springer us apr 1998 (59 results)

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -The Compact Disc (CD), as a standardized information carrier, has become one of the most successful consumer products ever marketed. Although the original disc was intended for audio playback, its specific advantages opened very quickly the way towards various computer applications. The standardization of the Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM) and of all succeeding similar products, like Compact Disc interactive (CD-i), Photo and Video CD, CD Recordable (CD-R), and CD Rewritable (CD R/W), has substantially enlarged the range of possible applications. The plastic disc represented from the very beginning a removable medium of large storage capacity. The advent of the personal computer accompa nied by the increasing demand for both data distribution and exchange have strongly marked the evolution of the CD-ROM drive. The number of sold CD-ROM units exceeded 60 millions in 1997 when compared to about 2.5 millions in 1992. As computing power continuously improved over the years, computer pe ripherals have also targeted better performance specifications. In particular, the speed of CD-ROM drives increased from the so-called 1X in 1984 to dou ble speed in 1992, and further to 32X at the beginning of 1998. The average time needed to access data on disc has dropped from about 300 ms to less than 90 ms within the same period of time.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Economic Restructuring and the Growing Uncertainty of the Middle Class focuses on a relatively new research area which is becoming increasingly more important: the growing uncertainty of the middle class. Until recently, members of the middle class were not only assured of a good social and economic position but also of the continuation of this position. Nowadays, economic and organisational changes are threatening this once secure position. The boundaries between the middle classes and the working class are becoming less and less visible. `Making a career', which was in the past central for middle class people, is becoming ever more difficult. Moreover, organisational restructuring is threatening their employment. It seems that insecurity is becoming a central element in the lives of members of the middle class. In this book experts from several European countries discuss the question of to what extent the position of the middle class is really changing. They also discuss the mechanisms that are propelling these changes, and the effects these changes have on the attitudes of middle-class people. As the experts are from several parts of Europe (Great Britain, Germany, The Netherlands, Greece, Spain and Russia), the reader can compare the situation of the middle classes in these various countries. This book contains valuable information for anyone interested in this important topic: not only for those involved in the studies of economic and organisational change and social stratification and those interested in the similarities and differences between European countries, but (amongst others) for policy-makers, managers, and trade union representatives who will be dealing with problems induced by the changes that are discussed in the book.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Economic values are increasingly used in policy analysis and legal settings. With the growing recognition that many of the things that benefit or harm people are outside the market system, have come increasing efforts to develop nonmarket valuation techniques. One such technique is the contingent valuation method (CVM). CVM seeks to value environmental and other nonmarket goods and services by asking individuals about their values using survey methods. These procedures are different from the `revealed-preference' methods that economists have historically employed to estimate economic values. Why depart from well-established revealed-preference procedures and apply a `stated-preference' method like CVM For nonmarket goods and services, revealed-preference methods have two shortcomings that those applying CVM hope to avoid. First, revealed-preference methods involve econometric problems that have yet to be fully overcome. The second shortcoming of revealed-preference methods is that such methods, when applied to environmental amenities, are likely to be only partial measures of value. Given the tremendous interest that exists in economic values and the limitations of revealed-preference methods, it is not surprising that interest in CVM has grown rapidly. Environmental Resource Valuation reviews the application of CVM and compares American experiences in nonmarket evaluation with those in other countries.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - This book represents an attempt to treat three aspects of digital systems, design, prototyping and customization, in an integrated manner using two major technologies: VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) as a modeling and specification tool, and Field-Programmable Logic Devices (FPLDs) as an implementation technology. They together make a very powerful combination for complex digital systems rapid design and prototyping as the important steps towards manufacturing, or, in the case of feasible quantities, they also provide fast system manufacturing. Combining these two technologies makes possible implementation of very complex digital systems at the desk. VHDL has become a standard tool to capture features of digital systems in a form of behavioral, dataflow or structural models providing a high degree of flexibility. When augmented by a good simulator, VHDL enables extensive verification of features of the system under design, reducing uncertainties at the latter phases of design process. As such, it becomes an unavoidable modeling tool to model digital systems at various levels of abstraction.