springer apr 2002 (336 results)

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Many introductory books on mathematical finance also outline some com puter algorithms. My goal is to contribute a closer look at algorithmic issues that arise from complex forms of the underlying pricing models-issues many practitioners need to solve sooner or later in their careers. This book takes such a close look at uncertain volatility models, an exten sion of Black-Scholes theory.It discusses applications to exotic option portfo lios with barriers and early exercise features. It describes an object-oriented C++ solution, included in source code on the accompanying CD. Practitioners and students who need to build analytic software libraries may benefit from reading this book and studying the software. The book focuses on a family of mathematical models, while in the field one encounters greater variation in instrument properties. In both cases mathematical and financial knowledge must be complemented by good programming skills to produce the best system. Analytic software needs design-a central message of the later chapters of this book. This book has come out of my Ph.D. thesis. I am very grateful to my academic advisor, Marco Avellaneda of New York University, who taught me mathematical finance and uncertain volatility. Computational finance be came exciting for me because Marco encouraged an algorithmic approach to uncertain volatility. I thank Afshin Bayrooti, Vladimir Finkelstein, and Antonio Paras for giving valuable feedback. Antonio is the co-inventor of the original uncertain volatility model, A-UVM. Richard Holmes has found a crucial bug in an early implementation of the software.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 256 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Sapere aude! Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) Numerical simulations playa key role in many areas of modern science and technology. They are necessary in particular when experiments for the underlying problem are too dangerous, too expensive or not even possible. The latter situation appears for example when relevant length scales are below the observation level. Moreover, numerical simulations are needed to control complex processes and systems. In all these cases the relevant problems may become highly complex. Hence the following issues are of vital importance for a numerical simulation: - Efficiency of the numerical solvers: Efficient and fast numerical schemes are the basis for a simulation of 'real world' problems. This becomes even more important for realtime problems where the runtime of the numerical simulation has to be of the order of the time span required by the simulated process. Without efficient solution methods the simulation of many problems is not feasible. 'Efficient' means here that the overall cost of the numerical scheme remains proportional to the degrees of freedom, i. e. , the numerical approximation is determined in linear time when the problem size grows e. g. to upgrade accuracy. Of course, as soon as the solution of large systems of equations is involved this requirement is very demanding.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 204 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Conference Diagrams 2002, held in Callaway Gardens, Georgia, USA, in April 2002.The 21 revised full papers and 19 posters presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 77 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on understanding and communicating with diagrams, diagrams in mathematics, computational aspects of diagrammatic representation and reasoning, logic and diagrams, diagrams in human-computer interaction, tracing the process of diagrammatic reasoning, visualizing information with diagrams, diagrams and software engineering, and cognitive aspects.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 384 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Risk Management and Business Continuity are essential for the competitive capacity of any international corporation. The temporary unavailability of technology and services can endanger the existence of any company. It is cruical to develop an international strategy to deal with these problems. This book provides theoretical analysis and practical solutions on these topics.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 232 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -The aim of this book is to present a recently developed approach suitable for investigating a variety of qualitative aspects of order-preserving random dynamical systems and to give the background for further development of the theory. The main objects considered are equilibria and attractors. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated by analysing the long-time behaviour of some classes of random and stochastic ordinary differential equations which arise in many applications.