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Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - In this cutting-edge text, Trish Reid offers a concise overview of the shifting roles of theatre and theatricality in Scottish culture. She asks important questions about the relationship between Scottish theatre, history and identity, and celebrates the recent emergence of a generation of internationally successful Scottish playwrights.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -¿Based on a very extensive literature review the book delineates the previous scientific and practical applications of indices as benchmarks for single asset classes as stocks, commodities, German governmental bonds and cash as well as especially for multi asset portfolios. According to the specific influencing factors of the Eurozone a recommendation of allocating equity portfolios with respect to industrial or regional factors is given by an empirical analysis. As most common and significant benchmark index for the Eurozone, the Dow Jones Euro STOXX 50 is analysed according to index effects. This serves as comparison and consideration of the active anticipations of index membership exchanges and a simple index investment during short- and long-term periods. Furthermore a correlation weighted equity index, established by different TMI industry indices of the Eurozone is calculated, which serves as benefit for diversification opportunities of two multidimensionally diversified and systamatically allocated multi asset portfolios. These portfolios are composed with reference towards the Portfolio Selection Theory by Harry M. Markowitz to test its practical relevance and validity during the challenging years from 2001 and 2010.Springer Gabler in Springer Science + Business Media, Tiergartenstr. 15-17, 69121 Heidelberg 256 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This present report, as a second volume of the series entitled ¿Contemporary Logistics in China: an Introduction,¿ follows the same general conceptual organization, yet with updated analysis and discussion of logistics development, under the backdrop of the aftermath of the international financial crisis, the acceleration of the transformation of development mode and the strategic adjustment of the economic structure.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 216 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Toward the late 1990s, several research groups independently began developing new, related theories in mathematical finance.These theories didaway with the standard stochastic geometric diffusion ¿Samuelson¿ market model (also known as the Black-Scholes model because it is used in that most famous theory), instead opting for models that allowed minimax approachesto complement or replace stochastic methods.Among the most fruitful models were those utilizing game-theoretic tools and the so-called interval market model. Over time, these models have slowly but steadily gained influence in the financial community, providing a useful alternative to classical methods.A self-contained monograph, The Interval Market Model in Mathematical Finance: Game-Theoretic Methodsassembles some of the most important results, old and new, in this area of research. Written by seven of the most prominent pioneers of the interval market model and game-theoretic finance, the work provides a detailed account of several closely relatedmodeling techniquesfor an array of problems in mathematical economics. The book isdivided into five parts, which successively address topics including: probability-free Black-Scholes theory; fair-price interval of an option; representation formulas and fast algorithms for option pricing; rainbow options; tychastic approach of mathematical finance based upon viability theory.This book providesa welcome addition to the literature, complementing myriad titles on the market that take a classical approach to mathematical finance. Itis a worthwhile resource for researchers in applied mathematics and quantitative finance,and has also beenwritten in a manneraccessible to financially-inclined readers with a limited technical background.Springer Basel AG in Springer Science + Business Media, Heidelberger Platz 3, 14197 Berlin 364 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Enabling Environment is as real as it gets. The global commons are jointly owned and their inhabitants are jointly obligated to ensure their preservation. In the face of protracted negotiations, convoluted documentation, discord, and incessant bickering among scientists, activists, pressure groups of various hues, politicians and negotiators, very often the people on the ground are ignored or taken for granted. In the meantime, life meanders along. It is these ¿everyday individuals¿ who make consumption-related choices on their lifestyles, travel or on preferring certain products or services over others. Enabling Environment puts the individual front and center.Ecosystem services need to be recognized, appropriately priced and the costs allocated to the agents concerned. Enabling Environment is about defining economic and non-economic incentive structures and utilizing them to arrive at pro-environmental outcomes. This collection of articles illustrates the use of existing social, economic and regulatory structures, and the financial architecture and instruments, suitably modified or extended, to help internalize the environmental externality.