springer netherlands okt 2000 (52 risultati)

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book is devoted to one of the main questions of the theory of extremal prob lems, namely, to necessary and sufficient extremality conditions. It is intended mostly for mathematicians and also for all those who are interested in optimiza tion problems. The book may be useful for advanced students, post-graduated students, and researchers. The book consists of four chapters. In Chap. 1 we study the abstract minimization problem with constraints, which is often called the mathemati cal programming problem. Chapter 2 is devoted to one of the most important classes of extremal problems, the optimal control problem. In the third chapter we study one of the main objects of the calculus of variations, the integral quadratic form. In the concluding, fourth, chapter we study local properties of smooth nonlinear mappings in a neighborhood of an abnormal point. The problems which are studied in this book (of course, in addition to their extremal nature) are united by our main interest being in the study of the so called abnormal or degenerate problems. This is the main distinction of the present book from a large number of books devoted to theory of extremal problems, among which there are many excellent textbooks, and books such as, e.g., [13, 38, 59, 78, 82, 86, 101, 112, 119], to mention a few. 312 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -3 same lecture he characterizes the phenomenology of knowledge, more specifically, as the 'theory of the essence of the pure phenomenon of knowing' (see below, p. 36). Such a phenomenology would advance the 'critique of knowledge,' in which the problem of knowledge is clearly formulated and the possibility of knowledge rigorously secured. It is important to realize, however, that in these lectures Husserl will not enact, pursue, or develop a phenomenological critique of knowledge, even though he opens with a trenchant statement of the problem of knowledge that such a critique would solve. Rather, he seeks here only to secure the possibility of a phe nomenological critique of knowledge; that is, he attempts to secure the possibility of the knowledge of the possibility of knowledge, not the possibil ity of knowledge in general (see below, pp. 37-39). Thus the work before us is not phenomenological in the straightforward sense, but pre phenomenological: it sets out to identify and satisfy the epistemic require ments of the phenomenological critique of knowledge, not to carry out that critique itself. To keep these two levels of theoretical inquiry distinct, I will call the level that deals with the problem of the possibility of knowledge the 'critical level'; the level that deals with the problem of the possibility of the knowledge of the possibility of knowledge the 'meta-criticallevel. 80 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -A lithium-ion battery comprises essentially three components: two intercalation compounds as positive and negative electrodes, separated by an ionic-electronic electrolyte. Each component is discussed in sufficient detail to give the practising engineer an understanding of the subject, providing guidance on the selection of suitable materials in actual applications. Each topic covered is written by an expert, reflecting many years of experience in research and applications. Each topic is provided with an extensive list of references, allowing easy access to further information. Readership: Research students and engineers seeking an expert review. Graduate courses in electrical drives can also be designed around the book by selecting sections for discussion. The coverage and treatment make the book indispensable for the lithium battery community. 656 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -Although the illicit arms trade has evolved over recent years, despite the end of the Cold War it appears to be as vibrant as ever. From Bosnia and Kosovo to Angola and Sierra Leone, illicit arms flows have played a key role in areas of contemporary instability and violence. Against this background, this volume brings together studies of several key issues relating to this trade: the changing nature of the illicit arms trade; the origins of the Iran-Contra affair; the flow of illicit arms from post-communist Russia; the role of France in arming the genocide in Rwanda; the question of the role of private security companies in areas of instability; and the prospects of controlling the illicit trade in small arms. This timely volume will be essential reading for courses in Criminology, War and Peace Studies, International Politics, and African and other Area Studies which deal with arms trafficking and conflict issues.Springer-Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 204 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Although the illicit arms trade has evolved over recent years, despite the end of the Cold War it appears to be as vibrant as ever. From Bosnia and Kosovo to Angola and Sierra Leone, illicit arms flows have played a key role in areas of contemporary instability and violence. Against this background, this volume brings together studies of several key issues relating to this trade: the changing nature of the illicit arms trade; the origins of the Iran-Contra affair; the flow of illicit arms from post-communist Russia; the role of France in arming the genocide in Rwanda; the question of the role of private security companies in areas of instability; and the prospects of controlling the illicit trade in small arms. This timely volume will be essential reading for courses in Criminology, War and Peace Studies, International Politics, and African and other Area Studies which deal with arms trafficking and conflict issues. 