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 248 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Term rewriting techniques are applicable in various fields of computer sci ence: in software engineering (e.g., equationally specified abstract data types), in programming languages (e.g., functional-logic programming), in computer algebra (e.g., symbolic computations, Grabner bases), in pro gram verification (e.g., automatically proving termination of programs), in automated theorem proving (e.g., equational unification), and in algebra (e.g., Boolean algebra, group theory). In other words, term rewriting has applications in practical computer science, theoretical computer science, and mathematics. Roughly speaking, term rewriting techniques can suc cessfully be applied in areas that demand efficient methods for reasoning with equations. One of the major problems one encounters in the theory of term rewriting is the characterization of classes of rewrite systems that have a desirable property like confluence or termination. If a term rewriting system is conflu ent, then the normal form of a given term is unique. A terminating rewrite system does not permit infinite computations, that is, every computation starting from a term must end in a normal form. Therefore, in a system that is both terminating and confluent every computation leads to a result that is unique, regardless of the order in which the rewrite rules are applied. This book provides a comprehensive study of termination and confluence as well as related properties.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 436 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -As e-commerce becomes the norm of business transactions and information be comes an essential commodity, it is vital that extensive efforts be made to examine and rectify the problems with the underlying architectures, processes, methods, that are involved in providing and and tools, as well as organizational structures, utilizing services relating to information technology. Such a holistic view of the relevant structures is required in order to identify all of the key aspects that can affect network security. Unfortunately, today's systems and practices, although they have proved to be useful and become widespread, contain significant unnecessary complexity. This complexity provides many loopholes that make systems and practices vulnerable to malicious attacks by hackers as well as by individual and organized criminals. FUrther, there are enormous risks due to malfunction of the systems. The holes in the network system cannot simply be plugged up by the use of cryptography and firewalls. While many changes need to be made in operating systems and system software with respect to security, this alone does not solve the problem. The problems cannot be solved by addressing only a single key aspect of network security. A holistic approach is required. Sumit Ghosh has provided in this book such a holistic view of the area of network security. Thus, it is a most welcome contribution.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 240 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Because today's amateur astronomical telescopes are both powerful and affordable, spectroscopy - once the province of professionals - is becoming more and more popular. Various spectroscopes, at prices to suit everyone, are now available 'off the shelf'. Practical Amateur Spectroscopy contains everything an amateur needs to grasp the basic principles, to begin observing, and to understand just what the spectra show. Contributions by leading practical amateurs from America and Europe cover a very wide range of amateur equipment and techniques. One even describes how an audio CD can be used to show solar emission and absorption lines!Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 224 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Program construction is about turning specifications of computer software into implementations. Recent research aimed at improving the process of program construction exploits insights from abstract algebraic tools such as lattice theory, fixpoint calculus, universal algebra, category theory, and allegory theory.This textbook-like tutorial presents, besides an introduction, eight coherently written chapters by leading authorities on ordered sets and complete lattices, algebras and coalgebras, Galois connections and fixed point calculus, calculating functional programs, algebra of program termination, exercises in coalgebraic specification, algebraic methods for optimization problems, and temporal algebra.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 404 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Modern cryptography depends heavily on number theory, with primality test ing, factoring, discrete logarithms (indices), and elliptic curves being perhaps the most prominent subject areas. Since my own graduate study had empha sized probability theory, statistics, and real analysis, when I started work ing in cryptography around 1970, I found myself swimming in an unknown, murky sea. I thus know from personal experience how inaccessible number theory can be to the uninitiated. Thank you for your efforts to case the transition for a new generation of cryptographers. Thank you also for helping Ralph Merkle receive the credit he deserves. Diffie, Rivest, Shamir, Adleman and I had the good luck to get expedited review of our papers, so that they appeared before Merkle's seminal contribu tion. Your noting his early submission date and referring to what has come to be called 'Diffie-Hellman key exchange' as it should, 'Diffie-Hellman-Merkle key exchange', is greatly appreciated. It has been gratifying to see how cryptography and number theory have helped each other over the last twenty-five years. :'-Jumber theory has been the source of numerous clever ideas for implementing cryptographic systems and protocols while cryptography has been helpful in getting funding for this area which has sometimes been called 'the queen of mathematics' because of its seeming lack of real world applications. Little did they know! Stanford, 30 July 2001 Martin E. Hellman Preface to the Second Edition Number theory is an experimental science.