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - At first sight discrete and fractional programming techniques appear to be two com pletely unrelated fields in operations research. We will show how techniques in both fields can be applied separately and in a combined form to particular models in location analysis. Location analysis deals with the problem of deciding where to locate facilities, con sidering the clients to be served, in such a way that a certain criterion is optimized. The term 'facilities' immediately suggests factories, warehouses, schools, etc. , while the term 'clients' refers to depots, retail units, students, etc. Three basic classes can be identified in location analysis: continuous location, network location and dis crete location. The differences between these fields arise from the structure of the set of possible locations for the facilities. Hence, locating facilities in the plane or in another continuous space corresponds to a continuous location model while finding optimal facility locations on the edges or vertices of a network corresponds to a net work location model. Finally, if the possible set of locations is a finite set of points we have a discrete location model. Each of these fields has been actively studied, arousing intense discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of each of them. The usual requirement that every point in the plane or on the network must be a candidate location point, is one of the mostly used arguments 'against' continuous and network location models.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -The Compact Disc (CD), as a standardized information carrier, has become one of the most successful consumer products ever marketed. Although the original disc was intended for audio playback, its specific advantages opened very quickly the way towards various computer applications. The standardization of the Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM) and of all succeeding similar products, like Compact Disc interactive (CD-i), Photo and Video CD, CD Recordable (CD-R), and CD Rewritable (CD R/W), has substantially enlarged the range of possible applications. The plastic disc represented from the very beginning a removable medium of large storage capacity. The advent of the personal computer accompa nied by the increasing demand for both data distribution and exchange have strongly marked the evolution of the CD-ROM drive. The number of sold CD-ROM units exceeded 60 millions in 1997 when compared to about 2.5 millions in 1992. As computing power continuously improved over the years, computer pe ripherals have also targeted better performance specifications. In particular, the speed of CD-ROM drives increased from the so-called 1X in 1984 to dou ble speed in 1992, and further to 32X at the beginning of 1998. The average time needed to access data on disc has dropped from about 300 ms to less than 90 ms within the same period of time. 158 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Chemical changes that occur in foods during processing and storage are manifold and might be both desirable and undesirable in nature. While many of the processes are carried out intentionally, there are also certain unwanted changes that naturally occur in food and might have to be controlled. Therefore, efforts are made to devise processing technologies in which desirable attributes of foods are retained and their deleterious ef fects are minimized. While proteins, lipids and carbohydrates are the main nutrients of food that are affected by processing, it is their interaction with one another, as well as in volvement oflow-molecular-weight constituents that affects their flavor, color and overall acceptability. Thus, generation of aroma via thermal processing and bioconversion is of utmost importance in food preparation. Furthermore, processing operations must be opti mized in order to eliminate or reduce the content of antinutrients that are present in foods and retain their bioactive components. Therefore, while novel processing technologies such as freezing, irradiation, microwaving, high pressure treatment and fermentation might be employed, control process conditions in a manner that both the desirable sensory attributes and wholesomeness of foods are safeguarded is essential. Obviously, method ologies should also be established to quantitate the changes that occur in foods as a result of processing. This volume was developed from contributions provided by a group of internation ally-recognized lead scientists.