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 168 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book attempts to explain the scientific basis for UHT sterilization and aseptic filling, as well as describe the processes and equipment used. I have tried to avoid producing merely a catalogue of sterilizers and aseptic fillers. Instead I have attempted to explain the principles on which the different types of plant operate, and discuss the factors which influence performance, so that information given by manufac turers may be assessed by readers in relation to their own processing requirements. Statements are generally supported by references. Where no re ference is given, personal experience or my interpretation of the work of others is my justification. Although the book deals mainly with milk and milk products, I hope that the information it contains will be useful to those dealing with other products, since the principles of processing are in general the same. The book is based on more than 30 years' involvement with research into UHT processing and aseptic filling. During this time I have been fortunate to work with and to talk to many people from whom I have learned a great deal. I benefited from conta.cts with Dr T. R. Ashton (England) and Professor H. Hostettler. (Switzerland), who were pioneers in the commercial development of UHT milk. More recently I have been privileged to know and work with research workers in many countries having a common interest in UHT processing. Of these, I should mention particularly Professors E. L. Thomas, V. A.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 368 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Digital Functions and Data Reconstruction: Digital-Discrete Methods provides a solid foundation to the theory of digital functions and its applications to image data analysis, digital object deformation, and data reconstruction. This new method has a unique feature in that it is mainly built on discrete mathematics with connections to classical methods in mathematics and computer sciences.Digitally continuous functions and gradually varied functions were developed in the late 1980s. A. Rosenfeld (1986) proposed digitally continuous functions for digital image analysis, especially to describe the ¿continuous¿ component in a digital image, which usually indicates an object. L. Chen (1989) invented gradually varied functions to interpolate a digital surface when the boundary appears to be continuous. In theory, digitally continuous functions are very similar to gradually varied functions. Gradually varied functions are more general in terms of being functions of realnumbers; digitally continuous functions are easily extended to the mapping from one digital space to another.This will be the first book about digital functions, which is an important modern research area for digital images and digitalized data processing, and provides an introduction and comprehensive coverage of digital function methods. Digital Functions and Data Reconstruction: Digital-Discrete Methods offers scientists and engineers who deal with digital data a highly accessible, practical, and mathematically sound introduction to the powerful theories of digital topology and functional analysis, while avoiding the more abstruse aspects of these topics.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 228 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book deals with the constructive Weierstrassian approach to the theory of function spaces and various applications. The first chapter is devoted to a detailed study of quarkonial (subatomic) decompositions of functions and distributions on euclidean spaces, domains, manifolds and fractals. This approach combines the advantages of atomic and wavelet representations. It paves the way to sharp inequalities and embeddings in function spaces, spectral theory of fractal elliptic operators, and a regularity theory of some semi-linear equations.The book is self-contained, although some parts may be considered as a continuation of the author's book Fractals and Spectra. It is directed to mathematicians and (theoretical) physicists interested in the topics indicated and, in particular, how they are interrelated.The book under review can be regarded as a continuation of [his book on 'Fractals and spectra', 1997] (.) There are many sections named: comments, preparations, motivations, discussions and so on. These parts of the book seem to be very interesting and valuable. They help the reader to deal with the main course.(Mathematical Reviews)Springer Basel AG in Springer Science + Business Media, Heidelberger Platz 3, 14197 Berlin 440 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This volume contains the notes from five lecture courses devoted to nonautonomous differential systems, in which appropriate topological and dynamical techniques were described and applied to a variety of problems. The courses took place during the C.I.M.E. Session 'Stability and Bifurcation Problems for Non-Autonomous Differential Equations,' held in Cetraro, Italy, June 19-25 2011. Anna Capietto and Jean Mawhin lectured on nonlinear boundary value problems; they applied the Maslov index and degree-theoretic methods in this context. Rafael Ortega discussed the theory of twist maps with nonperiodic phase and presented applications. Peter Kloeden and Sylvia Novo showed how dynamical methods can be used to study the stability/bifurcation properties of bounded solutions and of attracting sets for nonautonomous differential and functional-differential equations. The volume will be of interest to all researchers working in these and related fields.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 320 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book introduces laser drilling processes including modelling, quality assessment of drilled holes, and laser drilling applications. It provides insights into the laser drilling process and relation among the drilling parameters pertinent to improved end product quality. This book is written for engineers and scientists working on laser machining, particularly laser drilling.