springer international publishing sep 2016 (Oltre 3.100 risultati)

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book trains the next generation of scientists representing different disciplines to leverage the data generated during routine patient care. It formulates a more complete lexicon of evidence-based recommendations and support shared, ethical decision making by doctors with their patients. Diagnostic and therapeutic technologies continue to evolve rapidly, and both individual practitioners and clinical teams face increasingly complex ethical decisions. Unfortunately, the current state of medical knowledge does not provide the guidance to make the majority of clinical decisions on the basis of evidence. The present research infrastructure is inefficient and frequently produces unreliable results that cannot be replicated. Even randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the traditional gold standards of the research reliability hierarchy, are not without limitations. They can be costly, labor intensive, and slow, and can return results that are seldom generalizable to every patient population. Furthermore, many pertinent but unresolved clinical and medical systems issues do not seem to have attracted the interest of the research enterprise, which has come to focus instead on cellular and molecular investigations and single-agent (e.g., a drug or device) effects. For clinicians, the end result is a bit of a 'data desert' when it comes to making decisions. The new research infrastructure proposed in this book will help the medical profession to make ethically sound and well informed decisions for their patients. 452 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Aliens, flying saucers, ESP, the Bermuda Triangle, antigravity ¿ are we talking about science fiction or pseudoscience Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference.Both pseudoscience and science fiction (SF) are creative endeavours that have little in common with academic science, beyond the superficial trappings of jargon and subject matter. The most obvious difference between the two is that pseudoscience is presented as fact, not fiction. Yet like SF, and unlike real science, pseudoscience is driven by a desire to please an audience ¿ in this case, people who ¿want to believe¿. This has led to significant cross-fertilization between the two disciplines. SF authors often draw on ¿real¿ pseudoscientific theories to add verisimilitude to their stories, while on other occasions pseudoscience takes its cue from SF ¿ the symbiotic relationship between ufology and Hollywood being a prime example of this.This engagingly written, well researched and richly illustrated text explores a wide range of intriguing similarities and differences between pseudoscience and the fictional science found in SF.Andrew May has a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and a PhD in astrophysics from Manchester University. After many years in academia and the private sector, he now works as a freelance writer and scientific consultant. He has written pocket biographies of Newton and Einstein, as well as contributing to a number of popular science books. He has a lifelong interest in science fiction, and has had several articles published in Fortean Times magazineSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 192 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book explores humanity¿s thoughts and ideas about extraterrestrial life, paying close attention to the ways science and culture interact with one another to create a context of imagination and discovery related to life on other worlds. Despite the recent explosion in our knowledge of other planets and the seeming era of discovery in which we live, to date we have found no concrete evidence that we are not alone. Our thinking about life on other worlds has been and remains the product of a combination of scientific investigation and human imagination shaped by cultural values--particularly values of exploration and discovery connected to American society.The rapid growth in our awareness of other worlds makes this a crucial moment to think about and assess the influence of cultural values on the scientific search for extraterrestrial life. Here the author considers the junction of science and culture with a focus on two main themes: (1) the underlying assumptions, many ofwhich are tacitly based upon cultural values common in American society, that have shaped the ways researchers in astrobiology and SETI have conceptualized the nature of their endeavor and represented ideas about the potential influence contact might have on human civilization, and (2) the empirical evidence we can access as a way of thinking about the social impact that contact with alien intelligence might have for humanity.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 172 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Dr. Michael Charles Tobias and Jane Gray Morrison are world-renowned ecological philosophers and activists, interdisciplinary social and environmental scientists and broad-ranging, deeply committed humanists. This collection of fifty essays and interviews comprises an invigorating, outspoken, provocative and eloquent overview of the ecological humanities in one highly accessible volume. The components of this collection were published in the authors¿'Green Conversations' blog series, and pieces in the Eco News Network from 2011to 2013and feature luminaries from Jane Goodall to Ted Turner to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution to the former head of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Stunning color photographs captured by the authors and contributors make Why Life Matters:Fifty Ecosystems of the Heart and Mind a feast for the eyes as well as the mind and soul.Ethics, science, technology, ecological literacy, grass-roots renaissance thinkers, conservation innovation from the U.S. to the U.K.; from India to Ecuador; from Bhutan to Haiti; from across Africa, the Neo-Tropics, Central Asia and Japan, to Rio, Shanghai and Manhattan ¿ this humanistic ode to the future of life on earth is a relevant and resonating read.Michael Tobias and Jane Gray Morrison,partners who between them have authored some 50 books and written, directed and produced some 170 films, a prolific body of work that has been read, translated and/or broadcast around the world, have been married for more than a quarter-of-a-century. Their field research across the disciplines of comparative literature, anthropology, the history of science and philosophy, ecology and ethics, in over 80 countries, has served as a telling example of what two people ¿ deeply in love with one another ¿ can accomplish in spreading that same unconditional love to others ¿ of all species.