springer springer sep 2005 (352 risultati)

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Design and Performance of 3G Wireless Networks and Wireless LANs is for wireless communication system engineers, network engineers, professionals, and researchers. Network architectures of UMTS, CDMA2000 systems, and how major network elements within the 3G networks can be designed, are described. In addition, the authors describe how end-to-end performance for voice and data services can be determined. They also provide guidelines on how radio access networks and core networks can be engineered. Of equal importance, is inclusion of explanations of various wireless LAN standards (IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11e) and how voice and data services can be offered in the wireless LAN systems.Additional highlights include:- Overview of core principles of wireless communications (e.g., FDMA, TDMA, CDMA), airlink capacity analysis, and evaluation.- Traffic model descriptions and illustrations for circuit-switched and packet-switched services.- In-depth coverage of how base station and radio network controller can be designed to meet capacity requirements.- Discussion of unique design issues in 3G networks, innovative solutions, and possible new 3G features.This material also provides capacity engineering guidelines for 3G networks and wireless LANs. Review exercises are provided at the end of each chapter to facilitate teaching and self study.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Developing and maintaining a VR system is a very difficult task, requiring in-depth knowledge in many disciplines. The difficulty lies in the complexity of having to simultaneously consider many system goals, some of which are conflicting.This book is organized so that it follows a spiral development process for each stage, describing the problem and possible solutions for each stage. Much more hands-on than other introductory books, concrete examples and practical solutions to the technical challenges in building a VR system are provided.Part 1 covers the very basics in building a VR system and explains various technical issues in object modeling and scene organization. Part 2 deals with 3D multimodal interaction, designing for usable and natural interaction and creating realistic object simulation. Primarily written for first level graduates, advanced undergraduates and IT professionals will also find this a valuable guide.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - The book is an account of Taiwan's evolving national consciousness told through the biography of its former President Lee Teng-hui - the central figure in the island's political transformation over the past two decades. In describing the broader historical and social context of the various stages of Lee's life, the book also analyzes Taiwan's own evolution during the past century as a Japanese colony, a Leninist party-state dictatorship, and then an American-inspired fledgling democracy. The book explores such questions as: Is Lee Teng-hui an opportunistic recidivist who is interested only in his own self-preservation, or is he a hero who not only propelled Taiwan into a new era, but also constructed a new national identity for the islanders Are the multi-ethnic islanders culturally 'Chinese' or are they 'Taiwanese' Is Taiwan historically and politically part of 'China' or does it have its own history and identity, and deserves international recognition as an independent sovereign country.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - This book recovers and recommends the core conviction of Victorian liberal theory that human beings, with the help of the state, can achieve an objective moral perfection. The first half of the book considers the diverse modern biases that have blinded us to the merit of this core conviction and weaves together disparate new scholarship (primarily in political theory and Victorian Studies) to set the stage for a reconsideration of that conviction. The second half of the book is that reconsideration outlining the various policies the Victorian liberals (John Stuart Mill and Matthew Arnold, primarily, with a half dozen other nineteenth-century British and American authors) recommended the state employ in the perfection of human beings.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - This volume is published under the auspices of the World Federation of Societies of Intensive Care Medicine, which consists of 48 members societies (both medical and nursing) - a truly world wide organisation - and whose aim is to promote excellence in the care of critically ill patients. The volume will be distributed to delegates on occasion of the 9th International Congress of the World Federation of Societies of Intensive and Critical Care Medicine, to be held in Buenos Aires at the end of August 2005.