springer new york springer new york nov 2010 (Over 1,100 results)

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Hidden from human view, accessible only to sensitive receivers attached to huge radio telescopes, giant versions of backyard satellite dishes, the invisible universe beyond our senses continues to fascinate and intrigue our imaginations. We cannot really comprehend what it means to say that a galaxy is exploding, yet that is the nature of some of the distant radio sources in the furthest reaches of space. Closer to home, in the Milky Way galaxy, radio astronomers listen patiently to the ticking of pulsars that tell of star death and states of matter of awesome densities. And between the stars, radio emission from a host of over 120 complex molecules radiate outward to reveal a tale about chemical processes that produce the very stuff of life. And all of this happens out there in the universe hidden from our eyes, even when aided by the Hubble Space Telescope.This is the story of radio astronomy, of how radio waves are generated by stars, supernova, quasars, colliding galaxies, and by the very beginnings of the universe itself. In The Invisible Universe, you learn what astronomers are doing with those huge dishes in the New Mexico desert, in a remote valley in Puerto Rico, in the green Pocahontas Valley in West Virginia, as well as dozens of other remote sites around the world. With each of these observatories, the scientists collect and analyze their data, 'listening' to the radio signals from space, in order to learn what is out there, and perhaps even if someone else may be listening as well.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 172 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Matrix-Based Multigrid introduces and analyzes the multigrid approach for the numerical solution of large sparse linear systems arising from the discretization of elliptic partial differential equations. Special attention is given to the powerful matrix-based-multigrid approach, which is particularly useful for problems with variable coefficients and nonsymmetric and indefinite problems.This book can be used as a textbook in courses in numerical analysis, numerical linear algebra, and numerical PDEs at the advanced undergraduate and graduate levels in computer science, math, and applied math departments. The theory is written in simple algebraic terms and therefore requires preliminary knowledge only in basic linear algebra and calculus.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Many scientific papers and popular articles have been written on the topic of space tourism, describing everything from expected market sizes to the rules of 3-dimensional microgravity football. But what would it actually feel like to be a tourist in space, to be hurled into orbit on top of a controlled explosion, to float around in a spacecraft, and to be able to look down on your hometown from above the atmosphere Space tourism is not science fiction anymore, Michel van Pelt tells us, but merely a logical step in the evolution of space flight. Space is about to be opened up to more and more people, and the drive behind this is one of the most powerful economic forces: tourism. Van Pelt describes what recreational space travel might look like, and explains the required space technology, the medical issues, astronaut training, and the possibilities of holidays to destinations far, far away.This is a book for everyone who has ever dreamed of traveling to space: a dream which, according to van Pelt, may not be so far from becoming a reality.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 240 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Calibrating the Cosmos describes hard science, but is gently written. It explains in clear, non-mathematical language the measurements and the interpretation of the resulting data that have led to the current understanding of the origin, evolution and properties of our expanding Big Bang universe.Many people have a sketchy idea of the work of cosmologists, but Professor Levin¿s experience in teaching both scientific and liberal arts students has enabled him to impart much of our current thinking without resorting to difficult mathematics. Theoretical concepts are emphasized, in particular the symmetries of homogeneity and isotropy enjoyed by our universe on the largest scales, how these symmetries lead to only one quantity being needed to describe the growth of the universe from its infancy to the present time, and how the so-called parameters of the universe are the ingredients used to construct the model universes to which ours ¿ the real thing ¿ is compared.Levin includes the 2003 results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and the 2003 and 2004 results of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to ensure that the book is up to date. He explains the relevance of the discoveries done by the new physics Nobel laureates Smoot and Mather!Background material is provided in the first four chapters; the current picture and how it was attained are discussed in the next four chapters; and some unsolved problems and conjectured solutions are explored in the final chapter.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 316 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -When I became the producer of the Sky at Night in 2002, I was given some friendly advice: ¿It¿s a quiet little programme, not much happens in astronomy.