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 440 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Everybody knows what relevance is. It is a 'ya'know' notion, concept, ideäno need to explain whatsoever. Searching for relevant information using information technology (IT) became a ubiquitous activity in contemporary information society. Relevant information means information that pertains to the matter or problem at hand¿it is directly connected with effective communication. The purpose of this book is to trace the evolution and with it the history of thinking and research on relevance in information science and related fields from the human point of view. The objective is to synthesize what we have learned about relevance in several decades of investigation about the notion in information science. This book deals with how people deal with relevance¿it does not cover how systems deal with relevance; it does not deal with algorithms. Spurred by advances in information retrieval (IR) and information systems of various kinds in handling of relevance, a number of basic questionsare raised: But what is relevance to start with What are some of its properties and manifestations How do people treat relevance What affects relevance assessments What are the effects of inconsistent human relevance judgments on tests of relative performance of different IR algorithms or approaches These general questions are discussed in detail.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 132 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The authors of this important book analyse the pitfalls and risks of doing business in ASEAN countries that are mostly absent in Western markets, covering various strategic, external, operational, and legal-cultural challenges for international companies. Doing Business in ASEAN Emerging Markets crucially addresses how to resolve those barriers. Encompassing issues of governance and leadership standards, the authors present case studies and practical solutions underpinned by academic research. Helping executives learn how to implement high international standards and maintain sensitivity to socio-cultural and political Asian contexts, the book highlights the need to create an international diverse and unified leadership team that will take better decisions and effectively deal with risks, and apply best corporate governance practices within an Asian context.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 268 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book discusses semantic interaction, a user interaction methodology for visual analytic applications that more closely couples the visual reasoning processes of people with the computation. This methodology affords user interaction on visual data representations that are native to the domain of the data.User interaction in visual analytics systems is critical to enabling visual data exploration. Interaction transforms people from mere viewers to active participants in the process of analyzing and understanding data. This discourse between people and data enables people to understand aspects of their data, such as structure, patterns, trends, outliers, and other properties that ultimately result in insight. Through interacting with visualizations, users engage in sensemaking, a process of developing and understanding relationships within datasets through foraging and synthesis.The book provides a description of the principles of semantic interaction, providing design guidelines for the integration of semantic interaction into visual analytics, examples of existing technologies that leverage semantic interaction, and a discussion of how to evaluate these technologies. Semantic interaction has the potential to increase the effectiveness of visual analytic technologies and opens possibilities for a fundamentally new design space for user interaction in visual analytics systems.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 100 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The book explores the central question facing humanity today: how can we best survive the ten great existential challenges that are now coming together to confront us Besides describing these challenges from the latest scientific perspectives, it also outlines and integrates the solutions, both at global and individual level and concludes optimistically. This book brings together in one easy-to-read work the principal issues facing humanity. It is written for the two next generations who will have to deal with the compounding risks they inherit, and which flow from overpopulation, resource pressures and human nature.The author examines ten intersecting areas of activity (mass extinction, resource depletion, WMD, climate change, universal toxicity, food crises, population and urban expansion, pandemic disease, dangerous new technologies and self-delusion) which pose manifest risks to civilization and, potentially, to our species¿ long-term future. This isn¿t a book just about problems. It is also about solutions. Every chapter concludes with clear conclusions and consensus advice on what needs to be done at global level ¿but it also empowers individuals with what they can do for themselves to make a difference. Unlike other books, it offers integrated solutions across the areas of greatest risk. It explains why Homo sapiens is no longer an appropriate name for our species, and what should be done about it.