springer us dez 2007 (101 risultati)

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -In 2004, the discipline of sociology celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the American Sociological Association. In 2005, the Section on Medical Sociology celebrated 50 years since the formation of the Committee on Medical Sociology within the ASA. And, in 2003, the Section on the Sociology of Mental Health celebrated ten years since its founding within the American branch of the discipline. This brief accounting marks the American-based or- nizational landmarks central to concerns about how social factors shape the mental health problems individuals face as well as the individual and system responses that follow. This history also lays a trail of how the focus on mental health and illness has narrowed from a general concern of the discipline to a more intense, substantively-focused community of scholars targeting a common set of specific theoretical and empirical questions. While mental health and illness figured prominently in the writings of classical sociologists, contem- rary sociologists often view research on mental health as peripheral to the ¿real work¿ of the discipline. The sentiment, real or perceived, is that the sociology of mental health, along with its sister, medical sociology, may be in danger of both losing its prominence in the discipline and losing its connection to the ma- stream core of sociological knowledge (Pescosolido & Kronenfeld, 1995).

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Human rights issues are shaping the modern world. They define the expectations by which nations are judged and affect the policy of governments, corporations, and foundations. They have set the agenda in prosecutions at the International Criminal Court at the Hague, funding decisions by the International Monetary Fund, and corporate expansion programs by multinationals.Statistics is central to the modern perspective on human rights. It allows researchers to measure the effect of health care policies, the penetration of educational opportunity, and progress towards gender equality. The new wave of entrepreneurial charities demands impact assessments and documentation of milestone achievement. Non-governmental organizations need statistics to build cases, conduct surveys, and target their efforts.This book describes the statistics that underlie the social science research in human rights. It includes case studies, methodology, and research papers that discuss the fundamental measurement issues. It is intended as an introduction to applied human rights research.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 364 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This IMA Volume in Mathematics and its Applications SYMMETRIC FUNCTIONALS ON RANDOM MATRICES AND RANDOM MATCHINGS PROBLEMS During the academic year 2003¿2004, the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) held a thematic program on Probability and Stat- tics in Complex Systems. The program focused on large complex systems in which stochasticity plays a signi cant role. Such systems are very diverse, and the IMA program emphasized systems as varied as the human genome, the internet, and world nancial markets. Although quite di erent, these s- tems have features in common, such as multitudes of interconnecting parts and the availability of large amounts of high-dimensional noisy data. The programemphasized the development and application of common mathem- ical and computational techniques to model and analyze such systems. About 1,000 mathematicians, statisticians, scientists, and engineers participated in the IMA thematic program, including about 50 who were in residence at the IMA during much or all of the year. The present volume was born during the 2003¿2004 thematic program at the IMA. The two authors were visitors to the IMA during the program year, withthe rstauthorresidentforthe entiretenmonths. Thisvolumeisaresult of the authors¿ interactions at the IMA, and, especially their discussions with the many other program participants in the program and their involvement in the numerous tutorials, workshops,and seminars held during the year.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 200 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This volume contains an ¿unsystematic account¿ of my past work; it is not intended to be an autobiography in the conventional meaning of the term. It is not even remotely a scholarly description of the momentous devel- ments in which I was able to participate; rather it is a recital of ¿memorable¿ episodes, borrowing from the ¿compulsory preface¿ of a facetious British 1 history: ¿History is not what you thought. It is what you can remember. ¿ Thus this volume suffers from many ¿sins of omission,¿ including full att- bution of deserved credits, but, it is hoped, only few ¿sins of commission. ¿ The author is greatly indebted to his colleagues and his wife, Adele, who kindly reviewed many segments of the manuscript describing shared expe- ences. They are Sidney Drell, Greg Loew, Ed Lofgren, Harvey Lynch, Richard B. Neal, Richard Panofsky, and Burt Richter. But the author, ne- less to say, is responsible for any errors. Because of the multitude of topics into which I was drawn concurrently, a strictly chronological account would prove unreadable. Accordingly the book is divided into chapters, each of which covers a limited period of engagement in a coherent subject matter; an approach clearly again unsystematic but hopefully more conducive to conveying the substance of the work. This account does not include a description of my family life.