springer international publishing mai 2016 (420 results)

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The year is 2130. The first-ever expedition is sent to Mercury to search for the cause of an unknown source of electromagnetic radiation that can destroy space ships passing by the planet. Thought to be inhospitable and lifeless, the surface of Mercury provides startling surprises for the crew that endanger their lives and challenge their established notions of what it means to be a sentient being. And some of the crew members have their own separate agendas .The scientific appendix at the end of the book introduces readers to the wondrous world of Mercury and how it has been portrayed in literary fiction up to the present time. The author then uses scientific literature to present a concept of life that is not based on carbon chemistry or the need for water. There is also a discussion of consciousness based on electromagnetic wave theory. References are provided for further reading.Nick Kanas is an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, where he directed the group therapy training program. For over 20 years he conducted research on group therapy, and for nearly 20 years after that he was the Principal Investigator of NASA-funded research on astronauts and cosmonauts.He is the co-author of Space Psychology and Psychiatry, which won the 2004 International Academy of Astronautics Life Science Book Award, and the author of Humans in Space: The Psychological Hurdles, which won the 2016 International Academy of Astronautics Life Science Book Award. Dr. Kanas has presented talks on space psychology and on celestial mapping at several regional and Worldcon science fiction conventions.A Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (London), hehas been an amateur astronomer for over 50 years and is an avid reader of science fiction. He is also the author of two non-fiction books (Star Maps: History, Artistry, and Cartography and Solar System Maps: From Antiquity to the Space Age) and two science fiction novels (The New Martians and The Protos Mandate), all published by Springer. 132 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Genetics professor Michelle Murphy loses her husband under mysterious circumstances and without warning, while their brilliant eight year old daughter Avalon, adopted in Kazakhstan, stubbornly believes she is a mutant. As if this were not enough she soon finds herself thrown into the middle of a quickly thickening plot, where the legacy of Genghis Khan meets the hunt for FOXP5, a genetic transcription factor that could herald the dawn of new human species. Initially caught helplessly between well-meaning fellow scientists, the government and more sinister agents, Michelle, with the help of a host of unlikely heroes, eventually takes control and finds the courage to confront the decision of whether to save human lives or humanity.The scientific and technical aspects underlying the plot - in particular aspects of FOX proteins, genetic mutations, viruses and cancer as well as the relation between intelligence and cortical complexity - are introduced and discussed by the authors in an extensive non-technical appendix. 260 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book is based on a one semester course that the authors have been teaching for several years, and includes two sets of case studies. The first includes chemostat models, predator-prey interaction, competition among species, the spread of infectious diseases, and oscillations arising from bifurcations. In developing these topics, readers will also be introduced to the basic theory of ordinary differential equations, and how to work with MATLAB without having any prior programming experience. The second set of case studies were adapted from recent and current research papers to the level of the students. Topics have been selected based on public health interest. This includes the risk of atherosclerosis associated with high cholesterol levels, cancer and immune interactions, cancer therapy, and tuberculosis. Readers will experience how mathematical models and their numerical simulations can provide explanations that guide biological and biomedical research. Considered to be the undergraduate companion to the more advanced book 'Mathematical Modeling of Biological Processes' (A. Friedman, C.-Y. Kao, Springer - 2014), this book is geared towards undergraduate students with little background in mathematics and no biological background. 180 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The Semantic Web is a young discipline, even if only in comparison to other areas of computer science. Nonetheless, it already exhibits an interesting history and evolution. This book is a reflection on this evolution, aiming to take a snapshot of where we are at this specific point in time, and also showing what might be the focus of future research.This book provides both a conceptual and practical view of this evolution, especially targeted at readers who are starting research in this area and as support material for their supervisors. From a conceptual point of view, it highlights and discusses key questions that have animated the research community: what does it mean to be a Semantic Web system and how is it different from other types of systems, such as knowledge systems or web-based information systems From a more practical point of view, the core of the book introduces a simple conceptual framework which characterizes Intelligent Semantic Web Systems. We describe this framework, the components it includes, and give pointers to some of the approaches and technologies that might be used to implement them. We also look in detail at concrete systems falling under the category of Intelligent Semantic Web Systems, according to the proposed framework, allowing us to compare them, analyze their strengths and weaknesses, and identify the key fundamental challenges still open for researchers to tackle. 