204 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Finsler geometry is the most natural generalization of Riemannian geo metry. It started in 1918 when P. Finsler [1] wrote his thesis on curves and surfaces in what he called generalized metric spaces. Studying the geometry of those spaces (which where named Finsler spaces or Finsler manifolds) became an area of active research. Many important results on the subject have been brought together in several monographs (cf. , H. Rund [3], G. Asanov [1], M. Matsumoto [6], A. Bejancu [8], P. L. Antonelli, R. S. Ingar den and M. Matsumoto [1], M. Abate and G. Patrizio [1] and R. Miron [3]) . However, the present book is the first in the literature that is entirely de voted to studying the geometry of submanifolds of a Finsler manifold. Our exposition is also different in many other respects. For example, we work on pseudo-Finsler manifolds where in general the Finsler metric is only non degenerate (rather than on the particular case of Finsler manifolds where the metric is positive definite). This is absolutely necessary for physical and biological applications of the subject. Secondly, we combine in our study both the classical coordinate approach and the modern coordinate-free ap proach. Thirdly, our pseudo-Finsler manifolds F = (M, M', F ) are such that the geometric objects under study are defined on an open submani fold M' of the tangent bundle T M, where M' need not be equal to the entire TMo = TMO(M). 260 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -3 same lecture he characterizes the phenomenology of knowledge, more specifically, as the 'theory of the essence of the pure phenomenon of knowing' (see below, p. 36). Such a phenomenology would advance the 'critique of knowledge,' in which the problem of knowledge is clearly formulated and the possibility of knowledge rigorously secured. It is important to realize, however, that in these lectures Husserl will not enact, pursue, or develop a phenomenological critique of knowledge, even though he opens with a trenchant statement of the problem of knowledge that such a critique would solve. Rather, he seeks here only to secure the possibility of a phe nomenological critique of knowledge; that is, he attempts to secure the possibility of the knowledge of the possibility of knowledge, not the possibil ity of knowledge in general (see below, pp. 37-39). Thus the work before us is not phenomenological in the straightforward sense, but pre phenomenological: it sets out to identify and satisfy the epistemic require ments of the phenomenological critique of knowledge, not to carry out that critique itself. To keep these two levels of theoretical inquiry distinct, I will call the level that deals with the problem of the possibility of knowledge the 'critical level'; the level that deals with the problem of the possibility of the knowledge of the possibility of knowledge the 'meta-criticallevel.Springer-Verlag KG, Sachsenplatz 4-6, 1201 Wien 80 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The material of the present book is an extension of a graduate course given by the author at the University 'Al.I. Cuza' Iasi and is intended for stu dents and researchers interested in the applications of optimal control and in mathematical biology. Age is one of the most important parameters in the evolution of a bi ological population. Even if for a very long period age structure has been considered only in demography, nowadays it is fundamental in epidemiology and ecology too. This is the first book devoted to the control of continuous age structured populationdynamics.It focuses on the basic properties ofthe solutions and on the control of age structured population dynamics with or without diffusion. The main goal of this work is to familiarize the reader with the most important problems, approaches and results in the mathematical theory of age-dependent models. Special attention is given to optimal harvesting and to exact controllability problems, which are very important from the econom ical or ecological points of view. We use some new concepts and techniques in modern control theory such as Clarke's generalized gradient, Ekeland's variational principle, and Carleman estimates. The methods and techniques we use can be applied to other control problems. 216 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -For historical and socio-economic reasons, the countries of the southern Black Sea region are facing mounting and apparently intractable problems in managing their solid waste, with increasingly serious implications for public health and quality of life, as well as the wider socio-economic development of the region. Hitherto, no comprehensive, systematic study of the problem seems to have been conducted, to determine the underlying causes and suggesting how it might be alleviated in socially and economically viable ways, aiming at sustainability. The present book analyzes the causes of the poor state of solid waste management in the region, identifying feasible modalities with which at least a degree of sustainability could be achieved in the management of the region's solid waste. Readership: Environmental managers, scientists, planners, policy makers, technical and investment consultants, businesses and other enterprises and institutions concerned with sustainable solid waste management in the region. 