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 248 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This second edition of Breast Cancer continues the tradition of the M. D. Anderson Cancer Care Series. The book is oriented towards the needs of clinicians who manage breast cancer at every stage of the disease. Ch- ters are written by experts with a strong knowledge of research findings who also are active in the clinic and understand the practical needs of the patient and her physician. Multidisciplinary care is a popular term today, but such care has been practiced at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center for decades. The physicians who assembled this book are experienced practitioners of multidiscip- nary care. The authors of each chapter carry out their clinical activities at our Nellie B. Connally Breast Center, where they collaborate in providing complete patient care services at a single site. The chapters start, logically, with prevention of breast cancer and p- sonalized risk assessment, including genetics. These topics are followed by chapters on early detection, with emphasis on a variety of sophis- cated imaging techniques and sampling of tissue. The various surgical options, including reconstruction, are thoroughly presented. Before me- cal oncology is introduced there are chapters dealing with the growing use of markers to predict prognosis and to select hormonal or chemoth- apy treatments that are likely to succeed. The book concludes with issues related to survivorship, including re-entering social and job-related acti- ties and dealing with questions related to sexuality and reproduction.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 580 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The intentional use of biological or chemical agents to cause disease or destroy food and water supplies for political or economic reasons dates to antiquity. The turn of the twentieth century heralded the development of lethal biological and chemical weapons capable of mass destruction. By the final two decades of the twentieth century, individuals and small groups learned how to obtain and use these weapons effectively. The events of the past few decades, including the World Trade Center and anthrax attacks in 2001, have shown that small groups of individuals, as well as nations, have the resources to coordinate attacks using chemical, biological and radiological agents. Given the long history of biological and chemical warfare, and given that that many of these agents are relatively easy to obtain and use, future attacks are possible. If they occur, primary care clinicians will have key roles to play in protecting their patients and the public. The illnesses that biological, chemical and radiological weapons cause can be difficult to distinguish from naturally occurring illness. Clearly, clinicians will need a basic understanding of diseases caused by these agents, including their associated epidemiology, and an understanding on how to work with public health officials to protect their patients and the public.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 276 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book is about using interactive and dynamic plots on a computer screen as part of data exploration and modeling, both alone and as a partner with static graphics and non-graphical computational methods. The area of int- active and dynamic data visualization emerged within statistics as part of research on exploratory data analysis in the late 1960s, and it remains an active subject of research today, as its use in practice continues to grow. It now makes substantial contributions within computer science as well, as part of the growing elds of information visualization and data mining, especially visual data mining. The material in this book includes: ¿ An introduction to data visualization, explaining how it di ers from other types of visualization. ¿ Adescriptionofourtoolboxofinteractiveanddynamicgraphicalmethods. ¿ An approach for exploring missing values in data. ¿ An explanation of the use of these tools in cluster analysis and supervised classi cation. ¿ An overview of additional material available on the web. ¿ A description of the data used in the analyses and exercises. The book¿s examples use the software R and GGobi. R (Ihaka & Gent- man 1996, RDevelopment CoreTeam2006) isafreesoftware environment for statistical computing and graphics; it is most often used from the command line, provides a wide variety of statistical methods, and includes high¿quality staticgraphics.RaroseintheStatisticsDepartmentoftheUniversityofAu- land and is now developed and maintained by a global collaborative e ort.