springer aug 2003 (293 results)

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - The 'nationality question' was long central to Soviet thought and policy, and the failure to provide a convincing answer played a major role in the break-up of the Soviet Union into ethnically or nationally defined states. Zisserman-Brodsky explores various explanations of nationalism and its resurgence through a close and unprecedented examination of dissident writings of diverse ethnic groups in the former Soviet Union, thereby bridging macro-theory with micro-politics. Dissident ethnic networks were a crucial independent institution in the Soviet Union, and a basis of civil society. Voicing the discontent and resentment of the periphery at the policies of the centre or metropole, the dissident writings, known as samizdat highlighted anger at deprivations imposed in the political, cultural, social and economic spheres. Ethnic dissident writings drew on values both internal to the Soviet system and international as sources of legitimation; they met a divided reaction among Russians, with some privileging the unity of the Soviet Union and others sympathetic to the rhetoric of national rights. This focus on national, rather than individual, rights helps explain developments since the fall of the Soviet Union, including the prevalence of authoritarian governments in newly independent states of the former Soviet Union.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - This volume attempts to provide a new articulation of issues surrounding scientific realism, scientific rationality, the epistemology of non-classical physics, the type of revolutionary changes in the development of science, the naturalization of epistemology within frameworks of cognitive science and structural linguistics, models of the information technology revolution, and reconstructions of early modern logical systems.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Chemokines and their receptors play a central role in the pathogenesis of numerous, perhaps all, acute and chronic inflammatory diseases. About 50 distinct chemokines produced by a variety cell types and tissues either c- stitutively or in response to inflammatory stimuli are involved in a plethora of biological processes. These small secreted proteins exert their exquisitely variegated functions upon binding to a family of seven-transmembrane spanning G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) composed of almost 20 distinct entities. The biological activities of chemokines range from the control of leukocyte trafficking in basal and inflammatory conditions to the regulation of hema- poiesis, angiogenesis, tissue architecture, and organogenesis. The basis for such diversified activities rests, on one hand, upon the ubiquitous nature of chemokine production and chemokine receptor expression. Virtually every cell type can produce chemokines and expresses a unique combination of chemokine receptors. On the other hand, chemokine receptors make use of a flexible and complex network of intracellular signaling machineries that can regulate a variety of cellular functions ranging from cell migration, growth, and differentiation to death. As knowledge of the size of chemokine and chemokine receptor families rapidly reaches completeness, much is still to be uncovered in terms of fu- tional architecture of the chemokine system. The disparity between the large number of chemokines and that smaller number of receptors is balanced by the promiscuity in ligand-receptor interactions, with multiple chemokines binding to the same receptor and several chemokines binding to more than one receptor.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - This volume covers most areas in the physics of the solar system, with special emphasis on gravitational dynamics; its gist is the rational, in particular mathematical, understanding of the main processes at work. Special stress is given to the variety of objects in the planetary system and their long-term evolution. The unique character of this book is its breadth and depth, which aims at bringing the reader to the threshold of original research; however, special chapters and introductory sections are included for the benefit of the beginner. The volume is generally suitable for post-graduate students and researchers in physics, especially in the field related to the solar system. A large amount of figures and diagrams is included, often compiled with real data.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Clinical Physiology of the Venous System is a comprehensive overview of vein physiology. - Presents data in the fields of venous physiology, pharmacology and venous diseases as well as the field of phlebology, which has seen rapid and important progress in the last decade. - Recent developments in venous disorders are covered with regard to pathophysiology; most modern diagnostic methods and therapies. - Venous tone regulation data is presented with a focus on neural; hormonal; local and myogenic control of venous smooth muscle. Special attention was paid to endothelium-derived vasoactive factors involved in the regulation of venous tone. - Take home messages at the beginning of each chapter for quick review. - List of key abbreviations used in the book. - Well illustrated with teaching tables. - Useful for any physician, researcher or student interested in vein physiology.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Although poverty is a global issue profoundly affecting millions of human beings, the psychology literature rarely focuses on this problem. Poverty and Psychology: From Global Perspective to Local Practice seeks to remedy that by bringing together academics, community practitioners and clinicians who are actively involved in studying the ramifications of poverty in groups and individuals as well as outlining successful methods of participant intervention. With a focus on positive and critical psychology and the resilience of the human spirit, the book brings the psychology of poverty up-to-date with current thinking and scientific approaches, and will inspire and encourage those working in the field. Covering a wide range of settings, from the shanty towns of Brazil and Venezuela to the inner cities of England and Scotland, to indigenous communities of the Australian outback, noted contributors share their direct experiences and a positive message for working toward progressive solutions.