92 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book offers a rigorous and self-contained presentation of stochastic integration and stochastic calculus within the general framework of continuous semimartingales. The main tools of stochastic calculus, including Itô's formula, the optional stopping theorem and Girsanov's theorem, are treated in detail alongside many illustrative examples. The book also contains an introduction to Markov processes, with applications to solutions of stochastic differential equations and to connections between Brownian motion and partial differential equations. The theory of local times of semimartingales is discussed in the last chapter.Since its invention by Itô, stochastic calculus has proven to be one of the most important techniques of modern probability theory, and has been used in the most recent theoretical advances as well as in applications to other fields such as mathematical finance. Brownian Motion, Martingales, and Stochastic Calculus provides a strong theoretical background to the reader interested in such developments.Beginning graduate or advanced undergraduate students will benefit from this detailed approach to an essential area of probability theory. The emphasis is on concise and efficient presentation, without any concession to mathematical rigor. The material has been taught by the author for several years in graduate courses at two of the most prestigious French universities. The fact that proofs are given with full details makes the book particularly suitable for self-study. The numerous exercises help the reader to get acquainted with the tools of stochastic calculus. 288 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This text provides an introduction to some of the best-known fixed-point theorems, with an emphasis on their interactions with topics in analysis. The level of exposition increases gradually throughout the book, building from a basic requirement of undergraduate proficiency to graduate-level sophistication. Appendices provide an introduction to (or refresher on) some of the prerequisite material and exercises are integrated into the text, contributing to the volume's ability to be used as a self-contained text. Readers will find the presentation especially useful for independent study or as a supplement to a graduate course in fixed-point theory.The material is split into four parts: the first introduces the Banach Contraction-Mapping Principle and the Brouwer Fixed-Point Theorem, along with a selection of interesting applications; the second focuses on Brouwer's theorem and its application to John Nash's work; the third applies Brouwer's theorem to spaces of infinite dimension; and the fourth rests on the work of Markov, Kakutani, andRyll-Nardzewski surrounding fixed points for families of affine maps. 236 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book is a 'How To' guide for modeling population dynamics using Integral Projection Models (IPM) starting from observational data. It is written by a leading research team in this area and includes code in the R language (in the text and online) to carry out all computations. The intended audience are ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and mathematical biologists interested in developing data-driven models for animal and plant populations. IPMs may seem hard as they involve integrals. The aim of this book is to demystify IPMs, so they become the model of choice for populations structured by size or other continuously varying traits. The book uses real examples of increasing complexity to show how the life-cycle of the study organism naturally leads to the appropriate statistical analysis, which leads directly to the IPM itself. A wide range of model types and analyses are presented, including model construction, computational methods, and the underlying theory, with the more technical material in Boxes and Appendices. Self-contained R code which replicates all of the figures and calculations within the text is available to readers on GitHub.Stephen P. Ellner is Horace White Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University, USA; Dylan Z. Childs is Lecturer and NERC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at The University of Sheffield, UK; Mark Rees is Professor in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at The University of Sheffield, UK. 344 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This volume covers the day-to-day activities of a non-native English speaking student carrying out research, attending lectures, socializing, and living in a foreign country. Whether on a US campus as a foreign student, or in a non-English speaking country where classes are given in English, this book will help students build confidence in interacting with professors and fellow students. 260 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed revised selected papers of the 16th International Symposium on Trends in Functional Programming, TFP 2015, held in Sophia Antipolis, France, in June 2015. The 8 revised full papers included in this volume were carefully and selected from 26 submissions.TFP is an international forum for researchers with interests in all aspectsof functional programming, taking a broad view of current and future trends inthe area. It aspires to be a lively environment for presenting the latest researchresults, and other contributions, described in draft papers submitted prior tothe symposium. 168 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book constitutes the tutorial lectures of the5th European Business Intelligence Summer School, eBISS 2015, held inBarcelona, Spain, in July 2015. The tutorials presented here in an extended and refined format were given by renowned experts and cover topics includingschema evolution for databases and data warehouses,publishing OLAP cubes on the Semantic Web, design issues in social business intelligence projects,context-aware business intelligence, andkey performance indicators in data warehouses. 