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 460 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Books on time series models deal mainly with models based on Box-Jenkins methodology which is generally represented by autoregressive integrated moving average models or some nonlinear extensions of these models, such as generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity models. Statistical inference for these models is well developed and commonly used in practical applications, due also to statistical packages containing time series analysis parts. The present book is based on regression models used for time series. These models are used not only for modeling mean values of observed time se ries, but also for modeling their covariance functions which are often given parametrically. Thus for a given finite length observation of a time series we can write the regression model in which the mean value vectors depend on regression parameters and the covariance matrices of the observation depend on variance-covariance parameters. Both these dependences can be linear or nonlinear. The aim of this book is to give an unified approach to the solution of statistical problems for such time series models, and mainly to problems of the estimation of unknown parameters of models and to problems of the prediction of time series modeled by regression models.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -This book investigates bargaining between two agents. Its objective is to present, to extend, and to apply the present state of theoretical knowledge. A wide range of questions will be considered: First of all, will two parties reach efficient agreements Traditional economic theory gives a generally affirma tive answer for perfectly rational agents, who can carry out complex calcu lations instantaneously and without cost. The book uses innovative methods to analyse the implications of less demanding assumptions. A practical ques tion related to bargaining is: How much power does the design of institutions such as the U. N. Security Council give to each of its members Formally, non permanent members' votes are necessary to pass resolutions, but theoretical investigation of pre-voting negotiation attributes all power to the five perma nent members. Or one may ask whether a society should rather finance the education in higher mathematics for a talented person than remedial training for a retarded person Different concepts of justice yield different answers. Which particular concept is implemented in a given society is also a matter of bargaining, and it is of special philosophical interest to investigate which bargain will be struck in an ideal society in which individual talents and resources are not yet known. Very generally, a bilateral bargaining situation is characterized by two agents - individuals, firms, governments, etc.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 200 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Stochastic portfolio theory is a mathematical methodology for constructing stock portfolios and for analyzing the effects induced on the behavior of these portfolios by changes in the distribution of capital in the market.Stochastic portfolio theory has both theoretical and practical applications: as a theoretical tool it can be used to construct examples of theoretical portfolios with specified characteristics and to determine the distributional component of portfolio return. On a practical level, stochastic portfolio theory has been the basis for strategies used for over a decade by the institutional equity manager INTECH, where the author has served as chief investment officer.This book is an introduction to stochastic portfolio theory for investment professionals and for students of mathematical finance. Each chapter includes a number of problems of varying levels of difficulty and a brief summary of the principal results of the chapter, without proofs.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 196 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -This book arose out of a paper that I wrote for the World Bank at the request of Ariel Dinar, the editor for the series in which this volume appears. I began that paper by pointing to the growing importance of demand-side considerations in water resources: 'The provision of potable water is one of government's oldest functions with evidence of this activity stretching back thousands of years. During much of that time, water demands were taken as exogenously given and the principle task of authorities was defined as an engineering one: how to supply a given quantity of water at least cost. In recent years, however, concerns have arisen from observations of excessive water use, degraded water quality and continued inadequate service for many, especially the very poor. As a result of these and other concerns, there is a growing effort to view water resource allocation from a perspective that incorporates consumers' preferences along with supply constraints into management plans. ' (Renzetti, 2000, p. 123). The purpose of this volume is to examine, in greater detail than was possible in that article, what is known regarding the economic characteristics of the demand for water. Thus, this book is meant to be an extended critical review of the state of the art.