springer netherlands mai 2002 (44 risultati)

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book is meant to provide a window on the rapidly growing body of theoretical studies of condensed phase chemistry. A brief perusal of physical chemistry journals in the early to mid 1980's will find a large number of theor- ical papers devoted to 3-body gas phase chemical reaction dynamics. The recent history of theoretical chemistry has seen an explosion of progress in the devel- ment of methods to study similar properties of systems with Avogadro's number of particles. While the physical properties of condensed phase systems have long been principle targets of statistical mechanics, microscopic dynamic theories that start from detailed interaction potentials and build to first principles predictions of properties are now maturing at an extraordinary rate. The techniques in use range from classical studies of new Generalized Langevin Equations, semicl- sical studies for non-adiabatic chemical reactions in condensed phase, mixed quantum classical studies of biological systems, to fully quantum studies of m- els of condensed phase environments. These techniques have become sufficiently sophisticated, that theoretical prediction of behavior in actual condensed phase environments is now possible. and in some cases, theory is driving development in experiment. The authors and chapters in this book have been chosen to represent a wide variety in the current approaches to the theoretical chemistry of condensed phase systems. I have attempted a number of groupings of the chapters, but the - versity of the work always seems to frustrate entirely consistent grouping. 320 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Many mesoscopic systems display `adaptive' behaviour - changes in some physical property that results from a small change in an internal or external driving force. There is a kind of progression in adaptive phenomena, from quantum mesoscopics to complex, evolved cooperative systems and large scale events like turbulence. The field of mesoscopic magnetism, especially quantum coherence and quantum tunnelling in spin systems, and the coupling between mesoscopic magnetism and mesoscopic transport is currently a very active area of solid state physics. `Dephasing' is an important concept in mesoscopic systems like these. A basic question is the limit at which quantum mechanics breaks down and what it can be replaced with. Another interesting crossover is that between complexity and large excursions or events, with turbulence as a prototype example. The book also contains a discussion of finance. Qualitatively speaking, turbulence and financial markets are apparently similar, so our understanding of turbulence may be relevant to understanding price fluctuations. 248 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -n Angular Momentum Theory for Diatomic Molecules, R R method of trees, 3 construct the wave functions of more complicated systems for ex- ple many electron atoms or molecules. However, it was soon realized that unless the continuum is included, a set of hydrogenlike orbitals is not complete. To remedy this defect, Shull and Löwdin [273] - troduced sets of radial functions which could be expressed in terms of Laguerre polynomials multiplied by exponential factors. The sets were constructed in such a way as to be complete, i. e. any radial fu- tion obeying the appropriate boundary conditions could be expanded in terms of the Shull-Löwdin basis sets. Later Rotenberg [256, 257] gave the name Sturmian to basis sets of this type in order to emp- size their connection with Sturm-Liouville theory. There is a large and rapidly-growing literature on Sturmian basis functions; and selections from this literature are cited in the bibliography. In 1968, Goscinski [138] completed a study ofthe properties ofSt- rnian basis sets, formulating the problem in such a way as to make generalization of the concept very easy. In the present text, we shall follow Goscinski s easily generalizable definition of Sturmians. 208 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Every now and again I receive a lengthy manuscript from a kind of theoretician known to psychiatrists as the 'triangle people' - kooks who have independently discovered that everything in the universe comes in threes (solid , liquid, gas; protons, neutrons, electrons; the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost ; Moe, Larry, Curly; and so on) . At the risk of sounding like a triangle person, let me explain why I think that the topic of this volume - - storage and computation in the language fac ulty - though having just two sides rather than three, is the key to understanding every interesting issue in the study of language. I will begin with the fundamental scientific problem in linguistics: explaining the vast expressive power of language. What is the trick behind our ability to filleach others' heads with so many different ideas I submit there is not one trick but two, and they have been emphasized by different thinkers throughout the history of linguistics. 364 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -and Acknowledgments Modern Foraminifera started with a simple idea: Goldstein, Andrew Gooday, Pamela Hallock, to write an advanced text for university students Jeffrey Hanor, John Haynes, Johann Hohen- that would also serve as a reference book for ger, Scott Ishman, Frans Jorissen, Susan K- professionals. Being keenly aware of the bound- well, Martin Langer, David Lea, Richard Norris, William Parker, Nancy Rabalais, Charles aries of my competence, I invited fourteen col- Ramcharan, Charles Schafer, Scott Snyder, K- leagues to write most of the chapters. The neth Towe, Bert van der Zwaan, and two others chapters were designed to be balanced reviews, who chose to remain anonymous. Jessica but, with the lone exception of chapter two, they Schreyer assisted in editorial tasks. In the final had to be written under a rather stringent space stages of putting the book together, my burden limitation. Thus, although the list of references was lightened by the cheerful cooperation of is long, it surely does not include every single Petra van Steenbergen, our publishing editor at significant article on every topic covered in the Kluwer. In addition, I was helped by Ian Francis book. Both the subject matters of the chapters at the planning stage of the book. and the selection of authors were entirely my Two people deserve special acknowledgment. 