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 96 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -CSP notation has been used extensively for teaching and applying concurrency theory, ever since the publication of the text Communicating Sequential Processes by C.A.R. Hoare in 1985. Both a programming language and a specification language, the theory of CSP helps users to understand concurrent systems, and to decide whether a program meets its specification. As a member of the family of process algebras, the concepts of communication and interaction are presented in an algebraic style.An invaluable reference on the state of the art in CSP, Understanding Concurrent Systems also serves as a comprehensive introduction to the field, in addition to providing material for a number of more advanced courses. A first point of reference for anyone wanting to use CSP or learn about its theory, the book also introduces other views of concurrency, using CSP to model and explain these. The text is fully integrated with CSP-based tools such as FDR, and describes how to create new tools based on FDR. Most of the book relies on no theoretical background other than a basic knowledge of sets and sequences. Sophisticated mathematical arguments are avoided whenever possible.Topics and features: presents a comprehensive introduction to CSP; discusses the latest advances in CSP, covering topics of operational semantics, denotational models, finite observation models and infinite-behaviour models, and algebraic semantics; explores the practical application of CSP, including timed modelling, discrete modelling, parameterised verifications and the state explosion problem, and advanced topics in the use of FDR; examines the ability of CSP to describe and enable reasoning about parallel systems modelled in other paradigms; covers a broad variety of concurrent systems, including combinatorial, timed, priority-based, mobile, shared variable, statecharts, buffered and asynchronous systems; contains exercises and case studies to support the text; supplies further tools and information at theassociated website: comlab.ox.ac.uk/ucs/.From undergraduate students of computer science in need of an introduction to the area, to researchers and practitioners desiring a more in-depth understanding of theory and practice of concurrent systems, this broad-ranging text/reference is essential reading for anyone interested in Hoare¿s CSP.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 548 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -According to the conventional wisdom, we live in a post-industrial information age. This book, however, paints a different picture: We live in the age of oil. Petroleum fuels and feedstocks are responsible for much of what we take for granted in modern society, from chemical products such as fertilizer and plastics, to the energy that moves people and goods in a global economy. Oil is a nearly perfect fuel: Energy dense, safe to store, easy to transport, and mostly environmentally benign. Most importantly, oil has been cheap and abundant during the past 150 years. In 1998, two respected geologists, Colin Campbell and Jean Laherrère, published a detailed article announcing that the ¿end of cheap oil¿ would happen before 2010, which meant that the world would face a peak, or at least a plateau, in global daily oil production in the first decade of the new millennium. Today, two billion people under the age of 14 have lived the majority of their lives past the point when this century-long growth in oil supplies came to an end, which also marks the end of the first half of the age of oil. This transition has ushered in a new reality of high oil prices, stagnating oil supplies, and sluggish economies. In this book, a leading authority on energy explores the contributions and continuing legacy of Colin Campbell and Jean Laherrère, the two geologists who modified the terms of the debate about oil. The book provides a unique perspective and state-of-the-art overview of today¿s energy reality and its enormous economic and social implications. Covers a topic that eclipses climate change as the most important but least understood challenge for contemporary society Explores the works of Colin Campbell and Jean Laherrère, the leading authorities in the field of Peak Oil, authors of ¿The End of Cheap Oil¿ (Scientific American, 1998), and founding members of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & GasAddresses a broad audience of scientists, engineers, and economists in a format that is accessible to the general public Provides a complete overview of the basic geological, chemical, physical, economic and historical concepts that every oil consumer should understand Presents the latest information on oil production, reserves, discoveries, prices, and fields in easy-to-understand graphs and plotsSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 144 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Systems and their mathematical description play an important role in all branches of science. This book offers an introduction to mathematical modeling techniques. It is intended for undergrad students in applied natural science, in particular earth and environmental science, environmental engineering, as well as ecology, environmental chemistry, chemical engineering, agronomy, and forestry.The focus is on developing the basic methods of modeling. Students will learn how to build mathematical models of their own, but also how to analyze the properties of existing models. The book neither derives mathematical formulae, nor does it describe modeling software, instead focusing on the fundamental concepts behind mathematical models. A formulary in the appendix summarizes the necessary mathematical knowledge. To support independent learners, numerous examples and problems from various scientific disciplines are provided throughout the book. Thanks in no small part to the cartoons by Nikolas Stürchler, this introduction to the colorful world of modeling is both entertaining and rich in contentSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 260 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Designed for daily use by professionals responsible for caring for patients with renal disease, this long-awaited primer provides a simplified, up-to-date review of peritoneal dialysis. Dealing concisely with all aspects of PD, it is written in such a style that even beginners with elementary knowledge of the subject could benefit from its use, and thus it is the perfect text for trainees or new and junior staff members. It is also an ideal text for nurses, a virtual how-to guide on PD.A book like this one, crafted specifically as a bench text and a learning tool, is hard to find. Emphasis is placed on the plentiful illustrations and tables that immediately clarify and expand upon the text. The illustrations, many in full color, are deftly drawn by one of the foremost medical artists in the world, Bernard Tardieu.Few texts can boast such a cast of distinguished authors. Ramesh Khanna, Karl Nolph, and Dimitrios Oreopoulos are among the most respected practitioners of dialysis.