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Recent years have seen tremendous progress in unraveling the molecular basis of different plant-microbe interactions. Knowledge has accumulated on the mecha nisms of the microbial infection of plants, which can lead to either disease or resistance. The mechanisms developed by plants to interact with microbes, whether viruses, bacteria, or fungi, involve events that can lead to symbiotic association or to disease or tumor formation. Cell death caused by pathogen infection has been of great interest for many years because of its association with plant resistance. There appear to be two types of plant cell death associated with pathogen infection, a rapid hypersensitive cell death localized at the site of infection during an incompatible interaction between a resistant plant and an avirulent pathogen, and a slow, normosensitive plant cell death that spreads beyond the site of infection during some compatible interactions involving a susceptible plant and a virulent, necrogenic pathogen. Plants possess a number of defense mechanisms against infection, such as (i) production of phytoalexin, (ii) formation of hydrolases, (iii) accumulation of hydroxyproline-rich glycoprotein and lignin deposition, (iv) production of pathogen-related proteins, (v) produc tion of oligosaccharides, jasmonic acid, and various other phenolic substances, and (vi) production of toxin-metabolizing enzymes. Based on these observations, insertion of a single suitable gene in a particular plant has yielded promising results in imparting resistance against specific infection or disease. It appears that a signal received after microbe infection triggers different signal transduction pathways.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - The studies by Santiago Ram6n y Cajal on astrocytes, and the extense work developed by Pio del Rio Hortega dealing with microglia and oligodendrocytes are with no doubt two important milestones of neurobiology, and specially cf glial research. Since these classical studies, the curiosity for understanding glial cells has continuously grown. During the last two decades, the development of new meth ods of study, including cell culture techniques and the use of histochemical and immunocytochemical markers, has allowed a remarkable advance in this field. This increasing interest is reflected by the creation of local and international glial networks, the publication of the journal Glia, the celebration of periodic interna tional meetings and the publication of extensive books focused on glial cells. In February 1997, with the establishment of the Spanish Glial Network, arose the early idea of publishing a compendium of selected work by Spanish glial research teams, which has fmally materialised in Understanding Glial Cel/s, a book whose objective is to present topics of current interest in glial cell biology.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Our purposes in this preface are, first, to reiterate our view of Current Ornithology's role; second, to describe briefly the contents of this vol ume; and third, to acknowledge the generous help of our Editorial Board and of the reviewers we have consulted about the contents of Volumes 13 and 14. As far as we know, Current Ornithology is the only English-lan guage publication currently devoted exclusively to extensive reviews and syntheses of topics pertaining to all aspects of the biology of birds. Its chapters deal with subjects falling under such diverse rubrics as ecology, evolution, behavior, phylogeny, behavioral ecology, anatomy and physiology, and conservation biology, but all focus primarily on birds. Its authors, whether members of the National Academy or young investigators just beginning their careers, are leading authorities on their subjects, and its referees are selected for their knowledge and expertise in the topics covered by the chapters they are asked to review.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Interest in angiogenesis research remains strong in recent years and exciting new discoveries, about modulators of angiogenesis, their receptors, the transduction mechanisms and the angiogenic genes involved, have contributed to our present day understanding of this complex process. This knowledge has provided the basis and broadened the scope of angiogenesis - based therapy in oncology and many other clinical conditions. This monograph contains the contributions to the NATO Advanced Study Institute on 'Angiogenesis: Models, Modulators and Clinical Applications', which was held in Rhodes, Greece, from June 20-30, 1997. This was the fourth of a series of NATO supported international meetings on Angiogenesis aiming to bring together basic scientists with clinicians to exchange ideas, disseminate new knowledge and discuss the present status and potential new directions in this fast moving area of biomedical research. The International Organising Committee that included Drs. E. Dejana, C Haudenschild, M. Hackel, H. Kleinman, P. Lelkes, M. Presta, P. Polverini, D. Thompson, has provided invaluable help with their insightful suggestions in the formulation of the scientific program for which I am grateful. I wish to thank all the participants for their enthusiastic participation and their complimentary comments on the success of the conference.