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 208 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -A few years ago, one of us was approached by a student who asked if we really knew anything about human behavior from environmental archaeology. This student was taking an environmental archaeology course in which taphonomy and the biases of the techniques and methods used by environmental archae- ogists figured prominently. The goal was to train students to be informed users of environmental data. But the student, quite rightly, wanted to know if beyond taphonomy, recovery biases, and analytical biases, there was anything envir- mental archaeologists could say about the human condition. Her question was the stimulus for the first edition of this volume and continued to guide us as we edited this second edition. Our purpose is to show students and scholars, through a series of case studies, that there are things environmental archaeologists do know about the human-environmental relationship; many of which defy conventional archaeological expectations. To do so, however, we must break with the t- ditional organization of environmental archaeology along disciplinary lines. Environmental archaeology is intrinsically interdisciplinary. The demands of each discipline often mean, however, that specialists become further speci- ized in a very limited technical focus. While almost every environmental technique and method is represented in this edition, they are used as tools, not as ends in themselves.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 484 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Concern continues to ripple throughout society over the escalating incidents of youth violence and aggression. School professionals confront daily the challenges resulting from conduct disorders, which threaten to disrupt the learning process and compromise the well-being, security, and safety of students and faculty. With the ongoing emphasis on high-stakes academic testing, schools are struggling to pinpoint effective strategies and secure the resources needed to identify, assess, and treat students with conduct problems so that all children can succeed at school.Identifying, Assessing, and Treating Conduct Disorder at School bridges the gap between science and practice, providing school professionals with the information they need to coordinate efforts and enhance communication between parents, other educators, administrators, and social services providers. In addition, it offers guidance on the interventions that are likely to be most effective in meeting the unique needs of youths with conduct disorder. This volume: Emphasizes why school psychologists and their colleagues need to be prepared and able to identify and serve students with conduct disorder; Identifies the prevalence, influences, and associated conditions; Provides a review of screening, referral, and diagnostic assessment processes; Offers guidance on conducting psychoeducational assessments; Reviews evidence-based treatments; Provides practical guidance on setting up programs that address individual, classroom, and schoolwide issues.School psychologists and other education and mental health professionals will find this volume an invaluable resource in working to enhance the mental health and educational development of students.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Sophie Body-Gendrot How much related are present and past violence The answers are complex due to the limited knowledge scientists have gathered, even after spending a life-time studying this very enigmatic and most serious social phenomenon called violence. All authors agree that the present level of interpersonal violence cannot be sufficiently understood without taking the earlier long-term decrease into account. Ted Robert Gurr (1981, 1989) was one of these pioneers who und- took a statistical overview of the development of homicides from the Middle Ages to the present, looking at England in particular. On his curve, 20 ho- cides per 100,000 inhabitants were recorded in the High and Late Middle Ages and one case in the twentieth century put an end to the curb. Gurr interpreted this long-term decrease in interpersonal violence as ¿¿a manifestation of cultural change in Western society, especially the growing sensitization to violence and the development of an increased internal and external control on aggressive behavior¿¿ (Gurr, 1981:258). Currently, both the present and the past have to be considered in any attempt to answer the following questions: is the higher incidence of violence which still prevails a temporary exception or a new trend related to structural dynamics of modern societies In which regions of Europe is it more specifically pronounced More generally, this volume claims that historical knowledge of changes in violent behavior and of violence forms an indispensable contribution to an understanding of the manifestations of violence in contemporary societies.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 268 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Dialogue as a Collective Means of Design Conversation is the second volume edited by Patrick M. Jenlink and Bela H. Banathy to offer a cross-disciplinary approach to examining dialogue as a communicative medium. In this Compendium, the contributing authors set forth their ideas, experiences, and perspectives as the path of a learning journey¿a journey of new meaning, of new understanding, and of becoming self-aware of design conversation as future creating and consciousness evolving. In particular, this volume comes at a time when we as a global society are faced with the question of how we shape our actions and in turn shape our future, through conversation that is focused on resolving global conflict and fostering world peace. The volume evokes in the reader a realization that our greatest potential rests, in no small measure, with our collective capacity for cultural creativity and in our capacity to achieve new levels of consciousness through dialogue and design conversation.