340 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Research input constitutes a key component in the development of international environmental regime formation. Science-policy interaction is, however, complex and difficult, particularly because it is an encounter between two distinct systems of behaviour: the scientific ideal of impartiality and disinterestedness and the political reality of interest realisation and strategic behaviour. This study analyses the extent to which and how the institutional framework within which the science-policy dialogue takes place - through conscious design - can be utilised as an instrument to handle obstacles and barriers immanent of science-policy interaction and thereby serve as an instrument to enhance the effectiveness of the dialogue. Also, the impact of actor behaviour, particularly behaviour taking the form of leadership performance, is investigated. This book provides a detailed and in-depth empirical study of science-policy interaction in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from its establishment in 1988, to the provision of the Second IPCC Assessment Report in 1995. The main focus of the empirical investigation is on Working Group I of the IPCC. 272 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Preface to the English Edition The present monograph is a revised and enlarged alternative of the author's monograph [19] which was devoted to the development of a unified approach to studying differential inclusions, whose values of the right hand sides are compact, not necessarily convex subsets of a Banach space. This approach relies on ideas and methods of modem functional analysis, general topology, the theory of multi-valued mappings and continuous selectors. Although the basic content of the previous monograph has been remained the same this monograph has been partly re-organized and the author's recent results have been added. The contents of the present book are divided into five Chapters and an Appendix. The first Chapter of the Jook has been left without changes and deals with multi-valued differential equations generated by a differential inclusion. The second Chapter has been significantly revised and extended. Here the au thor's recent results concerning extreme continuous selectors of multi-functions with decomposable values, multi-valued selectors ofmulti-functions generated by a differential inclusion, the existence of solutions of a differential inclusion, whose right hand side has different properties of semicontinuity at different points, have been included. Some of these results made it possible to simplify schemes for proofs concerning the existence of solutions of differential inclu sions with semicontinuous right hand side a.nd to obtain new results. In this Chapter the existence of solutions of different types are considered. 324 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In this book, 11 leading scholars contribute to the understanding of the scientific and philosophical works of Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), the most luminous Jewish intellectual since Talmudic times. Deeply learned in mathematics, astronomy, astrology (which he strongly rejected), logic, philosophy, psychology, linguistics, and jurisprudence, and himself a practising physician, Maimonides flourished within the high Arabic culture of the 12th century, where he had momentous influence upon subsequent Jewish beliefs and behavior, upon ethical demands, and upon ritual traditions. For him, mastery of the sciences was indispensable in the process of religious fulfilment. 276 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Mapping Biology Knowledge addresses two key topics in the context of biology, promoting meaningful learning and knowledge mapping as a strategy for achieving this goal. Meaning-making and meaning-building are examined from multiple perspectives throughout the book. In many biology courses, students become so mired in detail that they fail to grasp the big picture. Various strategies are proposed for helping instructors focus on the big picture, using the `need to know' principle to decide the level of detail students must have in a given situation. The metacognitive tools described here serve as support systems for the mind, creating an arena in which learners can operate on ideas. They include concept maps, cluster maps, webs, semantic networks, and conceptual graphs. These tools, compared and contrasted in this book, are also useful for building and assessing students' content and cognitive skills. The expanding role of computers in mapping biology knowledge is also explored. 228 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -I was very happy when in 1997 Fiachra Long came to spend part of his sabbatical leave at the Archives Maurice Blondel at Louvain-Ia-Neuve. This allowed him to bring together and complete his translation of three important articles from Maurice Blondel, known as the philosopher of Aix-en-Province. These three articles fonn a unity: they make explicit certain aspects of the method used in the great thesis of 1893, Action. This thesis, it is well known, aroused many polemic debates after its appearance. Thomist theologians accused Blondel of turning back towards Kantian idealism whereas the philosophers of the Revue de metaphysique et de morale accused him on the contrary of falling back on a pre-critical realism. The three articles translated here, each in its own way, attempt to pass beyond these two opposite charges. The Idealist Illusion (1898) underlines the fact that the content of consciousness should be unfurled as it appears, by withdrawing from any idealist or realist prejudice, before judging the consistency of its content as a whole. In this way Blondel supports the 'phenomenological' method used in his thesis. The Elementary Principle of a Logic of the Moral Life (1903) is a very well-worked text which shows that 'the logic of possession and privation' is broader than 'the logic of amnnation and negation. ' Using these words, Blondel develops certain striking laws of action such as that of the 'parallelogram of contrary forces. 