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 136 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This volume of essays grew out of a symposium organized by Judith Hoch-Smith and Anita Spring for the 1974 American Anthropological Association meetings in Mexico City. The two-part symposium was enti tled 'Women in Ritual and Symbolic Systems: I. Midwives, Madonnas, and Mediums; ll. Prostitutes, Witches, and Androgynes. ' The sym posium participants were asked to explore theological, ritual, and sym bolic aspects-both positive and negative-of the feminine cultural do main, using ethnographic materials with which they were familiar. The resulting papers have been revised, edited, and gathered together in Women in Ritual and Symbolic Roles. The theoretical importance of these papers for the study of women's participation in culture and society rests on the assumption that reli gious ideas are paramount forces in social life, that relationships be tween the sexes, the nature of female sexuality, and the social and cul tural roles of women are in large part defined by religious ideas. That this proposition remains valid long after religion itself has ceased to be a living truth in the lives of many people can be seen from the tenacious ness of Judeo-Christian ideas about women in the contemporary West ern world. Both the expansion of life options for women and the creation of more positive cultural images of the female are intimately related to changes in the my tho-symbolic portraits that people carry around in their heads. These portraits are almost exclusively constructed from mythological and religious conceptions inherent in all facets of culture.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 308 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Over the past three decades, the Internet's rapid growth has spurred the development of new applications in mobile computing, digital music, online video, gaming and social networks.These applications rely heavily upon various underlying network protocols and mechanisms to enable, maintain and enhance their Internet functionalityThe Effects ofTraffic Structure on Application and Network Performanceprovides the necessary tools for maximizing the network efficiency of any Internet application, and presents ground-breaking research that will influence how these applications are built in the future. The book outlines how to design and run all types of networking experiments, and establishes the best practices in synthetic traffic generation for current and future researchers and practitioners to follow. It addresses some basic concepts and methods of traffic generation, but also details extensive empirical research in testing and evaluating network protocols and applications within a laboratory setting.The Effects ofTraffic Structure on Application and Network Performance is designed as a reference book for networking professionals who must design, plan, test and evaluate their networks. Advanced-level students and researchers in computer science and engineering will find this book valuable as wellSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 308 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Over the last few years, we have witnessed tremendous progress in the field of eicosanoids and their therapeutic applications. Receptor an tagonists for leukotrienes have been tested as anti-inflammatories and are on the market as a treatment for asthma. Receptor agonists for pro stacyclin are being tested for the treatment of peripheral vascular dis ease, and selective inhibitors of cyclooxygenase type II were just ap proved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. All these developments are the culmination of many years and man-hours of careful research. The field has now entered an upswing that will result in novel thera peutic applications within the next 10 years. New molecules and me diators have been identified, new enzymes and pathways elucidated and new therapeutic approaches have emerged. The concept of ei cosanoids as 'pro-inflammatory' molecules is being challenged, and their role as regulators is increasingly recognized. In fact, some of these molecules may be important endogenous anti-inflammatory agents.