springer nature nov 2014 (318 risultati)

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -User engagement refers to the quality of the user experience that emphasizes the positive aspects of interacting with an online application and, in particular, the desire to use that application longer and repeatedly. User engagement is a key concept in the design of online applications (whether for desktop, tablet or mobile), motivated by the observation that successful applications are not just used, but are engaged with. Users invest time, attention, and emotion in their use of technology, and seek to satisfy pragmatic and hedonic needs. Measurement is critical for evaluating whether online applications are able to successfully engage users, and may inform the design of and use of applications. User engagement is a multifaceted, complex phenomenon; this gives rise to a number of potential measurement approaches. Common ways to evaluate user engagement include using self-report measures, e.g., questionnaires; observational methods, e.g. facial expression analysis, speech analysis; neuro-physiological signal processing methods, e.g., respiratory and cardiovascular accelerations and decelerations, muscle spasms; and web analytics, e.g., number of site visits, click depth. These methods represent various trade-offs in terms of the setting (laboratory versus ``in the wild''), object of measurement (user behaviour, affect or cognition) and scale of data collected. For instance, small-scale user studies are deep and rich, but limited in terms of generalizability, whereas large-scale web analytic studies are powerful but negate users' motivation and context. The focus of this book is how user engagement is currently being measured and various considerations for its measurement. Our goal is to leave readers with an appreciation of the various ways in which to measure user engagement, and their associated strengths and weaknesses. We emphasize the multifaceted nature of user engagement and the unique contextual constraints that come to bear upon attempts to measure engagement in different settings, and across different user groups and web domains. At the same time, this book advocates for the development of ``good'' measures and good measurement practices that will advance the study of user engagement and improve our understanding of this construct, which has become so vital in our wired world. 136 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This monograph grew out of the authors' efforts to provide a natural geometric description for the class of maps invariant under parabolic renormalization and for the Inou-Shishikura fixed point itself as well as to carry out a computer-assisted study of the parabolic renormalization operator. It introduces a renormalization-invariant class of analytic maps with a maximal domain of analyticity and rigid covering properties and presents a numerical scheme for computing parabolic renormalization of a germ, which is used to compute the Inou-Shishikura renormalization fixed point.Inside, readers will find a detailed introduction into the theory of parabolic bifurcation, Fatou coordinates, Écalle-Voronin conjugacy invariants of parabolic germs, and the definition and basic properties of parabolic renormalization.The systematic view of parabolic renormalization developed in the book and the numerical approach to its study will be interesting to both expertsin the field as well as graduate students wishing to explore one of the frontiers of modern complex dynamics.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -User engagement refers to the quality of the user experience that emphasizes the positive aspects of interacting with an online application and, in particular, the desire to use that application longer and repeatedly. User engagement is a key concept in the design of online applications (whether for desktop, tablet or mobile), motivated by the observation that successful applications are not just used, but are engaged with. Users invest time, attention, and emotion in their use of technology, and seek to satisfy pragmatic and hedonic needs. Measurement is critical for evaluating whether online applications are able to successfully engage users, and may inform the design of and use of applications. User engagement is a multifaceted, complex phenomenon; this gives rise to a number of potential measurement approaches. Common ways to evaluate user engagement include using self-report measures, e.g., questionnaires; observational methods, e.g. facial expression analysis, speech analysis; neuro-physiological signal processing methods, e.g., respiratory and cardiovascular accelerations and decelerations, muscle spasms; and web analytics, e.g., number of site visits, click depth. These methods represent various trade-offs in terms of the setting (laboratory versus ``in the wild''), object of measurement (user behaviour, affect or cognition) and scale of data collected. For instance, small-scale user studies are deep and rich, but limited in terms of generalizability, whereas large-scale web analytic studies are powerful but negate users' motivation and context. The focus of this book is how user engagement is currently being measured and various considerations for its measurement. Our goal is to leave readers with an appreciation of the various ways in which to measure user engagement, and their associated strengths and weaknesses. We emphasize the multifaceted nature of user engagement and the unique contextual constraints that come to bear upon attempts to measure engagement in different settings, and across different user groups and web domains. At the same time, this book advocates for the development of ``good'' measures and good measurement practices that will advance the study of user engagement and improve our understanding of this construct, which has become so vital in our wired world.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 136 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book and associated collection of visual data and sociological observations examine how the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) has been visually re-imagined, transformed, and utilized by its subalterns in the post-Handover period to reproduce their aspirations and demands for greater democracy and social justice while simultaneously contesting the hegemonic pressure exerted by China under the ¿One Country, Two Systems¿ ideology. It provides a rich visual description and narrative of how Hong Kong¿s many repressed social and political actors have struggled to make their voices heard under its competitive authoritarian political system. The book addresses the growing scholarly interest in the visual analysis of global protests and social movements as salient sources of sociological data and on the creation of meaning. By innovatively tackling the visual culture and visuality of subaltern resistance in Hong Kong it contributes to our understanding of contentious SAR-China politics and the New Social Movement, and will be of great interest to Hong Kong, resistance, social movement, and visual studies scholars.