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Since the last century, the postulational method and an abstract point of view have played a vital role in the development of modern mathematics. The experience gained from the earlier concrete studies of analysis point to the importance of passage to the limit. The basis of this operation is the notion of distance between any two points of the line or the complex plane. The algebraic properties of underlying sets often play no role in the development of analysis; this situation naturally leads to the study of metric spaces. The abstraction not only simplifies and elucidates mathematical ideas that recur in different guises, but also helps eco- mize the intellectual effort involved in learning them. However, such an abstract approach is likely to overlook the special features of particular mathematical developments, especially those not taken into account while forming the larger picture. Hence, the study of particular mathematical developments is hard to overemphasize. The language inwhich a large body of ideas and results of functional analysis are expressed is that of metric spaces. The books on functional analysis seem to go over the preliminaries of this topic far too quickly. The present authors attempt to provide a leisurely approach to the theory of metric spaces. In order to ensure that the ideas take root gradually but firmly, a large number of examples and counterexamples follow each definition. Also included are several worked examples and exercises. Applications of the theory are spread out over the entire book.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Rapid Prototyping of Digital Systems: Quartus II Edition provides an exciting and challenging laboratory component for undergraduate digital logic and computer design courses using FPGAs and CAD tools for simulation and hardware implementation. The more advanced topics and exercises also make this text useful for upper level courses in digital logic, programmable logic, and embedded systems. This new version of the widely used Rapid Prototyping of Digital Systems, Second Edition, now uses Altera's new Quartus II CAD tool and includes laboratory projects for Altera's UP 2 and the new UP 3 FPGA board. Rapid Prototyping of Digital Systems: Quartus II Edition includes four tutorials on the Altera Quartus II and NIOS II tool environment, an overview of programmable logic, and IP cores with several easy-to-use input and output functions. These features were developed to help students get started quickly. Early design examples use schematic capture and IP cores developed for the Altera UP FPGA boards. VHDL is used for more complex designs after a short introduction to VHDL-based synthesis. New to this edition is an overview of System-on-a-Programmable Chip (SOPC) technology and SOPC design examples for the UP3 using Altera's new NIOS II Processor hardware and C software development tools.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Although discrete geometry has a rich history extending more than 150 years, it abounds in open problems that even a high-school student can understand and appreciate. Some of these problems are notoriously difficult and are intimately related to deep questions in other fields of mathematics. But many problems, even old ones, can be solved by a clever undergraduate or a high-school student equipped with an ingenious idea and the kinds of skills used in a mathematical olympiad.Research Problems in Discrete Geometry is the result of a 25-year-old project initiated by the late Leo Moser. It is a collection of more than 500 attractive open problems in the field. The largely self-contained chapters provide a broad overview of discrete geometry, along with historical details and the most important partial results related to these problems. This book is intended as a source book for both professional mathematicians and graduate students who love beautiful mathematical questions, are willing to spend sleepless nights thinking about them, and who would like to get involved in mathematical research.Important features include:- More than 500 open problems, some old, others new and never before published- Each chapter divided into self-contained sections, each section ending with an extensive bibliography- A great selection of research problems for graduate students looking for a dissertation topic- A comprehensive survey of discrete geometry, highlighting the frontiers and future of research- More than 120 figures- A preface to an earlier version written by the late Paul ErdosPeter Brass is Associate Professor of Computer Science at the City College of New York. William O. J. Moser is Professor Emeritus at McGill University. Janos Pach is Distinguished Professor at The City College of New York, Research Professor at the Courant Institute, NYU, and Senior Research Fellow at the Rényi Institute,Budapest.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - As the name implies, Intermediate Dynamics: A Linear Algebraic Approach views 'intermediate dynamics'--Newtonian 3-D rigid body dynamics and analytical mechanics--from the perspective of the mathematical field. This is particularly useful in the former: the inertia matrix can be determined through simple translation (via the Parallel Axis Theorem) and rotation of axes using rotation matrices. The inertia matrix can then be determined for simple bodies from tabulated moments of inertia in the principal axes; even for bodies whose moments of inertia can be found only numerically, this procedure allows the inertia tensor to be expressed in arbitrary axes--something particularly important in the analysis of machines, where different bodies' principal axes are virtually never parallel. To understand these principal axes (in which the real, symmetric inertia tensor assumes a diagonalized 'normal form'), virtually all of Linear Algebra comes into play. Thus the mathematical field is first reviewed in a rigorous, but easy-to-visualize manner. 