springer us mrz 1997 (25 results)

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Qualitative methodologies in cultural psychology often lack the objective and verifiable character of quantitative analysis. Author Carl Ratner corrects this shortcoming by rigorously systematizing qualitative methods. The book discusses, for example, means of systematizing such subjective reports as interviews, letters, and diaries, which often yield valuable data that is not easily quantified. Ratner argues that 'complex psychological phenomena are expressed through extended responses' and hence are best studied by new, more regularized qualitative methods that go beyond measuring simple, overt responses. 280 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In this book applications of cooperative game theory that arise from combinatorial optimization problems are described. It is well known that the mathematical modeling of various real-world decision-making situations gives rise to combinatorial optimization problems. For situations where more than one decision-maker is involved classical combinatorial optimization theory does not suffice and it is here that cooperative game theory can make an important contribution. If a group of decision-makers decide to undertake a project together in order to increase the total revenue or decrease the total costs, they face two problems. The first one is how to execute the project in an optimal way so as to increase revenue. The second one is how to divide the revenue attained among the participants. It is with this second problem that cooperative game theory can help. The solution concepts from cooperative game theory can be applied to arrive at revenue allocation schemes. In this book the type of problems described above are examined. Although the choice of topics is application-driven, it also discusses theoretical questions that arise from the situations that are studied. For all the games described attention will be paid to the appropriateness of several game-theoretic solution concepts in the particular contexts that are considered. The computation complexity of the game-theoretic solution concepts in the situation at hand will also be considered. 204 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Die Autoren geben eine kompakte und fundierte Einführung in die objektorientierte Programmierung mittels Java. Im Zentrum stehen dabei die Vermittlung grundlegender Programmierfertigkeiten, also der Entwurf von Algorithmen und Datenstrukturen, und ein effizienter, praxisbezogener Umgang mit den objektorientierten Sprachmitteln von Java. Insbesondere werden auch die wesentlichen Neuerungen der Java-Version 1.5 vorgestellt. Die Lösungen zu den im Buch gestellten Multiple-Choice- und Programmieraufgaben können von der mitgelieferten Software JEEE interaktiv und mit hoher Präzision ausgewertet werden und ermöglichen somit eine sehr effiziente Aneignung der Sprachkonstrukte von Java. Dabei wird insbesondere Wert auf hohe Qualität des Quelltextes und die Erfüllung struktureller und funktioneller Anforderungen gelegt. Die beiliegende CD-ROM enthält zudem eine HTML-Version des Buches, das Java-System J2SDK, die Java-Entwicklungsumgebung Eclipse und den WWW-Browser Mozilla. 252 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Food Authentication is an issue that has become increasingly important in recent years, due to the drive for more accurate and truthful labeling. This title provides a guide to the techniques available to establish food authenticity, together with their associated strengths and limitations. It is aimed at food scientists and technologists involved in the issues of adulteration or fortification of food and beverages. 368 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This user-friendly, comprehensive guide places evaluation in the context of HIV to give all health care professionals the necessary tools for developing and implementing successful HIV interventions. Every aspect of evaluation is discussed, including: the social and political context of evaluation coding and inter-rater reliability procedures barriers to evaluation and solution the dissemination of results the application of theory to HIV interventions. Case studies and examples from both the US and abroad to illustrate practical issues, and numerous tables and figures complement the text. 316 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Robots in groups or colonies can exhibit an enormous variety and richness of behaviors which cannot be observed with singly autonomous systems. Of course, this is analogous to the amazing variety of group animal behaviors which can be observed in nature. In recent years more and more investigators have started to study these behaviors. The studies range from classifications and taxonomies of behaviors, to development of architectures which cause such group activities as flocking or swarming, and from emphasis on the role of intelligent agents in such groups to studies of learning and obstacle avoidance. There used to be a time when many robotics researchers would question those who were interested in working with teams of robots: `Why are you worried about robotic teams when it's hard enough to just get one to work '. This issue responds to that question. Robot Colonies provides a new approach to task problem-solving that is similar in many ways to distributed computing. Multiagent robotic teams offer the possibility of spatially distributed parallel and concurrent perception and action. A paradigm shift results when using multiple robots, providing a different perspective on how to carry out complex tasks. New issues such as interagent communications, spatial task distribution, heterogeneous or homogeneous societies, and interference management are now central to achieving coordinated and productive activity within a colony. Fortunately mobile robot hardware has evolved sufficiently in terms of both cost and robustness to enable these issues to be studied on actual robots and not merely in simulation. Robot Colonies presents a sampling of the research in this field. While capturing a reasonable representation of the most important work within this area, its objective is not to be a comprehensive survey, but rather to stimulate new research by exposing readers to the principles of robot group behaviors, architectures and theories. Robot Colonies is an edited volume of peer-reviewed original research comprising eight invited contributions by leading researchers. This research work has also been published as a special issue of Autonomous Robots (Volume 4, Number 1). 