springer dez 2010 (Over 10,000 results)

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -The Goals of Data Collection and Its Statistical Treatment in the Earth Sciences The earth sciences are characterised by loose and complex relationships between variables, and the necessity to understand the geographical dis tribution of observations as well as their frequency distribution. Our fre quency distributions and the looseness of relationships reflect the com plexity and intrinsic natural variation in nature, more than measurement error. Furthermore, earth scientists cannot design experiments according to statistical recommendation because the availability and complexity of data are beyond our control. Usually, the system we are studying cannot be isolated into discrete independent variables. These factors influence the first steps of research, how and where to collect specimens or observations. Some issues are particularly troublesome and common in earth science, but are rarely handled in an undergraduate statistics course. These include spatial-sampling methods, orientation data, regionalised variables, time se ries, identification of cyclicity and pattern, discrimination, multivariate systems, lurking variables and constant-sum data. It is remarkable that most earth-science students confront these issues without formal training or focused consideration.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Deformable objects are ubiquitous in the world surrounding us, on all levels from micro to macro. The need to study such shapes and model their behavior arises in a wide spectrum of applications, ranging from medicine to security. In recent years, non-rigid shapes have attracted growing interest, which has led to rapid development of the field, where state-of-the-art results from very different sciences - theoretical and numerical geometry, optimization, linear algebra, graph theory, machine learning and computer graphics, to mention several - are applied to find solutions.This book gives an overview of the current state of science in analysis and synthesis of non-rigid shapes. Everyday examples are used to explain concepts and to illustrate different techniques. The presentation unfolds systematically and numerous figures enrich the engaging exposition. Practice problems follow at the end of each chapter, with detailed solutions to selected problems in the appendix. A gallery of colored images enhances the text.This book will be of interest to graduate students, researchers and professionals in different fields of mathematics, computer science and engineering. It may be used for courses in computer vision, numerical geometry and geometric modeling and computer graphics or for self-study.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Taken literally, the title 'All of Statistics' is an exaggeration. But in spirit, the title is apt, as the book does cover a much broader range of topics than a typical introductory book on mathematical statistics. This book is for people who want to learn probability and statistics quickly. It is suitable for graduate or advanced undergraduate students in computer science, mathematics, statistics, and related disciplines.The book includes modern topics like non-parametric curve estimation, bootstrapping, and classification, topics that are usually relegated to follow-up courses. The reader is presumed to know calculus and a little linear algebra. No previous knowledge of probability and statistics is required. Statistics, data mining, and machine learning are all concerned with collecting and analysing data. 468 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Deformable objects are ubiquitous in the world surrounding us, on all levels from micro to macro. The need to study such shapes and model their behavior arises in a wide spectrum of applications, ranging from medicine to security. In recent years, non-rigid shapes have attracted growing interest, which has led to rapid development of the field, where state-of-the-art results from very different sciences - theoretical and numerical geometry, optimization, linear algebra, graph theory, machine learning and computer graphics, to mention several - are applied to find solutions. This book gives an overview of the current state of science in analysis and synthesis of non-rigid shapes. Everyday examples are used to explain concepts and to illustrate different techniques. The presentation unfolds systematically and numerous figures enrich the engaging exposition. Practice problems follow at the end of each chapter, with detailed solutions to selected problems in the appendix. A gallery of colored images enhances the text. This book will be of interest to graduate students, researchers and professionals in different fields of mathematics, computer science and engineering. It may be used for courses in computer vision, numerical geometry and geometric modeling and computer graphics or for self-study.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 368 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Deformable objects are ubiquitous in the world surrounding us, on all levels from micro to macro. The need to study such shapes and model their behavior arises in a wide spectrum of applications, ranging from medicine to security. In recent years, non-rigid shapes have attracted growing interest, which has led to rapid development of the field, where state-of-the-art results from very different sciences - theoretical and numerical geometry, optimization, linear algebra, graph theory, machine learning and computer graphics, to mention several - are applied to find solutions.This book gives an overview of the current state of science in analysis and synthesis of non-rigid shapes. Everyday examples are used to explain concepts and to illustrate different techniques. The presentation unfolds systematically and numerous figures enrich the engaging exposition. Practice problems follow at the end of each chapter, with detailed solutions to selected problems in the appendix. A gallery of colored images enhances the text.This book will be of interest to graduate students, researchers and professionals in different fields of mathematics, computer science and engineering. It may be used for courses in computer vision, numerical geometry and geometric modeling and computer graphics or for self-study.