388 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -As society comes to rely increasingly on software for its welfare and prosperity there is an urgent need to create systems in which it can trust. Experience has shown that confidence can only come from a more profound understanding of the issues, which in turn can come only if it is based on logically sound foundations. This volume contains contributions from leading researchers in the critical disciplines of computing and information science, mathematics, logic, and complexity. All contributions are self-contained, aiming at comprehensibility as well as comprehensiveness. The volume also contains introductory hints to technical issues, concise surveys, introductions, and various fresh results and new perspectives. 432 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The monograph presents some of the authors' recent and original results concerning boundedness and compactness problems in Banach function spaces both for classical operators and integral transforms defined, generally speaking, on nonhomogeneous spaces. Itfocuses onintegral operators naturally arising in boundary value problems for PDE, the spectral theory of differential operators, continuum and quantum mechanics, stochastic processes etc. The book may be considered as a systematic and detailed analysis of a large class of specific integral operators from the boundedness and compactness point of view. A characteristic feature of the monograph is that most of the statements proved here have the form of criteria. These criteria enable us, for example, togive var ious explicit examples of pairs of weighted Banach function spaces governing boundedness/compactness of a wide class of integral operators. The book has two main parts. The first part, consisting of Chapters 1-5, covers theinvestigation ofclassical operators: Hardy-type transforms, fractional integrals, potentials and maximal functions. Our main goal is to give a complete description of those Banach function spaces in which the above-mentioned operators act boundedly (com pactly). When a given operator is not bounded (compact), for example in some Lebesgue space, we look for weighted spaces where boundedness (compact ness) holds. We develop the ideas and the techniques for the derivation of appropriate conditions, in terms of weights, which are equivalent to bounded ness (compactness). 664 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The aim of the present book is to present theoretical nonlinear aco- tics with equal stress on physical and mathematical foundations. We have attempted explicit and detailed accounting for the physical p- nomena treated in the book, as well as their modelling, and the f- mulation and solution of the mathematical models. The nonlinear acoustic phenomena described in the book are chosen to give phy- cally interesting illustrations of the mathematical theory. As active researchers in the mathematical theory of nonlinear acoustics we have found that there is a need for a coherent account of this theory from a unified point of view, covering both the phenomena studied and mathematical techniques developed in the last few decades. The most ambitious existing book on the subject of theoretical nonlinear acoustics is 'Theoretical Foundations of Nonlinear Aco- tics' by O. V. Rudenko and S. I. Soluyan (Plenum, New York, 1977). This book contains a variety of applications mainly described by Bu- ers' equation or its generalizations. Still adhering to the subject - scribed in the title of the book of Rudenko and Soluyan, we attempt to include applications and techniques developed after the appearance of, or not included in, this book. Examples of such applications are resonators, shockwaves from supersonic projectiles and travelling of multifrequency waves. Examples of such techniques are derivation of exact solutions of Burgers' equation, travelling wave solutions of Bu- ers' equation in non-planar geometries and analytical techniques for the nonlinear acoustic beam (KZK) equation. 300 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In March 2002, the Naval Research Laboratory brought together leading researchers and government sponsors for a three-day workshop in Washington, D.C. on Multi-Robot Systems. The workshop began with presentations by various government program managers describing application areas and programs with an interest in multi robot systems. Government representatives were on hand from the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force, the Army Research Lab, the National Aeronau tics and Space Administration, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Top researchers then presented their current activities in the areas of multi robot systems and human-robot interaction. The first two days of the workshop of1ocalizatio~. concentrated on multi-robot control issues, including the topics mapping, and navigation; distributed surveillance; manipulation; coordination and formations; and sensors and hardware. The third day was focused on hu man interactions with multi-robot teams. All presentations were given in a single-track workshop format. This proceedings documents the work presented by these researchers at the workshop. The invited presentations were followed by panel discussions, in which all participants interacted to highlight the challenges of this field and to develop possible solutions. In addition to the invited research talks, students were given an opportunity to present their work at poster sessions. 