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Carbon Dioxide Recovery and Utilization is a complete and informative resource on the carbon dioxide sources and market at the European Union level, with reference to the world situation. The book covers the following themes: - Sources of carbon dioxide and their purity, - Market of carbon dioxide and its uses, -Separation techniques of carbon dioxide from flue gases, - Analysis of the potential of each technique and application, - Basic science and technology of supercritical CO2, - Reactions in supercritical CO2 and its use as reactive solvent, - Utilization of CO2 in the synthesis of chemicals with low energy input, - Conversion of CO2 into fuels: existing techniques, - Dry reforming of methane, - Assessment of the use of carbon dioxide for the synthesis of methanol. This book is unique in providing integrated information and a perspective on innovative technologies for the use of carbon dioxide. The book is suitable for use as a textbook for courses in chemical engineering and chemistry. It is also of great interest as a general reference for those involved with technologies for avoiding carbon dioxide production and for economists. This is an invaluable reference for specialists on synthetic chemistry, gas separation, supercritical fluids, carbon dioxide marketing, renewable energy and sustainable development. In addition, it will be useful for those working in the chemical industry and for policy makers for carbon dioxide mitigation, innovative technologies, carbon recycling, and power generation.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Advances in Quality-of-Life Theory and Research is relevant to quality-of-life researchers working in the areas of Social Medicine, Sustainable Development, Social Indicators Research and Health Psychology/Behavioral Medicine. This volume contains 14 chapters that represent a culmination of programmatic research in the science of quality of life (QOL). Each chapter offers interesting findings in different areas of QOL research and, together, the chapters reflect the very basic premise that QOL research is a broad interdisciplinary topic explored in a multidisciplinary manner. The research methods and conceptual models used by the different authors are exemplary and can induce QOL researchers to conduct future research in QOL in other cultures, geographic areas, and different socio-economic and demographic groups as well as in different QOL domains.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - High Data Rate Transmitter Circuits is a practical guide and introduction to the design of key RF building blocks used in high data rate transmitters. The emphasis lies on CMOS circuit techniques applicable to oscillators and upconvertors. Furthermore, a method for RF-specific design automation is exemplified by the CYCLONE tool for automated LC-VCO synthesis.Written in an easily accessible manner, High Data Rate Transmitter Circuits is essential reading for both students and practicing engineers interested in analog RF design and RF-specific design automation. The book has been praised for its pleasant and light style of writing, without losing detail on the technical side.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Emerging Fields in Sol-gel Science and Technology contains selected papers from the symposium on 'Sol-Gel and Vitreous Materials and Applications' held during the International Materials Research Congress in Cancún, México in August 2002. One hundred and twenty researchers representing 10 countries attended this symposium. Some of the subjects covered in this symposium include 1.) synthesis of new materials endowed with outstanding and non-conventional optical, magnetic, electrical, thermal, catalytic, and mechanical properties; 2.) study of the sorption properties of model porous materials in order to test the validity of previous and recent theories; 3.) theoretical studies related to density functional theory, fractal and scaling law approaches, 4.) synthesis of biomaterials for use in medicine and pollution control; 5.) application of sol-gel colloids in the fine-chemistry industry in products such as fragrances and pharmaceuticals; 6.) development of special vitreous materials; 7.) implementation of inorganic thin films, and 8.) synthesis of materials for energy saving.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Metal matrix composites are making tangible inroads into the 'real' world of engineering. They are used in engineering components such as brake rotors, aircraft parts, combustion engines, and heat sinks for electronic systems. Yet, outside a relatively limited circle of specialists, these materials are mostly unknown. Designers do not as a rule think of using these materials, in part because access to information is difficult as these materials have not really entered engineering handbooks. Metal Matrix Composites in Industry is thus useful to engineers who wish to gain introductory knowledge of these materials and who want to know where 'to find' them. Additionally, it provides researchers and academics with a survey of current industrial activity in this area of technology.