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Epidermal Cell Tumors: The Basics will serve as an effective and efficient handbook for the student of dermatopathology, and as a practical bench reference for the practicing diagnostician who desires rapid access to criteria that are useful in differentiating histologically similar entities. The reader will be able to focus upon a single histologic observation, i.e., inflammatory conditions without epidermal changes, and use this as a starting point from which to build a differential diagnosis based upon pattern recognition. As each entity is addressed, there will be a concise discussion of the basic clinical findings and epidemiologic associations. This will be followed by a histologic description, highlighting areas that serve to discriminate between the entity under discussion and similar ones. Any immunologic studies that might augment the diagnostic sensitivity or specificity will be discussed.The chapters are thematically based and consist of essential bullet points arranged in organized outlines allowing for easy access and direct comparison between entities. The salient histologic features are depicted with abundant high quality, full-color photomicrographs placed immediately adjacent to the appropriate histologic bullet points. This volume will serve as an effective and efficient handbook for the student of dermatopathology, and as a practical bench reference for the practicing diagnostician who desires rapid access to criteria that are useful in differentiating histologically similar entities. The elaborate pictorial documentation will also enable the book to serve as an atlas of the commonest dermatologic disorders.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - The Goals of Data Collection and Its Statistical Treatment in the Earth Sciences The earth sciences are characterised by loose and complex relationships between variables, and the necessity to understand the geographical dis tribution of observations as well as their frequency distribution. Our fre quency distributions and the looseness of relationships reflect the com plexity and intrinsic natural variation in nature, more than measurement error. Furthermore, earth scientists cannot design experiments according to statistical recommendation because the availability and complexity of data are beyond our control. Usually, the system we are studying cannot be isolated into discrete independent variables. These factors influence the first steps of research, how and where to collect specimens or observations. Some issues are particularly troublesome and common in earth science, but are rarely handled in an undergraduate statistics course. These include spatial-sampling methods, orientation data, regionalised variables, time se ries, identification of cyclicity and pattern, discrimination, multivariate systems, lurking variables and constant-sum data. It is remarkable that most earth-science students confront these issues without formal training or focused consideration.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Taken literally, the title 'All of Statistics' is an exaggeration. But in spirit, the title is apt, as the book does cover a much broader range of topics than a typical introductory book on mathematical statistics. This book is for people who want to learn probability and statistics quickly. It is suitable for graduate or advanced undergraduate students in computer science, mathematics, statistics, and related disciplines.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 468 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Robin Hartshorne studied algebraic geometry with Oscar Zariski and David Mumford at Harvard, and with J.-P. Serre and A. Grothendieck in Paris. After receiving his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1963, Hartshorne became a Junior Fellow at Harvard, then taught there for several years. In 1972 he moved to California where he is now Professor at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of 'Residues and Duality' (1966), 'Foundations of Projective Geometry (1968), 'Ample Subvarieties of Algebraic Varieties' (1970), and numerous research titles. His current research interest is the geometry of projective varieties and vector bundles. He has been a visiting professor at the College de France and at Kyoto University, where he gave lectures in French and in Japanese, respectively. Professor Hartshorne is married to Edie Churchill, educator and psychotherapist, and has two sons. He has travelled widely, speaks several foreign languages, and is an experienced mountain climber. He is also an accomplished amateur musician: he has played the flute for many years, and during his last visit to Kyoto he began studying the shakuhachi.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Taken literally, the title 'All of Statistics' is an exaggeration. But in spirit, the title is apt, as the book does cover a much broader range of topics than a typical introductory book on mathematical statistics. This book is for people who want to learn probability and statistics quickly. It is suitable for graduate or advanced undergraduate students in computer science, mathematics, statistics, and related disciplines.The book includes modern topics like non-parametric curve estimation, bootstrapping, and classification, topics that are usually relegated to follow-up courses. The reader is presumed to know calculus and a little linear algebra. No previous knowledge of probability and statistics is required. Statistics, data mining, and machine learning are all concerned with collecting and analysing data.