3-D rigid body dynamics then become a mere application of the mathematics. Finally analytical mechanics--both Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations--is developed, where linear algebra becomes central in linear independence of the coordinate differentials, as well as in determination of the conjugate momenta.Features include:- A general, uniform approach applicable to 'machines' as well as single rigid bodies- Complete proofs of all mathematical material. Similarly, there are over 100 detailed examples giving not only the results, but all intermediate calculations- An emphasis on integrals of the motion in the Newtonian dynamics- Development of the Analytical Mechanics based on Virtual Work rather than Variational Calculus, both making the presentation more economical conceptually, and the resulting principles able to treat both conservative and non-conservative systems.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - As people move through life, they continually shift affiliation from one position to another, dependent on the wider contexts of their interactions. Different forms of material culture may be employed as affiliations shift, and the connotations of any given set of artifacts may change. In this volume the authors explore these overlapping spheres of social affiliation. Social actors belong to multiple identity groups at any moment in their life. It is possible to deploy one or many potential labels in describing the identities of such an actor. Two main axes exist upon which we can plot experiences of social belonging - the synchronic and the diachronic. Identities can be understood as multiple during one moment (or the extended moment of brief interaction), over the span of a lifetime, or over a specific historical trajectory.From the IntroductionThe international contributions each illuminate how the various identifiers of race, ethnicity, sexuality, age, class, gender, personhood, health, and/or religion are part of both material expressions of social affiliations, and transient experiences of identity. The Archaeology of Plural and Changing Identities: Beyond Identification will be of great interest to archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, curators and other social scientists interested in the mutability of identification through material remains.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - 'Probability and Partial Differential Equations in Modern Applied Mathematics' is devoted to the role of probabilistic methods in modern applied mathematics from the perspectives of both a tool for analysis and as a tool in modeling. There is a recognition in the applied mathematics research community that stochastic methods are playing an increasingly prominent role in the formulation and analysis of diverse problems of contemporary interest in the sciences and engineering. A probabilistic representation of solutions to partial differential equations that arise as deterministic models allows one to exploit the power of stochastic calculus and probabilistic limit theory in the analysis of deterministic problems, as well as to offer new perspectives on the phenomena for modeling purposes. There is also a growing appreciation of the role for the inclusion of stochastic effects in the modeling of complex systems. This has led to interesting new mathematical problems at the interface of probability, dynamical systems, numerical analysis, and partial differential equations.This volume will be useful to researchers and graduate students interested in probabilistic methods, dynamical systems approaches and numerical analysis for mathematical modeling in the sciences and engineering.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Closely paralleling the history of psychology is the history of its critics, their theories, and their contributions. The Critique of Psychology is the first book to trace this alternate history, from a unique perspective that complements the many existing empirical, theoretical, and social histories of the field.Thomas Teo cogently synthesizes major historical and theoretical narratives to describe two centuries of challenges to and the reactions of the mainstream. Some of these critiques of content, methodology, relevance, and philosophical worldview have actually influenced and become integrated into the canon; others pose moral questions still under debate. All are accessibly presented so that readers may judge their value for themselves:- Kant s critique of rational and empirical psychology at the end of the 18th century- The natural-scientific critique of philosophical psychology in the 19th century- The human-scientific critique of natural-scientific psychology- The Marxist traditions of critique- Feminist and postmodern critiques and the contemporary mainstream- Postcolonial critiques and the shift from cross-cultural to multicultural psychologyThis is not a book of critique for critique s sake: Teo defines the field as a work in progress with goals that are evolving yet constant. In emphasizing ethical and political questions faced by psychology as a discipline, this visionary book points students, academics, and practitioners toward new possibilities for their shared future.