-base systems and genetic algorithms can be used to optimize resources and meet time, budget and quality criteria. It addresses topics including decision-making principles, planning and scheduling, mathematical forecasting models, optimization techniques programming and artificial intelligence techniques. Providing a valuable resource for anyone managing multiple projects in the construction industry, this book is intended for civil and construction engineering students, project managers, construction managers and senior engineers.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 196 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Customers consider many crucial factors, even subconsciously, when purchasing a product or engaging a service provider, consequently building a sense of trust which is decisive towards their user experience through to customer experience. This book helps companies understand how to structurally develop, communicate, and promote reasons for customers to buy products and services, starting from the psychological basis of communicating information and moving on to methodical applications. It is based on a psychological perspective in understanding the customers¿ reasons to believe in product or service offerings; promotes a way towards simplicity of business anchoring on emotion and experience; helps learn the tactics of systematic persuasion.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 132 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This Brief discusses the current policy environment in which the United States space program operates and proposes an industry-government partnership as a long-term policy solution. Since the Reagan administration, American space policy has increasingly sought to involve private sector operators for space. The culmination of this trend has been the Obama administration¿s policy of private sector transportation of crew and cargo to the International Space Station on behalf of NASA. This book proposes that future administrations extend this policy to other areas of space, including energy, in orbit manufacturing, asteroid mining, and the exploration of the Moon and Mars. The book further demonstrates how these activities can stabilize the global political system and lead to a dramatic increase in global economic growth. Finally, the book addresses one of the most important and critical issues currently facing humanity¿the need for a viable, baseload, and unlimited supply of totally clean energy. An extremely cogent analysis of the interrelationship between space activity and the terrestrial economy, this book showcases the political and economic potential of the medium of space and adds greatly to the existing literature in the field. This book will be of interest to students of political science and strategic studies as well as members of the military, government space agencies, and the international aerospace industry.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 92 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This volume examines crimes that violate environmental regulations, as part of an emerging area of criminology known as green criminology. The contributions to this book examine criminal justice concerns related to regulating and enforcing environmental laws, as well as the consequences for families and communities impacted by hazardous waste and pollution. It also describes possible strategies for deterring and preventing organized crime related to environmental regulations, including black market sales of ozone depleting substances. This innovative volume provides a criminological framework for understanding environmental harms.Examining cases from the US, Europe and Australia, this volume compares and contrasts international approaches for regulating hazardous substances, and enforcing those regulations. This work will be of interest to researchers in criminology and criminal justice, particularly interested in green criminology or environmental law, as well as researchers in environmental sciences, white collar and corporate crime, and policymakers.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 192 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This bookanalyzes the individual and contextual determinants of protest politics in Western Europe.Building ondifferenttheoretical perspectives, from social movements theory to political behavior approaches,the authorprovides new empirical evidence on the patterns of protest politics. Readerswilldiscoverwhysome citizens are more likely to get involvedin protests than others, and whylevels ofprotest differfrom country to country.Theauthor illustratesthat engagement in political protest is often rooted in the interplay of the protester¿s individual characteristics and their home country¿s contextual characteristics.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 164 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book presents a novel proposal for establishing justice and social harmony in the aftermath of genocide. It argues that justice should be determined by the victims of genocide rather than a detached legal system, since such a form of justice is more consistent with a socially grounded ethics, with a democracy that privileges citizen decision-making, and with human rights.The book covers the Holocaust; genocides in Argentina, South Africa, Rwanda, Latin America, and Australia, as well as crimes against humanity in Italy and France. From show trials to state- enforced forgiveness, the book examines various methods that have been used since 1945 to punish the individuals and groups responsible for genocide and how they have ultimately failed to deliver true justice to the victims.The only way to end this failure, the book points out, is to return justice to the victims. This simple proposition; however, challenges the Enlightenment tradition of Western law which was built on the refusal to allow victims to determine the measure of justice. That would amount, according to Bacon, Hegel, and Kant to a revenge system and bring social chaos.But, as this book points out, forgiveness is only something victims can give, no-one can demand it. In order to establish a lasting peace, it is necessary to re-examine the philosophical and theoretical refusal to return justice to the victims. The engaging argument put forth in this book can help deliver true justice and re-establish international social harmony in the aftermath of genocide.Genocide is ubiquitous in the modern, global world. It's understanding is highly relevant for the understanding of specific and perpetuating challenges in migration. Genocide forces the migration of millions to avoid crimes against humanity. When they flee war zones they bring their fears, hates, and misery with them. So migration research must engage fully with the experience of genocide, its human consequences and the ethical dilemmas it poses to all societies. Not to do so, will make it more difficult to understand and live with newcomers and to achieve some sort of harmony in host countries, as well as those which are centers of genocide.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 232 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book examines the principles of and advances in personalized task recommendation in crowdsourcing systems, with the aim of improving their overall efficiency. It discusses the challenges faced by personalized task recommendation when crowdsourcing systems channel human workforces, knowledge, skills and perspectives beyond traditional organizational boundaries. The solutions presented help interested individuals find tasks that closely match their personal interests and capabilities in a context of ever-increasing opportunities of participating in crowdsourcing activities. In order to explore the design of mechanisms that generate task recommendations based on individual preferences, the book first lays out a conceptual framework that guides the analysis and design of crowdsourcing systems. Based on a comprehensive review of existing research, it then develops and evaluates a new kind of task recommendation service that integrates with existing systems. The resulting prototype provides a platform for both the field study and the practical implementation of task recommendation in productive environments.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 120 pp. Englisch.