144 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book explains -in simple terms and with almost no mathematics -the physics behind recent and glamorous discoveries in Cosmology, Quantum Mechanics, Elementary Particles (e.g. Higgs bosons) and Complexity Theory. En route it delves into the historical landmarks and revolutions that brought about our current understanding of the universe.The book is written mainly for those with little scientific background, both college students and lay readers alike, who are curious about the world of modern physics. Unsolved problems are highlighted and the philosophical implications of the sometimes astounding modern discoveries are discussed. Along the way the reader gains an insight into the mindset and methodology of a physicist. 236 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The volume provides an archive of some of the most beautiful illustrations ever made of the gravid uterus with fetus and placenta, which will serve future generations of investigators, educators, and students of reproduction. The approximately two hundred figures from over one hundred volumes included are from the late fifteenth through the nineteenth century. For each author whose work is depicted in this volume, we have used the first edition or first illustrated edition. In the commentary, each volume and illustration is placed in its historical perspective, noting both the significance of that image, but also some background on the life and work of the author. For most of the works cited, there are additional references for the reader who may wish to explore these in greater depth. This volume is a unique collection not only of these historical images, but also their place in the development of scientific study. 396 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book, written for a general readership, reviews and explains the three-body problem in historical context reaching to latest developments in computational physics and gravitation theory. The three-body problem is one of the oldest problems in science and it is most relevant even in today's physics and astronomy.The long history of the problem from Pythagoras to Hawking parallels the evolution of ideas about our physical universe, with a particular emphasis on understanding gravity and how it operates between astronomical bodies. The oldest astronomical three-body problem is the question how and when the moon and the sun line up with the earth to produce eclipses. Once the universal gravitation was discovered by Newton, it became immediately a problem to understand why these three-bodies form a stable system, in spite of the pull exerted from one to the other. In fact, it was a big question whether this system is stable at all in the long run.Leading mathematiciansattacked this problem over more than two centuries without arriving at a definite answer. The introduction of computers in the last half-a-century has revolutionized the study; now many answers have been found while new questions about the three-body problem have sprung up. One of the most recent developments has been in the treatment of the problem in Einstein's General Relativity, the new theory of gravitation which is an improvement on Newton's theory. Now it is possible to solve the problem for three black holes and to test one of the most fundamental theorems of black hole physics, the no-hair theorem, due to Hawking and his co-workers. 188 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This brief applies variations in poststructural thinking and practice to the field of family therapy.Poststructural thinking pervades the world of therapeutic practice in ways that are often invisible to both the theoretician as well as the practitioner. In this brief, the authors focus on what poststructuralism has brought to our understanding. What follows are chapters that speak to training and teaching principles as well as to practices that draw on ideas about 'becoming,' 'relationality,' and 'the aesthetics of engagement.'Each chapter builds on the other with the last one reprising a key component of narrative understanding.From a teaching institution in Auckland, NZ to an online training program in Minneapolis, from new thinking about 'auto-ethnography' to a 'de-centered' practice to 'poetic' resistance, the chapters in this brief offer exciting ideas and practice possibilities. 112 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware - This volume of the Series SpringerBriefs in Space Life Sciences summarizes the newest finding in the field of mental health and physiological exercise in Space. Currently two major challenges are impacting human health in the western societies, one being a move towards a sedentary society, the second one being longevity. Both have a considerable impact on physical as well as mental health. Space life science research helps to understand the underlying degenerative physiological and neuro-psychological processes as living in space, living in microgravity can be regarded as a time lapse of the sedentary and aging human being. Translational research of the past years has shown that exercise can be regarded as a key factor to counteract physical and mental deconditioning in space, guaranteeing a holistic approach to health and a benefit to the socio-demographic changes of our society. The book is written for scientists in biomedicine, more specific in aging research, sports physiology and neurosciences. 128 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Thisvolume deals with the pressing issue of uncertainty in archaeological modeling.Detecting where and when uncertainty is introduced to the modeling process iscritical, as are strategies for minimizing, reconciling, or accommodating suchuncertainty. Included chapters provide unique perspectives on uncertainty inarchaeological modeling, ranging in both theoretical and methodologicalorientation. The strengths and weaknesses of various identification andmitigation techniques are discussed, in particular sensitivity analysis. Thechapters demonstrate that for archaeological modeling purposes, there is noquick fix for uncertainty; indeed, each archaeological model requires intensiveconsideration of uncertainty and specific applications for calibration andvalidation. As very few such techniques have been problematized in a systematicmanner or published in the archaeological literature, this volume aims toprovide guidance and direction to other modelers in the field by distillingsome basic principles for model testing derived from insight gathered