252 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware 296 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -and Acknowledgments Modern Foraminifera started with a simple idea: Goldstein, Andrew Gooday, Pamela Hallock, to write an advanced text for university students Jeffrey Hanor, John Haynes, Johann Hohen- that would also serve as a reference book for ger, Scott Ishman, Frans Jorissen, Susan K- professionals. Being keenly aware of the bound- well, Martin Langer, David Lea, Richard Norris, William Parker, Nancy Rabalais, Charles aries of my competence, I invited fourteen col- Ramcharan, Charles Schafer, Scott Snyder, K- leagues to write most of the chapters. The neth Towe, Bert van der Zwaan, and two others chapters were designed to be balanced reviews, who chose to remain anonymous. Jessica but, with the lone exception of chapter two, they Schreyer assisted in editorial tasks. In the final had to be written under a rather stringent space stages of putting the book together, my burden limitation. Thus, although the list of references was lightened by the cheerful cooperation of is long, it surely does not include every single Petra van Steenbergen, our publishing editor at significant article on every topic covered in the Kluwer. In addition, I was helped by Ian Francis book. Both the subject matters of the chapters at the planning stage of the book. and the selection of authors were entirely my Two people deserve special acknowledgment.Springer-Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 388 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book contains contributions presented at the last of the Alcuin Symposia, held in April 2000, as a Festschrift to honour Prof. Axel Wollmer on the occasion of his retirement from the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen. The Alcuin Symposia were initially held alternatively in York and Aachen, in recent years in Aachen only, as joint workshops on insulin between the groups of Prof. Guy Dodson in York and the groups of Profs Dietrich Brandenburg and Axel Wollmer in Aachen. The Symposium was named after Alcuin, an Anglo-Latin poet, educator and cleric from York, who was invited to join the court of Charlemagne at Aachen. Alcuin's first 50 years were spent in Yorkshire, were he was first a pupil, later headmaster of the cathedral school of York, the most renowned of its day. Charlemagne was gathering at Aachen the leading Irish, English and Italian scholars of the age. Alcuin was appointed head of the Palatine school, where Charlemagne himself, his family, his friends, and his friends's sons were taught. Alcuin introduced the traditions of Anglo-Saxon humanism into Western Europe and was the foremost scholar of the revival of learning known as the Carolingian Renaissance. He also promoted the use of the beautiful Carolingian minuscule script, the ancestor of modern Roman typefaces. 272 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -During the last thirty years, most increases in agricultural production were achieved through high input agrieulture in areas with fertile soils and sufficient water. Intensive methods of production with high levels of nitrogen fertilizer and pesticides were often accompanied by environmental degradation and in some instances by pollution of the food supply. However, rapid population growth has also led to increasing use of marginal lands, where adverse soil and climatic eonditions are serious constraints to food production. These areas are even more sensitive to ecological destabilization. Environmentally sound systems of food production and land use are essential for meeting the food security needs of developing countries. To do this, greater genetic variability is needed within the best crop genotypes available for the areas in need coupled with better management praetices and crop rotations. These requirements can only be realized if suitable crop varieties are bred. These should be varieties with a much shorter growing period, suitable for rotation, increased tolerance or resistance to diseases and pests as weil as to drought and salinity and other adverse soil and climatic conditions. 260 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -In March 2002, the Naval Research Laboratory brought together leading researchers and government sponsors for a three-day workshop in Washington, D.C. on Multi-Robot Systems. The workshop began with presentations by various government program managers describing application areas and programs with an interest in multi robot systems. Government representatives were on hand from the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force, the Army Research Lab, the National Aeronau tics and Space Administration, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Top researchers then presented their current activities in the areas of multi robot systems and human-robot interaction. The first two days of the workshop of1ocalizatio~. concentrated on multi-robot control issues, including the topics mapping, and navigation; distributed surveillance; manipulation; coordination and formations; and sensors and hardware. The third day was focused on hu man interactions with multi-robot teams. All presentations were given in a single-track workshop format. This proceedings documents the work presented by these researchers at the workshop. The invited presentations were followed by panel discussions, in which all participants interacted to highlight the challenges of this field and to develop possible solutions. In addition to the invited research talks, students were given an opportunity to present their work at poster sessions.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 252 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -For centuries, inconsistencies were seen as a hindrance to good reasoning, and their role in the sciences was ignored. In recent years, however, logicians as well as philosophers and historians have showed a growing interest in the matter. Central to this change were the advent of paraconsistent logics, the shift in attention from finished theories to construction processes, and the recognition that most scientific theories were at some point either internally inconsistent or incompatible with other accepted findings. The new interest gave rise to important questions. How is `logical anarchy' avoided Is it ever rational to accept an inconsistent theory In what sense, if any, can inconsistent theories be considered as true The present collection of papers is the first to deal with this kind of questions. It contains case studies as well as philosophical analyses, and presents an excellent overview of the different approaches in the domain.