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 408 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The book is addressed to statisticians working at the forefront of the statistical analysis of complex and high dimensional data and offers a wide variety of statistical models, computer intensive methods and applications: network inference from the analysis of high dimensional data; new developments for bootstrapping complex data; regression analysis for measuring the downsize reputational risk; statistical methods for research on the human genome dynamics; inference in non-euclidean settings and for shape data; Bayesian methods for reliability and the analysis of complex data; methodological issues in using administrative data for clinical and epidemiological research; regression models with differential regularization; geostatistical methods for mobility analysis through mobile phone data exploration. This volume is the result of a careful selection among the contributions presented at the conference 'S.Co.2013: Complex data modeling and computationally intensive methods for estimation and prediction' held at the Politecnico di Milano, 2013. All the papers published here have been rigorously peer-reviewed.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 220 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Paul Butzer, who is considered the academic father and grandfather of many prominent mathematicians, has established one of the best schools in approximation and sampling theory in the world. He is one of the leading figures in approximation, sampling theory, and harmonic analysis. Although on April 15, 2013, Paul Butzer turned 85 years old, remarkably, he is still an active research mathematician.In celebration of Paul Butzer¿s 85th birthday, New Perspectives on Approximation and Sampling Theory is a collection of invited chapters on approximation, sampling, and harmonic analysis written by students, friends, colleagues, and prominent active mathematicians. Topics covered include approximation methods using wavelets, multi-scale analysis, frames, and special functions.New Perspectives on Approximation and Sampling Theory requires basic knowledge of mathematical analysis, but efforts were made to keep the exposition clear and the chapters self-contained. This volume will appeal to researchers and graduate students in mathematics, applied mathematics and engineering, in particular, engineers working in signal and image processing.Springer Basel AG in Springer Science + Business Media, Heidelberger Platz 3, 14197 Berlin 496 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the proceedings of the Third International Conference on Analysis of Images, Social Networks and Texts, AIST 2014, held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in April 2014. The 11 full and 10 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 74 submissions. They are presented together with 3 short industrial papers, 4 invited papers and tutorials. The papers deal with topics such as analysis of images and videos; natural language processing and computational linguistics; social network analysis; machine learning and data mining; recommender systems and collaborative technologies; semantic web, ontologies and their applications; analysis of socio-economic data.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 300 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Professor Stephen Lerman has been a leader in the field of mathematics education for thirty years. His work is extensive, making many significant contributions to a number of key areas of research. Stephen retired from South Bank University in 2012, where he had worked for over 20 years, though he continues to work at Loughborough University. In this book several of his long standing colleagues and collaborators reflect on his contribution to mathematics education, and in so doing illustrate how some of Steve¿s ideas and interventions have resulted in significant shifts in the domain.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 260 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Given the increasing global interest in Chinese culture, this book uses case studies to describe and interpret Chinese cultivation in contemporary Taiwanese schools. Cultivation is a concept unique to Chinese culture and is characterized by different attitudes towards teaching and learning compared to Western models of education. The book starts with a discussion of human nature in Chinese schools of philosophy and levels of goodness. Following the philosophical background is a presentation of how cultivation is practiced in Chinese culture from prenatal through high school education. The case studies focus both on how students are cultivated as they become members of Chinese society, and on what role teachers play in cultivating the children in school. In addition, supports from Chinese educational institutions, including public schools, families, and organizations such as private cram schools, are introduced and explained. In closing, the book presents a critique of the modern school reform movement and the conflicts between the reform proposals and traditional practices. Based on the collective work of Taiwanese researchers in the fields of education, history and anthropology, the book identifies the purpose of education as cultivating virtue in a process of creating an ideal person who serves society, and describes the way teachers have carried on this tradition despite its faltering status in contemporary educational discourse and in the face of reform movements.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 296 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book is about the power of education: the kind of education that simultaneously improves the quality of life both of individuals and the wider society. It explains why education must be viewed as a basic human right, as a value in and of itself, and reviews the evidence on how education builds the human resources that individuals and nations need to be productive, to continue to learn, to solve problems, to be creative, and to live together and with nature in peace and harmony. When nations ensure that such an education is accessible to all throughout their lives, education becomes the engine of sustainable development ¿ economic, social, moral and cultural. The book is unique in that it covers the development of education at all levels in all countries of the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, using the latest international data bases, while blending in analyses of both quantitate and qualitative research.