springer us springer us okt 2010 (847 risultati)

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Although everybody is familiar with the dodo bird, very few people know its history. Yet this history is compelling when read as a fable of the negative impact of humans on Earth's ecosystems. The author describes the complexity of the factors involved in animal extinction. Although we think of ourselves as more ecologically aware than our ancestors, we are propelling extinction to alarming rates.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 236 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -In the 1960s, it became increasingly clear that more and more information was going to be stored on computers, not on pieces of paper. With these changes in technology and the ways it was used came a need to protect both the systems and the information. For the next ten years, encryption systems of varying strengths were developed, but none proved to be rigorous enough. In 1973, the NBS put out an open call for a new, stronger encryption system that would become the new federal standard. Several years later, IBM responded with a system called Lucifer that came to simply be known as DES (data encryption standard).The strength of an encryption system is best measured by the attacks it is able to withstand, and because DES was the federal standard, many tried to test its limits. (It should also be noted that a number of cryptographers and computer scientists told the NSA that DES was not nearly strong enough and would be easily hacked.) Rogue hackers, usually out to steal as much information as possible, tried to break DES. A number of 'white hat' hackers also tested the system and reported on their successes. Still others attacked DES because they believed it had outlived its effectiveness and was becoming increasingly vulnerable. The sum total of these efforts to use all of the possible keys to break DES over time made for a brute force attack.In 1996, the supposedly uncrackable DES was broken. In this captivating and intriguing book, Matt Curtin charts DES¿s rise and fall and chronicles the efforts of those who were determined to master it.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 304 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -XI ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii INTRODUCTION XV CHAPTER 1: THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES 1 The Magical Vision of the Nonhuman 1 Ancient Philosophy 2 Medieval Philosophy 6 The Renaissance 8 The Birth of Modern Science 10 First Attempts at Contact 16 Cosmism 17 From Enthusiasm to Disenchantment 18 CHAPTER 2: THE RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE 23 Is Extraterrestrial Life a Threat to Religion 23 A Finite Universe and an Infinite God 25 Hinduism, Buddhism, and Other Oriental Religions 26 Judaism 27 Islam 28 Christianity 29 The Problem of Original Sin 30 The Problem of Redemption 34 Biocosmic Theology 36 Vll Contents CHAPTER 3: THE ASTROBIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 41 A New Science: Astrobiology 41 Times of the Universe 43 The Anthropic Principle 47 Chemical Evolution 50 The Formation of the Solar System 51 The Formation of Extrasolar Planets 57 The Birth of Life on Earth 64 Panspermia 73 Evolution and Creationism 76 Toward a Great Complexity 81 Catastrophes and Mass Extinctions 86 Conditions Needed for the Development of Life 96 Life on Mars 107 Life in the Solar System 117 The Search for Life Outside the Solar System 123 CHAPTER 4: THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE 129 Intelligence and Consciousness 129 Consciousness 133 The Development of Intelligence on Earth 137 From Intelligence to Technology 147 Evolution Beyond Humans 154 The Expansion of Intelligent Life 156 The Search for Intelligent Signals 164 The Pdo Scale 176 The Problem of the Answer 177 The San Marino Scale 180 Which Message 182 Extraterrestrials, How 187Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 316 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -In the course of a lifetime, more than half of all women will experience some form of debilitating pelvic disease or discomfort, including chronic urinary tract infections, various kinds of incontinence, pelvic floor prolapse, and interstitial cystitis. Surprisingly, until recently there has been only scant attention paid to this very common group of disorders, considering the vast population of sufferers. What¿s more, doctors have long tended to dismiss many symptoms of urinary tract disorders as an inevitable consequence of the aging process or, worse still, as indicators of underlying psychological disease.In this concise, clearly written, and sympathetic new book, Elizabeth Kavaler suggests that a new approach to UT disorders is long overdue. One of the surprisingly small number of female urologists practicing in the U.S., Dr. Kavaler explains what these diseases are and what patients can do to get themselves diagnosed and treated properly. But more than that, she extends an expert, sympathetic, and skilled hand to those whöve been distressed, isolated, and embarrassed for too long.