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Biometric user authentication techniques evoke an enormous interest by science, industry and society. Scientists and developers constantly pursue technology for automated determination or confirmation of the identity of subjects based on measurements of physiological or behavioral traits of humans.Biometric User Authentication for IT Security: From Fundamentals to Handwriting conveys general principals of passive (physiological traits such as fingerprint, iris, face) and active (learned and trained behavior such as voice, handwriting and gait) biometric recognition techniques to the reader. Unlike other publications in this area that concentrate on passive schemes, this professional book reflects a more comprehensive analysis of one particular active biometric technique: handwriting. Aspects that are thoroughly discussed include sensor characteristic dependency, attack scenarios, and the generation of cryptographic keys from handwriting.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - The notion dealt with in this volume of proceedings is often traced back to the late 19th-century writings of a rather obscure scientist, C. V. Burton. A probable reason for this is that the painstaking de ciphering of this author's paper in the Philosophical Magazine (Vol. 33, pp. 191-204, 1891) seems to reveal a notion that was introduced in math ematical form much later, that of local structural rearrangement. This notion obviously takes place on the material manifold of modern con tinuum mechanics. It is more or less clear that seemingly different phe nomena - phase transition, local destruction of matter in the form of the loss of local ordering (such as in the appearance of structural defects or of the loss of cohesion by the appearance of damage or the exten sion of cracks), plasticity, material growth in the bulk or at the surface by accretion, wear, and the production of debris - should enter a com mon framework where, by pure logic, the material manifold has to play a prominent role. Finding the mathematical formulation for this was one of the great achievements of J. D. Eshelby. He was led to consider the apparent but true motion or displacement of embedded material inhomogeneities, and thus he began to investigate the 'driving force' causing this motion or displacement, something any good mechanician would naturally introduce through the duahty inherent in mechanics since J. L. d'Alembert.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - The reader of this volume will experience a voyage of discovery with one of the finest guides available. James E. Lessenger has combined experience in private practice, preventive medicine, and public service in California's San Joaquin Valley, one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. His experience and selection of chapter authors is, in every sense, a contri- tion to illuminating the art and science of agromedicine. As one examines the table of contents, one is impressed by the range of topics and the importance of each concern. Covering both injury prevention and environmental h- ards, this innovative work is a practical guide for the family physician wo- ing in a rural area. The contents demonstrate the vitality of agromedicine and the vision and insight of the authors. The chapters on farm chemicals provide thorough information about the many types of chemicals commonly used in the farm environment, how they are applied, and the principles of diagnosis and management for family physicians treating patients for toxic chemical exposure. These chapters underscore the fact that the use of farm chemicals is one of the things resp- sible for the increase in worldwide agricultural production and that risks can be managed through preventive measures. The Agricultural Medicine represents a benchmark in the evolution of a concept begun in South Carolina over two decades ago called agromedicine.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Plants have developed very sophisticated mechanisms to combat pathogens and pestsusingtheleastamountofreservedorgeneratedenergypossible. Theydothis by activating major defense mechanisms after recognition of the organisms that are considered to be detrimental to their survival; therefore they have been able to exist on Earth longer than any other higher organisms. It has been known for the past century that plants carry genetic information for inherited resistance against many pathogenic organisms including fungi, bacteria, and viruses, and that the relationship between pathogenic organisms and hosts plants are rather complex and in some cases time dependent. This genetic information has been the basis for breeding for resistance that has been employed by plant breeders to develop better-yielding disease resistant varieties, some of which are still being cultivated. Single gene resistance is one type of resistance which has been extensively studied by many research groups all around the world using biotechnological methodologies that have been the subject of many books and journal articles; therefore, it is beyond the scope of this book. This type of resistance is very effective, although it can be overcome by the pressure of pathogenic organisms since it depends on interaction of a single elicitor molecule from the pathogen with a single receptor site in the host.