¿ How wrong they were! It¿s been a hectic and enthralling time ever since:, with missions arriving at distant planets; new discoveries in our Universe; and leaps in technology, which mean amateurs can take pictures as good as the Hubble Space Telescope. What a privilege it is to work on a programme with such a huge heritage! I am constantly amazed looking back at the flotilla of excellent programmes which have gone out over the past five decades. The Sky at Night has always been at the sharp end of science broadcasting, whether it¿s showing the first view from the far side of the Moon or pictures of a new comet which has swept into our sky. Viewers can depend on Sir Patrick to tell them the latest news and explain what it means. It¿s an outstanding achievement and Sir Patrick still holds the world record for being the same presenter on the longest running TV programme. Our guests love coming down to Farthings, Sir Patrick¿s home. For them, me- ing him is like meeting their astronomical hero. Over the past five decades, the Sky at Night has managed to talk to the space scientists and astronomers making the landmark discoveries. No matter how busy they are, they make room for Sir Patrick.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 188 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Matrix-Based Multigrid introduces and analyzes the multigrid approach for the numerical solution of large sparse linear systems arising from the discretization of elliptic partial differential equations. Special attention is given to the powerful matrix-based-multigrid approach, which is particularly useful for problems with variable coefficients and nonsymmetric and indefinite problems. This book can be used as a textbook in courses in numerical analysis, numerical linear algebra, and numerical PDEs at the advanced undergraduate and graduate levels in computer science, math, and applied math departments. The theory is written in simple algebraic terms and therefore requires preliminary knowledge only in basic linear algebra and calculus.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 344 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Multigrid methods are often used for solving partial differential equations. This book introduces and analyzes the multigrid approach. The approach used here applies to both test problems on rectangular grids and to more realistic applications with complicated grids and domains. Key Features of this Second Edition:- Discusses multigrid methods from the domain decomposition viewpoint, thus making the material accessible to beginning undergraduate/graduate students - Uses the semialgebraic multigrid approach to handle complex topics (such as the solution of systems of PDEs)- Provides relevant and insightful exercises at the end of each chapter which help reinforce the material- Uses numerous illustrations and examples to motivate the subject matter- Covers important applications in physics, engineering and computer scienceMatrix-Based Multigrid can serve as a textbook for courses in numerical linear algebra, numerical methods for PDEs, and computational physics at the advanced undergraduate and graduate levels. Since most of the background material is covered, the only prerequisites are elementary linear algebra and calculus.Excerpts from the reviews of the first edition: 'This book contains a wealth of information about using multilevel methods to solve partial differential equations (PDEs). . . A common matrix-based framework for developing these methods is used throughout the book. This approach allows methods to be developed for problems under three very different conditions. . . This book will be insightful for practitioners in the field. . . students will enjoy studying this book to see how the many puzzle pieces of the multigrid landscape fit together.' (Loyce Adams, SIAM review, Vol. 47(3), 2005)'The discussion very often includes important applications in physics, engineering, and computer science.The style is clear, the details can be understood without any serious prerequisite. The usage of multigrid method for unstructured grids is exhibited by a well commented C++ program. This way the book is suitable for anyone . . . who needs numerical solution of partial differential equations.' (Peter Hajnal, Acta Scientiarum Mathematicarum, Vol. 70, 2004).

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -[the text below needs editing and we must be careful not to say things about Dan Brown's book that could get Springer in legal trouble]Dan Brown¿s novel, The Da Vinci Code, was first published in 2003; its sales have reached 40 million worldwide. The book mixes a small spice of fact into a large dollop of fiction to create an entertaining novel of intrigue, adventure, romance, danger and conspiracy, which have been imaginatively worked together to cook up the successful bestseller.Most interest in the book¿s origins has centred on the sensational religious aspects. Dan Brown has written: ¿All of the art, architecture, secret rituals, secret societies, all of that is historical fact.