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - When I was contacted by Kluwer Academic Publishers in the Fall of 200 I, inviting me to edit a volume of papers on the issue of electron transport in quantum dots, I was excited by what I saw as an ideal opportunity to provide an overview of a field of research that has made significant contributions in recent years, both to our understanding of fundamental physics, and to the development of novel nanoelectronic technologies. The need for such a volume seemed to be made more pressing by the fact that few comprehensive reviews of this topic have appeared in the literature, in spite of the vast activity in this area over the course of the last decade or so. With this motivation, I set out to try to compile a volume that would fairly reflect the wide range of opinions that has emerged in the study of electron transport in quantum dots. Indeed, there has been no effort on my part to ensure any consistency between the different chapters, since I would prefer that this volume instead serve as a useful forum for the debate of critical issues in this still developing field. In this matter, I have been assisted greatly by the excellent series of articles provided by the different authors, who are widely recognized as some of the leaders in this vital area of research.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Optimality Theory and Language Change: -discusses many optimization and linguistic issues in great detail; -treats the history of a variety of languages, including English, French, Germanic, Galician/Portuguese, Latin, Russian, and Spanish; -shows that the application of OT allows for innovative and improved analyses; -allows researchers that appeal to OT to see the connections of their (usually synchronic) work with diachronic studies; -contains a complete bibliography on Optimality Theory and language change.This volume may be used as one of the texts in courses on historical phonology or syntax that treat these topics from generative approaches or that give a general survey of various frameworks of research into these areas. Likewise, the volume may serve as a text for courses in phonology, syntax and Optimality Theory that have a component dedicated to extensions of linguistic theory to historical change. It is of interest for historical linguists, researchers into Optimality Theory and linguistic theory, and for phonologists and syntacticians with an interest in historical change.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The monograph is devoted to a systematic study of means of Hilbert space operators by a unified method based on the theory of double integral transformations and Peller's characterization of Schur multipliers. General properties on means of operators such as comparison results, norm estimates and convergence criteria are established. Aftersome general theory, special investigations are focused on three one-parameter families of A-L-G (arithmetic-logarithmic-geometric) interpolation means, Heinz-type means and binomial means. In particular, norm continuity in the parameter is examined for such means. Some necessary technical resultsare collected as appendices. 164 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Explaining Growth attempts to compile the most comprehensive assessment of growth in developing and transition countries. The first phase has sought to review and discover broad similarities and comparable experiences in six regions spanning the developing world. In each region, studies were undertaken on sources of growth, markets and growth, microeconomic determinants of growth, and the political economy of growth. These reviews provide the framework for the in-depth country case studies in Phase II. This volume summarizes the main results of the regional analyses and sets the stage for the country studies. 263 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Offering new and theatrically informed readings of plays by a broad range of Renaissance dramatists - including Marlowe, Jonson, Marston, Webster, Middleton and Ford - this new book addresses the question of pleasure: both erotic pleasure as represented on stage and aesthetic pleasure as experienced by readers and spectators. Some of the issues raised (the distribution of pleasure by gender, the notion of consent) intersect with feminist reinterpretations of Renaissance culture. 218 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This collection focuses on contemporary remakings of Shakespeare in a variety of contexts and textual forms. Located at the intersection of Shakespeare studies, performance studies, post-colonial criticism and cultural studies, the essays address the question of how Shakespeare's plays affect and are affected by their environments as they are transposed into a variety of media, cultures, geographical locations, genres and historical moments. The volume includes articles on Shakespeare in American sign language, theatre, film, screenplay, music, documentary and soap opera. 214 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book reveals how the Japanese national ministries can exploit their Special Status Corporations (public corporations, supported primarily with public funding from a state-run banking agency) in order to intensify their administrative power over industries and local governments and to perpetuate the interests of elite civil servants by facilitating the migration to post-retirement positions in the private sector. The book explains why the existence of these organizations inhibits the Prime Ministers efforts to implement structural reforms. 