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Frontier Emerging Equity Markets Securities Price Behavior and Valuation uses the Russian example to illustrate the intricate mechanics of frontier emerging equity market analysis. Frontier markets are those equity markets that do not benefit from the same degree of securities transparency and information dissemination as future emerging markets. In many cases, frontier equity markets are those which have been created almost literally overnight, without the infrastructure and institutional readiness of the nations in which they are located. During the 1990s, frontier emerging markets have formed a new investment asset class which requires a very different set of valuation metrics from mature emerging markets. In developing a multi-stage approach to the understanding and valuing of such markets, this book uses the case of the Russian frontier equity market to illustrate topics such as the relationship between equity market infrastructure and valuation during the `genesis' period of an emerging financial market; evolving market efficiency; and the crucial role of depository receipt programs in the development of these markets. Further, this book develops the first comprehensive framework for valuing a frontier equity market. The role of equity risk premium, as it affects early dynamic equity valuation, is also covered in order to illuminate important drivers of securities price performance. The book closes by discussing the philology of the frontier market valuation debate, in which every market participant is an important purveyor of information and a contributor to the final valuation dimension of equities. The main asset used to present the empirical concepts is a complete research database drawn from actual frontier market investing, which previously had been unavailable to academic researchers. As an active institutional asset management professional at a major Wall Street investment firm, the author marries academic theories, such as market efficiency and market segmentation, to the real world of high stakes and high risk frontier market investing. This book illustrates the applicability and, in some cases, the uselessness of financial theory when applied to this new and rising asset class. It opens the discussion of equity valuation theory for an environment where many conventional rules of asset price determination need to be rewritten. As the first research-level monograph exclusively dedicated to frontier emerging equity market analysis, it offers a unique dual perspective on how academic financial research finds it a complementary and sometimes antagonistic counterpart of real-life investment decision-making. This book can help both professional investors and students of finance to understand frontier equity market valuation and development. 220 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Chemical Vapor Deposition Polymerization - The Growth and Properties of Parylene Thin Films is intended to be valuable to both users and researchers of parylene thin films. It should be particularly useful for those setting up and characterizing their first research deposition system. It provides a good picture of the deposition process and equipment, as well as information on system-to-system variations that is important to consider when designing a deposition system or making modifications to an existing one. Also included are methods to characterizae a deposition system's pumping properties as well as monitor the deposition process via mass spectrometry. There are many references that will lead the reader to further information on the topic being discussed.This text should serve as a useful reference source and handbook for scientists and engineers interested in depositing high quality parylene thin films.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Druck auf Anfrage Neuware - Printed after ordering - This is a textbook for a senior-level undergraduate course for math, physics and chemistry majors. This one course can play two different but complimentary roles: it can serve as a capstone course for students finishing their education, and it can serve as motivating story for future study of mathematics. Some textbooks are like a vigorous regular physical training program, preparing people for a wide range of challenges by honing their basic skills thoroughly. Some are like a series of day hikes. This book is more like an intended trek to a particularly beautiful goal. We'll take the easiest route to the top, and we'll stop to appreciate local flora as well as distant peaks worthy of the vigorous training one would need to scale them. Advice to the Student: This book was written with many different readers in mind. Some will be mathematics students interested to see a beautiful and powerful application of a 'pure' mathematical subject. Some will be students of physics and chemistry curious about the mathematics behind some tools they use, such as spherical harmonics. Because the readership is so varied, no single reader should be put off by occasional digressions aimed at certain other readers.