¿ This gives an air of authenticity to the book. Brown has, however, made up the religious doctrines, or based them on questionable accounts by others.The locations of the actions of The Da Vinci Code are not, however, made up. The present book is the scientific story behind the scene of several of the book¿s actions that take place on the axis of France that passes through Paris.The Paris Meridian is the name of this location. It is the line running north-south through the astronomical observatory in Paris. One of the original intentions behind the founding of the Paris Observatory was to determine and measure this line. The French government financed the Paris Academy of Sciences to do so in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. It employed both astronomers ¿ people who study and measure the stars ¿ and geodesists ¿ people who study and measure the Earth. This book is about what they did and why. It is a true story behind Dan Brown¿s fiction.This is the first English language presentation of this historical material. It is attractively written and it features the story of the community of scientists who created the Paris Meridian. They knew each other well ¿ some were members of the same families, in one caseof four generations. Like scientists everywhere they collaborated and formed alliances; they also split into warring factions and squabbled. They travelled to foreign countries, somehow transcending the national and political disputes, as scientists do now, their eyes fixed on ideas of accuracy, truth and objective, enduring values ¿ save where the reception given to their own work is concerned, when some became blind to high ideals and descended into petty politics.To establish the Paris Meridian, the scientists endured hardship, survived danger and gloried in amazing adventures during a time of turmoil in Europe, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic War between France and Spain. Some were accused of witchcraft. Some of their associates lost their heads on the guillotine. Some died of disease. Some won honour and fame. One became the Head of State in France, albeit for no more than a few weeks. Some found dangerous love in foreign countries. One scientist killed in self defence when attacked by a jealous lover, another was himself killed by a jealous lover, a third brought back a woman to France and then jilted her, whereupon she joined a convent.The scientists worked on practical problems of interest to the government and to the people. They also worked on one of the important intellectual problems of the time, a problem of great interest to their fellow scientists all over the world, nothing less than the theory of universal gravitation. They succeeded in their intellectual work, while touching politics and the affairs of state. Their endeavours have left their marks on the landscape, in art and in literature.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 208 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -I have spent many wonderful nights observing at a variety of places around the world, but many of my fondest memories come from those made at the Custer Observatory in Southold on Long Island, where I grew up. I was only perhaps a dozen years old when I started out, and now more than three decades later I have logged millions of miles on the various telescopes there. Some of the best memories are of observing and discussing astronomical topics with the many really terrific people who make up Custer. It truly holds a special place in my heart. Star clusters were always among my favorite objects to observe and discuss there. This book is the result of the exposure to these objects, many of which I observed for the first time at Custer. The Custer Institute Observatory was founded in the 1920s by local resident Charles W. Elmer of Perkin-Elmer Corp. fame. The original crew met at his house in Cedar Beach a few miles down the road from the institute. In the 1930s the group built an observatory complete with Mr. Elmer¿s donated 5¿ Alvan Clark refractor. Later the observatory expanded to include a 6¿ Clark refractor and other even larger instruments.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 188 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -For the third edition, the author has added a new chapter on associative algebras that includes the well known characterizations of the finite-dimensional division algebras over the real field (a theorem of Frobenius) and over a finite field (Wedderburn's theorem); polished and refined some arguments (such as the discussion of reflexivity, the rational canonical form, best approximations and the definitions of tensor products); upgraded some proofs that were originally done only for finite-dimensional/rank cases; added new theorems, including the spectral mapping theorem; corrected all known errors;the reference section has been enlarged considerably, with over a hundred references to books on linear algebra.From the reviews of the second edition:¿In this 2nd edition, the author has rewritten the entire book and has added more than 100 pages of new materials. ¿ As in the previous edition, the text is well written and gives a thorough discussion of many topics of linear algebra and related fields. ¿ the exercises are rewritten and expanded. ¿ Overall, I found the book a very useful one. ¿ It is a suitable choice as a graduate text or as a reference book.¿Ali-Akbar Jafarian, ZentralblattMATH¿This is a formidable volume, a compendium of linear algebra theory, classical and modern ¿ . The development of the subject is elegant ¿ . The proofs are neat ¿ . The exercise sets are good, with occasional hints given for the solution of trickier problems. ¿ It represents linear algebra and does so comprehensively.¿Henry Ricardo, MathDLSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 544 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Over the last 15 years or so there has been a huge increase in the popularity of astrophotography with the advent of digital SLR cameras and CCD imagers. These have enabled astronomers to take many images and, indeed, check images as they scan the skies. Processing techniques using computer software have also made ¿developing¿ these images more accessible to those of us who are ¿chemically challenged!