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 208 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -This book contains material that I have presented in seminars at the Universities of Bochum, Mannheim, Munich, Salerno, and Southern California at Los Angeles, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, the Max-Planck-Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, and on various international meetings and conferences. In preparing and revising the material I have benefited from comments, discussions, and advice from several colleagues. I had particularly close and friendly collaboration with Alexander Kemnitz and Robert von Weizsicker to whom I am very grateful. I am also grateful to Michele Boldrin, Axel Borsch-Supan, Friedrich Breyer, Karen Feist, Tullio Jappelli, Leo Kaas, Marco Pagano, Gerhard Schwooiauer, Carl Christian von Weizsacker, and Wolfgang Wiegard for their comments and suggestions. Finally, I would like to thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for financial support. Mannheim, January 2002 Berthold U. Wigger Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2. Public Pensions and Economic Growth: The Basic Framework . . 5 2. 1. The Analytical Elements 7 2. 1. 1. The Individuals 7 2. 1. 2. The Firms 10 2. 1. 3. The Public Pension Program 11 2. 1. 4. The Competitive Equilibrium 12 2. 2. Productivity Growth 13 2. 3. Allocative Efficiency 19 2. 4. Public Pension Reform 25 Appendix 2 . . . . . . 30 3. The Allocative Role of Intergenerational Transfers in Endogenous Growth Economies 33 3. 1. Investment Externalities, Intergenerational Transfers, and Pareto-improvements . . . . . . . 35 Contents x 3. 1. 1. A Subsidy to Private Savings 35 3. 1. 2. A Pareto-Improving Policy 38 3. 2.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 180 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -The strong productivity growth of the US and Scandinavian countries in Europe in the 1990s has raised the question whether the ICT sector - information and com munication technology (that is computers plus telecommunications plus digital services)-is the new driving engine of high growth in leading OECD countries. Judging by the empirical evidence for the US, including a new study by McKinsey which gives mixed evidence, it is still too early to clearly dismiss Robert G. Gordon's hypothesis that the acceleration of US output growth is (dis regarding quality problems of price measurement) exclusively due to cyclical factors and increased productivity growth in the computer sector. The counter hypothesis is associated with research by Stiroh and others who argue that there are positive productivity spillover effects from ICT to other sectors. Indeed, it is not clear ex ante whether mainly the Old Economy or the so-called New Economy stands to benefit most from high innovation rates and strong productivity shifts associated with the spreading of digital services. Interestingly, the increased eco nomic role of the internet also contributes to the internationalization of the econ omy since more services have become tradable, and growing import competition itself could stimulate productivity growth and thus contribute to higher growth. If ICT plays a key role in the new economy, there are important implications in the differential degree to which Germany and the US have implemented ICT.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 368 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -For people interested in risk management, medical activity represents a stimulating field of study and thought. On the one hand, progress in medical knowledge and technology tends to reduce the risks to survival that individuals would face in the absence of appropriate diagnostic or therapeutic instruments. On the other hand, new medical technologies simultaneously create their own specific risks, sometimes simply because their effects are less well-known than those of established ones. In a sense any medical progress simultaneously generates new risks while destroying old ones. Moreover, unlike many financial risks that can be either divided or transferred to others (e.g. through diversification, insurance or social security) the personal aspects of medical risks are by essence indivisible and non-transferable. As a result, they are in a sense more threatening than financial risks for risk averse patients. These two facts explain and justify the growing interest in risk economics for the fields of medical decision making and health economics.In Risk and Medical Decision Making, part 1 is developed inside the expected utility (E-U) model and analyses how comorbidity risks affect the well-known 'test-treatment' thresholds. Part 2 is devoted to a specific non E-U model with the same purpose: how would one define a threshold in this context and how would one value a diagnostic test In each of these two parts both diagnostic and therapeutic risks are considered.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 144 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -In the early modern period, a crucial transformation occurred in the classical conception of number and magnitude. Traditionally, numbers were merely collections of discrete units that measured some multiple. Magnitude, on the other hand, was usually described as being continuous, or being divisible into parts that are infinitely divisible. This traditional idea of discrete number versus continuous magnitude was challenged in the early modern period in several ways.This detailed study explores how the development of algebraic symbolism, logarithms, and the growing practical demands for an expanded number concept all contributed to a broadening of the number concept in early modern England. An interest in solving practical problems was not, in itself, enough to cause a generalisation of the number concept. It was the combined impact of novel practical applications together with the concomitant development of such mathematical advances as algebraic notation and logarithms that produced a broadened number concept.