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 404 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Supply Chain Analysis: A Handbook on the Interaction of Information, System, and Optimization is a carefully developed work focused on the analysis of supply chain interaction issues in emerging markets and industry sectors. It is a leading-edge handbook that will emphasize where little work has been done and where the ¿rubber meets the road¿ ¿ the supply chain process, information, and systems integration. These are pertinent issues facing practitioners and researchers in today¿s business environment.This is a gap-bridging handbook that analyzes interaction issues from both the research and practitioner sides. The result is a volume that examines and provides practical solutions on interaction issues while being firmly grounded in research principles.An outstanding team of editors: Chris Tang is well-known and highly regarded in the area of Supply Chain Management. He is both a department chairman and the Edward Carter Professor of Business Administration at UCLA Anderson School; Professor Wei is the Dean of the Faculty of Business at the City University of Hong Kong, and is an eminent scholar in the area of Information Technology; Professor Teo has extensive experience in the area of Supply Chain Management and Optimization, and he is with the NUS Business School at the National University of Singapore.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 296 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Classifying objects into categories at different granularity levels, establishing links between known objects, and discovering clues between known and unknown objects are essential for new-generation semantic data models. This book introduces the Resource Space Model (RSM), which effectively organizes and correctly manages resources by normalizing classification semantics.This volume presents basic models of RSM and the Semantic Link Network (SLN), the relationship between the two, and an approach to integrating the two models and exploring their semantic-rich interconnection. Also detailed is a comprehensive theory of query operations on RSM and extensive coverage of the distributed RSM in parallel with the distributed relational database systems.This text is sure to be considered a substantial contribution to the field of Knowledge Grid by researchers in the areas of web, semantic web, and decentralized data engineering, as well as the emerging semantic and knowledge grid arena.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 248 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -In the last decade, there has been a burgeoning of activity in the design and implementation of algorithms for algebraic geometric compuation. Some of these algorithms were originally designed for abstract algebraic geometry, but now are of interest for use in applications and some of these algorithms were originally designed for applications, but now are of interest for use in abstract algebraic geometry.The workshop on Algorithms in Algebraic Geometry that was held in the framework of the IMA Annual Program Year in Applications of Algebraic Geometry by the Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications on September 18-22, 2006 at the University of Minnesota is one tangible indication of the interest. One hundred ten participants from eleven countries and twenty states came to listen to the many talks; discuss mathematics; and pursue collaborative work on the many faceted problems and the algorithms, both symbolic and numberic, that illuminate them.This volume of articles captures some of the spirit of the IMA workshop.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 176 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -In North America Juniperus woodlands occupy approximately 55 million hectares, an area larger than the state of Texas. Various species of Juniperus have been increasing in density and are expanding into associated grasslands, reducing the size of the grasslands. The reason for the Juniperus expansion is highly debated, but has important implications for global change and fire regime studies.Western North American Juniperus Communities addresses various aspects of the biology, ecology, and management of Juniperus woodlands and savannas, by synthesizing past, current, and proposed future research. The book will provide professionals with a solid background in Juniperus ecosystems, enabling them to manage the communities for maximum sustained productivity and diversity. Although the book focuses on Juniperus communities in North America, a discussion of other regions and larger research implications is included as well.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 336 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Most of practically-used turbulence closure models are based on the concept of downgra- ent transport. Accordingly the models express turbulent uxes of momentum and scalars as products of the mean gradient of the transported property and the corresponding turbulent transport coef cient (eddy viscosity, K , heat conductivity, K , or diffusivity, K ). Fol- M H D lowing Kolmogorov (1941), turbulent transport coef cients are taken to be proportional to the turbulent velocity scale, u , and length scale, l : T T K K K u l . (1) M H D T T 2 Usually u is identi ed with the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) per unit mass, E ,and K T is calculated from the TKE budget equation using the Kolmogorov closure for the TKE dissipation rate: E /t , (2) K K T where t l /u is the turbulent dissipation time scale. This approach is justi ed when it T T T is applied to neutral stability ows, where l can be taken to be proportional to the distance T from the nearest wall. However, this method encounters dif culties in strati ed ows (both stable and uns- ble). The turbulent Prandtl number Pr = K /K exhibits essential dependence on the T M H strati cation and cannot be considered as constant.