¿ And let¿s face it ¿ some of the pictures you see these days in magazines, books, and on popular web forums are, frankly, amazing! So, why bother looking through the eyepiece you ask Well, for one thing, setting up the equipment is quicker. You just take your ¿scope out of the garage or, if yoüre lucky enough to own one, open the roof of your observatory, align the ¿scope and off you go. If you have an equatorial mount, yoüll still need to roughly polar align, but this really takes only a few moments. The ¿imager¿ would most likely need to spend more time setting up. This would include very accurate polar alignment (for equatorial mounts), then finding a guide star using his or her finder, checking the software is functioning properly, and c- tinuous monitoring to make sure the alignment is absolutely precise throu- out the imaging run. That said, an imager with a snug ¿obsy¿ at the end of the garden will have a quicker time setting up, but then again so will the ¿visual¿ observer.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 448 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -From reviews of the first edition:'In the world of mathematics, the 1980's might well be described as the 'decade of the fractal'. Starting with Benoit Mandelbrot's remarkable text The Fractal Geometry of Nature, there has been a deluge of books, articles and television programmes about the beautiful mathematical objects, drawn by computers using recursive or iterative algorithms, which Mandelbrot christened fractals. Gerald Edgar's book is a significant addition to this deluge. Based on a course given to talented high- school students at Ohio University in 1988, it is, in fact, an advanced undergraduate textbook about the mathematics of fractal geometry, treating such topics as metric spaces, measure theory, dimension theory, and even some algebraic topology.the book also contains many good illustrations of fractals (including 16 color plates).'Mathematics Teaching'The book can be recommended to students who seriously want to know about the mathematical foundation of fractals, and to lecturers who want to illustrate a standard course in metric topology by interesting examples.'Christoph Bandt, Mathematical Reviews'.not only intended to fit mathematics students who wish to learn fractal geometry from its beginning but also students in computer science who are interested in the subject. Especially, for the last students the author gives the required topics from metric topology and measure theory on an elementary level. The book is written in a very clear style and contains a lot of exercises which should be worked out.'H.Haase, ZentralblattAbout the second edition: Changes throughout the text, taking into account developments in the subject matter since 1990; Major changes in chapter 6. Since 1990 it has become clear that there are two notions of dimension that play complementary roles, so the emphasis on Hausdorff dimension will be replaced by the two: Hausdorff dimension and packing dimension. 6.1 will remain, but a new section on packing dimension will follow it, then the old sections 6.2--6.4 will be re-written to show both types of dimension; Substantial change in chapter 7: new examples along with recent developments; Sections rewritten to be made clearer and more focused.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 296 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Blending algebra, analysis, and topology, the study of compact Lie groups is one of the most beautiful areas of mathematics and a key stepping stone to the theory of general Lie groups. Assuming no prior knowledge of Lie groups, this book covers the structure and representation theory of compact Lie groups. Included is the construction of the Spin groups, Schur Orthogonality, the Peter-Weyl Theorem, the Plancherel Theorem, the Maximal Torus Theorem, the Commutator Theorem, the Weyl Integration and Character Formulas, the Highest Weight Classification, and the Borel-Weil Theorem. The necessary Lie algebra theory is also developed in the text with a streamlined approach focusing on linear Lie groups.Key Features are: - Provides an approach that minimizes advanced prerequisites; - Self-contained and systematic exposition requiring no previous exposure to Lie theory; -Advances quickly to the Peter-Weyl Theorem and its corresponding Fourier theory; - Streamlined Lie algebra discussion reduces the differential geometry prerequisite and allows a more rapid transition to the classification and construction of representations - Exercises sprinkled throughout.This beginning graduate level text, aimed primarily at Lie Groups courses and related topics, assumes familiarity with elementary concepts from group theory, analysis, and manifold theory. Students, research mathematicians, and physicists interested in Lie theory will find this text very useful.