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 428 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Over the years, Jeremy Bernstein has been in contact with many of the world¿s most renowned physicists and other scientists, many of whom were involved in politics, literature, and language. In this diverse collection of essays, he reflects on their work, their personal relationships, their motives, and their contributions. Even for those people he writes about that he did not know personally, he provides important insights into their lives and work, and questions their character, their decisions, and the lives they led.In the first three essays, Professor Bernstein looks at economic theory and how some physicists who developed interesting economic models based on derivatives and hedge funds almost led to the country into bankruptcy. In later essays, he discusses a suspect visit to Poland by the great Heisenberg during the Nazi era, a visit that there is almost nothing written about.Included also are essays on ancient languages and a nuclear weapons program in South Africa that was supposedly dismantled. In one particularly humorous essay, he describes how an ill-conceived manned spaceship to be powered by an atomic bomb was being developed by some of the country¿s most powerful intellects. The project never got off the ground.Dipping into these pages is like rummaging around in the mind of a genius who has a potpourri of interests and an abundance of fascinating experiences. Bernstein has not only rubbed elbows with some of the finest minds in world, he has worked and played with them. He has sometimes mourned with them and laughed at them. His sharp wit and even sharper analysis make for a fascinating read.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 196 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -These historical narratives of scientific behavior reveal the often irrational way scientists arrive at and assess their theories. There are stories of Einstein¿s stubbornness leading him to reject a correct interpretation of an experiment and miss an important deduction from his own theory, and Newton missing the important deduction from one of his most celebrated discoveries. Copernicus and Galileo are found suppressing information. A theme running throughout the book is the notion that what is obvious today was not so in the past. Scientists seen in their historical context shatter myths and show them to be less modern than we often like to think of them.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 224 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The proper study of mankind is not merely Man, but Intelligence. 1 ¿Arthur C. Clarke, 1951 In the long-running television series ¿The X-Files,¿ the original Deep Throat said to FBI Special Agent Mulder that ¿there are those like yourself who believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life.¿ Ah, but that¿s not the question. If extraterrestrial life exists, most of it may be in simpler forms comparable to the one-celled organisms of Earth biology. Finding such life would be fascinating for scientists, but may be of only passing interest to the general public. What intrigues the average citizen is the possibility of contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. We want to communicate with other sentient beings, learning what they know and telling them about ourselves. We want to nd out how they are like us and how they are different. Microorganisms don¿t have a lot to say. There is another implication of contact that underlies this book: Intel- gent extraterrestrials might have an impact on our future. The information they send us¿if any¿might change our cultures. They could have c- scious intentions toward us, and possibly the technologies to reach us directly. Their intentions may be benign¿or not. Our interest in alien minds is not new. The idea that intelligent beings exist beyond the Earth has been part of the Western intellectual tradition for more than 2000 years. Sometimes this belief was widespread; at other times, it was out of fashion.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 476 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Explains the methods that rocket scientists use¿expressed in a way that could be applied in everyday life. The book illustrates the methods (the 7 secrets) with anecdotes, quotations and biographical sketches of famous scientists, ideas from sci-fi, personal stories and insights, and occasionally a bit of space history. The author reveals that rocket science is just common sense applied to the extraordinarily uncommon environment of outer space and that rocket scientists are people, too.PRAISE FOR BOOKIt¿s really great!¿Dr. Buzz Aldrin, Lunar Module Pilot, First Manned Landing on the Moon'People of Earth¿Attention!' Jim Longuski's book takes you on a journey of exploration to that nearly infinite space between the ears and behind the brows of that most mysterious of all creatures¿the rocket scientist! Going well beyond the oft-used aphorisms, where no writer has gone before, he shows you how these gifted individuals think, feel, work, play, fantasize, rationalize, laugh and cry. From the glories of their epoch-making achievements to the tragedies of their magnificent failures, it is all here, told with insight, humor, objectivity and personal perspective. Without being preachy, lessons are offered that apply to anyone seeking to make professional or personal life just a little bit more successful and fun. I just couldn't set this book down!