180 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Parsing technology is concerned with finding syntactic structure in language. In parsing we have to deal with incomplete and not necessarily accurate formal descriptions of natural languages. Robustness and efficiency are among the main issuesin parsing. Corpora can be used to obtain frequency information about language use. This allows probabilistic parsing, an approach that aims at both robustness and efficiency increase. Approximation techniques, to be applied at the level of language description, parsing strategy, and syntactic representation, have the same objective. Approximation at the level of syntactic representation is also known as underspecification, a traditional technique to deal with syntactic ambiguity. In this book new parsing technologies are collected that aim at attacking the problems of robustness and efficiency by exactly these techniques: the design of probabilistic grammars and efficient probabilistic parsing algorithms, approximation techniques applied to grammars and parsers to increase parsing efficiency, and techniques for underspecification and the integration of semantic information in the syntactic analysis to deal with massive ambiguity. The book gives a state-of-the-art overview of current research and development in parsing technologies. In its chapters we see how probabilistic methods have entered the toolbox of computational linguistics in order to be applied in both parsing theory and parsing practice. The book is both a unique reference for researchers and an introduction to the field for interested graduate students. 292 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -'Science constructs its objects': is this a metaphor It does not necessarily mean anyway that the real does not pre-exist. Only that in the final instance it is the Other, of which we know neither the limits nor the figure and to which we only have access through the constructions we make of it. Or, in semiotic terms borrowed from Charles S. Peirce, the world is the 'dynamic object' that intervenes in science only through the 'immediate objects' that manifest themselves in signs. And even then the choice of the term 'immediate' is not entirely felicitous: it would be better to talk of 'mediated objects', since their conception is mediated by the conditions from which perception as weIl as the language that expresses it derive. The preference bestowed on certain constructions over others results from the slighter recalcitrance in imagining a dynamic object through one or another mediated object. This recalcitrance that prompts one to surrender constructions does not come directly from the real, from the dynamic object, but from other constructions. Again, this does not mean that reality does not ex ist, but that it only 'speaks', confirms and objects, to the extent that it is being questioned within a certain form, by certain instruments, in a certain language. Even if it appears recalcitrant, the dynamic object intervenes only through another construction. Man, not nature, decides on the form to be considered, the instruments and language to be adopted. 260 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -For historical and socio-economic reasons, the countries of the southern Black Sea region are facing mounting and apparently intractable problems in managing their solid waste, with increasingly serious implications for public health and quality of life, as well as the wider socio-economic development of the region. Hitherto, no comprehensive, systematic study of the problem seems to have been conducted, to determine the underlying causes and suggesting how it might be alleviated in socially and economically viable ways, aiming at sustainability.The present book analyzes the causes of the poor state of solid waste management in the region, identifying feasible modalities with which at least a degree of sustainability could be achieved in the management of the region's solid waste.Readership: Environmental managers, scientists, planners, policy makers, technical and investment consultants, businesses and other enterprises and institutions concerned with sustainable solid waste management in the region.Springer-Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 340 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -Preface to the English Edition The present monograph is a revised and enlarged alternative of the author's monograph [19] which was devoted to the development of a unified approach to studying differential inclusions, whose values of the right hand sides are compact, not necessarily convex subsets of a Banach space. This approach relies on ideas and methods of modem functional analysis, general topology, the theory of multi-valued mappings and continuous selectors. Although the basic content of the previous monograph has been remained the same this monograph has been partly re-organized and the author's recent results have been added. The contents of the present book are divided into five Chapters and an Appendix. The first Chapter of the J>ook has been left without changes and deals with multi-valued differential equations generated by a differential inclusion. The second Chapter has been significantly revised and extended. Here the au thor's recent results concerning extreme continuous selectors of multi-functions with decomposable