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 212 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Of what use is mathematics Hasn¿t everything in mathematics already been disc- ered Thesearenaturalquestionsoftenaskedbyundergraduates. Theanswersprovided by their professors are often quite brief. Most university courses, pressed for time and rigidly structured, o er little opportunity to present and study actual applications and real-world examples. Evenmorehigh-schoolstudentsaskthesamequestionswithmoreinsistence. Tea- ers in these schools generally work under even tighter constraints than university prof- sors. If they are able to competently respond to these questions it is probably because they received good answers from their teachers and professors. And if they do not have the answers, then whose fault is it The genesis of this text It is impossible to introduce this text without rst discussing the course in which it originated. The course ¿Mathematics and Technology¿ was created at the Universit¿ e de Montr¿ eal and taught for the rst time in the winter semester of 2001. It was created after observing that most courses in the department neglect to present real applications. Sinceitscreationthecoursehasbeenopentobothundergraduatemathematicsstudents and future high-school teachers. Since no appropriate text or manual for the course we envisioned existed, we were led to write our own course notes, from which we taught. We got so caught up in writing these notes that they quickly grew to the size of a textbook, containing much more material than could possibly be taught in one semester. Despite the two of us being career mathematicians, we must admit that we both knew little or nothing about most of the applications presented in the following chapters.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 596 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -This book represents the compilation of efforts by researchers across the country, each of whom is dedicated not only to the prevention and elimination of HIV infection, but also to the conduct of research according to the highest ethical pr- ciples. The authors of the case studies have graciously agreed to share their ex- riences in conducting research, which raised questions for them and will motivate us to further inquiry and examination. The views that are presented in this text are diverse and readers may or may not agree with the analyses of the editor-authors or the authors of the case studies. We do not aim for agreement among readers, but rather, the studied analysis of the ethical issues raised in the conduct of HIV research. We clearly emphasize the protection of the individuals participating in such research, as well as their communities, and view research not as an enterprise undertaken by researchers, but rather as a negotiated exchange between researchers, participants, and c- munities that also involves interplay with funding sources, ancillary partners, and governments.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 356 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Conics and Cubics is an accessible introduction to algebraic curves. Its focus on curves of degree at most three keeps results tangible and proofs transparent. Theorems follow naturally from high school algebra and two key ideas, homogeneous coordinates and intersection multiplicities.By classifying irreducible cubics over the real numbers and proving that their points form Abelian groups, the book gives readers easy access to the study of elliptic curves. It includes a simple proof of Bezout¿s Theorem on the number of intersections of two curves.The book is a text for a one-semester course. The course can serve either as the one undergraduate geometry course taken by mathematics majors in general or as a sequel to college geometry for prospective or current teachers of secondary school mathematics. The only prerequisite is first-year calculus.The new edition additionally discusses the use of power series to parametrize curves and analyze intersection multiplicities and envelopes.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 356 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Based on courses for students of science, engineering, and systems science at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences at Winterthur, this text approaches the fundamentals of thermodynamics from the point of view of continuum physics. By describing physical processes in terms of the flow and balance of physical quantities, the author achieves a unified approach to hydraulics, electricity, mechanics and thermodynamics. In this way, it becomes clear that entropy is the fundamental property that is transported in thermal processes (i.e., heat), and that temperature is the corresponding potential. The resulting theory of the creation, flow, and balance of entropy provides the foundation of a dynamical theory of heat.This extensively revised and updated second edition includes new material on dynamical chemical processes, thermoelectricity, and explicit dynamical modeling of thermal and chemical processes. To make the book more useful for courses on thermodynamics and physical chemistry at different levels, coverage of topics is divided into introductory and more advanced and formal treatments. Previous knowledge of thermodynamics is not required, but the reader should be familiar with basic electricity, mechanics, and chemistry and should have some knowledge of elementary calculus. The special feature of the first edition -- the integration of thermodynamics, heat transfer, and chemical processes -- has been maintained and strengthened.Key Features: First revised edition of a successful text/reference in fourteen years More than 25 percent new material Provides a unified approach to thermodynamics and heat transport in fundamental physical and chemical processes Includes worked examples, questions, and problem sets for use as a teaching text or to test the reader's understanding Includes many system dynamics models of laboratory experimentsSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 748 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -How to solve partial differential systems by completing the square. This could well have been the title of this monograph as it grew into a project to develop a s- tematic