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Georges Benko ĞSocieties are much messier than our theories of themğ Michael Mann The Sources of Social Power 1 Towards a unified social theory Why are there communication problems between the different disciplines of the social sciences And why should there be so much misunderstanding Most probably because the encounter of several disciplines is in fact the encounter of several different histories, and therefore of several different cultures, each interpreting the other according to the code dictated by its own culture. Inevitably geographers view other disciplines through their own cultural filter, and even a benevolent view remains 'ethnocentric'. It was in order to avoid such ethnocentricity that Femand Braudel called for more unity among the social sciences in 1958 : Ğl wish the social sciences . . . would stop discussing their respective differences so much . . . and instead look for common ground . . . on which to reach their first agreement. Personally I would call these ways: quantification, spatial awareness and 'longue duree'ğ. In its place at the center of the social sciences, geography reduces all social reality to its spatial dimensions. Unfortunately, as a discipline, it considers itself all too often to be in a world of its own. There is a need in France for a figure like Vidal de la Blanche who could refocus attention away from issues of time and space, towards space and social reality. Geographic research will only take a step forward once it learns to address the problems facing all the sciences.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - TO THE SECOND EDITION In the nine years since this book was first written, rapid progress has been made scientifically in nuclear fusion, space physics, and nonlinear plasma theory. At the same time, the energy shortage on the one hand and the exploration of Jupiter and Saturn on the other have increased the national awareness of the important applications of plasma physics to energy production and to the understanding of our space environment. In magnetic confinement fusion, this period has seen the attainment 13 of a Lawson number nTE of 2 x 10 cm -3 sec in the Alcator tokamaks at MIT; neutral-beam heating of the PL T tokamak at Princeton to KTi = 6. 5 keV; increase of average ß to 3%-5% in tokamaks at Oak Ridge and General Atomic; and the stabilization of mirror-confined plasmas at Livermore, together with injection of ion current to near field-reversal conditions in the 2XIIß device. Invention of the tandem mirror has given magnetic confinement a new and exciting dimension. New ideas have emerged, such as the compact torus, surface-field devices, and the EßT mirror-torus hybrid, and some old ideas, such as the stellarator and the reversed-field pinch, have been revived. Radiofrequency heat ing has become a new star with its promise of dc current drive. Perhaps most importantly, great progress has been made in the understanding of the MHD behavior of toroidal plasmas: tearing modes, magnetic Vll Vlll islands, and disruptions.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Druck auf Anfrage Neuware - Printed after ordering - A collection of five surveys on dynamical systems, indispensable for graduate students and researchers in mathematics and theoretical physics. Written in the modern language of differential geometry, the book covers all the new differential geometric and Lie-algebraic methods currently used in the theory of integrable systems.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Chemical Vapor Deposition Polymerization - The Growth and Properties of Parylene Thin Films is intended to be valuable to both users and researchers of parylene thin films. It should be particularly useful for those setting up and characterizing their first research deposition system. It provides a good picture of the deposition process and equipment, as well as information on system-to-system variations that is important to consider when designing a deposition system or making modifications to an existing one. Also included are methods to characterizae a deposition system's pumping properties as well as monitor the deposition process via mass spectrometry. There are many references that will lead the reader to further information on the topic being discussed. This text should serve as a useful reference source and handbook for scientists and engineers interested in depositing high quality parylene thin films.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Georges Benko ĞSocieties are much messier than our theories of themğ Michael Mann The Sources of Social Power 1 Towards a unified social theory Why are there communication problems between the different disciplines of the social sciences And why should there be so much misunderstanding Most probably because the encounter of several disciplines is in fact the encounter of several different histories, and therefore of several different cultures, each interpreting the other according to the code dictated by its own culture. Inevitably geographers view other disciplines through their own cultural filter, and even a benevolent view remains 'ethnocentric'. It was in order to avoid such ethnocentricity that Femand Braudel called for more unity among the social sciences in 1958 : Ğl wish the social sciences . . . would stop discussing their respective differences so much . . . and instead look for common ground . . . on which to reach their first agreement. Personally I would call these ways: quantification, spatial awareness and 'longue duree'ğ. In its place at the center of the social sciences, geography reduces all social reality to its spatial dimensions. Unfortunately, as a discipline, it considers itself all too often to be in a world of its own. There is a need in France for a figure like Vidal de la Blanche who could refocus attention away from issues of time and space, towards space and social reality. Geographic research will only take a step forward once it learns to address the problems facing all the sciences.