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 272 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -David Stevenson¿s new book links the meteorology of the Earth to that of other planets, stars, and clusters of galaxies, showing the similarities and differences between terrestrial weather and that of weather on other worlds. Because Earth is not unique in having weather, there is much to learn from other planets with atmospheres that show the movement of energy from hotter to colder areas. The weather seen on Earth and other known planetary systems are examined to elaborate the connection between climate and the development of life.The weather on Earth and other Solar System planets is a manifestation of the huge energy budget imparted by our star, the Sun, but weather doesn¿t stop at the shores of our Solar System. The author brings together the latest information from satellites and probes, such as Cassini and Hubble, to show its larger place in the astronomical picture. Inferences are drawn about the weather and climate of a large number of other planetary systems that liefar from our own.Additionally, the author expands our understanding of what exactly weather is comprised of by exploring the kind of ¿weather¿ experienced on the largest observable scales in the universe.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 468 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Presenting some impressive recent achievements in differential geometry and topology, this volume focuses on results obtained using techniques based on Ricci flow. These ideas are at the core of the study of differentiable manifolds. Several very important open problems and conjectures come from this area and the techniques described herein are used to face and solve some of them.The book¿s four chapters are based on lectures given by leading researchers in the field of geometric analysis and low-dimensional geometry/topology, respectively offering an introduction to: the differentiable sphere theorem (G. Besson), the geometrization of 3-manifolds (M. Boileau), the singularities of 3-dimensional Ricci flows (C. Sinestrari), and Kähler¿Ricci flow (G. Tian). The lectures will be particularly valuable to young researchers interested in differential manifolds.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 152 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book offers unique insight on structural safety and reliability by combining computational methods that address multiphysics problems, involving multiple equations describing different physical phenomena and multiscale problems, involving discrete sub-problems that togetherdescribe important aspects of a system at multiple scales. The book examines a range of engineering domains and problems using dynamic analysis, nonlinear methods, error estimation, finite element analysis and other computational techniques.This book also: Introduces novel numerical methods Illustrates new practical applications Examines recent engineering applications Presents up-to-date theoretical results Offers perspective relevant to a wide audience, including teaching faculty/graduate students, researchers and practicing engineers.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 824 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -You have in your hands the most rigorous, complete and readable book ever written about the fascinating science of human sexuality. This book goes beyond the well-worn sexual education advice and the usual evolutionist psychology. After The Brain Snatcher, Pere Estupinyà comes back with the first popular science book on sex aimed at a wide audience. While there are some tips for the more adventurous, there is also a wealth of new information to be discovered.Distancing himself from the many books on advice or techniques, Estupinyà brings sex to another dimension by combining popular beliefs and science. Do you want proof that our decision-making in the ¿heat of the moment¿ is less rational than we think Did you know that mind and vagina each go their own way Are you interested in learning about the effects of yoga on sexual pleasure Did you know about the attempts in the 60s to ¿cure¿ homosexuals with electric shock therapy, the chemical analysis of female ejaculation, or the fundamental relationship between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system The author has spoken directly with asexual and intersexual individuals, fetishists, multi-orgasmic women, women who never have orgasms through penetration, and men who have no refractory period. He has also participated in sadomasochistic events; learned tantric techniques with a couple of coaches, spoken with porn performers at Barcelonäs Bagdad, and attended workshops in which a woman teaches how to have orgasms with your mind and breathing. The result is an incredible miscellany of information that appeals to both the scientific community and the curious.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 392 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book critically examines the link between guns and violence. It weighs the value of guns for self-protection against the adverse effects of gun ownership and carrying. It also analyses the role of public opinion, the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, and the firearms industry and lobby in impeding efforts to prevent gun violence.