springer springer feb 1999 (265 risultati)

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Local-regional anesthesia and pain therapy represent two areas of common interest for all physicians. A thorough preparation in functional anatomy and general pharmacology, including familiarity with local anesthetics and analgesics, is considered fundamental background for further study or clinical application of such techniques. Knowledge of the mechanisms of action, efficacies and side effects of the relevant drugs is essential, as is appreciation of possible drug interactions to evaluate eventual toxic effects. Local-regional anesthesia and pain management are being increasing used in diverse medical specialties, including those requiring manual dexterity. In contemporary medicine correct evaluation of the medical outcome becomes essential, especially in relation to the cost-benefit balance, not only in terms of the resources consumed, also and more importantly for the quality of life of the patient.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - The title of this proceedings comes from the book The Antibiotic Paradox by Stuart B. Levy (Plenum Publishing Corporation, 1992), referring to the paradox that the more antibiotics are used to treat infectious diseases, the less effective they become. When antibiotics were first introduced, they were considered wonder drugs because they were so effective. But with time bacteria have become resistant to nearly all antibiotics, and resistance is spreading faster than new antibiotics are being developed. This book will identify the issues concerning resistance, as well as describe efforts to develop new drugs that overcome the problem of resistance.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - 'AIDS is kind of like life, just speeded up. ' JavonP. ,heroinaddictwithAIDS, Bronx,NewYork, 1988 'Now I'm not so much scared of dying as scared of living. ' Mike D. , heroin addict with AIDS, New Haven, Connecticut, 1998 Within little more than a decade, AIDS has been tranformed from an untreatable, rapidly fatal illness, into a manageable, chronic disease. Most of this tranformation has occurred in the past five years, accelerated by the advent of protease inhibitors and the proven benefits of combination antiretroviral therapy and prophylaxis against opportunistic infections. For people living with HIV/AIDS, these developments have offered unprecedented hope, and also new challenges. As reflected in the quotes above, some of the anxieties and anticipation of premature dying have been replaced by the uncertainties involved in living with a long-term, unpredictable illness. The role of caregivers for people with HIV/AIDS has also changed radically over this time. Earlier in the epidemic, we learned to accompany patients through illness, to bear witness, to advocate, to address issues of death, dying, and - reavement. The arrival of more effective therapy has brought with it new capabi- ties, but also new complexities, raising difficult problems concerning access to care, adherence, and toxicity.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - List of Abbreviations Notes on the Contributors Introduction and Acknowledgements SECTION A: IRISH READERS AND READINGS Readership in French: the Irish Experience; M.Kennedy Irish Literary Review Magazines and Enlightenment France; G.Sheridan Montesquieu and Burke; S.Deane Voltaire's Reception in Ireland; G.Gargett Rousseau in Eighteenth-Century Irish Journals: 'A Wanton and Romantic Imagination'; M.O'Dea French Scientific Innovation Late Eighteenth-Century Dublin: the Hydrogen Balloon Experiments of Richard Crosbie (1783-1785); B.Traxler-Brown SECTION B: IRELAND SEEN FROM FRANCE Attitudes Towards Ireland and the Irish in Enlightenment France; É.O Ciosáin Voltaire's View of the Irish; G.Gargett SECTION C: TOOLS OF TRANSMISSION The Trade in French Books in Eighteenth-Century Ireland; M.Kennedy and G.Sheridan Ireland and the French Theatre in the Enlightenment; S.Davies Irish Church Libraries and the French Enlightenment; J.Mckee Literary Review Magazines Printed in Ireland 1700-1790; G.Sheridan List of Books Connected with the French Enlightenment Published in Ireland 1700-1800; G.Gargett Index.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - This book contains the proceedings of the Summerschool and Workshop Motions in the Solar Atmosphere held from September 1st to September 12th, 1997, at the Solar Observatory Kanzelh6he, which belongs to the Astronomical Institute of the University of Graz, Austria. This type of conference has proved to be very successful in bringing together experts from specialized topics in solar physics and young scientists and students from different countries. Moreover, the summerschool was accompanied by a workshop which offered young scientists the opportunity to present their new results to a general audience. In total the summerschool and the workshop were attended by 50 par ticipants from 10 different countries. The topic selected was quite general, covering the whole solar atmo sphere and its dynamic processes: from dynamo actions and large and small scale motions in the photosphere through the complex dynamics of the chro mosphere to the corona. Also the possible influences of variations in solar output parameters to the Earth's climate were addressed. The main lec tures were given by 7 lecturers. Furthermore, there were 20 contributions to the workshop which were presented in oral form. The selection of the Kanzelh6he Solar Observatory located in Central Europe, Austria, also permitted colleagues from the former eastern coun tries to attend the meeting. At the Kanzelh6he Observatory new instru ments had been recently installed so that the meeting provided a further stimulus for the local people working there.