¿Robert Cesarone, Rocket Scientist, Voyager Navigator, Space Communications ArchitectThis book is a must read for everyone¿not just those who think they want to know how Rocket Scientists think. Do not be scared off by the title; it¿s a delightful and wonderfully useful easy read.¿Dr. William J. O¿Neil, Galileo Project Manager, 1990-1998, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of TechnologySpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 180 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -It is often said that mathematics and music go together, and that people with a special aptitude for mathematics often have similar gifts in music. Some music is very profound, and listeners find that there is far more in it than they appreciated at a first hearing. A similar point can be made about an understanding of mathematics.This book introduces the reader to various topics in mathematics and is intended for precocious high school students and college students just beginning their study of mathematics. The topics discussed in this book include a variety of results in number theory involving squares, and also complex numbers, early algebraic ideas such as the Euclidean algorithm, geometrical constructions created by the Greeks, and more recent topics such as group theory.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 256 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -¿ How Prices Matter rices are ubiquitous, so much so that their importance to the smooth operation of a market economy (even one constrained by extensive polit- P ical controls as is the case in China) can go unnoticed and unheralded. Prices are what all trades, whether at the local mall or across the globe, are built around. Tey facilitate trades among buyers and sellers who don¿t know each other, meaning they make less costly, or more socially benefcial, the allocation and redistribution of the planet¿s scarce resources. Indeed, as the late Friedrich Hayek is renowned for having observed, prices summarize a vast amount of - formation on the relative scarcity and, hence, the relative cost of resources (with much of the information subjective in nature) that can be known only by ind-i viduals scattered across markets and cannot be collected in centralized loc- tions, except through market-determined prices. 1 Because they summarize, and largely hide from view of buyers, so much i- formation spread among people throughout the world, prices can be puzzling. Why prices are what they are, and change for reasons that are obscured by a multitude of economic events that can extend backward in time and forward into the future, can be mysterious. Explaining many puzzling prices can be - tective work that the modern-day Sherlock Holmes would surely fnd challenging.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 344 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -In ¿Columbia: Final Voyage¿ aerospace writer Philip Chien, who has over 20 years¿ experience covering the US space program, provides a unique insight into the crew members who lost their lives in the Columbia disaster. Chien interviewed all seven crew members several times and got to know them as individuals. He reviews in detail their training, their scientific work and other activities during their successful 16-day flight, the background of the accident itself and a detailed first-hand account of what happened that fateful day in February 2003. The author provides a comprehensive and personal look at both the Columbia astronauts and the STS-107 mission, together with a behind-the-scenes account of other people involved in the mission and their personal reactions to the accident. Forward by Jonathan B. Clark, widower of Columbia astronaut Laurel Clark Introduction by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz AldrinSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 464 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -TO CRYPTOGRAPHY EXERCISE BOOK Thomas Baignkres EPFL, Switzerland Pascal Junod EPFL, Switzerland Yi Lu EPFL, Switzerland Jean Monnerat EPFL, Switzerland Serge Vaudenay EPFL, Switzerland Springer - Thomas Baignbres Pascal Junod EPFL - I&C - LASEC Lausanne, Switzerland Lausanne, Switzerland Yi Lu Jean Monnerat EPFL - I&C - LASEC EPFL-I&C-LASEC Lausanne, Switzerland Lausanne, Switzerland Serge Vaudenay Lausanne, Switzerland Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. A CLASSICAL INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGRAPHY EXERCISE BOOK by Thomas Baignkres, Palcal Junod, Yi Lu, Jean Monnerat and Serge Vaudenay ISBN- 10: 0-387-27934-2 e-ISBN-10: 0-387-28835-X ISBN- 13: 978-0-387-27934-3 e-ISBN- 13: 978-0-387-28835-2 Printed on acid-free paper. O 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, Inc., 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now know or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks and similar terms, even if the are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed in the United States of America.