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 240 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Paul Verhoeven's 1992 thriller Basic Instinct - starring Michael Douglas as a police detective and Sharon Stone as the femme fatale Catherine Tramell - was one of the first mainstream 'erotic thrillers', a film which shifted the boundaries for graphic representations of sex in Hollywood cinema. It remains a significant milestone in film censorship and controversy. In his fascinating study, the first in-depth account of the film, Stevie Simkin explores the unrest and protest that Basic Instinct sparked in the gay, lesbian and feminist communities in the US, incensed by what they saw as the script's homophobia and misogyny.Simkin considers the social and cultural context in which Basic Instinct was made, examining the film's troubled production history, the battles with censors, and its reception. He offers a number of readings of the movie, looking at its representation of bisexuality and the depiction of a 'transgressive' female protagonist. He also focuses on key sequences, including the infamous interrogation scene, and details the cuts demanded by the censors, resulting in different UK and US versions. In conclusion, Simkin considers the legacy of Basic Instinct, and its enduring effect on media representations of the violent woman.STEVIE SIMKIN is Reader in Drama and Film at the University of Winchester, UK. His publications include work on cult television, popular music, and Renaissance drama. He is the author of, amongst other works, A Preface to Marlowe (1999), Revenge Tragedy: A New Casebook (2001), Early Modern Tragedy and the Cinema of Violence (2005), and, also in the Controversies series, a book on the Peckinpah film, Straw Dogs.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Kunita, H.:Stochastic differential equations and stochastic flows of diffeomorphisms.-Elworthy, D.: Geometric aspects of diffusions on manifolds.-Ancona, A.:Théorie du potential sur les graphs et les variétiés.-Emery, M.:Continuous martingales in differentiable manifolds. ¿Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 516 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This monograph derives direct and concrete relations between colored Jones polynomials and the topology of incompressible spanning surfaces in knot and link complements. Under mild diagrammatic hypotheses, we prove that the growth of the degree of the colored Jones polynomials is a boundary slope of an essential surface in the knot complement. We show that certain coefficients of the polynomial measure how far this surface is from being a fiber for the knot; in particular, the surface is a fiber if and only if a particular coefficient vanishes. We also relate hyperbolic volume to colored Jones polynomials.Our method is to generalize the checkerboard decompositions of alternating knots. Under mild diagrammatic hypotheses, we show that these surfaces are essential, and obtain an ideal polyhedral decomposition of their complement. We use normal surface theory to relate the pieces of the JSJ decomposition of the complement to the combinatorics of certain surface spines (state graphs). Since state graphs have previously appeared in the study of Jones polynomials, our method bridges the gap between quantum and geometric knot invariants.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 184 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Due to measurement errors, transmission lost, or injected noise for privacy protection, uncertainty exists in the data of many real applications. However, query processing techniques for deterministic data cannot be directly applied to uncertain data because they do not have mechanisms to handle data uncertainty. Therefore, efficient and effective manipulation of uncertain data is a practical yet challenging research topic. In this book, we start from the data models for imprecise and uncertain data, move on to defining different semantics for queries on uncertain data, and finally discuss the advanced query processing techniques for various probabilistic queries in uncertain databases. The book serves as a comprehensive guideline for query processing over uncertain databases. Table of Contents: Introduction / Uncertain Data Models / Spatial Query Semantics over Uncertain Data Models / Spatial Query Processing over Uncertain Databases / ConclusionSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 104 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -After the traditional document-centric Web 1.0 and user-generated content focused Web 2.0, Web 3.0 has become a repository of an ever growing variety of Web resources that include data and services associated with enterprises, social networks, sensors, cloud, as well as mobile and other devices that constitute the Internet of Things. These pose unprecedented challenges in terms of heterogeneity (variety), scale (volume), and continuous changes (velocity), as well as present corresponding opportunities if they can be exploited. Just as semantics has played a critical role in dealing with data heterogeneity in the past to provide interoperability and integration, it is playing an even more critical role in dealing with the challenges and helping users and applications exploit all forms of Web 3.0 data. This book presents a unified approach to harness and exploit all forms of contemporary Web resources using the core principles of ability to associate meaning with data through conceptualor domain models and semantic descriptions including annotations, and through advanced semantic techniques for search, integration, and analysis. It discusses the use of Semantic Web standards and techniques when appropriate, but also advocates the use of lighter weight, easier to use, and more scalable options when they are more suitable. The authors' extensive experience spanning research and prototypes to development of operational applications and commercial technologies and products guide the treatment of the material. Table of Contents: Role of Semantics and Metadata / Types and Models of Semantics / Annotation -- Adding Semantics to Data / Semantics for Enterprise Data / Semantics for Services / Semantics for Sensor Data / Semantics for Social Data / Semantics for Cloud Computing / Semantics for Advanced ApplicationsSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 176 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Cloud computing has emerged as a successful paradigm of service-oriented computing and has revolutionized the way computing infrastructure is used. This success has seen a proliferation in the number of applications that are being deployed in various cloud platforms. There has also been an increase in the scale of the data generated as well as consumed by such applications. Scalable