springer international publishing mrz 2014 (136 Ergebnisse)

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Digital Watermarking is the art and science of embedding information in existing digital content for Digital Rights Management (DRM) and authentication. Reversible watermarking is a class of (fragile) digital watermarking that not only authenticates multimedia data content, but also helps to maintain perfect integrity of the original multimedia 'cover data.' In non-reversible watermarking schemes, after embedding and extraction of the watermark, the cover data undergoes some distortions, although perceptually negligible in most cases. In contrast, in reversible watermarking, zero-distortion of the cover data is achieved, that is the cover data is guaranteed to be restored bit-by-bit. Such a feature is desirable when highly sensitive data is watermarked, e.g., in military, medical, and legal imaging applications. This work deals with development, analysis, and evaluation of state-of-the-art reversible watermarking techniques for digital images. In this work we establish the motivation for research on reversible watermarking using a couple of case studies with medical and military images. We present a detailed review of the state-of-the-art research in this field. We investigate the various subclasses of reversible watermarking algorithms, their operating principles, and computational complexities. Along with this, to give the readers an idea about the detailed working of a reversible watermarking scheme, we present a prediction-based reversible watermarking technique, recently published by us. We discuss the major issues and challenges behind implementation of reversible watermarking techniques, and recently proposed solutions for them. Finally, we provide an overview of some open problems and scope of work for future researchers in this area. 132 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Digital libraries (DLs) have evolved since their launch in 1991 into an important type of information system, with widespread application. This volume advances that trend further by describing new research and development in the DL field that builds upon the 5S (Societies, Scenarios, Spaces, Structures, Streams) framework, which is discussed in three other DL volumes in this series.While the 5S framework may be used to describe many types of information systems, and is likely to have even broader utility and appeal, we focus here on digital libraries. Drawing upon six (Akbar, Kozievitch, Leidig, Li, Murthy, Park) completed and two (Chen, Fouh) in-process dissertations, as well as the efforts of collaborating researchers, and scores of related publications, presentations, tutorials, and reports, this book demonstrates the applicability of 5S in five digital library application areas, that also have importance in the context of the WWW, Web 2.0, and innovative information systems. By integrating surveys of the state-of-the-art, newresearch, connections with formalization, case studies, and exercises/projects, this book can serve as a textbook for those interested in computing, information, and/or library science. Chapter 1 focuses on images, explaining how they connect with information retrieval, in the context of CBIR systems. Chapter 2 gives two case studies of DLs used in education, which is one of the most common applications of digital libraries. Chapter 3 covers social networks, which are at the heart of work onWeb 2.0, explaining the construction and use of deduced graphs, that can enhance retrieval and recommendation. Chapter 4 demonstrates the value of DLs in eScience, focusing, in particular, on cyber-infrastructure for simulation. Chapter 5 surveys geospatial information in DLs, with a case study on geocoding. Given this rich content, we trust that any interested in digital libraries, or in related systems, will find this volume to be motivating, intellectually satisfying, and useful. We hope it will help move digital libraries forward into a science as well as a practice. We hope it will help build community that will address the needs of the next generation of DLs. 176 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Solving challenging computational problems involving time has been a critical component in the development of artificial intelligence systems almost since the inception of the field. This book provides a concise introduction to the core computational elements of temporal reasoning for use in AI systems for planning and scheduling, as well as systems that extract temporal information from data. It presents a survey of temporal frameworks based on constraints, both qualitative and quantitative, as well as of major temporal consistency techniques. The book also introduces the reader to more recent extensions to the core model that allow AI systems to explicitly represent temporal preferences and temporal uncertainty. This book is intended for students and researchers interested in constraint-based temporal reasoning. It provides a self-contained guide to the different representations of time, as well as examples of recent applications of time in AI systems. 