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - 'Heterocycles from Transition Metal Catalysis: Formation and Functionalization' provides a concise summary of the prominent role of late transition metal (palladium, nickel, copper) catalysed processes in the synthesis and functionalization of heterocyclic systems. It gives an introduction to catalytic transformations, an overview of the most important reaction types, and presents synthetically useful catalytic processes classified by the target system and the type of transformation.The book provides a representative selection of transition metal catalysed reactions transformations that are relevant in heterocyclic chemistry. In this way, the authors present a useful resource for members of the academic community looking for a textbook as well as industrial chemists in search of a reference book. This book will be an invaluable resource for synthetic chemists, medicinal chemists, and those more generally interested in applied catalysis.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Section I examines historical philosophical understandings of expertise in order to situate the current institution of bioethics. Section II focuses on philosophical analyses of the concept of expertise, asking, among other things, how it should be understood, how it can be acquired, and what such expertise warrants. Finally, section III addresses topics in bioethics and how ethics expertise should or should not be brought to bear in these areas, including expertise in the court room, in the hospital room, in the media, and in making policy. 2. A GUIDED HISTORICAL TOUR As Scott LaBarge points out, Plato's dialogues can be viewed as an extended treatment of the concept of moral expertise, so it is fitting to begin the volume with an examination of 'Socrates and Moral Expertise'. Given Socrates' protestations (the Oracle at Delphi notwithstanding) that he knows nothing, LaBarge observes that it would be interesting to determine both what a Socratic theory of moral expertise might be and whether Socrates qualified as such an expert. Plato's model of moral expertise is what LaBarge calls 'demonstrable expertise', which is concerned mainly with the ability to attain a goal and to explain how one did it. The problem with this account is that when one tries to solve the various problems in the model - for example, allowing that moral expertise is not an all-or-nothing skill - then one is immediately faced with the 'credentials problem'. As LaBarge puts it, '. . .

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Active specific immunotherapy is a promising but investigational modality in the management of cancer patients. Currently, several different cancer vaccine formulations such as peptides, proteins, antigen-pulsed dendritic cells, whole tumor cells, etc. in combination with various adjuvants and carriers are being evaluated in clinical trials (1-3). To determine the optimal cancer vaccine strategy, a surrogate immunological end-point that correlates with clinical outcome needs to be defined, since it would facilitate the rapid comparison of these various formulations. Traditional immunological assays such as ELISA, proliferation and cytotoxicity assays can detect immune responses in vaccinated patients but are not quantitative. In contrast, novel assays such as enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay, intracellular cytokine assay and tetramer assay can quantitate the frequency of antigen-specific T cells. Of these, the ELISPOT assay has the 5 lowest detection limit with 1/10 peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and has been determined to be one of the most useful assays to evaluate immune response to cancer vaccines (4). However, the IFN- ELISPOT assay is not an exclusive measure of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) activity as non-cytotoxic cells can also secrete IFN- . Additionally, CTL with lytic activity do not always secrete IFN- (5). A more relevant approach to assess functional activity of cytotoxic lymphocytes would be to measure the secretion of molecules that are associated with lytic activity. One of the major mechanisms of cell-mediated cytotoxicity involves exocytosis of cytoplasmic granules from the effector toward the target cell.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Thisvolumecontainsaselectionofpapersinmodernoperatortheoryanditsapp- cations. Most of them are directly related to lectures presented at the Fourteenth International Workshop on Operator Theory and its Applications (IWOTA 2003) held at the University of Cagliari, Italy, in the period of June 24-27, 2003. The workshop, which was attended by 108 mathematicians - including a number of PhD and postdoctoral students - from 22 countries, presented eight special sessions on 1) control theory, 2) interpolation theory, 3) inverse scattering, 4) numerical estimates for operators, 5) numerical treatment of integral equations, 6) pseudodi erential operators, 7) realizations and transformations of analytic functions and inde nite inner product spaces, and 8) structured matrices. The program consisted of 19 plenary lectures of 45 minutes and 78 lectures of 30 minutes in four parallel sessions. The present volume re ects the wide range and rich variety of topics p- sentedanddiscussedattheworkshop,bothwithinandoutsidethespecialsessions. The papers deal with inverse scattering, numerical ranges, pseudodi erential - erators, numerical analysis, interpolation theory, multidimensional system theory, inde nite inner products, spectral factorization, and stationary processes. SinceintheperiodthattheproceedingsofIWOTA2003werebeingprepared, Israel Gohberg, the president of the IWOTA steering committee, reached the age of 75, we decided to dedicate these proceedings to Israel Gohberg on the occasion of his 75th birthday. All of the authors of these proceedingshavejoined the editors and dedicated their papers to him as well.