160 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The Hadley and Walker Circulations are fundamental regulators of the Earths energy budget. Although the Hadley Circulation is a well-known concept, surprisingly little attention has been paid to understanding both short and long-term variability of the system. This book reviews current knowledge of Hadley and Walker circulation dynamics and their interactions with the major global monsoon systems, and evaluates paleoclimatic records within the domain of the Hadley Circulation that shed light on past variability of climate over the last 1000 years, the Holocene (the last 11,500 years), glacial periods, and warm climate periods in the past. The book examines potentially important factors that may have affected the Hadley and Walker Circulations on these different time scales and evaluates changes in the Hadley Circulation and the monsoons as simulated by coupled models of past climate conditions, and predicted future conditions under an enhanced greenhouse effect. This book is meant to serve as a fundamental reference work for current and future researchers, graduate students in the atmospheric sciences and geosciences, and climate specialists involved in interdisciplinary research. 212 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Security is the science and technology of secure communications and resource protection from security violation such as unauthorized access and modification. Putting proper security in place gives us many advantages. It lets us exchange confidential information and keep it confidential. We can be sure that a piece of information received has not been changed. Nobody can deny sending or receiving a piece of information. We can control which piece of information can be accessed, and by whom. We can know when a piece of information was accessed, and by whom. Networks and databases are guarded against unauthorized access. We have seen the rapid development of the Internet and also increasing security requirements in information networks, databases, systems, and other information resources. This comprehensive book responds to increasing security needs in the marketplace, and covers networking security and standards. There are three types of readers who are interested in security: non-technical readers, general technical readers who do not implement security, and technical readers who actually implement security. This book serves all three by providing a comprehensive explanation of fundamental issues of networking security, concept and principle of security standards, and a description of some emerging security technologies. The approach is to answer the following questions: 1. What are common security problems and how can we address them 2. What are the algorithms, standards, and technologies that can solve common security problems 3. 228 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -As China, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia become world economic powers, questions arise regarding the fate of workers in these countries. This book examines the difficult road traveled by human rights movements in these nations when trying to create independent labor organizations free from governmental interference. The in-depth treatment includes: a worker's rights/labor standards model individumental interference comprehensive data tables on many aspects of the labor struggle ally crafted for each of these nations comprehensive data tables on many aspects of the labor struggle China's problems as it moves from complete state economic control to a modified form of capitalism. 496 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book originated from our interest in sea surface temperature variability. Our initial, though entirely pragmatic, goal was to derive adequate mathemat ical tools for handling certain oceanographic problems. Eventually, however, these considerations went far beyond oceanographic applications partly because one of the authors is a mathematician. We found that many theoretical issues of turbulent transport problems had been repeatedly discussed in fields of hy drodynamics, plasma and solid matter physics, and mathematics itself. There are few monographs concerned with turbulent diffusion in the ocean (Csanady 1973, Okubo 1980, Monin and Ozmidov 1988). While selecting material for this book we focused, first, on theoretical issues that could be helpful for understanding mixture processes in the ocean, and, sec ond, on our own contribution to the problem. Mathematically all of the issues addressed in this book are concentrated around a single linear equation: the stochastic advection-diffusion equation. There is no attempt to derive universal statistics for turbulent flow. Instead, the focus is on a statistical description of a passive scalar (tracer) under given velocity statistics. As for applications, this book addresses only one phenomenon: transport of sea surface temperature anomalies. Hopefully, however, our two main approaches are applicable to other subjects. 348 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Great advances have been made in the database field. Relational and object- oriented databases, distributed and client/server databases, and large-scale data warehousing are among the more notable. However, none of these advances promises to have as great and direct an effect on the daily lives of ordinary citizens as video databases. Video databases will provide a quantum jump in our ability to deal with visual data, and in allowing people to access and manipulate visual information in ways hitherto thought impossible. Video Database Systems: Issues, Products and Applications gives practical information on academic research issues, commercial products that have already been developed, and the applications of the future driving this research and development. This book can also be considered a reference text for those entering the field of video or multimedia databases, as well as a reference for practitioners who want to identify the kinds of products needed in order to utilize video databases. Video Database Systems: Issues, Products and Applications covers concepts, products and applications. It is written at a level which is less detailed than that normally found in textbooks but more in-depth than that normally written in trade press or professional reference books. Thus, it seeks to serve both an academic and industrial audience by providing a single source of information about the research issues in the field, and the state-of-the-art of practice. 