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Fundamentals of Information Systems contains articles from the 7th International Workshop on Foundations of Models and Languages for Data and Objects (FoMLaDO '98), which was held in Timmel, Germany. These articles capture various aspects of database and information systems theory: identification as a primitive of database models deontic action programs marked nulls in queries topological canonization in spatial databases complexity of search queries complexity of Web queries attribute grammars for structured document queries hybrid multi-level concurrency control efficient navigation in persistent object stores formal semantics of UML reengineering of object bases and integrity dependence . Fundamentals of Information Systems serves as an excellent reference, providing insight into some of the most challenging research issues in the field.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - To a certain extent the dementias have been forgotten diseases until just recen tly when they were brought to the attention of the general public and health authorities as a result of the increasing number of cases in the aging popula tion, especially among famous people, and because of the efforts of private foundations. The goals of the present volume are to present the dementias to health prac titioners, to provide some basic information on their epidemiology and biolo gical basis and to discuss the diagnostic and clinical problems that physicians and institutions face when caring for demented patients. This book explores the various types of dementias and is not limited to Alzheimer's disease although, as expected, more information is available and presented on this pathology. On the other hand, a few fundamental questions on dementia can only be answe red through a comparison of the various forms. Examples of such questions are the following: Is the loss of cerebral tissue sufficient to cause dementia Are there thresholds or is there a continuous progression toward the irreversible development of dementia Are there common pathways in the dementing pro cess Are there common risk factors Comparative analysis allows the common and distinctive patterns of the various dementias to be defined, ultimately lea ding to more focused therapeutic interventions.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Decision Criteria and Optimal Inventory Processes provides a theoretical and practical introduction to decision criteria and inventory processes. Inventory theory is presented by focusing on the analysis and processes underlying decision criteria. Included are many state-of-the-art criterion models as background material. These models are extended to the authors' newly developed fuzzy criterion models which constitute a general framework for the study of stochastic inventory models with special focus on the real world inventory theoretic reservoir operations problems. The applications of fuzzy criterion dynamic programming models are illustrated by reservoir operations including the integrated network of reservoir operation and the open inventory network problems. An interesting feature of this book is the special attention it pays to the analysis of some theoretical and applied aspects of fuzzy criteria and dynamic fuzzy criterion models, thus opening up a new way of injecting the much-needed type of non-cost, intuitive, and easy-to-use methods into multi-stage inventory processes. This is accomplished by constructing and optimizing the fuzzy criterion models developed for inventory processes. Practitioners in operations research, management science, and engineering will find numerous new ideas and strategies for modeling real world multi- stage inventory problems, and researchers and applied mathematicians will find this work a stimulating and useful reference.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Biology of the Arterial Wall is intended as a general reference text concerned with the biology of the vascular cells and the blood vessel wall under physiological and pathological conditions. One of the major functions of the arteries is to maintain a continuous blood flow to the organs whatever the pressure conditions, thanks to the vasomotor tone of the smooth muscle cells. Great advances have been made over the last decade in the understanding of the endothelial cells as integrators and transducers of signals originating from the blood stream. The pluripotent control functions of the endothelial cells in the vessel wall are now well recognized. A review of endothelial functions and dysfunctions is presented. Cell biology and molecular genetic studies have now identified an array of molecules elaborated by endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells and by the blood-borne elements which interact with artery cells, defending the artery against injury and modulating evolving abnormal processes. Molecules which induce or inhibit endothelial and/or smooth muscle cells are currently under great scrutiny. Angiogenesis, which plays a major role in tumor growth, but may also be beneficial as a healing process in muscle ischemia, is discussed. Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, has only recently been recognized as an essential process in blood vessel modeling and remodeling. An overview of apoptosis in the vascular system is presented. It is increasingly evident that the adjustments of the blood vessel wall are made in the presence of deforming disease processes such as hypertension and atherosclerosis. The second part of the book is concerned with the blood vessel wall in disease conditions. Several chapters review the role of the vessel and vascular cells in inflammation, and vascular remodeling during arterial hypertension and aging. One chapter is devoted to atherogenesis, atheroma and plaque instability, followed by the pathophysiology of post-angioplasty restenosis, which is a crucial issue in modern interventional cardiology.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Partial Contents: Reliability Concepts; Device Reliability; Hazard Rates; Monitoring Reliability; Specific Device Information, and more. Appendixes. 60 illustrations.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Recent advances in genome analysis and transformation have made rice a model monocot for molecular biologists. This volume covers four areas of rice molecular biology in which exciting progress has been made recently: genome analysis and gene isolation, development, regulation of gene expression, and transformation and rice improvement. It will be of great interest to researchers who work in traditional agricultural sciences using rice, as well as to those who have an interest in using rice as an experimental model for basic research. The book gives an overall view on what has already been done, as well as what will be possible in rice. It presents chapters on development and gene regulation - exciting new research area in the future, and explores potentials in rice improvement using various molecular biological methods.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - The Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center in coop eration with the Materials Science Group of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science of Syracuse University has been conducting the Annual Sagamore Army Materials Research Conference since 1954. The specific purpose of these conferences has been to bring together scientists and engineers from academic institutions, industry and government who are uniquely qualified to explore in depth a subject of importance to the Department of Defense, the Army and the scientific community. These proceedings entitled, FATIGUE - ENVIRONMENT AND TEMPER ATURE EFFECT, address the overview of temperature and environmental effects of fatigue, room temperature environmental effects, high temperature and environmental effect - mechanisms, high tempera ture and environmental effect - mechanisms, materials and design-engineering applications. We wish to acknowledge the assistance of Messrs. Joseph Bernier and Dan McNaught of the Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center and Helen Brown DeMascio of Syracuse University throughout the stages of the conference planning and finally the publication of the book. The continued active interest and support of these conferences by Dr. E. Wright, Director of the Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center, is appreciated.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Geographic information systems have developed rapidly in the past decade, and are now a major class of software, with applications that include infrastructure maintenance, resource management, agriculture, Earth science, and planning. But a lack of standards has led to a general inability for one GIS to interoperate with another. It is difficult for one GIS to share data with another, or for people trained on one system to adapt easily to the commands and user interface of another. Failure to interoperate is a problem at many levels, ranging from the purely technical to the semantic and the institutional. Interoperating Geographic Information Systems is about efforts to improve the ability of GISs to interoperate, and has been assembled through a collaboration between academic researchers and the software vendor community under the auspices of the US National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis and the Open GIS Consortium Inc. It includes chapters on the basic principles and the various conceptual frameworks that the research community has developed to think about the problem. Other chapters review a wide range of applications and the experiences of the authors in trying to achieve interoperability at a practical level. Interoperability opens enormous potential for new ways of using GIS and new mechanisms for exchanging data, and these are covered in chapters on information marketplaces, with special reference to geographic information. Institutional arrangements are also likely to be profoundly affected by the trend towards interoperable systems, and nowhere is the impact of interoperability more likely to cause fundamental change than in education, as educators address the needs of a new generation of GIS users with access to a new generation of tools. The book concludes with a series of chapters on education and institutional change. Interoperating Geographic Information Systems is suitable asa secondary text for graduate level courses in computer science, geography, spatial databases, and interoperability and as a reference for researchers and practitioners in industry, commerce and government.