springer us feb 2014 (244 risultati)

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Quirky Quantum Concepts explains the more important and more difficult concepts in theoretical quantum mechanics, especially those which are consistently neglected or confusing in many common expositions. The emphasis is on physical understanding, which is necessary for the development of new, cutting edge science.In particular, this book explains the basis for many standard quantum methods, which are too often presented without sufficient motivation or interpretation. The book is not a simplification or popularization: it is real science for real scientists. Physics includes math, and this book does not shy away from it, but neither does it hide behind it. Without conceptual understanding, math is gibberish. The discussions here provide the experimental and theoretical reasoning behind some of the great discoveries, so the reader may see how discoveries arise from a rational process of thinking, a process which Quirky Quantum Concepts makes accessible to its readers.Quirky Quantum Concepts is therefore a supplement to almost any existing quantum mechanics text. Students and scientists will appreciate the combination of conversational style, which promotes understanding, with thorough scientific accuracy.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 388 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Globalization is commonly described in trade and cultural terms but its impact on unions and collective bargaining is seldom assessed. The few studies of unions and globalization are mostly collections of cases studies of how unions can work together or with other alliance partners to defend against the power of multinational corporations. This book goes beyond the current research by asking how unions have tried to deal with globalization and how globalization might threaten the fundamental union mission of taking wages, hours and conditions of employment out of competition. The introductory chapter defines globalization and uses the case of the Detroit Three automakers (GM, Chrysler and Ford) to show how globalization can affect employment and union size, influence and relevancy. The second chapter shows how unions deal globalization through collective bargaining regarding outsourcing, alliances, strikes and political action, including lobbying and international work standards.The final chapter argues that the unions cannot continue unchanged in this age of globalization and asks what they must do to be effective and relevant.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 68 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 344 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -In recent years there has been growing pressure for consistent product quality, and a need for companies to demonstrate sound quality management practices in order to meet 'Due Diligence' requirements of both legislation and the quality assurance practices of customers. It has become accepted that operating to the requirements of the international standard for quality management - BS EN ISO 900- goes a long way towards meeting these needs. The objective of this book is to explain the requirements of the standard, to offer advice about achieving those requirements and to indicate what the assessors will look for at assessment time. It is important that certification to the standard is sought to support achievement of company objectives and not the reverse, and of course the standard can apply to organizations and services, just as much as to companies. Thus the word' company' in the text should be treated accordingly. lllustrative material has been presented under the logo of a fictiti ous company 'Quality Food Services' - in this context QFS does not bear any relationship whatsoever to any identically or similarly named business that may exist. Readers will find it helpful to read the book with a copy of the standard to hand, and are strongly encouraged to read the complete text before taking any steps to prepare for certification to the standard.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 208 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 384 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 424 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 220 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book explores a proactive and domain-driven method to classification tasks. This novel proactive approach to data mining not only induces a model for predicting or explaining a phenomenon, but also utilizes specific problem/domain knowledge to suggest specific actions to achieve optimal changes in the value of the target attribute. In particular, the authors suggest a specific implementation of the domain-driven proactive approach for classification trees. The book centers on the core idea of moving observations from one branch of the tree to another. It introduces a novel splitting criterion for decision trees, termed maximal-utility, which maximizes the potential for enhancing profitability in the output tree. Two real-world case studies, one of a leading wireless operator and the other of a major security company, are also included and demonstrate how applying the proactive approach to classification tasks can solve business problems. Proactive Data Mining with Decision Trees is intended for researchers, practitioners and advanced-level students.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 100 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Online social networks collect information from users' social contacts and their daily interactions (co-tagging of photos, co-rating of products etc.) to provide them with recommendations of new products or friends.Lately, technological progressions in mobile devices (i.e. smart phones) enabled the incorporation of geo-location data in the traditional web-based online social networks, bringing the new era of Social and Mobile Web. The goal of this book is to bring together important research in a new family of recommender systems aimed at serving Location-based Social Networks (LBSNs). The chapters introduce a wide variety of recent approaches, from the most basic to the state-of-the-art, for providing recommendations in LBSNs.The book is organized into three parts. Part 1 provides introductory material on recommender systems, online social networks and LBSNs. Part 2 presents a wide variety of recommendation algorithms, ranging from basic to cutting edge, as well as a comparison of the characteristics of these recommender systems. Part 3 provides a step-by-step case study on the technical aspects of deploying and evaluating a real-world LBSN, which provides location, activity and friend recommendations. The material covered in the book is intended for graduate students, teachers, researchers, and practitioners in the areas of web data mining, information retrieval, and machine learning.