144 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In his Ph. D. thesis, Rudiger Wapler analyses the causes of the persistently high unemployment rates especially in continental Europe. Particular emphasis is placed on imperfect labour and product markets on the one hand, and on the numerous links between unemployment, innovations and growth on the other. Hence, Rudiger Wapler provides an important contribution towards a better understanding of both the development of labour markets as well as the dynamics of growth. To aid readers with only little prior knowledge of labour markets, the book presents the most common theories of unemployment: (1) trade-union models in which union bargaining power leads to wages above their market-clearing level, (2) efficiency-wage models in which employers voluntarily pay higher wages in order to motivate or discipline their workers or to reduce the job turnover rate, as well as (3) matching models in which unemployment is caused by the continuous turnover of jobs and workers. In addition, emphasis is placed on the fact that labour needs to be treated as heterogeneous, a fact often neg lected in the literature. Subsequently, these labour-market foundations are integrated with modern theories of innovations and growth, making the ap proach much more relevant and plausible. Without doubt, the generalisations of the models performed by Rudiger Wapler show that there are limits to such formal analysis. Due to the increasing number of interdependencies, it is doubtful whether even more complex models provide additional (usable) insights. 240 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Networks can provide a useful model and graphic image useful for the description ofawide variety of web-like structures in the physical and man-made realms,e.g.protein networks, food websand the Internet. The contributions gathered in the present volume provide both an introduction to, and an overview of, the multifaceted phenomenology of complex networks.Statistical Mechanics of Complex Networksalso providesa state-of-the-art picture of current theoretical methods and approaches. 224 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The increasing complexity of manufacturing systems as well as the overall demands for flexible and fault-tolerant control of production processes stimulates (among many others) two key emerging technologies that are already making an important breakthrough in the field of intelligent manufacturing, control, and diagnostics. These two paradigms are: - the holonic approach based on the event-driven control strategy, usually aimed at modular control systems that are directly physically linked with the manufacturing hardware equipment, and - the multi-agent approach developed in the area of distributed information processing. The research communities working in both these fields are approaching the problem of intelligent manufacturing from different viewpoints and, until recently, to a certain extent, in an independent way. We can however observe quite a clear convergence of these fields in the last few years: the communities have started to cooperate, joining efforts to solve the painful problems involved in achieving effective industrial practice. We can see convergence in the terminology, standards and methods being applied. 340 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In many ways, our immune systems are as complex as our brains. They learn, predict, remember and adapt, protecting us from the maelstrom of pathogens that infect us daily. Computer Science frequently takes inspiration from the seemingly endless capabilities of natural systems. It should therefore be no s- prise that, like the eld of Arti cial Neural Networks inspired from brains, we now have a vigorous eld of research known as Arti cial Immune Systems (AIS), inspired by our own immune systems. Although still relatively new, the previous 10 years has seen the paradigm of AIS rapidly establish itself as an important biological metaphor. Researchers all over the world fruitfully exploit 'immunological ideas' in many di erent ways to provide mechanisms for tackling a wide variety of applications. In this volume we present the proceedings of ICARIS 2003, the 2nd Int- national Conference on Arti cial Immune Systems. This was the second int- national conference entirely dedicated to the eld, and followed the extremely successful rst conference held in Canterbury, UK in 2002. The number and - versityofpapersinthisyear'sconferenceisatributetotheever-growingnumber ofresearchersinthearea,andrepresentativeofthesolidfoundationofworkthat now exists in this area. The range of topics considered is wide. For example, at one end of the spectrum we see a selection of papers providing a necessary t- oretical grounding for the eld. At the other end, we have an exciting range of applications to real-world problems, covering, for example, job-shop scheduling and fault detection in refrigeration systems. 316 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This volume contains the proceedings of the 14th International Conference on ConcurrencyTheory(CONCUR2003)heldinMarseille,France,September3 5, 2003. The conference was hosted by the Universit edeProvenceandtheLa- ratoire d Informatique Fondamentale de Marseille (LIF). The purpose of the CONCUR conferences is to bring together researchers, developers, and students in order to advance the theory of concurrency, and promote its applications. Interest in this topic is continuously growing, as a consequence of the importance and ubiquity of concurrent systems and their applications, and of the scienti c relevance of their fundations. The scope of the conference covers all areas of semantics, logics, and veri cation techniques for concurrent systems. Topics include concurrency-related aspects of: models of computation and semantic domains, process algebras, Petri nets, event struc- res, real-time systems, hybrid systems, decidability, model-checking, veri cation and re nement techniques, term and graph rewriting, distributed programming, logic constraint programming, object-oriented programming, types systems and algorithms, case studies, and tools and environments for programming and - ri cation. Of the 107 papers submitted this year, 29 were accepted for presentation. Four invited talks were given at the conference: on Distributed Monitoring of Concurrent and Asynchronous Systems by Albert Beneveniste, on Quantitative Veri cation via the MU-Calculus by Luca De Alfaro, on Input-Output Au- mata: Basic, Timed, Hybrid, Probabilistic, Dynamic, . . by Nancy Lynch, and on Composition of Cryptographic Protocols in a Probabilistic Polynomial-Time Process Calculus by Andre Scedrov. 