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 384 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -With points of departure in philosophy, logic, social psychology, economics, and choice and game theory, Infostorms shows how information may be used to improve the quality of personal decision and group thinking but also warns against the informational pitfalls which modern information technology may amplify: From science to reality culture and what it really is, that makes you buy a book like this.The information society is upon us. New technologies have given us back pocket libraries, online discussion forums, blogs, crowdbased opinion aggregators, social media and breaking news wherever, whenever. But are we more enlightened and rational because of it Infostorms provides the nuts and bolts of how irrational group behaviour may get amplified by social media and information technology. If we could be collectively dense before, now we can do it at light speed and with potentially global reach. That¿s how things go viral, that is how cyberbullying,rude comments online, opinion bubbles, status bubbles, political polarisation and a host of other everyday unpleasantries start. Infostorms will give the story of the mechanics of these phenomena. This will help you to avoid them if you want or learn to start them if you must. It will allow you to stay sane in an insane world of information.¿With this brilliant book, we have been warned. It is up to all of us in the world today to be stewards of he common resource that is trustworthy and relevant information¿.Adam Brandenburger, Stern School of Business, NYU¿It is a highly recommended read for social scientists and concerned citizens alike¿.Christian List, London School of EconomicsSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 332 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Privacy Risk Analysis fills a gap in the existing literature by providing an introduction to the basic notions, requirements, and main steps of conducting a privacy risk analysis.The deployment of new information technologies can lead to significant privacy risks and a privacy impact assessment should be conducted before designing a product or system that processes personal data. However, if existing privacy impact assessment frameworks and guidelines provide a good deal of details on organizational aspects (including budget allocation, resource allocation, stakeholder consultation, etc.), they are much vaguer on the technical part, in particular on the actual risk assessment task. For privacy impact assessments to keep up their promises and really play a decisive role in enhancing privacy protection, they should be more precise with regard to these technical aspects.This book is an excellent resource for anyone developing and/or currently running a risk analysis as it defines the notions of personal data, stakeholders, risk sources, feared events, and privacy harms all while showing how these notions are used in the risk analysis process. It includes a running smart grids example to illustrate all the notions discussed in the book.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 136 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The book contains description of a real life application of modern mathematical optimization tools in an important problem solution for power networks. The objective is the modelling and calculation of optimal daily scheduling of power generation, by thermal power plants, to satisfy all demands at minimum cost, in such a way that the generation and transmission capacities as well as the demands at the nodes of the system appear in an integrated form. The physical parameters of the network are also taken into account. The obtained large-scale mixed variable problem is relaxed in a smart, practical way, to allow for fast numerical solution of the problem.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 152 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Hybrid Systems Biology, HSB 2016, held in Grenoble, France, in October 2016.The 11 full papers presented in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 26 submissions. They were organized and presented in 4 thematic sessions also reflected in this book: model simulation; model analysis; discrete and network modelling; stochastic modelling for biological systems.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 192 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Statistical Language and Speech Processing, SLSP 2016, held in Pilsen, Czech Republic, in October 2016.The 11 full papers presented together with two invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 38 submissions. The papers cover topics such as anaphora and coreference resolution; authorship identification, plagiarism and spam filtering; computer-aided translation; corpora and language resources; data mining and semantic web; information extraction; information retrieval; knowledge representation and ontologies; lexicons and dictionaries; machine translation; multimodal technologies; natural language understanding; neural representation of speech and language; opinion mining and sentiment analysis; parsing; part-of-speech tagging; question and answering systems; semantic role labeling; speaker identification and verification; speech and language generation; speech recognition; speech synthesis; speech transcription; speech correction; spoken dialogue systems; term extraction; text categorization; test summarization; user modeling.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 160 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -A trustworthy repository provides assurance in the form of management documents, event logs, and audit trails that digital objects are being managed correctly. The assurance includes plans for the sustainability of the repository, the accession of digital records, the management of technology evolution, and the mitigation of the risk of data loss. A detailed assessment is provided by the ISO-16363:2012 standard, 'Space data and information transfer systems¿Audit and certification of trustworthy digital repositories.' This book examines whether the ISO specification for trustworthiness can be enforced by computer actionable policies. An implementation of the policies is provided and the policies are sorted into categories for procedures to manage externally generated documents, specify repository parameters, specify preservation metadata attributes, specify audit mechanisms for all preservation actions, specify control of preservation operations, and control preservation properties as technology evolves. An application of the resulting procedures is made to enforce trustworthiness within National Science Foundation data management plans.