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 236 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -It was noted in the preface of the book 'Inequalities Involving Functions and Their Integrals and Derivatives', Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991, by D.S. Mitrinovic, J.E. Pecaric and A.M. Fink; since the writing of the classical book by Hardy, Littlewood and Polya (1934), the subject of differential and integral inequalities has grown by about 800%. Ten years on, we can confidently assert that this growth will increase even more significantly. Twenty pages of Chapter XV in the above mentioned book are devoted to integral inequalities involving functions with bounded derivatives, or, Ostrowski type inequalities. This is now itself a special domain of the Theory of Inequalities with many powerful results and a large number of applications in Numerical Integration, Probability Theory and Statistics, Information Theory and Integral Operator Theory. The main aim of the present book, jointly written by the members of the Vic toria University node of RGMIA (Research Group in Mathematical Inequali ties and Applications, I /rgmia. vu. edu. au) and Th. M. Rassias, is to present a selected number of results on Ostrowski type inequalities. Results for univariate and multivariate real functions and their natural applications in the error analysis of numerical quadrature for both simple and multiple integrals as well as for the Riemann-Stieltjes integral are given. 504 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Parasitic weeds of the families Cuscutaceae, Orobanchaceae and Scrophulariaceae are considered to be among the major problems facing agriculture in the Tropics and Subtropics. In the last decades, enormous efforts have been made and success achieved by scientists all over the world in gaining a better understanding of their biology and ecology as well as of control methods. However, no substantial reduction of infestation has been achieved in the past and control strategies specific to the different parasites, crops and farming systems must be further developed or adapted and realised among a wider farming population with suitable extension methods. This `Technical Manual' provides up-to-date methodologies for various aspects of research and extension related to parasitic weed species of the genera Striga, Alectra, Orobanche and Cuscuta. It has the intention to support scientists and extension workers of international and national research and extension institutes and universities, who are either new to the subject or plan to apply further techniques they are not yet familiar with. 296 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -For centuries, inconsistencies were seen as a hindrance to good reasoning, and their role in the sciences was ignored. In recent years, however, logicians as well as philosophers and historians have showed a growing interest in the matter. Central to this change were the advent of paraconsistent logics, the shift in attention from finished theories to construction processes, and the recognition that most scientific theories were at some point either internally inconsistent or incompatible with other accepted findings. The new interest gave rise to important questions. How is `logical anarchy' avoided Is it ever rational to accept an inconsistent theory In what sense, if any, can inconsistent theories be considered as true The present collection of papers is the first to deal with this kind of questions. It contains case studies as well as philosophical analyses, and presents an excellent overview of the different approaches in the domain. 236 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In the policy arena, as well as in the academic world, a new challenge is having to deal with the global community. We are increasingly aware that the world is linked through economy-energy-environment interactions. We are increasingly aware, at the same time, that the emergence of the global community does not imply an integrated harmonious world; rather, it is a community where co- tries/regions of different interests and values face each other directly. Global governance has to be achieved through actions of national governments under different motives and constraints. We need to have an analytical tool that is capable of producing a global picture, yet with detailed country resolution. If the world is a better place now compared to 100 years ago in terms of p- capita income, this is due to the industrialization that continued throughout the 20th century. We entered the 21st century knowing that the human aspiration that translates into ever-increasing production may not be tenable in the long run. Sustainability of the global community is at stake. In contrast to inc- mental decision making through the market mechanism that should lead to some optimal state under some assumptions such as perfect knowledge, smooth movement of resources, no externalities, and so forth, we need to have an a- lytical tool to provide us with details of the future state of the world. 