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - In the last few years, a significant increase in applications of MMCs has taken place, particularly in the areas of automotive, aerospace, electronics, and recreation.These include continuous fiber reinforced MMCs for cables in power transmission, high temperature superconducting wires, particulate MMCs in civilian aircraft and automotive applications, and high volume fraction, high thermal conductivity substrates for electronic packaging. Nevertheless, as with any novel material systems, there is a lack of fundamental understanding on the part of practicing engineers and designers. This book would seek to address these issues, in a thorough and cohesive manner, as well as to provide students and scientists with a basic understanding of MMCs. This book will emphasize the synergistic relationships among processing, structure, and properties of metal matrix composites.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - 2.1 E-Government: e-Governance and e-Democracy The term Electronic Government (e-Government), as an expression, was coined after the example of Electronic Commerce. In spite of being a relatively recent expression, e-Government designates a field of activity that has been with us for several decades and which has attained a high level of penetration in many countries2. What has been observed over the recent years is a shift on the broadness of the e-Government concept. The ideas inside e-Governance and e- Democracy are to some extent promising big changes in public administration. The demand now is not only simply delivering a service - line. It is to deliver complex and new services, which are all citizen-centric. Another important demand is related to the improvement of citizen's participation in governmental processes and decisions so that the governments' transparency and legitimacy are enforced. In order to fulfill these new demands, a lot of research has been done over the recent years (see Section 3) but many challenges are still to be faced, not only in the technological field, but also in the political and social aspects.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - What we profoundly witness these days is a growing number of human-centric systems and a genuine interest in a comprehensive understanding of their underlying paradigms and the development of solid and efficient design practices. We are indeed in the midst of the next information revolution, which very likely brings us into a completely new world of ubiquitous and invisible computing, Ambient Intelligent (AMI), and wearable hardware. This requires a totally new way of thinking in which cognitive aspects of design, cognitive system engineering and distributed approach play a pivotal role. This book fully addresses these timely needs by filling a gap between the two well-established disciplines of cognitive sciences and cognitive systems engineering. As we put succinctly in the preface, with the psychological perspective of human cognition in mind, 'the book explores the computational models of reasoning, learning, planning and multi-agent coordination and control of the human moods'. This is an excellent, up to the point description of the book. The treatise is focused on the underlying fundamentals, spans across a vast territory embracing logic perspectives of human cognition, distributed models, parallel computing, expert systems, and intelligent robotics.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Volume II and III of Experimental Business Research include original papers that were presented at the Second Asian Conference on Experimental Business Research held at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) on December 16-19, 2003. The conference was organized by the Center for Experimental Business Research (cEBR) at HKUST and was chaired by Professors Amnon Rapoport and Rami Zwick.Experimental Business Research adopts laboratory based experimental economics methods to study an array of business and policy issues spanning the entire business domain including accounting, economics, finance, information systems, marketing and management and policy. 'Experimental economics' is an established term that refers to the use of controlled laboratory-based procedures to test the implications of economic hypotheses and models and discover replicable patterns of economic behavior. We have coined the term 'Experimental Business Research' in order to broaden the scope of 'experimental economics' to encompass experimental finance, experimental accounting, and more generally the use of laboratory-based procedures to test hypotheses and models arising from research in other business related areas, including information systems, marketing and management and policy. The chapters included in these volumes reflect the domain diversity of studies in the experimental business research field.