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 152 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book outlines how Germans convinced their politicians to pass laws allowing citizens to make their own energy, even when it hurt utility companies to do so. It traces the origins of the Energiewende movement in Germany from the Power Rebels of Schönau to German Chancellor Angela Merkel¿s shutdown of eight nuclear power plants following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident. The authors explore how, by taking ownership of energy efficiency at a local level, community groups are key actors in the bottom-up fight against climate change. Individually, citizens might install solar panels on their roofs, but citizen groups can do much more: community wind farms, local heat supply, walkable cities and more. This book offers evidence that the transition to renewables is a one-time opportunity to strengthen communities and democratize the energy sector ¿ in Germany and around the world.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 464 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This text is a rigorous treatment of the basic qualitative theory of ordinary differential equations, at the beginning graduate level. Designed as a flexible one-semester course but offering enough material for two semesters, A Short Course covers core topics such as initial value problems, linear differential equations, Lyapunov stability, dynamical systems and the Poincaré¿Bendixson theorem, and bifurcation theory, and second-order topics including oscillation theory, boundary value problems, and Sturm¿Liouville problems. The presentation is clear and easy-to-understand, with figures and copious examples illustrating the meaning of and motivation behind definitions, hypotheses, and general theorems. A thoughtfully conceived selection of exercises together with answers and hints reinforce the reader's understanding of the material. Prerequisites are limited to advanced calculus and the elementary theory of differential equations and linear algebra, making the text suitable for seniorundergraduates as well.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 280 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book gathers together, in a new way, established and contemporary thinking about how to get the best out of information technology and information systems investments.Working managers who are beset by the complexities of information management in the age of Big Data and the Social Web, and students who are trying to make sense of information management in a chaotic world that is more and more driven by the Internet, will all benefit from this new treatment of a long-standing and problematic domain. Importantly, the book reveals and clarifies the dependencies that exist between the inner world of information technology and the outer world of people and organisations at work.The book differs from other books in its reflective approach.It avoids lengthy, descriptive, and prescriptive dogma. Rather, it provides tools for thinking about information management and it identifies strategic and tactical options at six levels: from the simple consideration of information technology and information systems, right through to issues of organisational performance and business strategy. At the heart of the matter are two critical and tightly connected issues: the ways that we conceive and manage an organisation¿s processes, and the ways that we conceive and manage the information that an organisation needs to sustain those processes.The six-level framework that achieves this clarity is the ¿Information Management Body of Knowledge¿ (familiarly known as the ¿IMBOK¿).This easy-to-understand and easy-to-remember framework has been found to be extremely useful in business, in government, in civil society and in education.Throughout the book, selected research papers are identified and summarised.There are also summary chapters from three different operational perspectives: performance and competency assessment using the IMBOK, undertaking research into related issues, and a review of parallel expert thinking.This book standsas a reference point and resource for all those who need to straddle the disparate worlds of ¿information technology¿ and ¿business¿.It provides firm pedagogical foundations for courses dealing with business management in the information age, and it provides a sound reference framework for researchers who need to position research projects related to information technology and information systems in a wider context. For busy managers, who simply wish to identify, understand and successfully manage information technology-related opportunities, it provides an ideal arrangement of ideas and tools that will help them.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 296 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Success in solution business starts by accepting that solution business is a separate business model, not simply another product category or an extension of the existing product business. This book identifies the business model areas that firms need to focus on when transforming into solution business. It further organizes these areas into three sets of capabilities and practices: commercialization, industrialization and solution platforms. This is the first book to take a comprehensive view of success in solution business and its relevance therefore extends to all functions of firms wanting to become solution providers as well as to many managerial levels. The book will also help you self-assess how ready your organization is for success in solution business.