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - This book is timely and challenging. Within its pages are commentaries and opinions on the scientific background and explanatory ideas for a complex of symptoms and investigations known as syndrome X. The commonest cause by far of angina pectoris is coronary artery obstruction due to atheromatous lesions both within the wall of the artery and intruding into the lumen; in such patients it is expected that there maybe ST segment depression on atrial pacing or on an exercise test indicating myocardial ischemia. Syndrome X was a term first used in an editorial written by Kemp in 1973. He was referring to patients in group X in a paper from Arbogast and Bourassa. Patients in group X had three features, namely angina as judged on a clinical history, alterations of the ST segment on the electrocardiogram during atrial pacing and smooth unobstructed coronary arteries (presumed normal) as assessed by the technique of coronary angiography. The changes on the electrocardiogram, conventionally indicative of myocardial ischemia, could not be explained on the basis of any abnormality of the coronary arteries and Kemp named the complex of fmdings syndrome X because of this seeming paradox and the lack of a single explanation. In the last thirty-one years there has been substantial scientific interest in this syndrome giving rise to a large number of publications. The name syndrome X has led to considerable confusion. Physicians are familiar with the X chromosome and with X linked congenital disorders.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Software architecture is a primary factor in the creation and evolution of virtually all products involving software. It is a topic of major interest in the research community where pronusmg formalisms, processes, and technologies are under development. Architecture is also of major interest in industry because it is recognized as a significant leverage point for manipulating such basic development factors as cost, quality, and interval. Its importance is attested to by the fact that there are several international workshop series as well as major conference sessions devoted to it. The First Working IFIP Conference on Software Architecture (WICSAl) provided a focused and dedicated forum for the international software architecture community to unify and coordinate its effort to advance the state of practice and research. WICSA 1 was organized to facilitate information exchange between practising software architects and software architecture researchers. The conference was held in San Antonio, Texas, USA, from February 22nd to February 24th, 1999; it was the initiating event for the new IFIP TC-2 Working Group on Software Architecture. This proceedings document contains the papers accepted for the conference. The papers in this volume comprise both experience reports and technical papers. The proceedings reflect the structure of the conference and are divided into six sections corresponding to the working groups established for the conference.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - The Fifteen American Peptide Symposium (15APS) was held in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 14-19, 1997. This biennial meeting was jointly sponsored by the American Peptide Society and Vanderbilt University. The attendance of 1,081 participants from 37 countries was lower than the two previously held Symposia. However, the number of participating countries was the largest. Thus, it was gratifying to see that this meeting retained both its international flavor and participant loyalty at a time when there are many more symposia held each year on similar subjects. The scientific program, thanks to the insights and efforts of the Program Committee as well as Dr. Peter Schiller, the President of the American Peptide Society, was extraordinarily rich, diverse, and exciting. It was comprised of 124 oral and 550 poster presentations. Three prominent format changes were installed. First, the Symposium started on Saturday instead of Sunday. Second, the program opened on Saturday afternoon with a Mini-symposium by the Young Investigators to give them an early start and attention. Finally, 40 short and definitive reports were given in two parallel sessions. The expanded format permitted an unprecedented number of lectures and enabled wider participation by the attending delegates.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Management consultancy is one of the fastest growing markets in the world today, with the worldwide fees estimated to total more than $60bn. This pace of growth looks set to continue, but the future holds significant challenges. This book assesses the key opportunities and risks facing the consulting industry over the next twenty years, such as: - the changing client-consultant relationship, with clients demanding more tangible benefits in a shorter time - access to new international capital will determine the survival of consulting firms - more complex relationships between consulting firms, with new alliances between traditional rivals in order to address new markets - a more blurred boundary between the roles of clients and consultants The author is a management consultant of long-standing experience and she quotes from interviews with leading partners from some of the world's most influential firms, including Andersen Consulting, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Deloitte & Touche and the Boston Consulting Group. This will be essential reading for anyone already working as a consultant or considering doing so, and for people who buy or work with consultants. 