124 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Judgment aggregation is a mathematical theory of collective decision-making. It concerns the methods whereby individual opinions about logically interconnected issues of interest can, or cannot, be aggregated into one collective stance. Aggregation problems have traditionally been of interest for disciplines like economics and the political sciences, as well as philosophy, where judgment aggregation itself originates from, but have recently captured the attention of disciplines like computer science, artificial intelligence and multi-agent systems. Judgment aggregation has emerged in the last decade as a unifying paradigm for the formalization and understanding of aggregation problems. Still, no comprehensive presentation of the theory is available to date. This Synthesis Lecture aims at filling this gap presenting the key motivations, results, abstractions and techniques underpinning it. Table of Contents: Preface / Acknowledgments / Logic Meets Social Choice Theory / Basic Concepts / Impossibility / Coping with Impossibility / Manipulability / Aggregation Rules / Deliberation / Bibliography / Authors' Biographies / Index 152 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -It has been estimated that over a billion people are using or learning English as a second or foreign language, and the numbers are growing not only for English but for other languages as well. These language learners provide a burgeoning market for tools that help identify and correct learners' writing errors. Unfortunately, the errors targeted by typical commercial proofreading tools do not include those aspects of a second language that are hardest to learn. This volume describes the types of constructions English language learners find most difficult: constructions containing prepositions, articles, and collocations. It provides an overview of the automated approaches that have been developed to identify and correct these and other classes of learner errors in a number of languages. Error annotation and system evaluation are particularly important topics in grammatical error detection because there are no commonly accepted standards. Chapters in the book describe the options available to researchers, recommend best practices for reporting results, and present annotation and evaluation schemes. The final chapters explore recent innovative work that opens new directions for research. It is the authors' hope that this volume will continue to contribute to the growing interest in grammatical error detection by encouraging researchers to take a closer look at the field and its many challenging problems. 172 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -These notes introduce a new class of algebraic curves on Hilbert modular surfaces. These curves are called twisted Teichmüller curves, because their construction is very reminiscent of Hirzebruch-Zagier cycles. These new objects are analyzed in detail and their main properties are described. In particular, the volume of twisted Teichmüller curves is calculated and their components are partially classified. The study of algebraic curves on Hilbert modular surfaces has been widely covered in the literature due to their arithmetic importance. Among these, twisted diagonals (Hirzebruch-Zagier cycles) are some of the most important examples. 184 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -General game players are computer systems able to play strategy games based solely on formal game descriptions supplied at 'runtime' (n other words, they don't know the rules until the game starts). Unlike specialized game players, such as Deep Blue, general game players cannot rely on algorithms designed in advance for specific games; they must discover such algorithms themselves. General game playing expertise depends on intelligence on the part of the game player and not just intelligence of the programmer of the game player. GGP is an interesting application in its own right. It is intellectually engaging and more than a little fun. But it is much more than that. It provides a theoretical framework for modeling discrete dynamic systems and defining rationality in a way that takes into account problem representation and complexities like incompleteness of information and resource bounds. It has practical applications in areas where these features are important, e.g., in business and law. More fundamentally, it raises questions about the nature of intelligence and serves as a laboratory in which to evaluate competing approaches to artificial intelligence. This book is an elementary introduction to General Game Playing (GGP). (1) It presents the theory of General Game Playing and leading GGP technologies. (2) It shows how to create GGP programs capable of competing against other programs and humans. (3) It offers a glimpse of some of the real-world applications of General Game Playing. 232 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -For humans, understanding a natural language sentence or discourse is so effortless that we hardly ever think about it. For machines, however, the task of interpreting natural language, especially grasping meaning beyond the literal content, has proven extremely difficult and requires a large amount of background knowledge. This book focuses on the interpretation of natural language with respect to specific domain knowledge captured in ontologies. The main contribution is an approach that puts ontologies at the center of the interpretation process. This means that ontologies not only provide a formalization of domain knowledge necessary for interpretation but also support and guide the construction of meaning representations. We start with an introduction to ontologies and demonstrate how linguistic information can be attached to them by means of the ontology lexicon model lemon. These lexica then serve as basis for the automatic generation of grammars, which we use to compositionallyconstruct meaning representations that conform with the vocabulary of an underlying ontology. As a result, the level of representational granularity is not driven by language but by the semantic distinctions made in the underlying ontology and thus by distinctions that are relevant in the context of a particular domain. We highlight some of the challenges involved in the construction of ontology-based meaning representations, and