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 252 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Biometrics is becoming increasingly common in establishments that require high security such as state security and financial sectors. The increased threat to national security by terrorists has led to the explosive popularity of biometrics. A number of biometric devices are now available to capture biometric measurements such as fingerprints, palm, retinal scans, keystroke, voice recognition and facial scanning. However, the accuracy of these measurements varies, which has a direct relevance on the levels of security they offer. With the need to combat the problems related to identify theft and other security issues, society will have to compromise between security and personal freedoms.Securing Biometrics Applications investigates and identifies key impacts of biometric security applications, while discovering opportunities and challenges presented by the biometric technologies available.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 208 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -First in a new series on economic issues in the context of health care policy, Health Technology Assessments by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence examines Britain¿s highly acclaimed approach to cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA), and its international potential.The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has been regarded as a role model for the implementation of CEA, and is being closely watched by health care policy makers throughout Europe, and in the United States. This volume dissects the robustness of the agency¿s technology appraisal processes as NICE evaluates innovative methods for diagnosis and intervention. Given the unique features of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)¿starting with it being diagnosed mainly in children and adolescents, its high comorbidity with other psychiatric conditions, and its considerable economic impact¿the disorder is a perfect focal point for discussion.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 276 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Optical networks have been in commercial deployment since the early 1980s as a result of advances in optical, photonic, and material technologies. Although the initial deployment was based on silica ber with a single wavelength modulated at low data rates, it was quickly demonstrated that ber can deliver much more bandwidth than any other transmission medium, twisted pair wire, coaxial cable, or wireless. Since then, the optical network evolved to include more exciting technologies, gratings, optical lters, optical multiplexers, and optical ampli ers so that today a single ber can transport an unprecedented aggregate data rate that exceeds Tbps, and this is not the upper limit yet. Thus, the ber optic network has been the network of choice, and it is expected to remain so for many generationsto come, for both synchronousand asynchronouspayloads; voice, data, video, interactive video, games, music, text, and more. In the last few years, we have also witnessed an increase in network attacks as a result of store andforwardcomputer-basednodes. These attackshave manymaliciousobjectives:harvestsomeone else¿s data, impersonate another user, cause denial of service, destroy les, and more. As a result, a new eld in communicationis becomingimportant,communicationnetworksand informationse- rity. In fact, the network architect and system designer is currently challenged to include enhanced features such as intruder detection, service restoration and countermeasures, intruder avoidance, and so on. In all, the next generation optical network is intelligent and able to detect and outsmart malicious intruders.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 304 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Adopting new fabrication technologies not only provides higher integration and enhances performance, but also increases the types of manufacturing defects. With design size in millions of gates and working frequency in GHz timing-related defects havv become a high proportion of the total chip defects. For nanometer technology designs, the stuck-at fault test alone cannot ensure a high quality level of chips. At-speed tests using the transition fault model has become a requirement in technologies below 180nm.Traditional at-speed test methods cannot guarantee high quality test results as they face many new challenges. Supply noise (including IR-drop, ground bounce, and Ldi/dt) effects on chip performance, high test pattern volume, low fault/defect coverage, small delay defect test pattern generation, high cost of test implementation and application, and utilizing low-cost testers are among these challenges. This book discusses these challenges in detail and proposes new techniques and methodologies to improve the overall quality of the transition fault test.