approach for associating suitable nonnegative energy functionals to a large class of partial differential equations (PDEs) and evolutionary systems. The minima of these functionals are to be the solutions we seek, not because they are critical points (i. e. , from the corresponding Euler-Lagrange equations) but from also - ing zeros of these functionals. The approach can be traced back to Bogomolnyi¿s trick of ¿completing squares¿ in the basic equations of quantum eld theory (e. g. , Yang-Mills, Seiberg-Witten, Ginzburg-Landau, etc. ,), which allows for the deri- tion of the so-called self (or antiself) dual version of these equations. In reality, the ¿self-dual Lagrangians¿ we consider here were inspired by a variational - proach proposed ¿ over 30 years ago ¿ by Brezis ¿ and Ekeland for the heat equation and other gradient ows of convex energies. It is based on Fenchel-Legendre - ality and can be used on any convex functional ¿ not just quadratic ones ¿ making them applicable in a wide range of problems. In retrospect, we realized that the ¿- ergy identities¿ satis ed by Leray¿s solutions for the Navier-Stokes equations are also another manifestation of the concept of self-duality in the context of evolution equations.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 368 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Authoritative Communities: The Scientific Case for Nurturing the Whole Child introduces innovative solutions based firmly in the children¿s mental health and resilience literature and in the hypothesis that humans are 'hardwired to connect.' These 'authoritative communities' consist of such individuals and institutions as parents, teachers, coaches, elders, and a variety of organizations that are committed to each other¿s well-being over the long-term and who instill children with prosocial values such as empathy and compassion. Living within these communities enables children and youth to develop a consistent sense of purpose and meaning, so that they, in turn, are able to grow up to be responsible, productive, and nurturing adults.The comprehensive coverage in this volume bring new insights and evidence to the nature/nurture debate from developmental, attachment, neurobiological, spiritual, and community perspectives, including:Nurturing as a protective factor against genetic predispositions.Counteracting the adverse influence of the media on children.Promoting a sense of community in disadvantaged youth.Spiritual approaches, from the Buddhist 'minding children with mindfulness' to traditional young men¿s rites of passage.Adolescent development, from psychobiology to the formation of conscience.Dispatches from the civil society movement, the School Development Program, and the motherhood movement.This volume is essential reading for researchers and practitioners as well as graduate-level students in developmental, clinical, and social psychology as well as related fields such as sociology, social work, education, and religious studies.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 412 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -The theory of elliptic curves is distinguished by its long history and by the diversity of the methods that have been used in its study. This book treats the arithmetic approach in its modern formulation, through the use of basic algebraic number theory and algebraic geometry. Following a brief discussion of the necessary algebro-geometric results, the book proceeds with an exposition of the geometry and the formal group of elliptic curves, elliptic curves over finite fields, the complex numbers, local fields, and global fields. Final chapters deal with integral and rational points, including Siegels theorem and explicit computations for the curve Y = X + DX, while three appendices conclude the whole: Elliptic Curves in Characteristics 2 and 3, Group Cohomology, and an overview of more advanced topics.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 536 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 516 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Studying Human Populations is a textbook for graduate students and research workers in social statistics and related subject areas. It follows a novel curriculum developed around the basic statistical activities of sampling, measurement and inference. Statistics is defined broadly as making decisions in the presence of uncertainty that arises as a consequence of limited resources available for collecting information. A connecting link of the presented methods is the perspective of missing information, catering for a diverse class of problems that include nonresponse, imperfect measurement and causal inference. In principle, any problem too complex for our limited analytical toolkit could be converted to a tractable problem if some additional information were available. Ingenuity is called for in declaring such (missing) information constructively, but the universe of problems that we can address is wide open, not limited by a discrete set of procedures.The monograph aims to prepare the reader for the career of an independent social statistician and to serve as a reference for methods, ideas for and ways of studying human populations: formulation of the inferential goals, design of studies, search for the sources of relevant information, analysis and presentation of results. Elementary linear algebra and calculus are prerequisites, although the exposition is quite forgiving, especially in the first few chapters. Familiarity with statistical software at the outset is an advantage, but it can be developed concurrently with studying the text.