236 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Facing the Consequences presents a perspective on US mathematics and science education that is developed from data gathered as part of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). TIMSS is the most extensive and far-reaching cross-national comparative study of mathematics and science education ever attempted. It includes comparing official curricula, textbooks, teacher practices, and student achievements for many countries (from 20 to 50 countries, depending on the particular comparison). Thousands of official documents and textbooks were analyzed. Thousands of teachers, principals, and other experts responded to survey questionnaires. A sample of mathematics teachers in three countries had their lessons videotaped. Hundreds of thousands of children in almost 50 countries were tested in mathematics and science. This report presents a closer look at US mathematics and science education through careful examination of TIMSS data. The authors believe this investigation shows how deceptive many often unquestioned assumptions about American education can be. Drawing upon many new analyses not previously reported and integrating these with previous analyses of TIMSS data, the authors develop and illustrate the argument that what happens to American students is the consequence of American beliefs that shape educational practice and the accretion of a myriad educational choices made in mathematics and science education. 248 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Examining the patterns of business development in backward economies, this book demonstrates, the rate and character of business development in Brazil were to a large extent determined by its degree of backwardness, intellectual climate and natural potentialities, and accordingly the course of development of the Brazilian economy differed considerably from processes observed in more advanced countries. In addition, comparison between Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro shows important differences among the three most important economies in Brazil. 233 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In seeking to test the conventional wisdom that foreign ministries are 'in decline', the contributors to this book examine the role and status of foreign ministries in twelve countries together with their place within the European Union. Valuable information on the response of the foreign policy machinery to change at both the domestic and international levels is provided as are important insights into the linkages between foreign policy and the mechanisms through which it is conducted. This book will be essential reading for those concerned with foreign policy-making in the post-Cold War era as well as those interested in the evolving machinery of government in its broader context. 281 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book constitutes the strictly refereed post-proceedings of the 5th International Hybrid Systems Workshop held in Notre Dame, Indiana, USA in September 1998. The 23 revised full papers presented in the book have gone through two rounds of thorough reviewing and revision. The volumepresents state-of-the-art research results and particularly addresses such areas as program verification, concurrent and distributed processes, logic programming, logics of programs, discrete event simulation, calculus of variations, optimization, differential geometry, Lie algebras, automata theory, dynamical systems, etc. 468 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Database systems of the next generation are likely to be inherently very complex due to the diversity of requirements placed on them. Incorporating active, real time, and temporal virtues in one database system is an arduous effort but is also a commend able one. This book presents the proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Active, Real Time, and Temporal Database Systems (ARTDB 97), held in Como, Milan, in September 1997. The aim of the workshop was to bring researchers together from the active and real time research communities, and to examine the current state of the art in active, real time, and temporal database systems. This book offers a collection of papers presented at the ARTDB 97 workshop. The papers, many of them representing proficient and tenable results, illuminate the feasibility of building database system supporting reactive behavior, while enforcing timeliness and predictability. The book contains nine papers carefully reviewed and accepted by the program committee, three invited papers written by prominent researchers in the field, and two summaries of the panel discussions held at the workshop. The program committee received seventeen submissions, where each submission was reviewed by at least three program committee members. The two panel sessions focused on predictability issues and on practical experience of active, real time, and temporal database systems. The ARTDB 97 workshop was held in cooperation with the IEEE Technical Committees on Real Time Systems and Complexity in Computing, and the ACM Special Interest Group on Manipulation of Data. 260 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This comprehensive book gives a overview of the latest discussions in the application of genetic algorithms to solve engineering problems. Featuring real-world applications and an accompanying disk, giving the reader the opportunity to use an interactive genetic algorithms demonstration program. 