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 304 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -An earlier book by Rodrick Wallace entitled Consciousness: A Mathematical Treatment of the Global Neuronal Workspace Model, introduced a formal information-theoretic approach to individual consciousness implementing approaches developed previously by the cognitive scientist Bernard Baars and the philosopher Fred Dretske.This book takes a more formal 'groupoid' perspective and generalizes the results of that book to processes of 'distributed cognition' characteristic of large institutions that can entertain several, sometimes many, simultaneous 'global workspaces' which must compete for resources while communicating and cooperating.Equivalence classes of 'states' produce a network of language-analogs characterizing interacting cognitive modules which entertain multiple workspaces. Equivalence classes of these language-analogs produce dynamical manifolds describing temporal processes carried out by multiple-workspace institutions.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 216 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Peter Angelos Numerous ethical issues arise in the care of oncology patients. Although much has been written in the last several decades on ethical issues in caring for patients, few volumes have sought to focus the exploration on ethical issues particularly relevant to the care of cancer patients. In 1999, the first edition of this book was published. Since that time, many changes have occurred in how some cancers are diagnosed and treated, but the central ethical issues have continued to challenge patients, families, and their health care providers. All of the chapters from the prior edition have been updated and there are seven new chapters in this expanded edition. In this second edition, the perspectives on what is an ethical issue have been broadened by bringing authors of differing backgrounds into the discussion. In Chapter 1, the perspective of a cancer patient is provided as an open letter to physicians. Although Parvez Kamangar is providing only one patient¿s perspective, this is an essential voice that is not often heard in texts on medical ethics. In Chapters 2 and 3, the issues of communication and the physician-patient relationship are explored in order to better understand how the needs of patients and families can be met. In Chapter 4, Professor Tod Chambers highlights the challenges to providing ethical care to patients in a multicultural society.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 272 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Scientists in Chinäs laboratories have developed hundreds of transgenic crops, but only one is insect-resistant cotton and planted widely on farms. This apparent paradox has inspired the writing of this book Agricultural Biotechnology in China: Origins and Prospects. Against the backdrop of ongoing global controversy over the safety and benefits of transgenic crops, this book focuses on two key questions: 1) What historical as well as recent economic, political and social developments account for Chinäs sizeable investment in research on transgenic crops and the apparent mismatch between laboratory and commercial activity ; and 2) What are the chances that transgenic crops will be introduced on a large scale in China, and if so, what are the potential benefits, drawbacks, and constraints associated with widespread adoption These questions are particularly timely as Chinäs regulators may soon approve transgenic rice for commercial planting, making it the first food crop to be grown on a large scale in China. Chinäs investment in transgenic crops is driven as much by a broader science and technology development agenda as by the needs of its agricultural sector. Therefore, Chinäs policymakers can securely pursue the first goal while postponing adoption decisions, which are likely to depend on the technology¿s greater global acceptance and the strength of regulatory oversight, extension mechanisms, and demonstrated need in Chinäs rural areas.The authors begin by describing the origins of Chinäs earliest agrarian civilizations and how agricultural technology historically contributed to the emergence, rise, and fall of states and dynasties. The book then focuses on how post-industrial advances in chemistry and biology led to the development of technologies (including high-yielding seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers) that ushered in a period of expanding global harvests in the mid-20th Century known as the Green Revolution.The political, economic, and social factors that influenced the patterns of adoption as well as the successes and shortcomings of Green Revolution technologies in China are then explored in detail.The authors then introduce transgenic crops ¿ the origins, tools and techniques, and initial patterns of market acceptance or rejection worldwide ¿ describe in depth why, where, and how research on transgenic crops first began in China. This section evaluates the effectiveness of policies that promoted science and technology development as part of the post-1978 reform agenda, and suggests why support for agricultural biotechnology¿and transgenic crops in particular¿was included alongside land and market reforms. The authors move on to questions related to adoption of transgenic crops in China, looking first at how structural changes in the seed industry and the introduction of value-added varieties are changing age-old relationships between farmers and seed providers. In the final chapters, the authors present how well suited transgenic crops may be to meeting persistent and emerging challenges facing Chinäs agricultural sector today.