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 300 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This edited work explores piracy and surreptitious activities such as privateering, war-making, slave-hunting and raiding, focussing on Southeast Asia in the early modern period. Readers will discover nine essays studying the different sub-regions of the Malay Archipelago and adjacent seas and exploring the nature and historiographical perception of piracy, maritime conflict and surreptitious activities. The authors probe the linkages between these occurrences with war and economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in particular, and look at the transition into the nineteenth century.The introduction covers the study of piracy in this period and chapters explore themes of Siak and Malay activities, Dutch privateering, Chinese actions in the Melaka-Singapore region, activity in the Malukan Archipelago and the political background of the Maguindanao ¿piracy¿ in the early eighteenth century. Later chapters explore the Sulu Sultanate and the seafaring world, the deeds of Iberians in this region and especially the identities and activities of the Portuguese in these seas.The authors contribute to the literature by complementing studies that favour a closer discussion of the ¿formal¿ and ¿informal¿ sectors in history. This book opens up the subject area for delving into the various geographical locales and participating groups, as well as their possible linkages with one another and with other groups.This volume will be of interest to students and academicians of Southeast Asian studies and those with a general interest in maritime piracy.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 204 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -As children, we would have spilt glasses of milk, dropped things, and broken things. As children, therefore, we would have developed intuitions about how the world ¿works¿, but we would not necessarily have been able to explain these ¿workings¿. It would only have been till we entered formal schooling that we would have learned codifications of canon within each respective discipline, and consequently how to articulate the canon to explain the intuition.The preceding example was from the natural sciences, but one could just have easily taken an example from, say, the environmental sciences or from the social sciences. Indeed, much of this book does just that, as it seeks to chart the territory of a new theory of learning around Disciplinary Intuitions.Many of the chapters within draw frequent and explicit linkages to curriculum design, from the premise of the need to go beyond addressing the conceptions of learners, to seeking to understand the substrate upon which these conceptions are founded. The argument is made that this substrate comprises the particular set of lived experiences of each learner, and how ¿ because these lived experiences are as tacit as they are diverse ¿ designing curriculum around misconceptions and preconceptions alone would not lead to enduring understanding from first principles. From this perspective, Disciplinary Intuitions constitute an exciting field at the nexus of learning theories and curriculum design.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 228 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Quantum correlations are not restricted to the well known entanglement investigated in Bell-type experiments. Other forms of correlations, for example quantum discord, have recently been shown to play an important role in several aspects of quantum information theory. First experiments also support these findings. This book is an introduction into this up-and-coming research field and its likely impact on quantum technology. After giving a general introduction to the concept of quantum correlations and their role in quantum information theory, the author describes a number of pertinent results and their implications.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 60 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -A new and detailed picture of Mercury is emerging thanks to NASA¿s MESSENGER mission that spent four years in orbit about the Sun¿s innermost planet. Comprehensively illustrated by close-up images and other data, the author describes Mercury¿s landscapes from a geological perspective: from sublimation hollows, to volcanic vents, to lava plains, to giant thrust faults. He considers what its giant core, internal structure and weird composition have to tell us about the formation and evolution of a planet so close to the Sun. This is of special significance in view of the discovery of so many exoplanets in similarly close orbits about their stars. Mercury generates its own magnetic field, like the Earth (but unlike Venus, Mars and the Moon), and the interplay between Mercury¿s and the Sun¿s magnetic field affects many processes on its surface and in the rich and diverse exosphere of neutral and charged particles surrounding the planet.There is much about Mercury that we still don¿t understand. Accessible to the amateur, but also a handy state-of-the-art digest for students and researchers, the book shows how our knowledge of Mercury developed over the past century of ground-based, fly-by and orbital observations, and looks ahead at the mysteries remaining for future missions to explore.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 196 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book introduces the fundamental concepts of homomorphic encryption. From these foundations, applications are developed in the fields of private information retrieval, private searching on streaming data, privacy-preserving data mining, electronic voting and cloud computing. The content is presented in an instructional and practical style, with concrete examples to enhance the reader's understanding. This volume achieves a balance between the theoretical and the practical components of modern information security. Readers will learn key principles of homomorphic encryption as well as their application in solving real world problems.