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 192 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Global environmental change occupies a central niche in the pantheon of modern sciences. There is an urgent need to know and understand the way in which global biogeochemical cycles have changed over different time scales in the past and are likely to do so in the future. Equally important, it is necessary to determine the extent to which natural variability and that induce by anthropogenic activities are bringing about change. A number of international co-operative scientific programmes ad dress these issues. Chief among them are the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the Inter national Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP) for global change. This book is one of a series of IGBP syntheses drawing together findings in global environmental change over the past decade or so. One focus of IGBP activities is the System for Analysis, Research and Training (START). Co-sponsored by the WCRP and IHDP, START establishes regional research networks for global change science in developing countries, stimulates and carries out global change research in developing regions of the world, and builds capacity to undertake such research at personal, institutional and regional levels. Several regional global change networks have been established, and much regional research has been accomplished in the last five years or so. In this book, work relating to four of the older START regions, Southern Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, will be used as case studies to illustrate regional-global linkages in Earth System Science.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 216 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -The book addresses critically the question: 'What is the societal impact of urban and regional planning '. It begins with a theoretical discussion and then analyses, through a series of case studies, the intentions, contents, struggles and consequences of urban and regional planning. It shows that plans and policies often defy the commonly perceived role of advancing equality, justice, development and amenity, by causing social problems, marginalisation and inequalities. The book looks at planning from a critical distance, without a priori belief in its necessity or usefulness. The 12 chapters, written by renowned international scholars, demonstrate the multiplicity of social and political struggles over the contested terrain of spatial policies. The book focuses on four key areas where the impact of planning is explored: the community power, gender relations, ethnic tensions, and social polarisation, while comparing three societies: Australia, Israel and England.Audience: This volume is mainly intended for faculty and students of academia, but also for urban professionals and policy-makers. The book is relevant to fields such as urban and regional planning, geography, political science, urban studies, urban sociology, urban anthropology, ethnic and gender relations.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 240 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Colleagues and friends of Dan Yaron submitted the following tributes. While each submission comes from an individual who knew Dan in a very different way, they all remark on his immeasurable contributions to the field of agricultural eco nomics, his unique approach, which combines his training and experience with his scientific background, and the admirable professionalism and civility that was apparent in every project he undertook. His work, initially inspired by the chal lenge of farmers in the arid Negev, eventually took him to the United States to work with universities and to serve on commissions furnishing his research with global applicability. Dan is not only admired for his enormous contributions to the vast body of research available in his field, but also for the commitment and dedi cation he epitomized. He will be greatly missed by those of us who were fortunate enough to make his acquaintance. ELIFEINERMAN The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel Dan Yaron, my teacher and mentor of blessed memory, was a man of wisdom, thought, counsel and deeds. His many talents, his endless energy and his ambition led him to blaze new trails in research, to ask the relevant questions while separat ing the wheat from the chaff, and to answer them while mastering the most ad vanced scientific analyses.