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 192 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Joseph Dvorak has over 10 years experience in wearable technology and design. He led the Conformables project at Motorola which researched highly wearable and easy to use devices and applications. He was the Motorola Scientist in Residence at the MIT Media Lab from 2005 - 2007. He is an Adjunct Professor at Florida Atlantic University where he teaches courses in wearable technology and systems. He holds 14 patents in wearable technology. He is currently the Technology Futurist in the Motorola Corporate Technology Office. He has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago.The term 'Wearable Technology' encompasses a wide spectrum of devices, services and systems for wireless communications and the web. Wearables are by their nature closely associated with the person, and their use generates many social and even legal issues that have little to do with specific technologies. This professional book discusses the characteristics and design elements required for wearable devices and systems to be widely adopted by the mainstream population for use in their everyday lives. It shows how wearables can help people with daily tasks without getting between the user and the task.Moving Wearables into the Mainstream also introduces concepts such as Operational Inertia that form a mindset conducive to designing wearables suitable for broad adoption by consumers. This book provides insight into legal and cultural issues potentially unfamiliar to research engineers, as well as a broad discussion of technologies underlying wearable devices.Moving Wearables into the Mainstream is designed for a professional audience of practitioners and researchers in industry. This volume is also suitable as a secondary advanced-level text or reference book for students in computer science and electrical engineering.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 412 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Creating a Frame for Understanding Local Organizations RAM CNAAN, CARL MILOFSKY, AND ALBERT HUNTER In this book, scholars from anumber of disciplines present work focused on communities, with particular attention to community organizations. A few scholars have emphasized the imp- tance of the need to map this intellectual territory (Calhoun, 1992). In some ways community study seems to be well trodden ground; there has been influential work on social capital, for example (Coleman, 1987,1988; Putnam, 1995; Foley and Edwards, 1997; Edwards and Foley, 1998). Yet the rich diversity of communities and community organizations has rarely been studied from a perspective that is both conceptual and descriptive. The growing sense that - studied local organizations constitute a massive yet little understood portion of the nonprofit cosmos has led Smith (1997a,b) to call them the 'darkmatter of the nonprofit universe. ' An - terdisciplinary attempt to make community a unit ofstudy has not been previously undertaken, and thus we feel that this Handbook makes a unique contribution to scholarly understanding ofboth communities and nonprofit organizations that operate at the community level. A community is a group of people connected by the physical or virtual location (to some extent we can speak of 'places' on the World Wide Web, e. g. ) in which they dwell or congregate, organizations they form, and cultural values and symbols they share. Communities are affected, and in a sense defined by, forces that affect community members and their space.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 452 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The investigation of liquid properties is as old as the human desire to observe natural phenomena. The paramount relevance of such state of matter is - vious, spanning from the basic theoretical model of random systems to the more advanced technical applications. Nevertheless the interpretation and - derstanding of liquid properties remains a challenge in materials science. In the liquid state, the potential and kinetic energies are characterized by similarvalues,differentlyfromthegasorsolid/crystalphases.Thisfundamental physical property prevents a description of the liquid structure independently fromitsdynamics.Theintermolecularforcesandmolecularmotionsarestrictly interconnected, producing the peculiar features of liquid phases. In particular when the intermolecular potential is characterized by speci c features,asanisotropicand/orlong-rangeinteractions,theliquidstateshows- cal dynamic aggregation and structuring phenomena. This is the distinguishing characteristic of complex liquids. Typical examples are the hydrogen-bonded liquids, glass formers, polymers and liquid crystals. Also relatively simple molecular liquids, e.g., CS and benzene, clearly show complex dynamics, 2 evidence of local structuring effects. During the last years, researchers have undertaken a steady effort to improve the knowledge of liquid matter, both from experimental and theoretical points of view. New spectroscopic techniques, based on nonlinear optical phenomena, have been realized and applied to the study of simple molecular liquids. On the other hand, standard experiments have been applied to liquids characterized by particularly complex dynamic processes.