544 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Thisintroduction and textbook familiarizesengineerswith the use of mathematical and computational modeling and simulation in a way that develops their understanding of the solution characteristics of a broad class of real-world problems. The relevant basic and advanced methodologies are explained in detail, with special emphasis on ill-defined problems. Some fifteen simulation systems are presented on the language and the logical level. Moreover, the reader also can accumulate an experiential overview by studying the wide variety of case studies spanning much of science and engineering. The latter are briefly described within the book but their full versions as well as some simulation software demos are available on the Web. The book can be used for courses on various levels as well as for self-study. Advanced sections are identified and can be skipped in a first reading or in undergraduate courses. 444 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In very short time, peer-to-peer computing has evolved from an attractive new paradigm into an exciting and vibrant research field bringing together researchers from systems, networking, and theory.This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Peer-to-Peer Systems, IPTPS 2003, held in Berkeley, CA, USA in February 2003.The 27 revised papers presented together with an introductory summary of the discussions at the workshop were carefully selected during two rounds of reviewing and revision from initially 166 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on experience with P2P; theory and algorithms, P2P in a broader perspective; incentive and fairness; new DHT designs; naming, indexing, and searching; file sharing; and networking and applications. 332 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Human performance in visual perception by far exceeds the performance of contemporary computer vision systems. While humans are able to perceive their environment almost instantly and reliably under a wide range of conditions, computer vision systems work well only under controlled conditions in limited domains.This booksets out to reproduce the robustness and speed of human perception by proposing a hierarchical neural network architecture for iterative image interpretation. The proposed architecture can be trained using unsupervised and supervised learning techniques. Applications of the proposed architecture are illustrated using small networks. Furthermore, several larger networks were trained to perform various nontrivial computer vision tasks. 240 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This collection represents the proceedings of the 1st GSFC/JPL Workshop on Radical Agent Concepts (WRAC), which was held on 16-18 January, 2002 at the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) Conference Center in McLean, VA, USA. Over the past few years, agent technologyhas emerged as a powerful force in computing. Agent technology may well form the foundation for the next gen- ation of computing systems. New and innovative agent concepts and techniques may bring further developments to this exploding area of research. Such work is often strongly inspired by theoretical or empirical studies of human behavior, social intelligence, psychology, arts, biology, computer science and philosophy. Thisworkshopaimedatbringingtogether,inaninterdisciplinaryeve nt,or- inal thinkers, practitioners and academics with an interest in radical (very - novative) concepts for agent-based systems. The workshop provided a forum to present the latest research ndings in many aspects of agent technology. The - ganizers welcomed participation by those working in agent architectures, agent communities, agent communications, agent modeling, agent applications and other agent-related areas. We were particularly seeking papers on novel and - novative ideas, pushing the envelope of current agent technology. Contributions without a prototype or working system, i.e., purely conceptual contributions, were welcomed, and 'out-of-the-box' thinkers were especially encouraged to participate. The workshop was structured so as to allow the participants adequate time for discussion and interaction, to exchange ideas and re ect on the motivations, scienti c grounds and practical consequences of the concepts presented. 492 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book presents revised versions of the lectures given at the 8th ELSNET European Summer School on Language and Speech Communication held on the Island of Chios, Greece, in summer 2000.Besides an introductory survey, the book presents lectures on data analysis for multimedia libraries, pronunciation modeling for large vocabulary speech recognition, statistical language modeling, very large scale information retrieval, reduction of information variation in text, and a concluding chapter on open questions in research for linguistics in information access.The book gives newcomers to language and speech communication a clear overview of the main technologies and problems in the area. Researchers and professionals active in the area will appreciate the book as a concise review of the technologies used in text- and speech-triggered information access. 212 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -'Votes should be weighed, not counted', Nineteenth-century liberals argued. This study analyzes parliamentary suffrage debates in England, France and Germany, showing that liberals throughout Europe used a distinctive political language, 'the discourse of capacity', to limit political participation. This language defined liberals, and they used it to define and limit full citizenship. The rise of consumer culture at the end of the century drove the discourse of capacity from politics, but it survives today in education and the professions. 239 pp. Englisch.