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 268 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -1 An Initial Assignment I haven¿t taught the history of mathematics that often, but I do rather like the course. The chief drawbacks to teaching it are that i. it is a lot more work than teaching a regular mathematics course, and ii. in American colleges at least, the students taking the course are not mathematics majors but e- cation majors¿ and and in the past I had found education majors to be somewhat weak and unmotivated. The last time I taught the course, however, themajorityofthestudentsweregraduateeducationstudentsworkingtoward their master¿s degrees. I decided to challenge them right from the start: 1 Assignment. In An Outline of Set Theory, James Henle wrote about mat- matics: Every now and then it must pause to organize and re ect on what it is and where it comes from. This happened in the sixth century B. C. when Euclid thought he had derived most of the mathematical results known at the time from ve postulates. Do a little research to nd as many errors as possible in the second sentence and write a short essay on them. Theresponsesfarexceededmyexpectations. Tobesure,someoftheund- graduates found the assignment unclear: I did not say how many errors they 2 were supposed to nd. But many of the students put their hearts and souls 1 MyapologiestoProf. Henle,atwhoseexpenseIpreviouslyhadalittlefunonthis matter. I used it again not because of any animosity I hold for him, but because I was familiar with it and, dealing with Euclid, it seemed appropriate for the start of my course.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 276 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -In one word, this is a responsible book; the rest is commentary. Around 1992 a few of us were led by Charles Bennett into a Garden of Eden of quantum information, communication, and computation. No sooner had we started exploring our surroundings and naming the birds and the beasts, than Peter Shor put an end to that apparent innocence by showing that factoring could be turned¿by means of quantum hardware¿into a po- nomial task. Fast factoring meant business; everybody seemed to be awfully interested in factoring. Not that anyone had any use for factoring per se, but it seemed that all the world¿s secrets were protected by factor-keyed padlocks. Think of all the power and the glory (and something else) that you might get by acting as a consultant to big businesses and government agencies, helping them pick everyone else¿s locks and at the same time build unpickable ones (well, nearly unpickable) for themselves. And if one can get an exponential advantage in factoring, wouldn¿t an exponential advantage be lying around the corner for practically any other computational task Quantum infor- tion ¿and all that¿ has indeed blossomed in a few years into a wonderful new chapter of physics, comparable in avor and scope to thermodynamics. It has alsoturnedintoaveritable¿industry¿¿producingpapers,conferences,exp- iments, e ects, devices¿even proposals for quantum computer architectures.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 304 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Former NASA Astronaut Harrison Schmitt advocates a private, investor-based approach to returning humans to the Moon¿to extract Helium 3 for energy production, to use the Moon as a platform for science and manufacturing, and to establish permanent human colonies there in a kind of stepping stone community on the way to deeper space. With governments playing a supporting role¿just as they have in the development of modern commercial aeronautics and agricultural production¿Schmitt believes that a fundamentally private enterprise is the only type of organization capable of sustaining such an effort and, eventually, even making it pay off.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 352 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The Laboratory Manual is intended to accompany the Textbook to permit teaching radioanalytical chemistry to seniors and graduate students in a program that will train radiochemists, who are badly needed at this time. The manual will be used in conjunction with the textbook to teach a 3-hour lecture course and a 6-hour laboratory. The experiments address a range of practical aspects in the radiochemistry laboratory: use of laboratory and radiation detection equipment, performing specific analyses for radio-iodine, radio-strontium, uranium, and plutonium, and developing the skill of selecting and testing new procedures.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 176 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Undergraduate courses in mathematics are commonly of two types. On the one hand are courses in subjects - such as linear algebra or real analysis - with which it is considered that every student of mathematics should be acquainted. On the other hand are courses given by lecturers in their own areas of specialization, which are intended to serve as a preparation for research. But after taking courses of only these two types, students might not perceive the sometimes surprising interrelationships and analogies between different branches of mathematics, and students who do not go on to become professional mathematicians might never gain a clear understanding of the nature and extent of mathematics. The two-volume Number Theory: An Introduction to Mathematics attempts to provide such an understanding of the nature and extent of mathematics. It is a modern introduction to the theory of numbers, emphasizing its connections with other branches of mathematics. Part A, which should be accessible to a first-year undergraduate, deals with elementary number theory. Part B is more advanced than the first and should give the reader some idea of the scope of mathematics today. The connecting theme is the theory of numbers, at first sight one of the most abstruse and irrelevant branches of mathematics. Yet by exploring its many connections with other branches, we may obtain a broad picture.