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Searching for Semantics: Data Mining, Reverse Engineering Stefano Spaccapietra Fred M aryanski Swiss Federal Institute of Technology University of Connecticut Lausanne, Switzerland Storrs, CT, USA REVIEW AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS In the last few years, database semantics research has turned sharply from a highly theoretical domain to one with more focus on practical aspects. The DS- 7 Working Conference held in October 1997 in Leysin, Switzerland, demon strated the more pragmatic orientation of the current generation of leading researchers. The papers presented at the meeting emphasized the two major areas: the discovery of semantics and semantic data modeling. The work in the latter category indicates that although object-oriented database management systems have emerged as commercially viable prod ucts, many fundamental modeling issues require further investigation. Today's object-oriented systems provide the capability to describe complex objects and include techniques for mapping from a relational database to objects. However, we must further explore the expression of information regarding the dimensions of time and space. Semantic models possess the richness to describe systems containing spatial and temporal data. The challenge of in corporating these features in a manner that promotes efficient manipulation by the subject specialist still requires extensive development.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - In recent years, there have been major advances in the treatment of patients with gynecologic malignancies. Perhaps the biggest advances have been in the area of ovarian cancer. Gynecologic Oncology focuses primarily upon this malignancy. This volume discusses cytoreductive surgery; screening for ovarian cancer; chemotherapy; new chemotherapeutic drugs; the controversy regarding the role of high-dose chemotherapy in gynecologic cancers; the hereditary basis for gynecologic malignancies; molecular genetics; molecular biology and new biologic therapies. Other topics covered are the treatment of all stages of cervical cancer, including radiotherapy. In addition, a chapter on advances in the pathology of gynecologic cancers is included. The advances made in the treatment of gynecologic malignancies are due, in part, to the clinical studies performed by many of the contributors to this volume. Clinical advances have been the result of multidisciplinary approaches which involve molecular biologists, pathologists, radiation therapists, surgeons and chemotherapists. Future advances will continue to rely upon collaborative interaction among these different disciplines.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -As reflected in the title, the purpose of this book is to guide clinicians in understanding and treating youth with severe antisocial behavior. Children and adolescents with conduct disorders operate at quite a high cost to society. In many opinion polls, juvenile crime and violence is rated as one of the most pressing concerns for many in our society. This widespread concern has prompted professionals from many disciplines to search for more effective interventions to prevent and treat youth with such disorders. This book is my attempt to summarize the current status of this very important endeavor. In providing this guide to clinicians, I have attempted to emphasize the critical link between understanding the clinical presentation, course, and causes of conduct disorders and designing effective interventions for children and adolescents with these disorders. Many past books, book chapters, and review articles have emphasized one or the other of these objectives. Some have provided excellent summaries of the vast amount of research on youth with conduct disorders without explicitly and clearly describing the clinical applica tions of this research. Others have focused on the implementation of specific interventions for youth with conduct disorders that is divorced from a basic understanding of the many diverse and clinically important characteristics of this population. The overriding theme of this book is that successful clinical inter vention requires an integration of both bodies of knowledge. 164 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This volume is the third in the Advances in Archaeological and Museum Science series sponsored by the Society for Archaeological Sciences (SAS). The purpose of this series is to provide summaries of advances in various topics in ar chaeometry, archaeological science, environmental archaeology, preservation technology, and museum conservation. The SAS exists to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration between archaeologists and colleagues in the natural and physical sciences. SAS mem bers are drawn from many disciplinary fields. However, they all share a common belief that physical science techniques and methods constitute an essential component of contemporary archaeological field and laboratory studies. The series editors wish to thank the reviewers of each of the chapters in this volume for their excellent comments and suggestions. We also wish to thank Chriss jones for her invaluable assistance in the preparation of the texts for submission to the publisher. xi Preface As noted in the introductory chapter, this volume is the second major review of research progress in the study of archaeological obsidian. An earlier book, Advances in Obsidian Glass Studies: Archaeological and Geochemical Perspectives, appeared in 1976. A comparison of the treatment of topics reflected in this earlier work and that contained in this volume not only highlights important advances in the quality and depth of research on archaeological obsidian over more than a quarter of a century but also illustrates more generally some characteristics of developments in the archaeological science field in general. 