356 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The law persists because people have reasons to comply with its rules. What characterizes those reasons is their interdependence: each of us only has a reason to comply because he or she expects the others to comply for the same reasons. The rules may help us to solve coordination problems, but the interaction patterns regulated by them also include Prisoner's Dilemma games, Division problems and Assurance problems. In these 'games' the rules can only persist if people can be expected to be moved by considerations of fidelity and fairness, not only of prudence.This book takes a fresh look at the perennial problems of legal philosophy - the source of obligation to obey the law, the nature of authority, the relationship between law and morality, and the nature of legal argument - from the perspective of this conventionalist understanding of social rules. It argues that, since the resilience of such rules depends on cooperative dispositions, conventionalism, properly understood, does not imply positivism. 308 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Besides offering a critical analysis of the WHO definition and a review of both ancient and contemporary conceptions of health, the cooperative effort of physicians and philosophers presented in this book works through the challenges which any definition of health faces, if it is to be both truly personalist, and at the same time operational.The overall purpose of this book is to capture the essentials of human health and to propose the outlines for a personalist understanding of this concept, i.e., a conception that does justice to the personal nature of human beings by introducing dimensions that are essential to personal life and well-being, such as the realms of rationality, affectivity and freedom, the realms of meaning, values, morality, and spirituality, the realms of social and interpersonal relations. 276 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -General routes to the development of innovative, multi functional nanosystems are described by experts in the field. The systems described are based on fullerenes, nanotubes, metals (Au, Ag, Pt, etc.) and semiconductors (Si, CdS, CdTe, metal oxides), nanocrystals and polymer / biopolymer assembly systems. The book also discusses the realization and characterization of the fundamental properties of nanosystems, defined by nano-size effects, as well as the application of such systems in electronics, optics, magnetoelectronics, spintronics, biomedicine, pharmaceutical biocomplexes, and biosensors. 500 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Climate can be defined as an ensemble of many weather phenomena. Clima tologists often use the mean (conventionally the monthly and annual mean) of weather-related parameters to describe climate. The mean value, however, is not all the climate. Climatic changes might occur if certain aspects of the distribution of extreme values change, while the mean does not. Katz and Brown (1992), for example, show from a theoretical viewpoint that in a changing climate, extreme values are determined more by changes in variability than changes in the mean. Possible changes in extreme event frequency receive considerable attention along with the global warming, because extremes directly impact human society and the economy. For most societally sensitive extremes and related changes in their vari ability, an analysis based on daily data becomes necessary. This paper considers two aspects (relative and absolute values) of extreme temperatures on a daily basis. We do not consider spells of extreme days, periods which will likely have greater socio-economic and health impacts (Kalkstein et al., 1996; Wagner, 1999), than individual extreme days. 404 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -When Gene Long, editor of Kluwer's Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy of Religion Series, first invited me to write the volume on Analytic Philosophy of Religion, I accepted with great enthusiasm. My only explanation for that enthusiasm now is that I was younger and more naive at the time. Soon after starting work on the volume, my enthusiasm was dampened by the daunting magnitude of the task. I began as a sprinter and quickly settled into the pace of a long-distance runner. Although I considered myself well read in the subject, I soon discovered that I had a great deal of research to do to be confident that I had considered all of the major contributions to the various discussions, issues, and of religion. As I read more and more problems found within analytic philosophy books and articles, I realized that I had rushed into a territory already well trodden by the angels. I am greatly impressed by the sophistication and subtlety of philosophical argument that characterize the different debates in contemporary analytic philosophy of religion. This volume covers a vast amount of material. I have endeavored to provide the fairest possible reading of different authors, and, in cases where I include my own critical evaluations and develop my own positions, I have endeavored to provide the strongest possible interpretations of the positions I criticize. 452 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -Parasitic weeds of the families Cuscutaceae, Orobanchaceae and Scrophulariaceae are considered to be among the major problems facing agriculture in the Tropics and Subtropics. In the last decades, enormous efforts have been made and success achieved by scientists all over the world in gaining a better understanding of their biology and ecology as well as of control methods. However, no substantial reduction of infestation has been achieved in the past and control strategies specific to the different parasites, crops and farming systems must be further developed or adapted and realised among a wider farming population with suitable extension methods. This `Technical Manual' provides up-to-date methodologies for various aspects of research and extension related to parasitic weed species of the genera Striga, Alectra, Orobanche and Cuscuta. It has the intention to support scientists and extension workers of international and national research and extension institutes and universities, who are either new to the subject or plan to apply further techniques they are not yet familiar with. 296 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -General routes to the development of innovative, multi functional nanosystems are described by experts in the field. The systems described are based on fullerenes, nanotubes, metals (Au, Ag, Pt, etc.) and semiconductors (Si, CdS, CdTe, metal oxides), nanocrystals and polymer / biopolymer assembly systems. The book also discusses the realization and characterization of the fundamental properties of nanosystems, defined by nano-size effects, as well as the application of such systems in electronics, optics, magnetoelectronics, spintronics, biomedicine, pharmaceutical biocomplexes, and biosensors.