values, multi-valued selectors ofmulti-functions generated by a differential inclusion, the existence of solutions of a differential inclusion, whose right hand side has different properties of semicontinuity at different points, have been included. Some of these results made it possible to simplify schemes for proofs concerning the existence of solutions of differential inclu sions with semicontinuous right hand side a.nd to obtain new results. In this Chapter the existence of solutions of different types are considered.Springer-Verlag KG, Sachsenplatz 4-6, 1201 Wien 324 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -Research input constitutes a key component in the development of international environmental regime formation. Science-policy interaction is, however, complex and difficult, particularly because it is an encounter between two distinct systems of behaviour: the scientific ideal of impartiality and disinterestedness and the political reality of interest realisation and strategic behaviour. This study analyses the extent to which and how the institutional framework within which the science-policy dialogue takes place - through conscious design - can be utilised as an instrument to handle obstacles and barriers immanent of science-policy interaction and thereby serve as an instrument to enhance the effectiveness of the dialogue. Also, the impact of actor behaviour, particularly behaviour taking the form of leadership performance, is investigated. This book provides a detailed and in-depth empirical study of science-policy interaction in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from its establishment in 1988, to the provision of the Second IPCC Assessment Report in 1995. The main focus of the empirical investigation is on Working Group I of the IPCC.Springer-Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 272 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -The pilot boat just moved away and'its lights are already fading towards the coast of Northeastern Queensland over which Saturn is going to set. There is still quite some time to go before dawn. The big ship has now regained her cruise speed following its roughly northwesterly route in the South Coral Sea along the chain of nearby reefs. Few people are around at this time, except a dozen early birds sharing some 'shipshaping' exercise on the top deck and taking advantage of the relative coolness of the night. On my way down to the stateroom, I cannot but stop once more in front of that elegant composition by British artist Brigid Collins (1963-) hanging in the monumental staircase between Decks 7 and 8. That piece 2 of art, a 1.8x 1.8m oil on canvas plus collage entitled Berinl in honour of the Danish explorer, gathers together many navigation-related themes of the time: Suns, Moons, planets, sky maps, astrolabes, small telescopes, as well as drawings, diagrams and charts of all kinds. It is somehow a digest of how astronomical information was then collected, made available, and used.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 256 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -Parsing technology is concerned with finding syntactic structure in language. In parsing we have to deal with incomplete and not necessarily accurate formal descriptions of natural languages. Robustness and efficiency are among the main issuesin parsing. Corpora can be used to obtain frequency information about language use. This allows probabilistic parsing, an approach that aims at both robustness and efficiency increase. Approximation techniques, to be applied at the level of language description, parsing strategy, and syntactic representation, have the same objective. Approximation at the level of syntactic representation is also known as underspecification, a traditional technique to deal with syntactic ambiguity.In this book new parsing technologies are collected that aim at attacking the problems of robustness and efficiency by exactly these techniques: the design of probabilistic grammars and efficient probabilistic parsing algorithms, approximation techniques applied to grammars and parsers to increase parsing efficiency, and techniques for underspecification and the integration of semantic information in the syntactic analysis to deal with massive ambiguity.The book gives a state-of-the-art overview of current research and development in parsing technologies. In its chapters we see how probabilistic methods have entered the toolbox of computational linguistics in order to be applied in both parsing theory and parsing practice. The book is both a unique reference for researchers and an introduction to the field for interested graduate students.Springer-Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 292 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -I was very happy when in 1997 Fiachra Long came to spend part of his sabbatical leave at the Archives Maurice Blondel at Louvain-Ia-Neuve. This allowed him to bring together and complete his translation of three important articles from Maurice Blondel, known as the philosopher of Aix-en-Province. These three articles fonn a unity: they make explicit certain aspects of the method used in the great thesis of 1893, Action. This thesis, it is well known, aroused many polemic debates after its appearance. Thomist theologians accused Blondel of turning back towards Kantian idealism whereas the philosophers of the Revue de metaphysique et de morale accused him on the contrary of falling back on a pre-critical realism. The three articles translated here, each in its own way, attempt to pass beyond these two opposite charges. The Idealist Illusion (1898) underlines the fact that the content of consciousness should be unfurled as it appears, by withdrawing from any idealist or realist prejudice, before judging the consistency of its content as a whole. In this way Blondel supports the 'phenomenological' method used in his thesis. The Elementary Principle of a Logic of the Moral Life (1903) is a very well-worked text which shows that 'the logic of possession and privation' is broader than 'the logic of amnnation and negation. ' Using these words, Blondel develops certain striking laws of action such as that of the 'parallelogram of contrary forces.