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 156 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Product Information Management is thelatest topic that companies across the world are deliberating upon. As companies sellonline, they are confronted with the fact thatnot allinformation necessary to sell their products is available. Where marketing, sales and finance have been core processes of the corporate world for a long time, PIM is a new business process with its own unique implementation and management challenges. The book describes the core PIM processes;theirstrategic, tactical and operational benefits and implementation challenges. The book has been written for managers, business users as well as students, and illustrates the different concepts with practical cases from companies like Coca Cola, Nikon and Thomas Cook.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 196 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Traditionally, the study of entrepreneurial behavior focuses on such factors as (i) the personality characteristics that distinguish the entrepreneur from non-entrepreneur and (ii) demographic characteristics such gender, age, familiar antecedents and education. With particular respect to investigating the development, acquisition, and dissemination of entrepreneurial skills and behaviors, the authors focus on the university environment, as a locus of research and innovation, where students are exposed to a wide variety of influences that are enhanced by a high degree of connectivity.The underlying theme of this volume is to develop our understanding of the sociology of student entrepreneurial behavior and in doing so attempt to synthesize literature investigating individual talent with the literature on concurrent knowledge sourcing in the pursuit of entrepreneurial activities. Specifically, the authors investigate the degree to which access to diverse knowledge (in addition to such psychological characteristics and tolerance of ambiguity and risk taking) influences the nature and probability of entrepreneurial success. Moreover, they explore the role of social media and social networking in facilitating access to distributed and disparate information and knowledge.Their research addresses such timely questions as:Where do entrepreneurial opportunities come from How can higher education best stimulate the creation of firms emanating from young and smart minds in colleges and universities What is the value of MOOCs for frequent, early, and ¿thick¿ communication among the various specialties needed to accomplish entrepreneurial projects How do we know whether social media affect students¿ responses to new knowledge and new ideas To what extent do educational practices affect racial and ethnic differences in student entrepreneurship What is the role of the indigenousminority student entrepreneur in establishing high-technology firms The result is a multi-dimensional approach that sheds light on the dynamics of education, knowledge creation, social networking, innovation and new business development.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 160 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book offers a detailed account of the recent Israeli-Greek rapprochement. For more than six decades, relations between Greece and Israel were characterized by suspicion, mutual recriminations and hostility. However, in 2009, Greek policy was unexpectedly overturned. This volume examines this new relationship in detail and explores its theoretical and regional consequences. The Introduction provides a general framework of Greek foreign policy within which the rapprochement with Israel was pursued. Chapter I presents the book¿s theoretical framework, focusing on balance of power theory and emphasizing the arguments of Morgenthau, Waltz, and Mearsheimer. Chapter II delineates the fraught relations between the Greeks and the Jews, despite their cultural and historical commonalities, and analyzes the reasoning behind decades of antagonistic foreign policy. Chapter III describes how the rise of Turkey during Greece¿s economic crisis and the gradual deterioration of the strategic partnership between Israel and Turkey combined to create a climate open to Israeli-Greek cooperation. Chapter IV examines the beginning of the rapprochement between Israel and Greece, highlighting Netanyahüs historic 2010 visit to Greece. Chapter V explores the intensification of Israeli-Greek cooperation. Chapter VI discusses energy cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean, another key factor in the deterioration of Israeli-Turkish relations and the strengthening of ties between Greece and Israel. The book concludes with a return to theory, reiterating the Realist approach and using that framework to hypothesize about the future of the relationship between the two nations. This book is appropriate for graduate students and academics studying international relations and foreign policy in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as policymakers, activists and journalists who want to have a clearer understanding of the Israeli-Greek rapprochement and other developments in theregion.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 200 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This volume is a comprehensive and rigorous exploration of intertwined issues surrounding the EU's democracy and legitimacy, written in the turbulent context of the financial crisis. The chapters are woven together under four interconnected thematic sections that examine: rapidly growing national euroscepticism; the Economic Monetary Union and its legitimacy; the future of EU integration; and democratic deficit(s) across its internal & external structure. The volume presents an authoritative collection of research results and surveys by experts in various disciplines related to the EU, and is addressed to researchers and students examining EU governance, representation and accountability, as well as practitioners across a multiplicity of fields.