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - st t At the dawn of the 21 century, the impact of human beings on the environment continues to provide cause for concern. For some, what matters is the loss of so much that is beautiful and valuable in its own right. For others, the concern is with the effects of environmental degradation on human health and well-being. Whatever one's view, humans, like all living species, are remarkably adaptive. While this message should be familiar, all too many of the participants in the environmental debate seem unaware of 1 it. (David Pearce ) 1. BACKGROUND AND SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH Today, farmers' role in society is subject to many debates. This research is motivated by the need to have more insight into the changing character and the role of agriculture. It is clear that today's agriculture has a much broader significance for society than the mere provision of food and renewable resources. The achievement of sustainable forms of agriculture as well as its multifunctional role are now widely recognised. Promoting the positive environmental effects of agriculture and avoiding negative ones, has become one of the central issues of agricultural policy, both in the European context, in international negotiations (WTO) and at national level (manure action plan, sustainability, peri-urban agriculture). Recently, multifunctionality appeared very high on the political agenda. In the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations, the concept of multifunctionality contributes to the current debate about agricultural protection.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - nalog circuits are fascinating artifacts. They manipulate signals whose informa- Ationcontentisrichcomparedtodigitalsignalsthatcarryminimalamountofinf- mation;theyaredelicateinthatanyperturbationduetoparasiticelements,todelays,to interactionswithotherelementsandwiththeenvironmentmaycauseas igni cantloss ofinformation. Thedif cultyindealingwiththeseartifactsistoprotectthemfromall possibleattacks, evenminorones, fromthephysicalworld. Theironyisthattheyare oftenusedtofunnelinformationfromandtothephysicalworldtoandfromtheabstr- tionofthedigitalworldandforthisfunction, theyareirreplaceable. Nowonderthen that analog designers form a club of extraordinary gentlemen where art (or magic ) ratherthanscienceisthesharedtrade. Theyaredif culttotrainsinceexperienceand intuitionarethetraitsthat characterize them. Andthey have dif cultiesinexplaining what is the process they use to reach satisfactory results. Tools used for design (s- ulation) are mainly replacing the test benches of an experimental lab. However, the growing complexity of the integrated systems being designed today together with the increasing fragility of analog components brought about by shrinking geometries and reducedpowerconsumptionisposingseverechallengestotraditionalanalog designers to produce satisfactory results in a short time. At the same time, the need for expe- enced analog designers has increased constantly since almost all designs, because of integration,docontainanalogcomponents. Thissituationhascreatedastronginterest in developing design methodologies and supporting tools that are based on rigorous, mathematically literate, approaches. Doing so will make it possible to leverage the expertiseofseasonedanalogdesignersandtotrainnewgenerationsfasterandbetter. Inthepast, severalattemptshavebeenmadeinacademia andindustrytocreatethese methodologies and to extend the set of tools available. They have had questionable acceptance in the analog design community. However, recently, a urry of start-ups andincreasedinvestmentbyEDAcompaniesinnoveltoolssignalasigni cantchange inmarketattentiontotheanalogdomain. Ipersonallybelievethattosubstantially- prove quality and design time, tools are simply insuf cient. A design methodology based on a hierarchy of abstraction layers, successive re nement between two ad- cent layers, and extensive veri cation at every layer is necessary. To do so, we need to build theories and models that have strong mathematical foundations. The analog design technology community is as strong as it has ever been.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Privacy and Technologies of Identity: A Cross-Disciplinary Conversation provides an overview of ways in which technological changes raise privacy concerns. It then addresses four major areas of technology: RFID and location tracking technology; biometric technology, data mining; and issues with anonymity and authentication of identity. Many of the chapters are written with the non-specialist in mind, seeking to educate a diverse audience on the 'basics' of the technology and the law and to point out the promise and perils of each technology for privacy. The material in this book provides an interface between legal and policy approaches to privacy and technologies that either threaten or enhance privacy.This book grew out of the Fall 2004 CIPLIT(r) Symposium on Privacy and Identity: The Promise and Perils of a Technological Age, co-sponsored by DePaul University's College of Law and School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems. The Symposium brought together leading researchers in advanced technology and leading thinkers from the law and policy arenas, many of whom have contributed chapters to the book. Like the Symposium, the book seeks to contribute to a conversation among technologists, lawyers, and policymakers about how best to handle the challenges to privacy that arise from recent technological advances.