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 496 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -This volume will be the only existing single-authored book offering a science-based breeder¿s manual directed at breeding for water-limited environments. Plant breeding is characterized by the need to integrate information from diverse disciplines towards the development and delivery of a product defines as a new cultivar. Conventional breeding draws information from disciplines such as genetics, plant physiology, plant pathology, entomology, food technology and statistics. Plant breeding for water-limited environments and the development of drought resistant crop cultivars is considered as one of the more difficult areas in plant breeding while at the same time it is becoming a very pressing issue. This volume is unique and timely in that it develops realistic solutions and protocols towards the breeding of drought resistant cultivars by integrating knowledge from environmental science, plant physiology, genetics and molecular biology.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 272 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -In this text, integral geometry deals with Radon¿s problem of representing a function on a manifold in terms of its integrals over certain submanifolds¿hence the term the Radon transform. Examples and far-reaching generalizations lead to fundamental problems such as: (i) injectivity, (ii) inversion formulas, (iii) support questions, (iv) applications (e.g., to tomography, partial di erential equations and group representations). For the case of the plane, the inversion theorem and the support theorem have had major applications in medicine through tomography and CAT scanning. While containing some recent research, the book is aimed at beginning graduate students for classroom use or self-study. A number of exercises point to further results with documentation. From the reviews: ¿Integral Geometry is a fascinating area, where numerous branches of mathematics meet together. the contents of the book is concentrated around the duality and double vibration, which is realized through the masterful treatment of a variety of examples. the book is written by an expert, who has made fundamental contributions to the area.¿ ¿Boris Rubin, Louisiana State UniversitySpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 316 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -This book introduces a new theory in Computer Vision yielding elementary techniques to analyze digital images. These techniques are a mathematical formalization of the Gestalt theory. From the mathematical viewpoint the closest field to it is stochastic geometry, involving basic probability and statistics, in the context of image analysis. The book is mathematically self-contained, needing only basic understanding of probability and calculus. The text includes more than 130 illustrations, and numerous examples based on specific images on which the theory is tested. Detailed exercises at the end of each chapter help the reader develop a firm understanding of the concepts imparted.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 288 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Based on courses for students of science, engineering, and systems science at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences at Winterthur, this text approaches the fundamentals of thermodynamics from the point of view of continuum physics. By describing physical processes in terms of the flow and balance of physical quantities, the author achieves a unified approach to hydraulics, electricity, mechanics and thermodynamics. In this way, it becomes clear that entropy is the fundamental property that is transported in thermal processes (i.e., heat), and that temperature is the corresponding potential. The resulting theory of the creation, flow, and balance of entropy provides the foundation of a dynamical theory of heat.This extensively revised and updated second edition includes new material on dynamical chemical processes, thermoelectricity, and explicit dynamical modeling of thermal and chemical processes. To make the book more useful for courses on thermodynamics and physical chemistry at different levels, coverage of topics is divided into introductory and more advanced and formal treatments. Previous knowledge of thermodynamics is not required, but the reader should be familiar with basic electricity, mechanics, and chemistry and should have some knowledge of elementary calculus. The special feature of the first edition -- the integration of thermodynamics, heat transfer, and chemical processes -- has been maintained and strengthened.Key Features: First revised edition of a successful text/reference in fourteen years More than 25 percent new material Provides a unified approach to thermodynamics and heat transport in fundamental physical and chemical processes Includes worked examples, questions, and problem sets for use as a teaching text or to test the reader's understanding Includes many system dynamics models of laboratory experimentsSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 748 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -A majority of the chapters in this book first saw the light of day as talks at a conference organised and held at Queen¿s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada in April 2001. This small, invitational meeting, tellingly entitled Beauty and the Mathematical Beast, brought together a range of academics int- ested in and committed to exploring connections