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 116 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book is based on the papers delivered at an International Workshop on Multiple Sclerosis held in Erice, Italy from 29th August to 1st September 1983. The Meeting was organized with great efficiency in the delightful setting of the Centro di Cultura Scientifica Ettore Mahorana, by its Director, Antonino Zichichi, and was directed by the Editors of the Proceedings and by Professor C. Alvisi of the University of Bologna. The emphasis was deliberately on the contributions of laboratory science to the understanding of mUltiple sclerosis, its etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment. Where so much is unknown, disagreement was expected and indeed welcome, and it is regrettable that it was not possible to publish verbatim the often animated and always interesting discussion. Differing views on the relevance of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis to multiple sclerosis were expressed by Dr. Wisniewski, Professor Seitelberger and Professor Alvord, who graphi cally illustrated his changing beliefs over the years. Professor Seitelberger laid much greater emphasis on remyelination in remission in mUltiple sclerosis than had previously been the accepted view. The disorder of both humoral and cellular immunity in multiple scler osis was discussed by Dr. Roos and Professor Link. Dr. Gilden described how recombinative techniques might be applied to the detec tion of a virus in multiple sclerosis. The continued inability to detect any antigen to match the oligoclonal IgG bands in the CSF in multiple sclerosis patients was disappointing and there was an increasing tendency to regard the bands as 'nonsense' antibodies.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 276 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 220 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This brief examines issues of spectrum allocation for the limited resources of radio spectrum. It uses a game-theoretic perspective, in which the nodes in the wireless network are rational and always pursue their own objectives. It provides a systematic study of the approaches that can guarantee the system¿s convergence at an equilibrium state, in which the system performance is optimal or sub-optimal. The author provides a short tutorial on game theory, explains game-theoretic channel allocation in clique and in multi-hop wireless networks and explores challenges in designing game-theoretic mechanisms for dynamic channel redistribution. Since designing a completely secure mechanism is extremely expensive or impossible in most of distributed autonomous systems, it is more beneficial to study misbehavior of the nodes and develop light-weighted game-theoretic channel allocation mechanisms. With a mix of theoretical and hands-on information, the brief traces the concepts of game theory, the current state of spectrum allocation in wireless networks and future competition for resources. Thorough yet accessible, the content is ideal for researchers and practitioners working on spectrum redistribution. It is also a helpful resource for researchers and advanced-level students interested in game theory and wireless communications.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 112 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Proceedings of a NATO ARW held in Cargese, France, October 9-13, 1989Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 432 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This new edition of the well established text Scheduling - Theory, Algorithms, and Systems provides an up-to-date coverage of important theoretical models in the scheduling literature as well as significant scheduling problems that occur in the real world. It again includes supplementary material in the form of slide-shows from industry and movies that show implementations of scheduling systems.The main structure of the book as per previous edition consists of three parts. The first part focuses on deterministic scheduling and the related combinatorial problems. The second part covers probabilistic scheduling models; in this part it is assumed that processing times and other problem data are random and not known in advance. The third part deals with scheduling in practice; it covers heuristics that are popular with practitioners and discusses system design and implementation issues. All three parts of this new edition have been revamped and streamlined. The references have been made completely up-to-date.Theoreticians and practitioners alike will find this book of interest. Graduate students in operations management, operations research, industrial engineering, and computer science will find the book an accessible and invaluable resource. Scheduling - Theory, Algorithms, and Systems will serve as an essential reference for professionals working on scheduling problems in manufacturing, services, and other environments.Reviews of third edition:This well-established text covers both the theory and practice of scheduling. The book begins with motivating examples and the penultimate chapter discusses some commercial scheduling systems and examples of their implementations.' (Mathematical Reviews, 2009)Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 696 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Analysis of Genetic Association Studies is both a graduate level textbook in statistical genetics and genetic epidemiology, and a reference book for the analysis of genetic association studies. Students, researchers, and professionals will find the topics introduced in Analysis of Genetic Association Studies particularly relevant. The book is applicable to the study of statistics, biostatistics, genetics and genetic epidemiology.In addition to providing derivations, the book uses real examples and simulations to illustrate step-by-step applications. Introductory chapters on probability and genetic epidemiology terminology provide the reader with necessary background knowledge. The organization of this work allows for both casual reference and close study.