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Developed, developing and emerging economies worldwide are collectively contributing multiple stresses on aquatic ecosystems by the release of numerous contaminants. This in turn demands that basic toxicological information on their potential to harm living species be available. Hence, environmental protection programs aimed at preserving water quality must have access to comprehensive toxicity screening tools and strategies that can be applied reliably and universally. While a good number of toxicity testing procedures and hazard assessment approaches have been published in the scientific literature over the past decades, many are wanting in that insufficient detail is available for users to be able to fully understand the test method or scheme and to be able to reproduce it successfully. Even standardized techniques published in recognized international standard organization documents are often lacking in thoroughness and minutiae. Paucity of information relating to biological test methods may be consequent and trigger several phenomena including generation of invalid data and resulting toxicity measurements, erroneous interpretation and decision-taking with regards to a particular chemical or environmental issue, or simply abandonment of testing procedures. Clearly, improperly documented toxicity testing methods can be detrimental to their promotion and use, as they open the doorway to unnecessary debate and criticism as to their raison d'être. Furthermore, this situation can indirectly contribute to delaying, minimizing or eliminating their application, thereby curtailing the important role toxicity testing plays in the overall protection and conservation of aquatic ecosystems.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - The mental ray series of handbooks is conceived to provide concise and up to date general and technical information about the commercially available rendering software mental ray. The series addresses the needs of professional and non-professional users of the software as well as of software developers who intend to integrate the stand-alone version of mental ray or the mental ray component software into applications that require interactive photorealistic and high image quality programmable rendering. In addition, the series provides comprehensive information to students and researchers in computer graphics. mental ray is a valuable tool for teaching and demonstrating the fundamental concepts of photorealistic and programmable rendering as well as a benchmark and catalyst for further research. The rendering software mental ray and many of its unique underlying concepts are the result of ongoing research and development at the company mental images since its incorporation in 1986. Leading vendors of 3D digital content creation and 3D CAD and product design software have made mental ray their rendering software of choice for all purposes of high end visualization and image synthesis ranging from digital special effects and 3D animation for motion picture, video lm, and games production to 3D mechanical and architectural CAD and to industrial product design and automotive styling.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - September 11, 2001 in the U.S., March 11, 2004 in Madrid - just two examples of a series of major terror attacks against NATO member states on both sides of the Atlantic. We now know that international terrorism is capable of transboundary planning and military style execution of attacks, resulting in several thousand dead and wounded. In the future even larger terror attacks can no longer be ruled out, including the deployment of weapons of mass destruction. This new form of catastrophic terrorism poses a major challenge to the first responder community in their search and rescue operations, since these new threats represent an unprecedented risk for their health, possibly even questioning their own survival. Since the first responders are the first line of defence of every community in the aftermath of such a terror attack, it is essential for every community to ensure that its first responders are able to provide their valuable services even in such extreme situations.In this important new book a group of experts represents the current knowledge on the various terrorism threats to first responders resulting from the novel use of conventional weapons, as well radiological, nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Also, the current situation in selected countries of different sizes and practical experience with terrorism countermeasures (Austria, Israel, Slovenia, Russia, U.S.) is reviewed, focusing on the national operational logistics and the individual needs for improving the present situation. Finally, this book offers innovative solutions to strengthen the level of protection of the first responders, culminating in fifty-one practically applicable recommendations.