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Deformable objects are ubiquitous in the world, on all levels from micro to macro. Study and modeling of such shapes arises in a wide spectrum of applications, ranging from medicine to security. Non-rigid shapes have attracted a growing interest, leading to rapid development of the field, where state-of-the-art results from very different sciences - theoretical and numerical geometry, optimization, linear algebra, graph theory, machine learning and computer graphics, to mention several - are applied to find solutions. This book provides an overview of the current state of science in analysis and synthesis of non-rigid shapes. Everyday examples are used to illustrate and explain concepts and techniques. The presentation unfolds systematically, with numerous figures to enrich the exposition. Practice exercises follow at the end of each chapter, with detailed solutions to selected problems in the appendix. A gallery of color images enhances the text. 368 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -This collection of articles honors the work of Richard Zaner, a distinguished philosopher who has worked for over twenty years as an ethics consultant at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.His work in the clinical setting, especially the use of narrative in understanding what is going on in this setting is the focus of some of the papers, others relate his methodology and phenomenological approach to the more standard bioethical problemata and approaches.The essential questions: what then is the role of the philosopher turned medical ethicists Is medical ethics a form of applied philosophy, or is it also a form of therapy distinguish Zaner's phenomenology from hermeneutical philosophy. 224 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -This book reviews the progress achieved in SiC research and development, particularly over the past 10 years. It presents the essential properties of 3C-, 6H- and 4H-SiC polytypes including structural, electrical, optical, surface and interface properties; describes existing key SiC devices and also the challenges in materials growth and device fabrication of the 21st century. 472 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Atlas of Virtual Colonoscopy thoroughly revises and updates Abraham Dachmanżs bestselling first edition. Joined in this edition by co-editor Andrea Laghi, Dr. Dachman has expanded the focus of the text to cover fundamental topics of this rapidly evolving technology, including the history of virtual colonoscopy, a review of clinical trial data from throughout the world, and a presentation of clinical background information. Also included are chapters covering patient preparation and tagging, performing and reporting virtual colonoscopy, viewing methods, MR colonography, and computer aided detection. The second part of the text presents an atlas of high-resolution images with detailed explanations of teaching points, covering normal anatomy; sessile, pedunculated, diminutive and flat lesions; masses; stool and diverticula; and common pitfalls. Atlas of Virtual Colonoscopy is a valuable resource for all radiologists and gastroenterologists interested in learning the fundamentals of this exciting technique.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -A course in angular momentum techniques is essential for quantitative study of problems in atomic physics, molecular physics, nuclear physics and solid state physics. This book has grown out of such a course given to the students of the M. Sc. and M. Phil. degree courses at the University of Madras. An elementary knowledge of quantum mechanics is an essential pre-requisite to undertake this course but no knowledge of group theory is assumed on the part of the readers. Although the subject matter has group-theoretic origin, special efforts have been made to avoid the gro- theoretical language but place emphasis on the algebraic formalism dev- oped by Racah (1942a, 1942b, 1943, 1951). How far I am successful in this project is left to the discerning reader to judge. After the publication of the two classic books, one by Rose and the other by Edmonds on this subject in the year 1957, the application of angular momentum techniques to solve physical problems has become so common that it is found desirable to organize a separate course on this subject to the students of physics. It is to cater to the needs of such students and research workers that this book is written. A large number of questions and problems given at the end of each chapter will enable the reader to have a clearer understanding of the subject.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - SECTION I In 1972, Donald Davison and Gilbert Hannan wrote in the introduction to the volume Semantics of Natural Language: 'The success of linguistics in treating natural languages as formal ~yntactic systems has aroused the interest of a number of linguists in a parallel or related development of semantics. For the most part quite independently, many philosophers and logicians have recently been applying formal semantic methods to structures increasingly like natural languages. While differences in training, method and vocabulary tend to veil the fact, philosophers and linguists are converging, it seems, on a common set of interrelated problems. ' Davidson and Harman called for an interdisciplinary dialogue of linguists, philosophers and logicians on the semantics of natural language, and during the last ten years such an enterprise has proved extremely fruitful. Thanks to the cooperative effort in these several fields, the last decade has brought about striking progress in our understanding of the semantics of natural language. This work on semantics has typically paid little attention to psychological aspects of meaning. Thus, psychologists or computer scientists working on artificial intelligence were not invited to join the forces in the influential introduction of Semantics of Natural Language. No doubt it was felt that while psychological aspects of language are important in their own right, they are not relevant to our immediate semantic concerns. In the last few years, several linguists and logicians have come to question the fundamental anti-psychological assumptions underlying their theorizing.