in thecase studies presented. Additionally, model applications and their attendantuncertainties are presented from distinct spatio-temporal contexts and willappeal to a broad range of archaeological modelers. This volume will also be ofinterest to non-modeling archaeologists, as consideration of uncertainty wheninterpreting the archaeological record is also a vital concern for thedevelopment of non-formal (or implicit) models of human behavior in the past. 192 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In this informative and inspiring book the author narrates the stories of 12 patients whom he treated during their recovery from serious mental illness. These narratives reveal their common struggles: misdiagnosis, dual-diagnosis, impeded access to medication, medication-adherence issues, homelessness, employment/unemployment issues, and problems with governmental agencies. They also reveal some of the satisfactions of practicing outreach psychiatry: appreciating the patients' resilience, persistence, and talents, and the cooperation of outside service-providers, all of which promote recovery. Each patient's path is unique. Their successes remind us that schizophrenia, paranoia, bipolar illness, and substance abuse need not preclude a productive and satisfying life. Direct quotations from patients demonstrate their awareness of their problems and progress. Patients' acceptance promotes flexibility and creativity from their psychiatrist. Team members provide innovative and targeted support. The psychiatrist identifies aspects his interactions with these patients that contributed to his professional development. A unique feature is the documentation of patients' monthly progress for up to 6 years. Though no one knows what initiates recovery, this book vividly describes how it does so. For psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers these are compelling stories of hope and a powerful call to consider outreach psychiatry. 184 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book collects research contributions concerning quantitative approaches to characterize originality and universality in language. The target audience comprises researchers and experts in the field but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.Creativity might be considered as a morphogenetic process combining universal features with originality. While quantitative methods applied to text and music reveal universal features of language and music, originality is a highly appreciated feature of authors, composers, and performers.In this framework, the different methods of traditional problems of authorship attribution and document classification provide important insights on how to quantify the unique features of authors, composers, and styles. Such unique features contrast, and are restricted by, universal signatures, such as scaling laws in word-frequency distribution, entropy measures, long-range correlations, among others. This interplay between innovation and universality is also an essential ingredient of methods for automatic text generation.Innovation in language becomes relevant when it is imitated and spread to other speakers and musicians. Modern digital databases provide new opportunities to characterize and model the creation and evolution of linguistic innovations on historical time scales, a particularly important example of the more general problem of spreading of innovations in complex social systems.This multidisciplinary book combines scientists from various different backgrounds interested in quantitative analysis of variations (synchronic and diachronic) in language and music. The aim is to obtain a deeper understanding of how originality emerges, can be quantified, and propagates. 220 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The central purpose of this collection of essays is to make a creative addition to the debates surrounding the cultural heritage domain. In the 21st century the world faces epochal changes which affect every part of society, including the arenas in which cultural heritage is made, held, collected, curated, exhibited, or simply exists. The book is about these changes; about the decentring of culture and cultural heritage away from institutional structures towards the individual; about the questions which the advent of digital technologies is demanding that we ask and answer in relation to how we understand, collect and make available Europe's cultural heritage. Cultural heritage has enormous potential in terms of its contribution to improving the quality of life for people, understanding the past, assisting territorial cohesion, driving economic growth, opening up employment opportunities and supporting wider developments such as improvements in education and in artistic careers. Given that spectrum of possible benefits to society, the range of studies that follow here are intended to be a resource and stimulus to help inform not just professionals in the sector but all those with an interest in cultural heritage. The central purpose of this collection of essays is to make a creative addition to the debates surrounding the cultural heritage domain. In the 21st century the world faces epochal changes which affect every part of society, including the arenas in which cultural heritage is made, held, collected, curated, exhibited, or simply exists. The book is about these changes; about the decentring of culture and cultural heritage away from institutional structures towards the individual; about the questions which the advent of digital technologies is demanding that we ask and answer in relation to how we understand, collect and make available Europe's cultural heritage. Cultural heritage has enormous potential in terms of its contribution to improving the quality of life for people, understanding the past, assisting territorial cohesion, driving economic growth, opening up employment opportunities and supporting wider developments such as improvements in education and in artistic careers. Given that spectrum of possible benefits to society, the range of studies that follow here are intended to be a resource and stimulus to help inform not just professionals in the sector but all those with an interest in cultural heritage. 