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 372 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The importance of the eld of atomic physics to modern technology cannot be overemphasized. Atomic physics served as a major impetus to the development of the quantum theory of matter in the early part of the twentieth century and, due to the availability of the laser as a laboratory tool, it has taken us into the twen- rst century with an abundance of new and exciting phenomena to understand. Our intention in writing this book is to provide a foundation for students to begin researchinmodernatomicphysics. Asthetitleimplies,itisnot,norwasitintended to be, an all-inclusive tome covering every aspect of atomic physics. Any specialized textbook necessarily re ects the predilection of the authors toward certain aspects of the subject. This one is no exception. It re ects our - lief that a thorough understanding of the unique properties of the hydrogen atom is essential to an understanding of atomic physics. It also re ects our fasci- tion with the distinguished position that Mother Nature has bestowed on the pure Coulomb and Newtonian potentials, and thus hydrogen atoms and Keplerian - bits. Therefore, we have devoted a large portion of this book to the hydrogen atom toemphasizethisdistinctiveness. Weattempttostresstheuniquenessoftheattr- tive 1/r potential without delving into group theory. It is our belief that, once an understanding of the hydrogen atom is achieved, the properties of multielectron atoms can be understood as departures from hydrogenic properties.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 304 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Employee disengagement is one of the most pressing problems plaguing managers today hampering the innovation capacities of countless organizations. According to recent polls, some 20 percent of workers report feeling disconnected from their jobs, in an environment of stagnating wages, massive layoffs, rising health care costs, and other factors that contribute to alienation, distrust, and apathy.In The Organizational Sweet Spot, Dr. Charles Ehin takes a refreshing new look at what it will take to reengage disaffected workers and boost their resolve to advance novel ideas. Applying the latest research from such fields as evolutionary psychology, social neuroscience, organizational behavior, anthropology, and social network analysis, Ehin demonstrates how employee disengagement is rooted in a fundamental misalignment between people¿s instinctive drive to develop their personal and group identities through informal or ¿emergent¿ relationships and the ways in which organizational goals and profit motives are executed through formal bureaucracy.The challenge for today¿s organizations¿which operate under constantly changing conditions¿is to narrow this gap, that is, to find the ¿sweet spot¿, where the formal and informal elements of the organization overlap. Ehin provides practical tools for leaders to support this ¿shared access domain¿ to improve productivity, catalyze innovation, and inspire exceptional performance. His new model is likely to reverberate throughout current management thinking as we move toward creating more vital and meaningful workplaces.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 116 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -During the last few decades, human dynamics, institutional change, political relations, and the natural environment have become successively more intertwined. While the increased global economic integration, global forms of governance, globally inter-linked social and environmental developments are often referred to as ¿globalisation,¿ there is no unanimously-agreed upon definition of the term. Depending on the researcher or commentator, it can mean, among other things, the growing integration of markets and nation-states, receding geographical constraints on social and cultural arrangements, the increased dissemination of ideas and technologies, the threat to national sovereignty by trans-national actors; or the transformation of the economic, political and cultural foundations of societies. Regardless of perspective, globalisation permeates our economic, political, and social institutions to a profound degree. Recently, the issue of ¿sustainability¿ has reached the mainstream: are the forces of globalisation ultimately contributing to growth and opportunity¿or to destruction and chaos Against the chorus of globalisation¿s proponents and detractors, the authors propose an approach for measuring globalisation and its consequences. Undertaking a comprehensive review of the literature on globalisation and using data from the MGI and KOF indices, the authors build a framework for defining globalisation and analyzing the relationships among economic, political, and