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 140 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This volume is an attempt to provide a graduate level introduction to various aspects of stochastic geometry, spatial statistics and random fields, with special emphasis placed on fundamental classes of models and algorithms as well as on their applications, e.g. in materials science, biology and genetics.This book has a strong focus on simulations and includes extensive codes in Matlab and R which are widely used in the mathematical community. It can be seen as a continuation of the recent volume 2068 of Lecture Notes in Mathematics, where other issues of stochastic geometry, spatial statistics and random fields wereconsidered with a focus on asymptotic methods.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 492 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book aims to provide knowledge on how infrastructure is planned and built in a typical developing country, and what key variables are there in the system limiting the efficient use of public investments in infrastructure. The book begins with a comprehensive literature review on construction and economic development, and trade and economic development. The focus of the book is on the case of Vietnam, with lessons drawn for other developing economies. The book employs the mixed use of data to provide a stronger basis for analysis and interpretation of related government policies. Based on the research findings, the book recommends significant capacity building work for Vietnam to develop capacities that would remove constraints on the efficient use of public investments in infrastructure. The general principles of significant capacity building work which are useful for policy implications are introduced in the book. Analysts, academics, public and private communities in developing countries can adopt the research findings as guiding principles to bring about changes in their current use of public investments in infrastructure, thus supporting their trade and economic growth in the long term.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 272 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The aim of this book is to provide readers with a wide overview of the main healthcare-associated infections caused by bacteria and fungi able to grow as biofilm. The recently acquired knowledge on the pivotal role played by biofilm-growing microorganisms in healthcare-related infections has given a new dynamic to detection, prevention and treatment of these infections in patients admitted to both acute care hospitals and long-term care facilities. Clinicians, hygienists and microbiologists will be updated by leading scientists on the state-of-art of biofilm-based infections and on the most innovative strategies for prevention and treatment of these infections, often caused by emerging multidrug-resistant biofilm-growing microorganisms.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 200 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book focuses on several areas of intense topical interest related to applied spectroscopy and the science of nanomaterials. The eleven chapters in the book cover the following areas of interest relating to applied spectroscopy and nanoscience: Raman spectroscopic characterization, modeling and simulation studies of carbon nanotubes Characterization of plasma discharges using laser optogalvanic spectroscopy Fluorescence anisotropy in understanding protein conformational disorder and aggregation Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in nanomedicine Calculation of Van der Waals interactions at the nanoscale Theory and simulation associated with adsorption of gases in nanomaterials Atom-precise metal nanoclusters Plasmonic properties of metallic nanostructures, two-dimensional materials, and their composites Applications of graphene in optoelectronic devices and transistors Role of graphene in organic photovoltaic device technology Applications of nanomaterials in nanomedicine.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 292 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -In the present authors attempted to have a clear insight into the interworking of geotectonic, geomorphic, hydrologic and anthropogenic factors leading to landslide in the Shiv khola Watershed, the most worst affected region of Darjiling Himalaya. This book includes the parameters responsible for landslide events in mountainous areas. It provides knowledge and understanding to the local people, planners, and policy makers about the causes and consequences of landslides as well as provides a suitable method to mitigate the landslips. The book deals with the role of land, water and soil in landslide phenomena. These three attributes have been described in terms of critical rainfall, critical slope, critical height and changes and development of drainage network in landslides. Mitigations and site-specific management options are evaluated considering the roles of local govt., community and other organizations in both pre-slide and post-slide periods. Various scientific methods have been used to assess the landslides that will bring about tremendous help to researchers in the field. In particular, Researchers in Mountain Geomorphology and Geological and Geographical Society will get tremendous help from some topics such as 1-D slope stability model, SCS Curve Number Technique, Assessment of morphological parameters, application of RS & GIS, Application of Analytical Hierarchy Process. Semi-quantitative approach is followed for understanding spatial distribution of cohesion, friction angle slope, lithology and lineaments, drainage, upslope contributing area, land use and land cover types etc. This book also reveals some techniques and models for initiating slope instability.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 312 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This volume offers a critical rethinking of the construct of youth wellbeing, stepping back from taken-for-granted and psychologically inflected understandings. Wellbeing has become a catchphrase in educational, health and social care policies internationally, informing a range of school programs and social interventions and increasingly shaping everyday understandings of young people. Drawing on research by established and emerging scholars in Australia, Singapore and the UK, the book critically examines the myriad effects of dominant discourses of wellbeing on the one hand, and the social and cultural dimensions of wellbeing on the other. From diverse methodological and theoretical perspectives, it explores how notions of wellbeing have been mobilized across time and space, in and out of school contexts, and the different inflections and effects of wellbeing discourses are having in education, transnationally and comparatively. The book offers researchers as well as practitioners new perspectives on current approaches to student wellbeing in schools and novel ways of thinking about the wellbeing of young people beyond educational settings.