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 180 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -Mapping Biology Knowledge addresses two key topics in the context of biology, promoting meaningful learning and knowledge mapping as a strategy for achieving this goal. Meaning-making and meaning-building are examined from multiple perspectives throughout the book. In many biology courses, students become so mired in detail that they fail to grasp the big picture. Various strategies are proposed for helping instructors focus on the big picture, using the `need to know' principle to decide the level of detail students must have in a given situation. The metacognitive tools described here serve as support systems for the mind, creating an arena in which learners can operate on ideas. They include concept maps, cluster maps, webs, semantic networks, and conceptual graphs. These tools, compared and contrasted in this book, are also useful for building and assessing students' content and cognitive skills. The expanding role of computers in mapping biology knowledge is also explored.Springer-Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 228 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -'Science constructs its objects': is this a metaphor It does not necessarily mean anyway that the real does not pre-exist. Only that in the final instance it is the Other, of which we know neither the limits nor the figure and to which we only have access through the constructions we make of it. Or, in semiotic terms borrowed from Charles S. Peirce, the world is the 'dynamic object' that intervenes in science only through the 'immediate objects' that manifest themselves in signs. And even then the choice of the term 'immediate' is not entirely felicitous: it would be better to talk of 'mediated objects', since their conception is mediated by the conditions from which perception as weIl as the language that expresses it derive. The preference bestowed on certain constructions over others results from the slighter recalcitrance in imagining a dynamic object through one or another mediated object. This recalcitrance that prompts one to surrender constructions does not come directly from the real, from the dynamic object, but from other constructions. Again, this does not mean that reality does not ex ist, but that it only 'speaks', confirms and objects, to the extent that it is being questioned within a certain form, by certain instruments, in a certain language. Even if it appears recalcitrant, the dynamic object intervenes only through another construction. Man, not nature, decides on the form to be considered, the instruments and language to be adopted.Springer-Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 260 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Robert E. Butts (1928-1997) was a philosopher and historian of science whose central concerns were the distinction between the rational and the irrational. He viewed scientific rationality as our major defence against the various conditions that encourage witch hunts and similar outbursts of irrationality, with all their attendant pain and terror. Butts saw himself as a pragmatic realist, combining what he took to be the best aspects of logical empiricism with a historically informed pragmatism, deeply appreciative of the methods of science, trying to describe a kind of rationality essential in the struggle to preserve human values. This volume gathers previously unpublished essays and lectures with some previously published, thematically related essays. It includes essays and lectures on philosophical aspects of the European witch hunt, on scientific rationality and methodology, and on the relationships between science and philosophy exhibited in the writings of such historically significant figures as Leibniz, D'Alembert, Hume, Kant, Carnap and Kuhn. 220 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Research on government institutions is one of the most exciting intellectual areas in political science and policy studies today. Increasingly it is recognized by scholars in these fields that effective and legitimate policies depend on the design and maintenance of complex institutional arrangements. This book brings together some of the leading scholars in institutional research in The Netherlands. Their work addresses such perennially difficult questions in institutional research such as: How do we understand institutional change How do we measure the effects of institutions on societal sectors and public policy How do the normative foundations of government institutions influence their functioning What are the principles of effective and legitimate institutional design Through analysis of well-researched examples ranging from the fabled Dutch `poldermodel', through the transformation of the welfare state, through privatizations of the Dutch telecommunications industry, to the work of welfare officials, these authors demonstrate the interpenetration of normative, empirical and design issues in institutional theory. The book is intended for scholars