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 264 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -We are especially pleased to present our edited book in an area that is quickly emerging as one of the most active research areas that integrate both engineering and medicine. Preliminary research results show signi cant potential in effecting major breakthroughsranging from a reduction in the number of corrective surgeries needed to the ¿scienti c miracle¿ of generating tissue growth. Over $600 million has been in invested in tissue engineering last year alone¿a large and signi cant component of this is in the area of virtual and physical prototyping. Virtual & Physical prototyping can broadly be divided into three categories: Modeling, Manufacturing& Materials. This book focuses on the rst part and some areas of the second.The second bookin this series will focuson the areas in the s- ondandthird categories.As youwill see fromthis book,the principlesutilizeddraw heavily from the more traditional engineering elds including mechanical engine- ing, industrial engineering, civil engineering (structures), electrical engineering and bio engineering. The rst chapter by Winder provides an insight into the practicalities of creating custom made implants for the skull details. The concept of cranioplasty, describing the correction of a bone defect or deformity in the cranium using a bio-compatible material, is described and explored from a computational point of view In Chapter 2, Ming Leu and his group of researchers review the use of virtual reality technology for the development of a virtual bone surgery system, which can be used for training in orthopedic surgery and planning of bone surgery procedures. 320 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -we thank Johannes for providing us with the occasion to gather in his name and for shaping and supporting the careers of so many of us. May 2007 R. von Steiger, G. Gloeckler, G.M. Mason Space Sci Rev (2007) 130: 3¿4 DOI 10.1007/s11214-007-9240-0 Acknowledgement Published online: 21 July 2007 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007 Early in 2006, Edward C. Stone, Principal Investigator of NASA¿s Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE); Len A. Fisk, Chair of the Space Studies Board of the US National Research Council; and the Directorate of the International Space Science Institute (ISSI), Roger M. Bonnet, Andre Balogh and Rudolf von Steiger, agreed to hold a joint ACE/ISSI Symposium on the ¿Composition of Matter¿, at the occasion of my 80th birthday. I feel deeply honoured by this exceptional distinction and was thrilled to participate, because for more than 50 years my research has been centred around measurements of the composition of matter of various origins, reaching¿in geocentric coordinates¿from deep-sea sediments to the limits of solar in uence, where comets come from and where the solar wind meets the interstellar medium. The symposium at Grindelwald, beautifully located at the foot of the Bernese Alps, was organised by Ruedi von Steiger, Silvia Wenger and Barbara Gerber, who created the special atmosphere for which ISSI meetings have become known.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 536 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Bio-materials and prototyping (both virtual and physical) is becoming more and more prevalent in medicine. These materials and technologies are used to design, develop and manufacture medical devices and instrumentation, and to fabricate drug dosage forms. This process is also increasingly being used by surgeons to plan complex operations, especially in the craniofacial and maxillofacial areas. Further, prototyping shows promise in the area of tissue engineering through the use of biomaterials including the direct manufacture of biologically active implants. This book focuses on bio materials and prototyping applications in medical environments. The applications that are discussed integrate bio-materials, CAD, and physical prototyping techniques.Summarizes state-of-the-art research in prototyping of bio-materials for medical applicationsProvides a wide variety of examples of medical applications using rapid prototyping, including tissue engineering, dental applications, and bone replacementAddresses the issues involved with using solid freeform fabrication/rapid prototyping/layered manufacturing that is becoming very important in the biomaterials areaDiscusses the emergence of computer aided design in the development of prosthetic devices 232 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -BioNanoFluidic MEMS explains biosensor development fundamentals and initiates an awareness in engineers and scientists who would like to develop and implement novel biosensors for agriculture, biomedicine, home land security, environmental needs, and disease identification. In addition, the material covered in this book introduces and lays the basic foundation for design, fabrication, testing, and implemention of next generation biosensors through hands-on learning.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 308 pp. Englisch.