social variables. In particular, they apply the methodology to analyze the effects of globalisation on tax policy, government spending, economic growth, inequality, union power, and the natural environment and consider additional avenues for research, analysis, and decision making. In the process, they hope that by introducing objective measures to enhance our insight into the functioning of the complex global system.Dreher, Gaston and Martens have produced the most systematicand comprehensive research I have seen on both measuring globalisation and analyzing its impact on the most important social and economic issues of our time. Globalisation research is a dense thicket. This books stands out among its many thorns.Geoffrey Garrett, President of the Pacific Council on International PolicyThis is an important contribution to the growing literature on measuring globalization. The analysis is comprehensive and insightful, making it a work that the students of globalization cannot ignore.Jagdish Bhagwati, University Professor, Economics and Law, Columbia University and Author of In Defense of GlobalizationSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 240 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -RandD is the single most important investment for any company or any society. Its ultimate product is an innovation. Innovations are on the other side the major propeller for the respective (socio-) economic development of the very company or society.Management science mainly treat RandD and innovations as costs or budgets to be managed, an approach that is in stark contrast to their overwhelming importance. This and the very fact that RandD and innovation success are a by necessity a-priori unknown and thus uncertain ex-post definition is not at all being respected properly up to now.In The Innovation Game, La Corre and Mishchke consider RandD and innovation as an inherently risky investment which should be profitable, at least on average. Applying a statistical filter model, the authors are able to describe the RandD- and the innovation-process in great detail, almost like a production process. As a metaphor, the book tries to describe it like the control laws of the 'distillery for inno-success knowledge'.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 228 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Contemporary migration involves a dramatic paradox. Although much of what is considered international or transnational migration today transforms people of a wide range of social standings in the emigration countries into laborers at the bottom social and economic ranks of the immigration countries, millions of individuals worldwide seek to migrate internationally. International Migration, Social Demotion, and Imagined Advancement argues that this paradox cannot be explained for as long as common preconceptions about immigrants¿ economic betterment thwart even questioning why individuals who are not threatened by famine or war willingly pursue their demotion abroad. Recognizing immigrants¿ decline as such, this book proposes viewing contemporary migration as socioglobal mobility. Revolving around an ethnographic study of the Albanian 'emigration' in Greece, International Migration, Social Demotion, and Imagined Advancement finds that imaginaries of the world as a social hierarchy might lie at the roots of much of the contemporary international migration. As would-be emigrants perceive different countries in terms of distinct social stations in a global order, they resolve to put up with numerous social and material deprivations in the hope of advancing internationally. Immigrants are typically thought of as aliens in their de facto home societies, however, and that makes genuine advancement all but impossible.Erind Pajo is Assistant Researcher in Anthropology and Lecturer in Social Sciences at the University of California, Irvine.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 232 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Interior Point Methods for Linear Optimization is a comprehensive, thorough textbook on interior point methods (IPMs). The era of IPMs was initiated by N. Karmarkar¿s 1984 paper, which triggered turbulent research and reshaped almost all areas of optimization theory and computational practice. This book gives a comprehensive review of the main results of more than a decade of IPM research. Numerous exercises are provided to aid in understanding the material.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 524 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Paralleling emerging trends in cyber-health technology, concerns are mounting about racial, ethnic, disparities in health care utilization and outcomes. eHealth Solutions for Health Care Disparities brings these currents together, challenging readers to use, promote, and develop new technology-based methods for closing these gaps. Edited by a leading urban health advocate and featuring 16 expert contributors, the book examines cyber-strategies with the greatest potential toward effective, equitable care, improved service delivery and better health outcomes for all.Chapters go well beyond the possibilities of the Electronic Medical Record to discuss emerging roles for information technology in promoting healthful behavior changes (e.g., nutrition, weight loss, smoking cessation), disease prevention (e.g., cancer, HIV), and healthcare utilization, patient education and medicine compliance). The rise of e-Patients and the transformation of the doctor-patient relationship are also discussed. Opportunities for Web based products and interventions are explored in terms of tracking disparities, improving healthcare utilization and health outcomes, reducing disparities and monitoring trends among patients, whether they have Internet capabilities or not.