and graduate students in political science, public policy, public administration, and law. 268 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The aim of this Advanced Study Institute was to give an account on the most recent results obtained in solar research. Bucharest was chosen to host it, because the capital city of Romania was located right in the middle of the totality path of the last eclipse of the millennium, on 11th August 1999; furthermore the phenomenon was close to reach there its longest duration: 2m 23s. Such a total eclipse is not only a very spectacular event which draws the crowds: to astronomers, solar eclipses still offer the best conditions for observing the lower part of the corona. The Sun plays a crucial role in our very existence. It was responsible for the formation of the Earth, and rendered this planet fit to host living beings, providing the right amount of heat, and this for a long enough span of time. Quite understandably, it has always been a prime target of human curiosity, and more recently one of scientific investigation. During the last century, it was realized that the Sun is a star like billions of others; we learned since that it draws its energy from the nuclear fusion of hydrogen, and we are now able to estimate its age and life expectancy. 332 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In this book, the methodology of dynamical systems theory is applied to investigate the physics of the global ocean circulation. Topics include the dynamics of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean, the stability of the thermohaline circulation and the El Niño/Southern Oscillation phenomenon in the Tropical Pacific. On the other hand, the book also deals with the numerical methods for applying bifurcation analysis on large dimensional dynamical systems, with thousands or more degrees of freedom, which arise through discretization of ocean models. The novel approach in understanding the phenomena of climate variability is through a systematic analysis within a hierarchy of models using these techniques. In this way, a nice overview is obtained of the relations between the results of the different models within the hierarchy. Mechanistic description of the physics of the results is provided and, where possible, links with results of state-of-the-art models and observations are sought. The reader is expected to have a background in basic incompressible fluid dynamics and applied mathematics, although the level of the text is mixed and sometimes quite introductory. Each chapter is rather self-contained and many details of derivations are provided. The book is aimed at graduate students and researchers in meteorology, oceanography, and related fields who are interested in tackling fundamental problems in dynamical oceanography and climate dynamics. 480 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The book's argument depends, as do most proposals in education, upon cer tain positions in the philosophy of education. I believe that education should be primarily concerned with developing understanding, with initiation into worth while traditions of intellectual achievement, and with developing capacities for clear, analytic and critical thought. These have been the long-accepted goals of liberal education. In a liberal education, students should come to know and appre ciate a variety of disciplines, know them at an appropriate depth, see the interconnectedness of the disciplines, or the modes of thought, and finally have some critical disposition toward what is being learned, to be genuinely open minded about intellectual things. These liberal goals are contrasted with goals such as professional training, job preparation, promotion of self-esteem, social engineering, entertainment, or countless other putative purposes of schooling that are enunciated by politicians, administrators, and educators. The book's argument might be consistent with other views of education especially ones about the training of specialists (sometimes called a professional view of education)-but the argument fits best with a liberal view of education. The liberal hope has always been that if education is done well, then other per sonal and social goods will follow. The development of informed, critical, and moral capacities is the cornerstone for personal and social achievements. 468 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This special volume contains a selection of papers that were presented as part of the Seventh International Symposium on Natural and Man-Made Hazards (HAZARDS-98), held in Chania, Crete Island, Greece, during May 1998. The Symposium attracted broad international interest because many cases of natural disaster events, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, storm surges, forest fires, etc., that occurred in several parts of the world during the 1990s were presented not only for their physics but also from the point of view of their impact on society and their environmental consequences. Among these cases are the 1997 Red River Valley flood in Canada and the large earthquake of 18 November 1997, in Zakynthos, Greece. In addition, the volume contains contributions that apply advanced statistical methods and artificial intelligence techniques, such as GIS, and systems analysis to approach the description of physical processes, the discrimination of experimental data and the assessment and management of risk. Audience: This volume forms an excellent reference for scientists, students, engineers, the insurance industry, authorities specializing in public safety and natural hazards preparedness and mitigation plans. 312 pp. Englisch.