196 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In the 60's, the work of Anderson, Chernavski, Kirby and Edwards showed that the group of homeomorphisms of a smooth manifold which are isotopic to the identity is a simple group. This led Smale to conjecture that the group Diff'' (M)o of cr diffeomorphisms, r ~ 1, of a smooth manifold M, with compact supports, and isotopic to the identity through compactly supported isotopies, is a simple group as well. In this monograph, we give a fairly detailed proof that DifF(M)o is a simple group. This theorem was proved by Herman in the case M is the torus rn in 1971, as a consequence of the Nash-Moser-Sergeraert implicit function theorem. Thurston showed in 1974 how Herman's result on rn implies the general theorem for any smooth manifold M. The key idea was to vision an isotopy in Diff''(M) as a foliation on M x [0, 1]. In fact he discovered a deep connection between the local homology of the group of diffeomorphisms and the homology of the Haefliger classifying space for foliations. Thurston's paper [180] contains just a brief sketch of the proof. The details have been worked out by Mather [120], [124], [125], and the author [12]. This circle of ideas that we call the 'Thurston tricks' is discussed in chapter 2. It explains how in certain groups of diffeomorphisms, perfectness leads to simplicity. In connection with these ideas, we discuss Epstein's theory [52], which we apply to contact diffeomorphisms in chapter 6. 216 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Sixteen years into the AIDS epidemic, our understandings of the virus, its transmis sion, modes of controlling blood banks and testing are relatively well established. In the last decade, we have also experienced an astonishing amount ofnew social science research ena bling us to better understand concepts like risk taking, gender-related prevention, women's health, and youth psychology,just to mention a few. In almost every country in the world, efforts have been made to respond affirmatively to the challenge of stopping the further spread of HIVI AIDS. Educational interventions have ranged from re-inventing the wheel to innovative programs, using a variety of health educa tion methods. The field of evaluation research now provides us a better understanding of what works and what does not work. Issues relating to human rights, the relationship be tween the affected and the healthlmedical professional communities, and to the inequality in the delivery ofpreventive and educational services are becoming an important part ofthe de bates and discussions in the concerned societies. 276 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Conditional Monte Carlo: Gradient Estimation and Optimization Applications deals with various gradient estimation techniques of perturbation analysis based on the use of conditional expectation. The primary setting is discrete-event stochastic simulation. This book presents applications to queueing and inventory, and to other diverse areas such as financial derivatives, pricing and statistical quality control. To researchers already in the area, this book offers a unified perspective and adequately summarizes the state of the art. To researchers new to the area, this book offers a more systematic and accessible means of understanding the techniques without having to scour through the immense literature and learn a new set of notation with each paper. To practitioners, this book provides a number of diverse application areas that makes the intuition accessible without having to fully commit to understanding all the theoretical niceties. In sum, the objectives of this monograph are two-fold: to bring together many of the interesting developments in perturbation analysis based on conditioning under a more unified framework, and to illustrate the diversity of applications to which these techniques can be applied. Conditional Monte Carlo: Gradient Estimation and Optimization Applications is suitable as a secondary text for graduate level courses on stochastic simulations, and as a reference for researchers and practitioners in industry. 420 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -There is currently a high level of interest in the field of nonlinear guided wave optics with the availability of nonlinear materials and their use in new areas of application. This is particularly the case for solitons and other types of nonlinear pulses in optical fibers, high capacity dispersion-free communications. Further, soliton-like beams in highly nonlinear materials, such as organic polymers, are being studied with a view to using them for fast-switching purposes in devices where the light creates its own guiding channel. Written by two authors who are at the forefront of this research, Solitons provides a thorough treatment of the applications of switching devices. It presents the results of the most up to date research on the subject in an accessible manner and adopts a unified approach to solitons in fibers and the devices which use them. The book is an essential reference work for both professional engineers working in optoelectronics and telecommunications companies and graduate students and researchers in the area. 356 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The deployment of communications networks and distributed computing systems requires the use of open, standards-based, integrated management systems. During the last five years, the overall industry effort to develop, enhance, and integrate man agement systems has crystallized in the concept of management platforms. Manage ment platforms are software systems which provide open, multi vendor, multiprotocol distributed management services. They allow multiple management applications to run over core platform services which constitute the essential part of the management platform framework. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the features and technical character istics of distributed management platforms by examining both qualitative and quanti tative management capabilities required by each management platform service. The analysis covers the management platform run-time environment, the operational aspects of using management platforms, the development environment, which con sists of software toolkits that are used to build management applications, the imple mentation environment, which deals with testing interoperability aspects of using management platforms, and of course the distributed applications services which plat forms make available to management applications. Finally, the analysis covers the capabilities of several management applications, either generic or specific to devices or resources which run on top of management platforms. 538 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Optimization in Quality Control presents a broad survey of the state of the art in optimization in quality, and focuses on industrial and national competitiveness. Each chapter has been carefully developed and refereed anonymously by experts in the area of optimization in quality control. Some of the topics covered in this volume include: fundamentals of optimization techniques contemporary approaches to optimization models in process control economic design of control charts determining optimal target values in multiple criteria economic selection models examining quality improvement schemes by trading off between expected warranty servicing costs and increasing manufacturing costs designing optimal inspection plans. This book will serve as an important reference source for academics, professionals and researchers. 420 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The use of gene transfer as a potential therapeutic approach represents a rapidly emerging field of basic and applied medical research that has recently begun to mature into initial clinical trials for a substantial variety of inherited as well as acquired diseases. The diseases which are being evaluated as potential targets for therapeutic approaches involving the use of genetic material encompass illnesses typically treated within a wide range of medical specialties. The field of cardiovascular medicine is no exception to this. The purpose of this book is to help those involved, considering involvement, or merely interested in the various aspects of gene transfer as it is being developed for the tissues of the cardiovascular system. 540 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Reasoning with Complex Cases emphasizes case retrieval methods based on structured cases as they are relevant for planning, configuration, and design, and provides a systematic view of the case reuse phase, centering on complex situations. So far, books on case-based reasoning considered comparatively simple situations only. This book is a coherent work, not a selection of separate contributions, and consists largely of original research results using examples taken from industrial design, biology, medicine, jurisprudence and other areas. Reasoning with Complex Cases is suitable as a secondary text for graduate-level courses on case-based reasoning and as a reference for practitioners applying conventional CBR systems or techniques. 268 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -A. Paulraj\*, V. Roychowdhury\*\*, and C. Schaper\* \* Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University \*\* Dept. of Electrical Engineering, UCLA Innumerable conferences are held around the world on the subjects of commu nications, computation, control and signal processing, and on their numerous subdisciplines. Therefore one might not envision a coherent conference encom passing all these areas. However, such an event did take place June 22-26, 1995, at an international symposium held at Stanford University to celebrate Professor Thomas Kailath's sixtieth birthday and to honor the notable con tributions made by him and his students and associates. The depth of these contributions was evident from the participation of so many leading figures in each of these fields. Over the five days of the meeting, there were about 200 at tendees, from eighteen countries, more than twenty government and industrial organizations, and various engineering, mathematics and statistics faculties at nearly 50 different academic institutions. They came not only to celebrate but also to learn and to ponder the threads and the connections that Professor Kailath has discovered and woven among so many apparently disparate areas. The organizers received many comments about the richness of the occasion. A distinguished academic wrote of the conference being 'the single most rewarding professional event of my life. ' The program is summarized in Table 1. 1; a letter of reflections by Dr. C. Rohrs appears a little later. 612 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -'So long as a person is capable of self renewal they are a living being. ' -Amiel Cereals have been the source of life to the human race, providing nutritional and ma terial needs since the dawn of civilization. As with all dynamic industries, the Cereal in dustry has renewed itself in the past; as the millennium approaches, it is on the brink of another renewal, in which the versatility and providence of cereals are being rediscovered, but in new and exciting ways. Cereals are richly diverse; over 10,000 varieties convert minerals and the energy of the sun into a bursting catalog of functional and versatile biomolecules and biopolymers. Processing technology allows these components to be accessed, separated, isolated and purified, while chemical science allows modification for even greater diversity and speci ficity. The last century has seen the move from cereal- to oil-based chemical and materials industries. But cereals contain a greater variety and functionality of macromolecules than oil. Starch, protein, bran and straw, already diverse across cereal varieties, can be fraction ated into more specific elements, modified chemically to enhance function, or used as feedstocks in fermentation-based bioconversion systems, to produce a range of bulk and fine chemicals for industries as diverse as food, pharmaceuticals, plastics, textiles, pulp and paper, transport, composites and boards, adhesives and energy. 