360 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This volume presents detailed discussions of a number of unsolved conceptual and technical issues arising, in particular, in the foundations of quantum theory and the philosophy of science. The 14 contributions capture a wide variety of viewpoints and backgrounds. Some chapters deal primarily with the main experimental issues; others focus on theoretical and philosophical questions. In addition, attempts are made to systematically analyze ways in which quantum physics can be connected to the neurosciences and consciousness research. 260 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-workshop proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Security Protocols held in Cambridge, UK in April 1998.The 15 revised papers presented as position statements are followed by transcripts of the discussions between the authors and the audience. Also included is a report on the final panel discussion on future directions in security protocols research and developments. Thus the volume reflects the lively interaction at the workshop. The papers are devoted to the interrelations between trust and delegation, exploring the implications and effects of these upon such issues as authorization, security policy, and cryptosystems and component design. 260 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This upper-division laboratory supplement for courses in abstract algebra consists of several Mathematica packages programmed as a foundation for group and ring theory. Additionally, the 'user's guide' illustrates the functionality of the underlying code, while the lab portion of the book reflects the contents of the Mathematica-based electronic not Elektronisches Buch. Students interact with both the printed and electronic versions of the material in the laboratory, and can look up details and reference information in the user's guide. Exercises occur in the stream of the text of the lab, which provides a context within which to answer, and the questions are designed to be either written into the electronic notebook, or on paper. The not Elektronisches Buch are available in both 2.2 and 3.0 versions of Mathematica, and run across all platforms for which Mathematica exits. A very timely and unique addition to the undergraduate abstract algebra curriculum, filling a tremendous void in the literature. 484 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The first comprehensive overview of this topic that balances clinical and research considerations, Adherence to Pediatric Medical Regimens reviews the prevalence and potentially serious consequences of poor adherence to medical regimens for children and adolescents. This original text examines in detail the nature of adherence problems, reasons for nonadherence, strategies for assessing and improving adherence to both acute and chronic disease regimens, and published research. The author provides protocols for adherenceenhancement and applies adherence theories to specific clinical cases. 194 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The present advanced text-cum-reference book presents a comprehensive account of the syntheses, reactions, properties and applications of all the most significant classes of heterocyclic compounds. Heterocyclic Chemistry has been organised in three volumes. This second volume contains six chapters: Introduction, Five-membered Heterocycles with One Heteroatom, Benzo-Fused Five-Membered Heterocycles with One Heteroatom, Five-Membered Heterocycles with Two Heteroatoms, Five-Membered Heterocycles with More Than Two Heteroatoms, and Meso-Ionic Heterocycles.This book is an essential tool not only for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, but also for academic and industrial researchers in organic, medicinal, pharmaceutical, dye and agricultural chemistry. 660 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The main theme of the book is the theory of heights as they appear in various guises. This includes a large body of results on Mahler's measure of the height of a polynomial of which topic there is no book available. The genesis of the measure in a paper by Lehmer is looked at, which is extremely well-timed due to the revival of interest following the work of Boyd and Deninger on special values of Mahler's measure. The authors'approach is very down to earth as they cover the rationals, assuming no prior knowledge of elliptic curves. The chapters include examples and particular computations. A large chunk of the book has been devoted to the elliptic Mahler's measure. Special calculation have been included and will be self-contained. One of the most important results about Mahler's measure is that it is the entropy associated to a dynamical system. The authors devote space to discussing this and to giving some convincing and original examples to explain this phenomenon. 228 pp. Englisch.