356 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book addresses the complex issues that arise in school-university collaborative action research projects. Employing sociocultural perspectives on examining professional practices of in-service teachers, it examines the complexities of negotiating beliefs, identities and interpersonal relations when educators from two different institutional cultures collaborate. Specifically, the book explores issues such as the discourses that are operative in school-university collaboration for English language teacher education; the way in which beliefs, interpersonal relations and identities are negotiated in school-university partnership; what tensions and complexities operate in collaborative action research discourse in an educational context; and how school-university collaboration can be achieved. The book adopts a critical perspective and provides arguments from a non-Western sociocultural perspective. 140 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This critical ethnographic school-based case study offers insights onthe interaction between ideology and the identity development of individualEnglish language learners in Singapore. Illustrated by case studies of thelanguage learning experiences of five Asian immigrant students in anEnglish-medium school in Singapore, the author examines how the immigrantstudents negotiated a standard English ideology and their discursivepositioning over the course of the school year. Specifically, the study traceshow the prevailing standard English ideology interacted in highly complex wayswith their being positioned as high academic achievers to ultimately influencetheir learning of English. This potent combination of language ideologies andcirculating ideologies created a designer student immigration complex. Byframing this situation as a complex, the study problematizes the power of ideologiesin shaping the trajectories and identities of language learners. 192 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In this book,scholars with different disciplinary and national backgrounds argue forpossible answers and analyse case studies on current issues of governance inbiomedical research. These issues comprise among others the research-caredistinction, risk evaluation in early human trials, handling of incidentalfindings, nocebo effects, cluster randomized trials, publication bias, orconsent in biobank research. This book demonstrates how new technologies andresearch possibilities multiply or intensify already known governancechallenges, leaving room for ethical analysis and complex moral choices.Clinical researchers, research ethics committee members and research ethicistshave all to deal with such challenges on a daily basis. While generalreflection on core concepts of research ethics is seldom pointless, thoseconfronted with hard moral choices do need more practical and contextualizedreflection on the said issues. This book particularly provides suchcontextualized reflections and aims to inform all those who study, conduct,regulate, fund, or participate in biomedical research. 236 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book provides a fundamental reassessment of mathematics education in the digital era. It constitutes a new mindset of how information and knowledge are processed by introducing new interconnective and interactive pedagogical approaches. Math education is catching up on technology, as courses and materials use digital sources and resources more and more. The time has come to evaluate this new dynamic, which transcends all previous use of ancillary devices to supplement classroom math instruction. Interactivity and interconnectivity with the online world of math and math texts (such as television programs and internet sites) can be integrated with our traditional modes for delivery of math instruction.This book looks at how this integration can unfold practically by applying these relevant pedagogical principles to elementary topics such as numeration, arithmetic, algebra, story problems, combinatorics, and basic probability theory. The book further exemplifies how mathematics can be connected to topics in popular culture, information technologies, and other such domains. 200 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book analyzes educational management in the context of developing effective schools in South-Eastern European countries and situates the discussion within ongoing education debates in EU countries. The bookrevolves around the specific role and practices of school principals, who are positioned as a nexus of educational management in each school. Presenting innovative research in the field of educational management and effectiveness this volume will be invaluable for a range of education specialists. 172 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This work explains the nature of constitutional rights. It does so by means of an analysis of the nature of law in general, the nature of constitutions, and the nature of rights. It looks in detail at several aspects of constitutional law, rights and institutions, as well as aspects related to public officials, private persons and associations. In addition, the book critically examines a considerable number of debates about whether some actual or proposed constitutional rights ought to be established and maintained in the United States constitution. It then identifies the kinds of reasons that justify or fail to justify constitutional rights. The book advances the debate and makes a contribution to the theory and the practice of constitutional rights. 208 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book provides an accessible and up-to-date discussion of contemporary theories of perceptual justification that each highlight different factors related to perception, i.e., conscious experience, higher-order beliefs, and reliable processes. The book's discussion starts from the viewpoint that perception is not only one of our fundamental sources of knowledge and justification, but also plays this role for many less sophisticated animals. It proposes a scientifically informed reliabilist theory which can accommodate this fact without denying that some of our epistemic abilities as human perceivers are special. This allows it to combine many of our intuitions about the importance of conscious experience and higher-order belief with the controversial thesis that perceptual justification is fundamentally non-evidential in character. 