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 236 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The book departs from the approach of relatedtitles by focusing on describing and reflecting upon the notion of seamless learning with regard to salient characteristics of learner mobility and bridging of learning experiences across learning spaces. It is the first such work that is solely dedicated to research on and the practice of seamless learning, uniquely combining interpretations, visions, and past research on and practices in seamless learning from diversified perspectives. The book also strikes a good balance between theoretical and practical perspectivess, going beyond a collection of reports on specific research projects. Instead of thick descriptions of research processes and findings, readers will find significant insights and food for thought intended to inspire further advances in the research on and practice of seamless learning.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 536 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book provides readers with a variety of tools to address the challenges posed by hot carrier degradation, one of today¿s most complicated reliability issues in semiconductor devices. Coverage includes an explanation of carrier transport within devices and book-keeping of how they acquire energy (¿become hot¿), interaction of an ensemble of colder and hotter carriers with defect precursors, which eventually leads to the creation of a defect, and a description of how these defects interact with the device, degrading its performance.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 528 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This textbook discusses engineering principles relating to air pollution and greenhouse gases (GHGs); it focuses on engineering principles and designs of related devices and equipment for air emission control for a variety of industries such as energy, chemical, and transportation industries. The book aims primarily at senior undergraduate and graduate students in mechanical, chemical and/or environmental engineering departments; it can also be used as a reference book by technical staff and design engineers who are interested in and need to have technical knowledge in air pollution and GHGs. The book is motivated by recent rapid advances in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and their control technologies. In addition to classic topics related to air pollution, this book is also featured with emerging topics related to air pollution and GHGs. It covers recent advances in engineering approaches to the reduction of GHG emissions including, but are not limited to, green energy technologies and carbon sequestration and storage. It also introduces an emerging topic in air pollution, which is referred to as Nano Air Pollution. It is a growing concern in air pollution, but largely missing in similar books, likely because of recent rapid advances in nanotechnology has outpaced the advances in nano air pollution control.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 512 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -At the center of this book is the complex and perplexing question of how to design professional preparation programs, organizational management practices, public policy systems and robust professional associations committed to and capable of, maintaining confidence, trust and the other hallmarks of responsible professionalism. To do this, we need to rebuild our understanding of professional responsibility from the ground up. We describe how individuals might be prepared to engage in responsible professional service delivery, examine promising options for the reform of professional service systems and finally, outline a reform strategy for improving practice in education and medicine ¿ two essential public services. The nexus of the reform problem in professionalism is establishing a more robust and effective working relationship between teachers and their students; between health care professionals and their patients and between educators and health professionals. Professionalism means acceptance of professional responsibility for student and patient outcomes ¿ not just acceptance of responsibility for technical expertise, but commitment to the social norms of the profession, including trustworthiness and responsibility for client wellbeing. In the past, it may have been sufficient to assume that adequate knowledge can be shaped into standards of professional practice. Today, it is clear that we must take careful account of the ways in which practicing professionals develop, internalize and sustain professionalism during their training, along with the ways in which this commitment to professionalism may be undermined by the regulatory, fiscal, technological, political and emotional incentive systems that impinge on professional workplaces and professional employment systems.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 372 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book emphasises both experimental and theoretical aspects of surface, interface and thin-film physics. As in previous editions the preparation of surfaces and thin films, their atomic and morphological structure, their vibronic and electronic properties as well as fundamentals of adsorption are treated. Because of their importance in modern information technology and nanostructure research, particular emphasis is paid to electronic surface and interface states, semiconductor space charge layers and heterostructures. A special chapter of the book is devoted to collective phenomena at interfaces and in thin films such as superconductivity and magnetism. The latter topic includes the meanwhile important issues giant magnetoresistance and spin-transfer torque mechanism, both effects being of high interest in information technology. In this new edition, for the first time, the effect of spin-orbit coupling on surface states is treated. In this context the class of the recently detected topological insulators, materials of significant importance for spin electronics, are discussed. Particular emphasis, hereby, is laid on the new type of topologically protected surface states with well-defined spin orientation. Furthermore, some important well established experimental techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD) and reflection anisotropy spectroscopy (RAS), which were missing so far in earlier editions, were added in this new 6th edition of the book.