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 260 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -DongJinPark,DorianGoldfeld,ElianeJaulmes,EmmanuelBresson,Florian Hess,FrederikVercauteren,FrżedżericLżegarże,FrżedżericValette,GlennDurfee, GuillaumePoupard,GwenaelleMartinet,HanPilKim,HeinRoehrig,Hovav Shacham,IlyaMironov,JacquesStern,JaeEunKang,JanCamenisch,Jean- FrancoisRaymond,JensJensen,JesperBuusNielsen,JimHughes,JohnMalone- Lee,JonathanPoritz,JongHoonShin,KatsuyukiTakashima,KazueSako, KennyPaterson,KyungWeonKim,LeoReyzin,LouisGranboulan,LouisS- vail,Markku-JuhaniO. Saarinen,MattRobshaw,MichaelQuisquater,Michael Waidner,MichelMitton,MikeSzydlo,MikeWiener,MotiYung,OlivierB- dron,OmerReingold,PaulDumais,PaulKocher,PhilippeChose,Philippe Golle,Pierre-AlainFouque,RanCanetti,RichardJozsa,RonaldCramer, Sang GyooSim,SangJinLee,SergeFehr,ShirishAltekar,SimonBlackburn,Stefan Wolf,StevenGalbraith,SvetlaNikova,TaeGuKim,TalMalkin,TalRabin, TetsuIwata,ToshioHasegawa,TsuyoshiNishioka,VirgilGligor,WenboMao, YeonKyuPark,YiqunLisaYin,YongHoHwang,YuvalIshai. VI Myworkasprogramchairwasmadealoteasierbytheelectronicsubm- sionsoftwarewrittenbyChanathipNamprempreforCrypto2000withmod- cationsbyAndreAdelsbachforEurocrypt2001,andbythereviewingsoftware developedandwrittenbyBartPreneel,WimMoreau,andJorisClaessensfor Eurocrypt2000. IwouldliketothankOledaSilvaSmithforsettingupallthis softwarelocallyandforthehelpwiththeproblemsIencountered. Iamalso gratefultoWimMoreauandChanathipNamprempreforsolvingsomeofthe problemswehadwiththesoftware. OnbehalfofthegeneralchairIwouldliketoextendmygratitudetothe membersofthelocalorganizingcommitteeatTUEindhoven,inparticularto PeterRoelseandGergelyAlpżar. For nancialsupportoftheconferencethe- ganizingcommitteegratefullyacknowledgesthisyearżssponsors:PhilipsSe- conductorsCryptologyCompetenceCenter,MitsubishiElectricCorporation,cv cryptovision,Cryptomathic,ERCIM,CMG,Sectra,EUFORCE,andEIDMA. Finally,athank-yougoestoallwhosubmittedpaperstothisconferenceand lastbutnotleasttomyfamilyfortheirloveandunderstanding. February2002 LarsKnudsen EUROCRYPT2002 April2Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 564 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -CITIES: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUSTAINABILITY BRANTLEY LIDDLE AND FRED MOAVENZADEH OR at least 4000 years, cities have been centers of cultural, social, technological Fand economic innovation, inventions and their application, and political power. Only in the last 200 years, the industrial era, have urban areas grown so rapidly, and their populations increased so dramatically that their impacts on the natural environ ment are being felt beyond their immediate geographic surroundings. As the 21' cen tury dawns, megacities-great and far-reaching concentrations of power and influ ence-have become centers of the phenomena of globalization and information ex change. These concentrations of people and activity are placing stress on the natural environment so great that it is beginning to have extensive regional, and even global impacts. However, asconcentrations ofpower-political, economic, andintellectual these great urban centers share with the ancestral cities of past millennia the resources to consciously shape the future. The management of these megacities (those having populations of over eight million) in their current formative stages so taxing to natural systems,paradoxicallypresents theopportunity torestoresustainableregional and global environments. Environmental problems consequent to urban growth have two sources: pov erty and affluence. These two conditions often coexist in dramatic contrast within the same city, particularly in developing countries. In terms of environmental impact, poverty-based problems tend to have local effects, while affluence-based problems usually have transboundary and/or global effects.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 252 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -This book focuses on the internal fixation of long bones by using intramedullary locked nails in a closed technique. Intramedullary fixation fulfils the biological requirements for fracture healing and minimises surgical trauma. Locked nails provide a favourable mechanical environment for fracture stabilisation and post-operative rehabilitation. It illustrates the use and relevance of this technique in orthopaedic and trauma surgery including reconstructive surgery, covering the basic scientific principles of reaming and locking as well as basic and advanced surgical techniques. Prevention of complications and complication management are discussed in detail. An international board of editors and authors stand for expertise in the different subspecialties of the topic. Comprehensive information is thus provided enabling the reader to reliably use the techniques described.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 176 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Rigorous presentation of Mathematical Homogenization Theory is the subject of numerous publications. This book, however, is intended to fill the gap in the analytical and numerical performance of the corresponding asymptotic analysis of the static and dynamic behaviors of heterogenous systems. Numerous concrete applications to composite media, heterogeneous plates and shells are considered. A lot of details, numerical results for cell problem solutions, calculations of high-order terms of asymptotic expansions, boundary layer analysis etc., are included.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 280 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -'Structural geology is a core component of knowledge needed for intelligent living with our planet, truly sustainable development.' It gives me great pleasure to write this brief foreword for the work by Antonio of Lisboa. When we consider the foundations of our life support systems, cli Ribeiro mate, the biosphere, soil, materials, energy, waste management and today in the word of cities, structural stability, we require exact knowledge of the structure of our planet and change in these structures. Homo sapiens has lived on our planet for a very short period. Our planet is cooling by conduction and convection and it is the structures that result from these processes that control the global climate, our resource base and even soil quality and food secu rity, etc, etc. As the title of this book suggests, some processes are slow and some fast. I was born on a farm in Southern New Zealand, quite close to the magnificent had a profound influen Southern Alps. I often think that watching that environment ce on my mental development.