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 436 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -xv From the Old to the New xvii Acknowledgments xxi 1 Verilog ¿ A Tutorial Introduction 1 Getting Started 2 A Structural Description 2 Simulating the binaryToESeg Driver 4 Creating Ports For the Module 7 Creating a Testbench For a Module 8 11 Behavioral Modeling of Combinational Circuits Procedural Models 12 Rules for Synthesizing Combinational Circuits 13 14 Procedural Modeling of Clocked Sequential Circuits Modeling Finite State Machines 15 Rules for Synthesizing Sequential Systems 18 Non-Blocking Assignment ('Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 408 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -There are few topics in sex research as compelling and confounding to researchers, clinicians, and the general public as that of transsexualism. Upending normative notions of gender, eroticism, and identity, it poses significant scientific and clinical challenges. The book addresses a fascinating and largely unexplored topic within the study of transsexualism: The feelings and desires of conventionally masculine men who are attracted to women yet want to become women themselves. Through a collection and discussion of vivid first-person narratives, the book provides an in-depth examination of these men's unusual propensity to be sexually aroused by the thought of themselves as women and how these men's sexual feelings influence their decisions to seek or undergo sex reassignment.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 256 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 1820 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Anumber of developing countries, including small island states have common problems that have affected their development and growth. Knowledge Management (KM) initiatives can be used to address some of these issues, but these developing countries need to understand what is needed to implement them, in order to improve economic conditions. While many of these countries have access to technologies that can be used to assist in knowledge management, relevant and low cost KM initiatives need to be considered in improving their existing KM processes. Sectors critical to the growth of these developing countries include health care, crime management, disaster recovery management, small and medium size enterprise development. Knowledge Management for Development: Domains, Strategies and Technologies for Developing Countries highlights the opportunities in these sectors and provides advice as to how these countries should go about understanding, building and adopting the relevant KM strategies and technologies. This book identifies appropriate technologies which should be considered to increase productivity within the identified sectors in the developing countries and also sectors in where knowledge management initiatives can yield maximum value. It also considers the constraints of these territories, recommending appropriate technologies and strategies for KM initiatives. It provides advice on how these technologies should be adopted in these sectors of developing countries. Investing in these strategies should benefit these countries development and growth.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 300 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Thin-Film Capacitors for Packaged Electronics deals with the capacitors of a wanted kind, still needed and capable of keeping pace with the demands posed by ever greater levels of integration. It spans a wide range of topics, from materials properties to limits of what's the best one can achieve in capacitor properties to process modeling to application examples. Some of the topics covered are the following:Novel insights into fundamental relationships between dielectric constant and the breakdown field of materials and related capacitance density and breakdown voltage of capacitor structuresElectrical characterization techniques for a wide range of frequencies (1 kHz to 20 GHz)Process modeling to determine stable operating pointsPrevention of metal (Cu) diffusion into the dielectricMeasurements and modeling of the dielectric micro-roughness.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 180 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Whoever coined the adage 'an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure' could not have known how important this adage would become. The challenge of altering the health trajectories of poor lifestyle decisions for such behaviors as smoking, drinking and using illicit drugs, violence, dropping out of school, engagement in risky sexual behaviors and crime through prevention research has led to a new discipline, prevention science.Defining Prevention Sciencecovers this emerging field of science: its goals, its conceptual and theoretical foundations, its methods and especially its utility. Not content to simply differentiate the field from its close allies: epidemiology, psychology, neuroscience, sociology, economics, the text explains how these many disciplines enhance each other at both research and intervention levels and how prevention science draws on these biological, behavioral and social sciences to create an innovative knowledge base that has provided cost-effective, evidence-based prevention interventions and policies. To this end, familiar developmental benchmarks are recast in prevention/health promotion context, from the crucial importance of adolescence in encountering and deterring high-risk behaviors to the risks and resiliencies of single-mother families. An international group of