180 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book presents 9 theory-based and practice-oriented methods for assessing and stimulating a multi-voiced dialogical self in the context of groups, teams, cultures, and organizations. All of these methods are based on Dialogical Self Theory. The book deals with the practical implications of this theory as applied in the areas of coaching, training, and counselling. A number of chapters focus on the process of positioning and dialogue on the level of the self, while other chapters combine self-processes with group work, and still others find their applications in leadership development and team-work in organizations. For each of the nine methods, the chapters present theory, method, case-study and discussions and make clear what kind of problems can be tackled using the method discussed. Specifically, the book discusses the following methods: A Negotiational Self Method for assessing and solving inner conflicts; a Self-Confrontation Methodused to assess and stimulate personal meaning construction in career counselling; a Method of Expressive Writing in the context of career development; a Composition Method for studying the content and organization of personal positions via verbal and non-verbal procedures; a Dialogical Leadership Method that investigates and stimulates dialogical relationships between personal positions in the self of leaders in organizations; a Personal Position Repertoire Method that combines the assessment of personal positions with focus group discussions; aTeam Confrontation Method for investigating collective and deviant positions or voices in organizational teams; aMethod for Revising Organizational Stories with a focus on their emotional significance: and a Technique for Assessing and Stimulating Innovative Dialogue between Cultural Positions in global nomads. 204 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This two-volume set, LNCS 9658 and 9659, constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Web-Age Information Management, WAIM 2016, held in Nanchang, China, in June 2016.The 80 full research papers presented together with 8 demonstrations were carefully reviewed and selected from 266 submissions. The focus of the conference is on following topics: data mining, spatial and temporal databases, recommender systems, graph data management, information retrieval, privacy and trust, query processing and optimization, social media, big data analytics, and distributed and cloud computing. 560 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This Brief provides a general description of the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF). It describes the RASFF approach on the legal level and with reference to notification procedures, including also new tools, which were launched in 2014: iRASFF and the RASFF Consumer Portal. In an introduction, the present status of the RASFF, which had originally been introduced in 1979, is briefly reviewed. It is described as the main basis of modern food policy in Europe, enabling member countries to take rapid corrective actions on the one hand, and to perform statistically reliable analyses of food-related hazards on the other hand.One chapter contains a statistical evaluation of RASFF notifications in general, and specifically with regard to chemical contaminants, including also allergens. In another chapter, reasons for rejections of food and feed at the European borders are analyzed in selected case studies. The Brief provides an easy description for the chemical dangers and contaminants it is referring to, outlining the names, properties, uses and importance in the food and feed industry, toxicological effects, and contamination sources. The last chapter offers an outlook on the future of the RASFF and possible expectations. 80 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The work on Autonomic Road Transport Support (ARTS) presented here aims at meeting the challenge of engineering autonomic behavior in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) by fusing research from the disciplines of traffic engineering and autonomic computing. Ideas and techniques from leading edge artificial intelligence research have been adapted for ITS over the last 30 years. Examples include adaptive control embedded in real time traffic control systems, heuristic algorithms (e.g. in SAT-NAV systems), image processing and computer vision (e.g. in automated surveillance interpretation). Autonomic computing which is inspired from the biological example of the body's autonomic nervous system is a more recent development. It allows for a more efficient management of heterogeneous distributed computing systems. In the area of computing, autonomic systems are endowed with a number of properties that are generally referred to as self-X properties, including self-configuration, self-healing, self-optimization, self-protection and more generally self-management. Some isolated examples of autonomic properties such as self-adaptation have found their way into ITS technology and have already proved beneficial. This edited volume provides a comprehensive introduction to Autonomic Road Transport Support (ARTS) and describes the development of ARTS systems. It starts out with the visions, opportunities and challenges, then presents the foundations of ARTS and the platforms and methods used and it closes with experiences from real-world applications and prototypes of emerging applications. This makes it suitable for researchers and practitioners in the fields of autonomic computing, traffic and transport management and engineering, AI, and software engineering. Graduate students will benefit from state-of-the-art description, the study of novel methods and the case studies provided. 312 pp. Englisch.