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 500 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -During the last thirty years, most increases in agricultural production were achieved through high input agrieulture in areas with fertile soils and sufficient water. Intensive methods of production with high levels of nitrogen fertilizer and pesticides were often accompanied by environmental degradation and in some instances by pollution of the food supply. However, rapid population growth has also led to increasing use of marginal lands, where adverse soil and climatic eonditions are serious constraints to food production. These areas are even more sensitive to ecological destabilization. Environmentally sound systems of food production and land use are essential for meeting the food security needs of developing countries. To do this, greater genetic variability is needed within the best crop genotypes available for the areas in need coupled with better management praetices and crop rotations. These requirements can only be realized if suitable crop varieties are bred. These should be varieties with a much shorter growing period, suitable for rotation, increased tolerance or resistance to diseases and pests as weil as to drought and salinity and other adverse soil and climatic conditions.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 260 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -Climate can be defined as an ensemble of many weather phenomena. Clima tologists often use the mean (conventionally the monthly and annual mean) of weather-related parameters to describe climate. The mean value, however, is not all the climate. Climatic changes might occur if certain aspects of the distribution of extreme values change, while the mean does not. Katz and Brown (1992), for example, show from a theoretical viewpoint that in a changing climate, extreme values are determined more by changes in variability than changes in the mean. Possible changes in extreme event frequency receive considerable attention along with the global warming, because extremes directly impact human society and the economy. For most societally sensitive extremes and related changes in their vari ability, an analysis based on daily data becomes necessary. This paper considers two aspects (relative and absolute values) of extreme temperatures on a daily basis. We do not consider spells of extreme days, periods which will likely have greater socio-economic and health impacts (Kalkstein et al., 1996; Wagner, 1999), than individual extreme days.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 404 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -In the policy arena, as well as in the academic world, a new challenge is having to deal with the global community. We are increasingly aware that the world is linked through economy¿energy¿environment interactions. We are increasingly aware, at the same time, that the emergence of the global community does not imply an integrated harmonious world; rather, it is a community where co- tries/regions of different interests and values face each other directly. Global governance has to be achieved through actions of national governments under different motives and constraints. We need to have an analytical tool that is capable of producing a global picture, yet with detailed country resolution. If the world is a better place now compared to 100 years ago in terms of p- capita income, this is due to the industrialization that continued throughout the 20th century. We entered the 21st century knowing that the human aspiration that translates into ever-increasing production may not be tenable in the long run. Sustainability of the global community is at stake. In contrast to inc- mental decision making through the market mechanism that should lead to some optimal state under some assumptions such as perfect knowledge, smooth movement of resources, no externalities, and so forth, we need to have an a- lytical tool to provide us with details of the future state of the world.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 356 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -These Conference Proceedings are intended to summarise the latest developments in diffraction and scattering theory as reported at the IU TAM Symposium on Diffraction and Scattering in Fluid Mechanics and Elasticity held in Manchester, England on 16-20 July 2000. This in formal meeting was organised to discuss mathematical advances, both from the theoretical and more applied points of view. However, its pri mary goal was to bring together groups of researchers working in dis parate application areas, but who nevertheless share common models, phenomenological features arising in such problems, and common math ematical tools. To this end, we were delighted to have four Plenary Speakers, Professors Allan Pierce, Ed Kerschen, Roger Grimshaw and John Willis FRS, who are undisputed leaders in the four thematic ar eas of our meeting (these are respectively acoustics, aeroacoustics, water or other free surface waves, elasticity). These Proceedings should offer an excellent vehicle for continuing the dialogue between these groups of researchers. The participants were invited because of their expertise and recent contributions to this field. Collectively, there were around 90 contrib utors to the Symposium from some 13 countries located all around the world. These included 45 speakers, 35 co-authors and about 10 other delegates. Individuals came from many of the major international cen tres of excellence in the field of scattering theory.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 372 pp. Englisch.