contributors offers current findings, up-to-date methods for effective evidence-based interventions and improvements in research technologies in these key areas:Physical, cognitive and emotional vulnerability across the life course.The roles of developmental influences in prevention.Intervention development, delivery and implementation.Bringing the intervention approach to research design.New directions in analytic methods.Cost analysis and policy implications.Advances in Prevention Science: Defining Prevention Science aims to inspire further refinements in the fieldand encourage communication among researchers in its own and related disciplines, including public health, epidemiology, psychology, and criminology. This is the first volume in the series, Advances in Prevention Science, that provides the framework for other volume that will focus on such issues as: Prevention Science in School Settings: Complex Relationships and Processes; Preventing Crime and Violence and The Prevention of Substance Use.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 648 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 476 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Every human being is aware of the flow of time. This fact is embodied in the existence of such notions as the past and the future, the two domains being separated from each other by the single moment of the present. While the past is regarded as fixed and definite, the future is viewed as unknown, uncertain, and undetermined. The only perceivable moment is the present, the `now' - the ever-changing point moving from the past into the future. Physics tells us a different story: not only are the vast majority of physical laws time-reversible, but the concept of the `now' itself has no place at all in physics. In other words, the equations of physics do not distinguish between the past and the future and seem to be completely oblivious to the very idea of the present. This book discusses the biological and psychological aspects of perception of time, and the problems related to the determination of location arising from quantum physics, together with comments and opinions from philosophers and physicists. 320 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Over the past decade, researchers from different academic disciplines have paid increasing attention to the productivity of online environments. The ethical underpinnings of research in such settings, however, remain contested and often controversial. As traditional debates have been reignited by the need to respond to the particular characteristics of technologically-mediated environments, researchers have entered anew key debates regarding the moral, legal and regulative aspects of research ethics. A growing trend in this work has been towards the promotion of localized and contextualized research ethics - the suggestion that the decisions we make should be informed by the nature of the environments we study and the habits/expectations of participants within them. Despite such moves, the relationship between the empirical, theoretical and methodological aspects of Internet research ethics remains underexplored. Drawing from ongoing sociological research into the practices of media cultures online, this book provides a timely and distinctive response to this need.This book explores the relationship between the production of ethical stances in two different contexts: the ethical manoeuvring of participants within online media-fan communities and the ethical decision-making of the author as Internet researcher, manoeuvring, as it were, in the academic community. In doing so, the book outlines a reflexive framework for exploring research ethics at different levels of analysis; the empirical settings of research; the theoretical perspectives which inform the researcher¿s objectification of the research settings; and the methodological issues and practical decisions that constitute the activity as research. The analysis of these different levels develops a way of thinking about ethical practice in terms of stabilizing and destabilizing moves within and between research and researched communities. The analysis emphasizes the continuities anddiscontinuities between both research practice and online media-fan activity, and social activity in on and offline environments.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 168 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -At the request of a Subcommittee of the United States Senate, in February, 1975, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (now the National Institute of Neurological and Communi cative Disorders and Stroke) conducted a Workshop on the Research Status of Spinal Manipulative Therapy. The Workshop was held in response to the Senate Subcommittee's request for an 'independent unbiased study of the fundamentals of the chiropractic profession. ' Since spinal manipulative therapy is a key tenet of chiropractic, the Institute felt a research workshop focused on that issue would provide a useful base upon which to examine the broad concept of the role of biomechanical alterations of the spine in health and disease. This would include the pathophysiologic and clinical hypotheses formulated by medical and osteopathic physicians as w~ll as chiropractors. Why the relatively sudden interest of the Senate Subcommittee in chiropractic There were probably many reasons for that interest, but suffice to say anticipation of discussion on the role of chiro practic in any national system of health insurance could in itself have provided adequate stimulus for the request. In any case, the NINCDS was asked to review what was and what was not known about the fundamentals of chiropractic. I stress 'fundamentals' since as a research organization, the NINCDS is not charged with review ing matters such as clinical education, licensure or clinical prac tice. A small expert committee of scientific consultants helped the Institute design the format and agenda for the Workshop.