324 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In this volume, readers are introduced to Vygotsky's argument for a theoretical and methodological approach to differentiate 'higher' mental functions from the more basic brain processes that other theorists believed were at the center of the psychological apparatus. 316 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Experts investigate the biochemical and biomedical aspects of cholesterol, addressing its metabolism in normal and disease states. They discuss a broad range of topics, including key steps in the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway, and the role of cholesterol in cancer, atherosclerosis, and diseases of the nervous system. The book's comprehensive coverage also includes the pathological consequences and potential therapies for various disease states, and the development of new anti-atherogenic drugs. 580 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -A foreword is usually prepared by someone who knows the author or who knows enough to provide additional insight on the purpose of the work. When asked to write this foreword, I had no problem with what I wanted to say about the work or the author. I did, however, wonder why people read a foreword. It is probably of value to know the background of the writer of a book; it is probably also of value to know the background of the individual who is commenting on the work. I consider myself a good friend of the author, and when I was asked to write a few words I felt honored to provide my view of Ray Prasad, his expertise, and the contribution that he has made to our industry. This book is about the industry, its technology, and its struggle to learn and compete in a global market bursting with new ideas to satisfy a voracious appetite for new and innovative electronic products. I had the good fortune to be there at the beginning (or almost) and have witnessed the growth and excitement in the opportunities and challenges afforded the electronic industries' engineering and manufacturing talents. In a few years my involve ment will span half a century. 804 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Blood Stem Cell Transplantation conveys the excitement that accompanies the newest developments in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Some of the applications that stand to impact this field most significantly are based on recent advances in the biological sciences, as demonstrated by the chapters on gene therapy, on the detection of minimal residual disease using molecular techniques, and on the use of radioimmunoconjugates targeting lymphoma and leukemia-associated antigens. Others are the results of clinical observations - e.g., the association between graft-versus-host- disease (GVHD) and durable remissions that have led to creative clinical experiments such as donor leukocyte infusions (DLI). Attempts to unravel the biological events that underlie the responses seen in patients with relapsed chronic myelogenous leukemia treated with DLI are likely to provide the basis for future refinements in this clinical approach. Hopefully, improved response rates and reduced toxicity will result. The power of the immunologic response in controlling malignant disease is underscored in the chapter on post-transplant immunotherapy. The complex immunologic process that results in clinical GVHD may be dissected and engineered to provide clinical benefits that include, in addition to its antineoplastic effects, the amelioration of its clinical manifestations. Better control of GVHD with less global immunosuppression will facilitate the use of mismatched and unrelated donors. This area of investigation perfectly illustrates the continued interplay between the laboratory and the clinic. The continued cross-fertilization of ideas between immunologists, molecular biologists and clinical investigators is likely to yield important advances in this field for years to come. Possible applications of stem cell transplantation continue to grow with the identification of alternative sources of stem cells and the potential to engineer and/or expand the graft. Although the use of unrelated and mismatched donors continues to increase, the possibilities associated with umbilical cord blood transplantation are legion, especially if stem cells can be expanded ex vivo to provide grafts for full-sized adults. Using techniques in which contaminating malignant cells may be eliminated from autografts through positive selection, autologous transplantation may prove highly effective, especially when coupled with post-transplant immunotherapy. Some of these same methodologies have helped facilitate the use of autologous grafts for transplantation in patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia without allogeneic donors. Advances in the supportive care of transplant patients, including the pretransplant identification of those at risk from pulmonary complications and the use of cytokines to speed engraftment, have reduced morbidity and mortality to such a degree that it is appropriate to consider high-dose therapy and stem cell reconstitution in patients with nonmalignant diseases. The impressive advances that have occurred in transplantation for thalassemia are described by pioneers in their area of investigation. The burgeoning field of transplantation for autoimmune disorders, including its immunobiologic basis and soon-to- be-realized clinical potential, is also summarized. Continued progress in the use of high-dose therapy with stem cell rescue for the treatment of pediatric tumors, which derives in part from improved supportive care, is detailed. The sobering voice of the health care economists underscores the necessary limitations to our seemingly unbridled imagination. Cost- consciousness and financial know-how will need to be reflected in future study designs. Given the seemingly endless applications of our technology, strategies to insure its cost-effectiveness will be necessary. Continued financial support for laboratory investigation and for the clinical experiment 436 pp. Englisch.