between mathematics and aesthetics. The enthusiastic response of participants at this gathering enco- aged the presenters to expand upon their initial contributions and persuaded the organisers to recruit further chapters in order to bring a greater balance to the whole. The timing of this event was not arbitrary. The preceding decade had seen a resurgence in serious writing dealing with deeper relations between mathematics (and science) and ¿the beautiful¿. In many ways, we the editors of this volume found these contributions to the literature were revisiting and drawing on themes that had been prominent over two thousand five h- dred years ago, in certain writings of the Pythagoreans. While not intending to offer a historical reappraisal of these ancient thinkers here, we have none the less chosen to invoke this profound interweaving of the mathematical and the aesthetic to which this reputedly secretive philosophical sect was ext- sively attuned. This book is divided into three sections comprising three chapters each, each with its own short introduction discussing the particular chapters within.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 304 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Although the rst decades of the 20th century saw some strong debates on set theory and the foundation of mathematics, afterwards set theory has turned into a solid branch of mathematics, indeed, so solid, that it serves as the foundation of the whole building of mathematics. Later generations, honest to Hilbert¿s dictum, ¿No one can chase us out of the paradise that Cantor has created for us¿ proved countless deep and interesting theorems and also applied the methods of set theory to various problems in algebra, topology, in nitary combinatorics, and real analysis. The invention of forcing produced a powerful, technically sophisticated tool for solving unsolvable problems. Still, most results of the pre-Cohen era can be digested with just the knowledge of a commonsense introduction to the topic. And it is a worthy e ort, here we refer not just to usefulness, but, rst and foremost, to mathematical beauty. In this volume we o er a collection of various problems in set theory. Most of classical set theory is covered, classical in the sense that independence methods are not used, but classical also in the sense that most results come fromtheperiod,say,1920¿1970.Manyproblemsarealsorelatedtoother elds of mathematics such as algebra, combinatorics, topology, and real analysis. We do not concentrate on the axiomatic framework, although some - pects, such as the axiom of foundation or the role ¿ of the axiom of choice, are elaborated.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 528 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -On several occasions I and colleagues have found ourselves teaching a o- semester course for students at the second year of graduate study in ma- ematics who want to gain a general perspective on Jordan algebras, their structure, and their role in mathematics, or want to gain direct experience with nonassociative algebra. These students typically have a solid grounding in rst¿year graduate algebra and the Artin¿Wedderburn theory of assoc- tive algebras, and a few have been introduced to Lie algebras (perhaps even Cayley algebras, in an o hand way), but otherwise they have not seen any nonassociative algebras. Most of them will not go on to do research in non- sociative algebra, so the course is not primarily meant to be a training or breeding ground for research, though the instructor often hopes that one or two will be motivated to pursue the subject further. This text is meant to serve as an accompaniment to such a course. It is designed rst and foremost to be read by students on their own without assistance by a teacher. It is a direct mathematical conversation between the author and a reader whose mind (as far as nonassociative algebra goes) is a tabula rasa. In keeping with the tone of a private conversation, I give more heuristicandexplanatorycommentthanisusualingraduatetextsatthislev el (pep talks, philosophical pronouncements on the proper way to think about certain concepts, historical anecdotes, mention of some mathematicians who have contributed to our understanding of Jordan algebras, etc.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 592 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -A book on any mathematical subject above textbook level is not of much value unless it contains new ideas and new perspectives. Also, the author may be encouraged to include new results, provided that they help the reader gain newinsightsandarepresentedalongwithknownoldresultsinaclearexposi tion. Itis with this philosophy that Iwrite this volume. The two subjects, Dirichlet series and modular forms, are traditional, but I treat them in both orthodox and unorthodox ways. However, I try to make the book accessible to those who are not familiar with such topics, by including plenty of expository material. More speci c descriptions of the contents will be given in the Introduction. To some extent, this book has a supplementary nature to my previous book Introduction to the Arithmetic Theory of Automorphic Functions, published by Princeton University Press in 1971, though I do not write the present book with that intent. While the 1971 book grew out of my lectures in various places, the essential points of this new book have never been presented publicly or privately. I hope that it will draw an audience as large as that of the previous book.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 156 pp. Englisch.