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 492 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 804 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This book seeks to confront an apparent contradiction: that while we are constantly attending to environmental issues, we seem to be woefully out of touch with nature. The goal of Ecopsychology, Phenomenology and the Environment is to foster an enhanced awareness of nature that can lead us to new ways of relating to the environment, ultimately yielding more sustainable patterns of living. This volume is different from other books in the rapidly growing field of ecopsychology in its emphasis on phenomenological approaches, building on the work of phenomenological psychologists such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty. This focus on phenomenological methodologies for articulating our direct experience of nature serves as a critical complement to the usual methodologies of environmental and conservation psychologists, who have emphasized quantitative research. Moreover, Ecopsychology, Phenomenology and the Environment is distinctive insofar as chapters by phenomenologically-sophisticated ecopsychologists are complemented by chapters written by phenomenological researchers of environmental issues with backgrounds in philosophy and geology, providing a breadth and depth of perspective not found in other works written exclusively by psychologists.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 292 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -This handbook serves as a complement to the Handbook on Data Envelopment Analysis (eds, W.W. Cooper, L.M. Seiford and J, Zhu, 2011, Springer) in an effort to extend the frontier of DEA research. It provides a comprehensive source for the state-of-the art DEA modeling on internal structures and network DEA. Chapter 1 provides a survey on two-stage network performance decomposition and modeling techniques. Chapter 2 discusses the pitfalls in network DEA modeling. Chapter 3 discusses efficiency decompositions in network DEA under three types of structures, namely series, parallel and dynamic. Chapter 4 studies the determination of the network DEA frontier. In chapter 5 additive efficiency decomposition in network DEA is discussed. An approach in scale efficiency measurement in two-stage networks is presented in chapter 6. Chapter 7 further discusses the scale efficiency decomposition in two stage networks. Chapter 8 offers a bargaining game approach to modeling two-stage networks. Chapter 9 studies shared resources and efficiency decomposition in two-stage networks. Chapter 10 introduces an approach to computing the technical efficiency scores for a dynamic production network and its sub-processes. Chapter 11 presents a slacks-based network DEA. Chapter 12 discusses a DEA modeling technique for a two-stage network process where the inputs of the second stage include both the outputs from the first stage and additional inputs to the second stage.Chapter 13 presents an efficiency measurement methodology for multi-stage production systems. Chapter 14 discusses network DEA models, both static and dynamic. The discussion also explores various useful objective functions that can be applied to the models to find the optimal allocation of resources for processes within the black box, that are normally invisible to DEA. Chapter 15 provides a comprehensive review of various type network DEA modeling techniques. Chapter 16 presents shared resources models forderiving aggregate measures of bank-branch performance, with accompanying component measures that make up that aggregate value. Chapter 17 examines a set of manufacturing plants operating under a single umbrella, with the objective being to use the component or function measures to decide what might be considered as each plant¿s core business.Chapter 18 considers problem settings where there may be clusters or groups of DMUs that form a hierarchy. The specific case of a set off electric power plants is examined in this context.Chapter 19 models bad outputs in two-stage network DEA. Chapter 20 presents an application of network DEA to performance measurement of Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. Chapter 21 presents an application of a two-stage network DEA model for examining the performance of 30 U.S. airline companies. Chapter 22 then presents two distinct network efficiency models that are applied to engineering systems.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 612 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Biopharmaceutical medicines, the newest class of therapeutics, are quite heterogeneous and include a range of molecules such as proteins, peptides, vaccines and nucleic acids, with use in virtually all therapeutic fields (e.g. cancer and infectious diseases, vaccination, metabolic dysfunctions) and diagnostics. This edited book gives a concise and up-to-date overview of the biological features justifying the use of different human mucosa as delivery routes for biopharmaceuticals, the technological strategies that have been followed so far regarding the optimization of mucosal potentialities as well as the challenges that arise with the advent of new biopharmaceutical drugs and alternative means of administration. Following a brief introduction, the first section addresses general aspects of the biology of mucosal tissues and their unique aspects toward beneficial or deleterious interaction with biopharmaceuticals and their delivery systems. The second part reviews the different delivery strategies that have recently been investigated for different mucosal sites. The third section describes the development and clinical applications of drug delivery systems and products enclosing biopharmaceuticals for mucosal delivery, with a focus on the most successful case studies of recent years. The last section briefly centers on relevant aspects of the regulatory, toxicological and market issues of mucosal delivery of biopharmaceuticals.¿ Scientists and researchers in the fields of drug delivery, material science, biomedical science and bioengineering as well as professionals, regulators and policy makers in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and healthcare industries will find in this book an important compendium of fundamental concepts and practical tools for their daily research and activities.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 624 pp. Englisch.