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 340 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Based on ideas from Support Vector Machines (SVMs), Learning To Classify Text Using Support Vector Machines presents a new approach to generating text classifiers from examples. The approach combines high performance and efficiency with theoretical understanding and improved robustness. In particular, it is highly effective without greedy heuristic components. The SVM approach is computationally efficient in training and classification, and it comes with a learning theory that can guide real-world applications.Learning To Classify Text Using Support Vector Machines gives a complete and detailed description of the SVM approach to learning text classifiers, including training algorithms, transductive text classification, efficient performance estimation, and a statistical learning model of text classification. In addition, it includes an overview of the field of text classification, making it self-contained even for newcomers to the field. This book gives a concise introduction to SVMs for pattern recognition, and it includes a detailed description of how to formulate text-classification tasks for machine learning.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 224 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -There has been continuing interest in the improvement of the speed of Digital Signal processing. The use of Residue Number Systems for the design of DSP systems has been extensively researched in literature. Szabo and Tanaka have popularized this approach through their book published in 1967. Subsequently, Jenkins and Leon have rekindled the interest of researchers in this area in 1978, from which time there have been several efforts to use RNS in practical system implementation. An IEEE Press book has been published in 1986 which was a collection of Papers. It is very interesting to note that in the recent past since 1988, the research activity has received a new thrust with emphasis on VLSI design using non ROM based designs as well as ROM based designs as evidenced by the increased publications in this area. The main advantage in using RNS is that several small word-length Processors are used to perform operations such as addition, multiplication and accumulation, subtraction, thus needing less instruction execution time than that needed in conventional 16 bitl32 bit DSPs. However, the disadvantages of RNS have b. een the difficulty of detection of overflow, sign detection, comparison of two numbers, scaling, and division by arbitrary number, RNS to Binary conversion and Binary to RNS conversion. These operations, unfortunately, are computationally intensive and are time consuming.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 270 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -In the book If Tropes, the author attempts to approach and then deal with some of the most basic problems for a theory of tropes. The investigation proceeds from three basic assumptions: (i) tropes (i.e. particular properties) exist, (ii) only tropes exist (that is, tropes are the only basic or fundamental kind of entities), and (iii) the main-function for tropes is to serve as truth-makers for atomic propositions.Provided that one accepts these assumptions the author finds that the trope-theorist will have to deal with two important matters. Some atomic propositions seem to require universal truth-makers and others seem to require concrete truth-makers. This means that universals and concrete particulars will need to be constructed from the material of tropes. Such constructions are attempted and it is argued that it is possible to deal at least with these basic issues while staying squarely within the boundaries of a purely trope-theoretical framework.The book is written in an untechnical language but requires some prior understanding of basic metaphysics.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 204 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Early studies of political behavior examined the sociological, attitudinal, and rational determinants of political behavior. However, none of these approaches provided a descriptive model of how people process political information and make political decisions under naturalistic conditions that involve limited cognitive capacity and motivation. Fortunately, contemporary approaches within the field of political psychology have begun to address these concerns. Inspired by recent advances in the area of social psychology, researchers are rapidly developing more realistic and detailed models of the psychological process that determines political judgements and behavior. Early attempts to merely predict political behavior have been replaced by an attempt to describe the actual process whereby individuals gather, interpret, exchange, and combine information to arrive at a political judgement or decision. This volume provides comprehensive coverage of this pioneering era of research in political psychology.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 268 pp. Englisch.