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 188 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Queueing Theory deals with systems where there is contention for resources, but the demands are only known probabilistically.This book can be considered to be a monograph or a textbook, and thus is aimed at two audiences: those who already know Queueing Theory but would like to know more of the Linear Algebraic Approach; and as a rst course for students who don't already have a strong background in probability, and feel more comfortable with algebraic arguments. Also, the equations are well suited to easy computation. In fact, there is much discussion on how various properties can be easily computed in any language that has automatic matrix operations (e.g., MATLAB). To help with physical insight, there are over 80 gures, numerous examples and exercises distributed throughout the book. There are, perhaps 50 books on QT that are available today, and most practitioners have several of them on their shelves. This book would be a good addition, as well as a good supplement to another text.This second edition has been updated throughout including a new chapter on Semi Markov Processes and new material on matrix representations of distributions and Power-tailed distribution.Lester Lipsky is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Connecticut.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 572 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Finiteelementmethodhasbeenthedominanttechniqueincomputationalmech- icsinthepastdecades,andithasmadesigni cantcontributionstothedevelopments in engineering and science. Nevertheless, FEM is not well suited to problems h- ing severe mesh distortion owing to extremely large deformations of materials, encountering moving discontinuities such as crack propagation along arbitrary and complex paths, involving considerable meshings and remeshings in structural optimization problems, or having multidomain of in uence in multiphenomena physical problems. It is impossible to completely overcome those mesh-related dif culties by a mesh-based method. The highly structured nature of nite e- ment approximations imposes severe penalties in seeking the solutions of those problems. Distinguishing with nite element, nite difference, and nite volume methods, meshless method discretizes the continuum body only with a set of nodal points andtheapproximationisconstructedentirelyintermsofnodes.Thereisnoneedof mesh or elements in this method. It does not possess the mesh-related dif culties and provides an approach with more exibility in the applications in engineering and science. The meshless method started to capture the interest of a broader community of researchers only several years ago, and now it becomes a growing and evolving eld. It is showing that this is a very rich area to be explored, and has great promise for many very challenging computational problems. On the one hand, great advances of meshless methods have been achieved. On the other hand, there are many aspects of meshless methods that could bene t from improvements. A broadercommunityofresearcherscanbringdiverseskillsandbackgroundstobear on the task of improving this method.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 212 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Dr. Supramaniam Srinivasan (1932-2004) obtained his Bachelor of Science with Honors in Chemistry from the University of Ceylon in l955 and his PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1963. The title of his PhD is Mechanism of Electrolyte Hydrogen Evolution: An Isotope Effect Study, which he did under the direction of Professor John O¿Mara Bockris. Srini, as he liked to be called, was very productive throughout his career. He spent several years as a po- doc with Dr. Bockris and published his first book on fuel cells with Dr. Bockris in 1969. The title of their book is Fuel Cells: Their Electrochemistry, which was published by McGraw-Hill. In l966, Srini began serving as an Assistant Professor of Electrochemistry in Surgical Research at the Downstate Medical Center, State University of New York (DMC-SUNY) in Brooklyn, New York. While he was there, Srini published several articles on the use of electrochemical methods in medical applications and later wrote a chapter on the subject entitled ¿An Electrochemical Approach to the Solution of Cardiovascular Problems,¿ which appeared as Chapter 8 in Volume 10 of the Comprehensive Treatise of Electrochemistry, Biochemistry. Srini left DMC-SUNY in 1973 and served at several institutions including the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) where he returned to more energy related electrochemical topics. Srini left LANL in 1988 and began serving as the Deputy Director of the Center for Electrochemical Systems and Hydrogen Research at Texas A&M University where I was at that time.