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 604 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Twenty-five years ago there was increasing optimism in policy, curriculum and research about the contribution that technology education might make to increased technological literacy in schools and the wider population. That optimism continues, although the status of technology as a learning area remains fragile in many places.This edited book is offered as a platform from which to continue discussions about how technology education might progress into the future, and how the potential of technology education to be truly relevant and valued in school learning can be achieved.The book results from a collaboration between leading academics in the field, the wider group of authors having had input into each of the chapters. Through the development of a deep understanding of technology, based on a thoughtful philosophy, pathways are discussed to facilitate student learning opportunities in technology education. Consideration is given to the purpose(s) of technology education and how this plays out in curriculum, pedagogies, and assessment. Key dimensions, including design, critique, students¿ cultural capital are also explored, as are the role and place of political persuasion, professional organisations, and research that connects with practice.The discussion in the book leads to a conclusion that technology education has both an ethical and moral responsibility to support imaginings that sustain people and communities in harmony and for the well being of the broader ecological and social environment.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 296 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -A discussion of challenges related to the modeling and control of greenhouse crop growth, this book presents state-of-the-art answers to those challenges. The authors model the subsystems involved in successful greenhouse control using different techniques and show how the models obtained can be exploited for simulation or control design; they suggest ideas for the development of physical and/or black-box models for this purpose.Strategies for the control of climate- and irrigation-related variables are brought forward. The uses of PID control and feedforward compensators, both widely used in commercial tools, are summarized. The benefits of advanced control techniques¿event-based, robust, and predictive control, for example¿are used to improve on the performance of those basic methods.A hierarchical control architecture is developed governed by a high-level multiobjective optimization approach rather than traditional constrained optimization and artificial intelligence techniques. Reference trajectories are found for diurnal and nocturnal temperatures (climate-related setpoints) and electrical conductivity (fertirrigation-related setpoints). The objectives are to maximize profit, fruit quality, and water-use efficiency, these being encouraged by current international rules. Illustrative practical results selected from those obtained in an industrial greenhouse during the last eight years are shown and described. The text of the book is complemented by the use of illustrations, tables and real examples which are helpful in understanding the material.Modeling and Control of Greenhouse Crop Growth will be of interest to industrial engineers, academic researchers and graduates from agricultural, chemical, and process-control backgrounds.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 280 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book is a must-have reference to dry etching technology for semiconductors, which will enable engineers to develop new etching processes for further miniaturization and integration of semiconductor integrated circuits.The author describes the device manufacturing flow, and explains in which part of the flow dry etching is actually used. The content is designed as a practical guide for engineers working at chip makers, equipment suppliers and materials suppliers, and university students studying plasma, focusing on the topics they need most, such as detailed etching processes for each material (Si, SiO2, Metal etc) used in semiconductor devices, etching equipment used in manufacturing fabs, explanation of why a particular plasma source and gas chemistry are used for the etching of each material, and how to develop etching processes.The latest, key technologies are also described, such as 3D IC Etching, Dual Damascene Etching, Low-k Etching, Hi-k/Metal Gate Etching, FinFET Etching, Double Patterning etc.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 132 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The aim of this book is to present the fundamentals of high pressure technologies from the perspective of mass transfer phenomena and thermodynamic considerations. Novel food applications are exposed and their relation to chemical analysis, extraction, reaction and particle formation processes are outlined. The chapters are written by a diverse group of scientists with expertise in chemistry, food processes, analytical chemistry, chemical engineering and chemical engineering thermodynamics, and biotechnology.The mission of green food engineering is to promote innovative technologies that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous materials (solvents, reagents) in the design and operation of food related processes, with the view to improve food safety and quality. Several efficient, environmentally friendly and benign technologies based on the use of high pressure and green solvents have demonstrated to be sustainable alternatives to traditional processes in the food industry.Although hundreds of new ideas are being published in the open literature, reliable engineering tools to simulate and design those processes are still under development. High Pressure Fluid Technology for Green Food Processing presents in-depth analyses and outlines the ways towards their maturity.Tiziana Fornari, Research Institute of Food Science (CIAL) Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Madrid, SpainRoumiana P. Stateva, Institute of Chemical Engineering, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, BulgariaSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 528 pp. Englisch.