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - As noted in the Foreword, this report is one of several volumes resulting from this study of future health care technology. The purpose of the study, as formulated by the STG, was to analyze future health care technology. Part of the task was to develop an 'early warning system' for health care technology. The primary goal of the project was to develop a list or description of a number of possible and probable future health care technologies, as well as information on their importance. Within the limits of time and money, this has been done. However, given the vast number of possible future health care technologies, complete information on the importance of each area could not be developed in any depth for all technology. Therefore, four specific technologies were chosen and were prospectively assessed. These future technologies were examined in more depth, looking particularly at their future health and policy implications. Subsequently, the project was extended to September 1986, and two additional technologies were chosen for assessment.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - This book aims to present, in a unified approach, a series of mathematical results con cerning triangular norm-based measures and a class of cooperative games with Juzzy coalitions. Our approach intends to emphasize that triangular norm-based measures are powerful tools in exploring the coalitional behaviour in 'such games. They not and simplify some technical aspects of the already classical axiomatic the only unify ory of Aumann-Shapley values, but also provide new perspectives and insights into these results. Moreover, this machinery allows us to obtain, in the game theoretical context, new and heuristically meaningful information, which has a significant impact on balancedness and equilibria analysis in a cooperative environment. From a formal point of view, triangular norm-based measures are valuations on subsets of a unit cube [0, 1]X which preserve dual binary operations induced by trian gular norms on the unit interval [0, 1]. Triangular norms (and their dual conorms) are algebraic operations on [0,1] which were suggested by MENGER [1942] and which proved to be useful in the theory of probabilistic metric spaces (see also [WALD 1943]). The idea of a triangular norm-based measure was implicitly used under various names: vector integrals [DVORETZKY, WALD & WOLFOWITZ 1951], prob abilities oj Juzzy events [ZADEH 1968], and measures on ideal sets [AUMANN & SHAPLEY 1974, p. 152].

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - The enormous rise of digital applications in the last two decades arouses the suggestion that analog techniques will lose their importance. However in applications that work with digital signals analog techniques are still very important for a number of reasons. First the signal that must be processed or stored may be analog at the input and output of the system. Second when digital circuits must operate at high speed the analog behavior becomes important again. And third when only limited bandwidth and signal to noise ratio is available the theoretical maximum data rate is determined by Shannon's law. This theoretical limit can only be approximated in practice when complex modulation schemes are used, and after this modulation process the signal is analog again. Of course this does effect the tremendous advantage of digital signals compared to analog signals. Where analog signals deteriorate every time they are processed or stored, digital signals can be recovered perfectly when they are tailored to the properties of the system they are used for. The accuracy of digital signal processing is only limited by practical constraints and many digital signals can be compressed very effective so that after compression they use less bandwidth then their analog counterparts. In any aplication there will thus be analog and digital parts and often the choice has to be made if an analog or a digital solution is preferred for a certain function.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - This book proposes a new methodology for the selection of one (model) from among a set of alternative econometric models. Let us recall that a model is an abstract representation of reality which brings out what is relevant to a particular economic issue. An econometric model is also an analytical characterization of the joint probability distribution of some random variables of interest, which yields some information on how the actual economy works. This information will be useful only if it is accurate and precise; that is, the information must be far from ambiguous and close to what we observe in the real world Thus, model selection should be performed on the basis of statistics which summarize the degree of accuracy and precision of each model. A model is accurate if it predicts right; it is precise if it produces tight confidence intervals. A first general approach to model selection includes those procedures based on both characteristics, precision and accuracy. A particularly interesting example of this approach is that of Hildebrand, Laing and Rosenthal (1980). See also Hendry and Richard (1982). A second general approach includes those procedures that use only one of the two dimensions to discriminate among models. In general, most of the tests we are going to examine correspond to this category.