268 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The Compact Disc (CD), as a standardized information carrier, has become one of the most successful consumer products ever marketed. Although the original disc was intended for audio playback, its specific advantages opened very quickly the way towards various computer applications. The standardization of the Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM) and of all succeeding similar products, like Compact Disc interactive (CD-i), Photo and Video CD, CD Recordable (CD-R), and CD Rewritable (CD R/W), has substantially enlarged the range of possible applications. The plastic disc represented from the very beginning a removable medium of large storage capacity. The advent of the personal computer accompa nied by the increasing demand for both data distribution and exchange have strongly marked the evolution of the CD-ROM drive. The number of sold CD-ROM units exceeded 60 millions in 1997 when compared to about 2.5 millions in 1992. As computing power continuously improved over the years, computer pe ripherals have also targeted better performance specifications. In particular, the speed of CD-ROM drives increased from the so-called 1X in 1984 to dou ble speed in 1992, and further to 32X at the beginning of 1998. The average time needed to access data on disc has dropped from about 300 ms to less than 90 ms within the same period of time. 158 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The Compact Disc (CD), as a standardized information carrier, has become one of the most successful consumer products ever marketed. Although the original disc was intended for audio playback, its specific advantages opened very quickly the way towards various computer applications. The standardization of the Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM) and of all succeeding similar products, like Compact Disc interactive (CD-i), Photo and Video CD, CD Recordable (CD-R), and CD Rewritable (CD R/W), has substantially enlarged the range of possible applications. The plastic disc represented from the very beginning a removable medium of large storage capacity. The advent of the personal computer accompa nied by the increasing demand for both data distribution and exchange have strongly marked the evolution of the CD-ROM drive. The number of sold CD-ROM units exceeded 60 millions in 1997 when compared to about 2.5 millions in 1992. As computing power continuously improved over the years, computer pe ripherals have also targeted better performance specifications. In particular, the speed of CD-ROM drives increased from the so-called 1X in 1984 to dou ble speed in 1992, and further to 32X at the beginning of 1998. The average time needed to access data on disc has dropped from about 300 ms to less than 90 ms within the same period of time. 158 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Pontus Braunerhjelm and Karolina Ekholm Over recent decades, foreign direct investment (FDI) has become a major force in the global economy. The geographical pattern of capital formation, trade and technological spillovers across countries and regions, are to an in creasing extent determined by the strategies chosen by multinational firms (MNFs). Between 1982 and 1994, the rate of growth of the global FDI stock was more than twice that of gross fixed capital formation, the growth of sales by foreign affiliates of multinational firms well exceeded that of world exports, and, by 1994, the MNFs accounted for approximately 6 percent of world output (United Nations, 1997, pp. xv-xvi). The overall mechanisms behind this rapid internationalization in terms of multinational produc tion have been attributed to the dismantling of trade barriers and the deregulation of capital markets, together with the advances in information technology that have facilitated the coordination and monitoring of inter nationally dispersed production. This development carries two important implications: First, firms operate in markets characterized by much tougher competition than only a decade ago, and, second, countries and regions are involved in competition for production to a much larger extent than before. This book addresses questions related to the location and geographical dispersion of the activities by multinational firms, a topic which has be come of increasing concern to policy-makers. 244 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -James Delle has solved a number of problems in Caribbean archaeology with An Archaeology of Social Space. He deals with most of the problems by using historical archaeology, and clearly implicates Ameri canist prehistorians. Although this book is about coffee plantations in the Blue Mountains area of Jamaica, it is actually about the whole Caribbean. Just as it is about all archaeology, not only historical archaeology, it is also a book about colonialism and national inde pendence and how these two enormous events happened in the context of eighteenth and nineteenth century capitalism. The first issue raised appears to be an academic topic that has come to be known as landscape archaeology. Landscape archaeology considers the planned spaces around living places. The topic is big, comprehensive, and new within historical archaeology. Its fundamen tal insight is that in the early modern and modern worlds everything within view could be made into money. Seeing occurs in space and from 1450, or a little before, everything that could be seen could, potentially, be measured. The measuring-and the accompanying culture of record ing called a scriptural economy-became a way of controlling people in space, for a profit. Dr. Delle thus explores maps, local philosophies of settlement, town dwelling, housing, and the actual condition of plantations and their buildings now, so as to describe coffee-Jamaica from 1790-1860. 