database management systems form a critical part of the cloud infrastructure. The attempt to address the challenges posed by the management of big data has led to a plethora of systems. This book aims to clarify some of the important concepts in the design space of scalable data management in cloud computing infrastructures. Some of the questions that this book aims to answer are: the appropriate systems for a specific set of application requirements, the research challenges in data management for the cloud, and what is novel in the cloud for database researchers We also aim to address one basic question:whether cloud computing poses new challenges in scalable data management or it is just a reincarnation of old problems We provide a comprehensive background study of state-of-the-art systems for scalable data management and analysis. We also identify important aspects in the design of different systems and the applicability and scope of these systems. A thorough understanding of current solutions and a precise characterization of the design space are essential for clearing the 'cloudy skies of data management' and ensuring the success of DBMSs in the cloud, thus emulating the success enjoyed by relational databases in traditional enterprise settings. Table of Contents: Introduction / Distributed Data Management / Cloud Data Management: Early Trends / Transactions on Co-located Data / Transactions on Distributed Data / Multi-tenant Database Systems / Concluding RemarksSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 140 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The field of narrative (or story) understanding and generation is one of the oldest in natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI), which is hardly surprising, since storytelling is such a fundamental and familiar intellectual and social activity. In recent years, the demands of interactive entertainment and interest in the creation of engaging narratives with life-like characters have provided a fresh impetus to this field. This book provides an overview of the principal problems, approaches, and challenges faced today in modeling the narrative structure of stories. The book introduces classical narratological concepts from literary theory and their mapping to computational approaches. It demonstrates how research in AI and NLP has modeled character goals, causality, and time using formalisms from planning, case-based reasoning, and temporal reasoning, and discusses fundamental limitations in such approaches. It proposes new representations for embedded narratives and fictional entities, for assessing the pace of a narrative, and offers an empirical theory of audience response. These notions are incorporated into an annotation scheme called NarrativeML. The book identifies key issues that need to be addressed, including annotation methods for long literary narratives, the representation of modality and habituality, and characterizing the goals of narrators. It also suggests a future characterized by advanced text mining of narrative structure from large-scale corpora and the development of a variety of useful authoring aids. This is the first book to provide a systematic foundation that integrates together narratology, AI, and computational linguistics. It can serve as a narratology primer for computer scientists and an elucidation of computational narratology for literary theorists. It is written in a highly accessible manner and is intended for use by a broad scientific audience that includes linguists (computational and formal semanticists), AI researchers, cognitive scientists, computer scientists, game developers, and narrative theorists. Table of Contents: List of Figures / List of Tables / Narratological Background / Characters as Intentional Agents / Time / Plot / Summary and Future DirectionsSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 144 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The motivation for developing this synthesis lecture was to provide a tutorial on queuing and trunking, with extensions to networks of queues, suitable for supplementing courses in communications, stochastic processes, and networking. An essential component of this lecture is MATLAB-based demonstrations and exercises, which can be easily modified to enable the student to observe and evaluate the impact of changing parameters, arrival and departure statistics, queuing disciplines, the number of servers, and other important aspects of the underlying system model. Much of the work in this lecture is based on Poisson statistics, since Poisson models are useful due to the fact that Poisson models are analytically tractable and provide a useful approximation for many applications. We recognize that the validity of Poisson statistics is questionable for a number of networking applications and therefore we briefly discuss self-similar models and the Hurst parameter, long-term dependent models, the Pareto distribution, and other related topics. Appropriate references are given for continued study on these topics.The initial chapters of this book consider individual queues in isolation. The systems studied consist of an arrival process, a single queue with a particular queuing discipline, and one or more servers. While this allows us to study the basic concepts of queuing and trunking, modern data networks consist of many queues that interact in complex ways. While many of these interactions defy analysis, the final chapter introduces a model of a network of queues in which, after being served in one queue, customers may join another queue. The key result for this model is known as Jackson's Theorem. Finally, we state the BCMP Theorem, which can be viewed as a further extension of Jackson's Theorem and present Kleinrock's formula, which can be viewed as the network versionof Little's Theorem.Table of Contents: Introduction / Poisson, Erlang, and Pareto Distributions / A Brief Introduction to Queueing Theory / Blocking and Delay / Networks of QueuesSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 108 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book contains the collected papers presented at the Inter national Symposium on Polymers in Medicine, Biomedical and Pharma cological Applications, which was held at Porto Cervo, Italy, May 24-28, 1982. To the best of our knowledge, this symposium was the first to be organized in Italy entirely devoted to the several aspects of the use of synthetic and semisynthetic macromolecular materials in the field of biomedical and pharmacological applications. The inten~ tion of the Organizing Committee of the symposium was the promotion of a scientific and cultural initiative to gain the attention of various experts in line research of the potential of suitably de signed 'man-made' polymeric materials in biomedical applications. With highly qualified and worldwide attendance, the above goal was fully satisfied. Indeed the opportunity of meeting to gether in a well conceived and discreet corner of the world, scien tists with different cultural backgrounds and objectives helped ex tend the meaning of the symposium far beyond the Italian borders and the perspectives of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) , the major sponsor of the meeting.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Despite an enormous investment of effort throughout the world, cancer is still a major barrier to human longevity. Cancer deaths are estimated to be more than five million globally. Currently responsible for about 20% of all deaths in developed coun tries, the burden of cancer is steadily increasing in the developing world, following the control of malnutrition and infectious and parasitic diseases. Deeply impressed by the report of the Symposium on Geographic Pathology and Demography of Cancer held at Oxford in 1950, and through his preliminary work on cancer mortality statistics in Japan, Professor M. Segi decided to devote his life to the fight against cancer by establishing worldwide comparative cancer statistics-one of the landmarks in cancer studies and in cancer prevention strategies. He and his associates published six volumes of Cancer Mortality in 24 Countries with reliable mortality statistics covering 1950-1967, using the world population which he had derived as a standard. These publications rapidly became standard works of reference on the subject throughout the world. Professor Segi was a pioneer of cancer epidemiology in Japan. He cleaved a path through the jungle of cancer using epidemiological methods. By promoting cancer studies, he overcame the poor understanding of malignant disease which existed after World War II, when cancer mortality rates were still low.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This volume contains a selection of scientific papers related to the structure and dynamics of non-rigid molecules. This frontline topic was born a few decades ago, when Longuet-Higgins proposed his famous theory of Molecular Symmetry Groups (Mol. Phys. 6, (1962) 457). Unfortunately, since this early paper, very few publications have been devoted to the study of non-rigid molecules. Let us mention some books which dedicate some chapters to them: Induced Representations in Crystals and Molecules, by S. L. Altmann, Academic Publishers, 1977; Molecular Symmetry and Spectroscopy, by P. R. Bunker, Academic Publishers, 1979; and finally Large Amplitude Motion in Molecules, Vols. I and II, by several authors, Springer Verlag, 1979. More recently an International Symposium on Non-Rigid Molecules was held in Paris, France, from 1-7 July 1982, the proceedings of which were published in the volume entitled Symmetries and Properties of Non-Rigid Molecules. A Comprehensive Survey, edited by J. Maruani et al., Elsevier, 1983. Finally, we should mention the very specialized work The Permutational Approach to Dynamic Stereochemistry, by J. Brocas et al., McGraw-Hill, 1983. The purpose of this book is to fill in this information on the structure and dynamics of non-rigid systems. To this aim, we have gathered a collection of recent papers written by the most qualified specialists in the world, covering a large field from van der Waals molecules to inorganic complexes and organic polyrotor molecules, as well as considering statistical and dynamic aspects.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This volume of essays grew out of a symposium organized by Judith Hoch-Smith and Anita Spring for the 1974 American Anthropological Association meetings in Mexico City. The two-part symposium was enti tled 'Women in Ritual and Symbolic Systems: I. Midwives, Madonnas, and Mediums; ll. Prostitutes, Witches, and Androgynes. ' The sym posium participants were asked to explore theological, ritual, and sym bolic aspects-both positive and negative-of the feminine cultural do main, using ethnographic materials with which they were familiar. The resulting papers have been revised, edited, and gathered together in Women in Ritual and Symbolic Roles. The theoretical importance of these papers for the study of women's participation in culture and society rests on the assumption that reli gious ideas are paramount forces in social life, that relationships be tween the sexes, the nature of female sexuality, and the social and cul tural roles of women are in large part defined by religious ideas. That this proposition remains valid long after religion itself has ceased to be a living truth in the lives of many people can be seen from the tenacious ness of Judeo-Christian ideas about women in the contemporary West ern world. Both the expansion of life options for women and the creation of more positive cultural images of the female are intimately related to changes in the my tho-symbolic portraits that people carry around in their heads. These portraits are almost exclusively constructed from mythological and religious conceptions inherent in all facets of culture.