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 280 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Since the 2008 economic crisis, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have faced serious financial problems and have been looking to financial institutions and governments for solutions and new proposals to address these issues. This book examines the new challenge in which firms receive sustainable funding that is in alignment with the company¿s spending capacity. The purpose of this book is to examine the main theoretical issues and practices regarding entrepreneurship and finance and their impact on performance, innovation and economic growth. It analyzes the fundamental aspects of entrepreneurship and studies ways in which financial institutions can better fulfill their primary function of feeding capital to businesses and the economy as a whole. Entrepreneurship and finance are fundamental to achieving success in economic and social activities. SMEs¿ existence and development depend on the initiatives of entrepreneurship and access to resources, especially those of a financial nature. During therecent economic crisis, several new financing instruments have appeared, especially with structures designed for helping SMEs make their way out of the recession. This book explores some of these tools in various global economies, such as France and Spain, providing an international, multidimensional perspective.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 288 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Contrary to popular conceptions that ethical failures in leadership are correlated with economic downturns and other stressful market conditions, this book argues that such transgressions are an intrinsic element of leadership, as it is defined under the current prevailing paradigm.In recent years the crisis of failures in ethical leadership across organizations, particularly corporations, has been highlighted more than ever, both in academic discourse and the public sphere. Psychological maladies leading to higher number of sick leaves, general feelings of disillusionment among employees, loss of motivation and employee loyalty, even suicide (both in Western corporations and in other parts of the world) are just a few examples of how ethical failures in leadership are expressed.In order to gain original insight into the phenomenon of ethical leadership, the author explores the origins and effects of the current leadership paradigm along two dimensions: (1) a revisit of the leadership construct from a historical and philosophical perspective, with a focus on the relationship between theory and practice; and (2) the theoretical roots of the ethical component of leadership theories, identifying the reasoning behind the value system in our paradigm.Subsequently, by linking these constructs together, a meta-theory emerges suggesting that the three main ethical departure points of virtue ethics, teleology and deontology (all of which have emerged during the past three thousand years through a confluence of the Abrahamic religions¿ and Greek value-systems) are the basis for our reasoning about leadership, its construct and the practice of leadership itself.Challenging traditional views of ethical leadership, the author goes beyond theory and philosophy to consider practical implications, including alternative ways to improve executive recruitment, training, and involvement of followers in decision-making;experiments like rotating leadership; and a peek into other paradigms, such as the Zoroastrianism, hence making an original contribution to the field of leadership both for scholars and practitioners.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 156 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Natural and manmade disasters do not affect everyone equally, especially when resources are not equally accessible. Girls and women in particular face heightened risks of violence and abuse and many countries bar female-headed households from receiving aid. Across the globe, a wider understanding of gender issues is needed to craft effective policies and carry out equitable practices in disaster planning and response.The first full-length reference of its kind, Issues of Gender and Sexual Orientation in Humanitarian Emergencies brings together data pinpointing disparities with practical suggestions toward improving post-event adjustment for all. Arguing forcefully for an egalitarian lens in humanitarian aid, the book offers guidelines that governmental agencies and NGOs alike can implement at all levels of preventive and relief efforts to better assist victims and minimize further trauma. Salient areas covered include gender differences in the effects of disasters on children and adolescents, the heightened risk of domestic violence in disasters and challenges facing the LGBTI community in relocation. In addition, examples from a cyclone event in Australia relate the experiences of victims, organizations and aid workers to larger social issues. Included among the topics: Gender and the impact of disaster on youth.Personal network structure and gendered well-being in disaster and relocation.Sexual and gender minorities in humanitarian emergencies.Gender as hazard in disaster planning and response.The relationship of disaster and domestic violence.The impact of disasters on workers and services.Addressing a major threat to public and social health, Issues of Gender and Sexual Orientation in Humanitarian Emergencies is an essential sourcebook for researchers and professionals working with NGOs, disaster management, domestic violence, humanitarian relief and refugee health.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 160 pp. Englisch.