272 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In this volume selected papers delivered at the special session on 'Spectral and scattering theory' are published. This session was organized by A. G. Ramm at the first international congress ofISAAC (International Society for Analysis, Applications and Computing) which was held at the University of Delaware, June 3-7, 1997. The papers in this volume deal with a wide va riety of problems including some nonlinear problems (Schechter, Trenogin), control theory (Shubov), fundamental problems of physics (Kitada), spectral and scattering theory in waveg uides and shallow ocean (Ramm and Makrakis), inverse scattering with incomplete data (Ramm), spectral theory for Sturm-Liouville operators with singular coefficients (Yurko) and with energy-dependent coefficients (Aktosun, Klaus, and van der Mee), spectral theory of SchrOdinger operators with periodic coefficients (Kuchment, Vainberg), resolvent estimates for SchrOdinger-type and Maxwell's operators (Ben-Artzi and Nemirovsky), SchrOdinger oper ators with von Neumann-Wignertype potentials (Rejto and Taboada), principal eigenvalues for indefinite-weight elliptic operators (pinchover), and symmetric solutions of Ginzburg-Landau equations (Gustafson). These papers will be of interest to a wide audience including mathematicians, physicists, and theoretically oriented engineers. A. G. Ramm Manhattan, KS v CONTENTS 1. Wave Scattering in 1-0 Nonconservative Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tuncay Aktosun, Martin Klaus, and Comelis van der Mee 2. Resolvent Estimates for SchrOdinger-type and Maxwell Equations with Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Matania Ben-Artzi and Jonathan Nemirovsky 3. Symmetric Solutions of Ginzburg-Landau Equations 33 S. Gustafson 4. Quantum Mechanics and Relativity: Their Unification by Local Time . . . . . . . 39 Hitoshi Kitada 5. 220 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Test functions (fault detection, diagnosis, error correction, repair, etc.) that are applied concurrently while the system continues its intended function are defined as on-line testing. In its expanded scope, on-line testing includes the design of concurrent error checking subsystems that can be themselves self-checking, fail-safe systems that continue to function correctly even after an error occurs, reliability monitoring, and self-test and fault-tolerant designs. On-Line Testing for VLSI contains a selected set of articles that discuss many of the modern aspects of on-line testing as faced today. The contributions are largely derived from recent IEEE International On-Line Testing Workshops. Guest editors Michael Nicolaidis, Yervant Zorian and Dhiraj Pradhan organized the articles into six chapters. In the first chapter the editors introduce a large number of approaches with an expanded bibliography in which some references date back to the sixties. On-Line Testing for VLSI is an edited volume of original research comprising invited contributions by leading researchers. 168 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -The Compact Disc (CD), as a standardized information carrier, has become one of the most successful consumer products ever marketed. Although the original disc was intended for audio playback, its specific advantages opened very quickly the way towards various computer applications. The standardization of the Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM) and of all succeeding similar products, like Compact Disc interactive (CD-i), Photo and Video CD, CD Recordable (CD-R), and CD Rewritable (CD R/W), has substantially enlarged the range of possible applications. The plastic disc represented from the very beginning a removable medium of large storage capacity. The advent of the personal computer accompa nied by the increasing demand for both data distribution and exchange have strongly marked the evolution of the CD-ROM drive. The number of sold CD-ROM units exceeded 60 millions in 1997 when compared to about 2.5 millions in 1992. As computing power continuously improved over the years, computer pe ripherals have also targeted better performance specifications. In particular, the speed of CD-ROM drives increased from the so-called 1X in 1984 to dou ble speed in 1992, and further to 32X at the beginning of 1998. The average time needed to access data on disc has dropped from about 300 ms to less than 90 ms within the same period of time.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 158 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -Management Science is often confronted with optimization problems characterised by weak underlying theoretical models and complex constraints. Among them, one finds data analysis, pattern recognition (classification, multidimensional analysis, discriminant analysis) as well as modelling (forecasting, confirmatory analysis, expert system design). In recent years, biomimetic approaches have received growing attention from Marketing, Finance and Human Resource researchers and executives as effective tools for practically handling such problems. Biomimetic approaches include a variety of heuristic methods - such as neural networks, genetic algorithms, immunitary nets, cellular automata - that simulate nature's way of solving complex problems and, thus, can be considered as numerical transpositions of true life problem solving.Bio-Mimetic Approaches in Management Science presents