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 724 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -A symptom-based version of the critically-acclaimed Norton/Surgery: Basic Science and Clinical Evidence, Learning Surgery provides a ready reference to those in third and fourth year residencies. Essential algorithms and case presentations meet with clerkship learning objectives as outlined by the Association of Surgical Education in their ASE Manual. Two sections include Introduction to Clinical Surgery in the Surgical Clerkship Setting and Management of Surgical Diseases During the Clerkship. Chapters include: Stroke, Hypertension, Abdominal Masses, Head Injuries, and Burns. Written by leading clinicians and educators, both surgery residents and medical students will find LEARNING SURGERY indispensible in their rotations and clerkships. Surgeons who train residents will also find the text a valuable ajunct to their teaching.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 812 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -As health care costs soar there is increasing interest in examining what society and, particularly, patients receive in return for these expenditures. Optimizing Health brings together the best thinking from both sides of the Atlantic to explore these issues. It employs disciplinary perspectives from economics, ethics, philosophy, psychology, clinical practice, and epidemiology to explore various ways that value for patients have and can be determined. It concludes with a discussion of changes required in practice, research, and health care systems to maximize the outcomes received from the provision of medical care services from the patient¿s perspective.The first section of the book provides theoretical perspectives from economics and systems thinking that help us to focus on how one might determine the value of medical care for patients. The next section considers the ethical and philosophical dilemmas that face developed countries in distributing medical care. How is justice served and evidence-based medicine employed to increase the value of medical care for patients The section on psychology deals with measuring outcomes from the patient¿s perspective and involving patients in medical decision making. Measuring quality of life and gaining valid quality of life information when patients cannot respond for themselves are important topics covered by these chapters. Other chapters consider ways that patients can become more involved in medical decision making with the expectation that this will increase the value of medical care for patients.A major section of the book about clinical practice discusses problems that can reduce the value to patients of medical care. These include overdiagnosis, aggressive treatments that do not result in better patient outcomes, findings that earlier diagnosis does not always result in better outcomes, and the extent of medical error in treatment.The final sections deal withcost-effectiveness analyses and applications of clinical epidemiology. The chapters include a number of original investigations and applications of new methodologies. All-in-all, the volume is must reading for practitioners, policy makers, and researchers who want to find in one place the state-of-the-art thinking and future directions of valuing medical care from the patient¿s perspective.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 336 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -Where there are patients, clients, or study participants, there are data. And when data involve personal variables of race, ethnicity, gender, and/or sexual orientation, questions of relevance and marginalization often arise. Assessing Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in Health Research brings needed clarity to the debate by identifying the ethical issues as well as the technical challenges inherent in measuring these elusive concepts.Sana Loue expands on her work begun in Gender, Ethnicity, and Health Research by paralleling the evolution of racial and sexual categories with the development of health research. Her review of the literature clearly explains when and why the use of classification systems may be both clinically and morally appropriate. In addition, Loue provides a salient guide to assessment tools currently used in measuring racial and sexual constructs, identity, and experience. Overview of categories in their sociopolitical context Self-definition vs. definition by others: methodological considerations Review of the overlapping roles of race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation in health, health care, and health care disparities Selected measures for assessing ethnicity, ethnic identification, and levels of acculturation Suggested dimensions for assessing sexual orientation Current diagnostic criteria for gender identity disorderGiven the prevalence of ethnic- and gender-based data collection throughout the health and mental health fields, this book¿s usefulness is not limited to the research community. Physicians, therapists, social workers, and sociologists will find this clear-minded volume an important source of instruments - and insights.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 176 pp. Englisch.