a selection of recent papers on biomimetic approaches and their application to Management Science. Most of these papers were presented at the last ACSEG/CAEMS International Congresses (Approches Connexionnistes en Sciences Economiques et de Gestion/Connectionnist Approaches in Economics and Management Science). All papers combine the discussion of conceptual issues with illustrative empirical applications, and contain detailed information on the way heuristics are practically implemented. The advantages and limits of the biomimetic approaches are discussed in several of the papers, either by comparing these approaches with more classical methods (logit models, clustering), or by investigating specific issues like overfitting and robustness. Synthesizing overviews are provided, as well as new tools for coping with some of the limitations of biomimetic methods.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 228 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -Pontus Braunerhjelm and Karolina Ekholm Over recent decades, foreign direct investment (FDI) has become a major force in the global economy. The geographical pattern of capital formation, trade and technological spillovers across countries and regions, are to an in creasing extent determined by the strategies chosen by multinational firms (MNFs). Between 1982 and 1994, the rate of growth of the global FDI stock was more than twice that of gross fixed capital formation, the growth of sales by foreign affiliates of multinational firms well exceeded that of world exports, and, by 1994, the MNFs accounted for approximately 6 percent of world output (United Nations, 1997, pp. xv-xvi). The overall mechanisms behind this rapid internationalization in terms of multinational produc tion have been attributed to the dismantling of trade barriers and the deregulation of capital markets, together with the advances in information technology that have facilitated the coordination and monitoring of inter nationally dispersed production. This development carries two important implications: First, firms operate in markets characterized by much tougher competition than only a decade ago, and, second, countries and regions are involved in competition for production to a much larger extent than before. This book addresses questions related to the location and geographical dispersion of the activities by multinational firms, a topic which has be come of increasing concern to policy-makers.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 244 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -James Delle has solved a number of problems in Caribbean archaeology with An Archaeology of Social Space. He deals with most of the problems by using historical archaeology, and clearly implicates Ameri canist prehistorians. Although this book is about coffee plantations in the Blue Mountains area of Jamaica, it is actually about the whole Caribbean. Just as it is about all archaeology, not only historical archaeology, it is also a book about colonialism and national inde pendence and how these two enormous events happened in the context of eighteenth and nineteenth century capitalism. The first issue raised appears to be an academic topic that has come to be known as landscape archaeology. Landscape archaeology considers the planned spaces around living places. The topic is big, comprehensive, and new within historical archaeology. Its fundamen tal insight is that in the early modern and modern worlds everything within view could be made into money. Seeing occurs in space and from 1450, or a little before, everything that could be seen could, potentially, be measured. The measuring-and the accompanying culture of record ing called a scriptural economy-became a way of controlling people in space, for a profit. Dr. Delle thus explores maps, local philosophies of settlement, town dwelling, housing, and the actual condition of plantations and their buildings now, so as to describe coffee-Jamaica from 1790-1860.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 272 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -This volume is the third in the Advances in Archaeological and Museum Science series sponsored by the Society for Archaeological Sciences (SAS). The purpose of this series is to provide summaries of advances in various topics in ar chaeometry, archaeological science, environmental archaeology, preservation technology, and museum conservation. The SAS exists to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration between archaeologists and colleagues in the natural and physical sciences. SAS mem bers are drawn from many disciplinary fields. However, they all share a common belief that physical science techniques and methods constitute an essential component of contemporary archaeological field and laboratory studies. The series editors wish to thank the reviewers of each of the chapters in this volume for their excellent comments and suggestions. We also wish to thank Chriss jones for her invaluable assistance in the preparation of the texts for submission to the publisher. xi Preface As noted in the introductory chapter, this volume is the second major review of research progress in the study of archaeological obsidian. An earlier book, Advances in Obsidian Glass Studies: Archaeological and Geochemical Perspectives, appeared in 1976. A comparison of the treatment of topics reflected in this earlier work and that contained in this volume not only highlights important advances in the quality and depth of research on archaeological obsidian over more than a quarter of a century but also illustrates more generally some characteristics of developments in the archaeological science field in general.Springer-Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 268 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book is aimed at those using colour image processing or researching new applications or techniques of colour image processing. It has been clear for some time that there is a need for a text dedicated to colour. We foresee a great increase in the use of colour over the coming years, both in research and in industrial and commercial applications. We are sure this book will prove a useful reference text on the subject for practicing engineers and scientists, for researchers, and for students at doctoral and, perhaps masters, level. It is not intended as an introductory text on image processing, rather it assumes that the reader is already familiar with basic image processing concepts such as image representation in digital form, linear and non-linear filtering, trans forms, edge detection and segmentation, and so on, and has some experience with using, at the least, monochrome equipment. There are many books cov ering these topics and some of them are referenced in the text, where appro priate. The book covers a restricted, but nevertheless, a very important, subset of image processing concerned with natural colour (that is colour as per ceived by the human visual system). This is an important field because it shares much technology and basic theory with colour television and video equipment, the market for which is worldwide and very large; and with the growing field of multimedia, including the use of colour images on the Inter net. 484 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Management Science is often confronted with optimization problems characterised by weak underlying theoretical models and complex constraints. Among them, one finds data analysis, pattern recognition (classification, multidimensional analysis, discriminant analysis) as well as modelling (forecasting, confirmatory analysis, expert system design). In recent years, biomimetic approaches have received growing attention from Marketing, Finance and Human Resource researchers and executives as effective tools for practically handling such problems. Biomimetic approaches include a variety of heuristic methods - such as neural networks, genetic algorithms, immunitary nets, cellular automata - that simulate nature's way of solving complex problems and, thus, can be considered as numerical transpositions of true life problem solving. Bio-Mimetic Approaches in Management Science presents a selection of recent papers on biomimetic approaches and their application to Management Science. Most of these papers were presented at the last ACSEG/CAEMS International Congresses (Approches Connexionnistes en Sciences Economiques et de Gestion/Connectionnist Approaches in Economics and Management Science). All papers combine the discussion of conceptual issues with illustrative empirical applications, and contain detailed information on the way heuristics are practically implemented. The advantages and limits of the biomimetic approaches are discussed in several of the papers, either by comparing these approaches with more classical methods (logit models, clustering), or by investigating specific issues like overfitting and robustness. Synthesizing overviews are provided, as well as new tools for coping with some of the limitations of biomimetic methods. 228 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Applied Stochastic Models and Control for Finance and Insurance presents at an introductory level some essential stochastic models applied in economics, finance and insurance. Markov chains, random walks, stochastic differential equations and other stochastic processes are used throughout the book and systematically applied to economic and financial applications. In addition, a dynamic programming framework is used to deal with some basic optimization problems. The book begins by introducing problems of economics, finance and insurance which involve time, uncertainty and risk. A number of cases are treated in detail, spanning risk management, volatility, memory, the time structure of preferences, interest rates and yields, etc. The second and third chapters provide an introduction to stochastic models and their application. Stochastic differential equations and stochastic calculus are presented in an intuitive manner, and numerous applications and exercises are used to facilitate their understanding and their use in Chapter 3. A number of other processes which are increasingly used in finance and insurance are introduced in Chapter 4. In the fifth chapter, ARCH and GARCH models are presented and their application to modeling volatility is emphasized. An outline of decision-making procedures is presented in Chapter 6. Furthermore, we also introduce the essentials of stochastic dynamic programming and control, and provide first steps for the student who seeks to apply these techniques. Finally, in Chapter 7, numerical techniques and approximations to stochastic processes are examined. This book can be used in business, economics, financial engineering and decision sciences schools for second year Master's students, as well as in a number of courses widely given in departments of statistics, systems and decision sciences. 348 pp. Englisch.