show how ontologies can be exploited for ambiguity resolution and the interpretation of temporal expressions. Finally, we present a question answering system that combines all tools and techniques introduced throughout the book in a real-world application, and sketch how the presented approach can scale to larger, multi-domain scenarios in the context of the Semantic Web. Table of Contents: List of Figures / Preface / Acknowledgments / Introduction / Ontologies / Linguistic Formalisms / Ontology Lexica / Grammar Generation / Putting Everything Together / Ontological Reasoning for Ambiguity Resolution / Temporal Interpretation / Ontology-Based Interpretation for Question Answering / Conclusion / Bibliography / Authors' Biographies 180 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -NASA's Mercury astronauts were seven highly skilled professional test pilots. Each of them seemed to possess the strength of character and commitment necessary to overcome apparently insurmountable obstacles as the United States entered into a Cold War space race with the Soviet Union. This was never more evident than on the epic suborbital MR-4 flight of Liberty Bell 7 with astronaut Virgil ('Gus') Grissom piloting the spacecraft to a successful splashdown, followed by the premature blowing of the craft's explosive hatch. After a hurried exit and struggling to stay afloat, he could only watch helplessly as the recovery helicopter pilot valiantly fought a losing battle to save the sinking capsule. That day NASA not only lost a spacecraft but came perilously close to losing one of its Mercury astronauts, a decorated Korean fighter pilot from Indiana who might one day have soared to the highest goal of them all, as the first person to set foot on the Moon. For the first time, many of those closest to the flight of Liberty Bell 7 and astronaut Gus Grissom offer their stories and opinions on the dramatic events of July 21, 1961, and his later pioneering Gemini mission. They also tell of an often controversial life cut tragically and horrifically short in a launch pad fire that shocked the nation. 304 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Introduces hydrodynamics to undergraduate students in physics and astrophysics.Stellar winds are a common phenomenon in the life of stars, from the dwarfs like the Sun to the red giants and hot supergiants, constituting one of the basic aspects of modern astrophysics. Stellar winds are a hydrodynamic phenomenon in which circumstellar gases expand towards the interstellar medium. This book presents an elementary introduction to the fundamentals of hydrodynamics with an application to the study of stellar winds. The principles of hydrodynamics have many other applications, so that the book can be used as an introduction to hydrodynamics for students of physics, astrophysics and other related areas. 196 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book presents a comprehensive discussion of classical ideas, core topics, currents and detailed theoretical underpinnings in medical sociology. It is a globally renowned source and reference for those interested in social dimensions of health and illness. The presentation is enriched with explanatory and illustrative styles. The design and illustration of details will shift the minds of the readers from mere classroom discourse to societal context (the space of health issues), to consider the implications of those ideas in a way that could guide health interventions. The elemental strengths are the sociological illustrations from African context, rooted in deep cultural interpretations necessitated because Africa bears a greater brunt of health problems. More so, the classical and current epistemological and theoretical discourse presented in this book are indicative of core themes in medical sociology in particular, but cut across a multidisciplinary realm including health social sciences (e.g., medical anthropology, health psychology, medical demography, medical geography and health economics) and health studies (medicine, public health, epidemiology, bioethics and medical humanities) in general. Therefore, apart from the book's relevance as a teaching text of medical sociology for academics, it is also meant for students at various levels and all health professionals who require a deeper understanding of social dimensions of health and illness (with illustrations from the African context) and sociological contributions to health studies in general. 320 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book highlights various cutting-edge topics and approaches to cooperation and regional integration in South Asia. Contributions from both South Asian and EU scholars carry the distinctive flavour of differing perspectives, in order to identify possible driving factors for regional cooperation.The book is divided into four parts:Peace and Stability focuses on how to combat terrorism and ideologies of hate, looks at governance in the context of cultural diversity, and examines the role of education in achieving traditional and human security;Economic Cooperation deals with potential EU-India trade relations as well as the issue of how to transform the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) into an effective and coherent economic space;Efficient Use of Resources analyses how the region can achieve more development;EU-South Asia relations elaborates on potential areas of cooperation between the two regions. 220 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This volume provides an important update to our current understanding of politics and the internet in a variety of new contexts, both geographically and institutionally. The subject of e-democracy has morphed over the years from speculative and optimistic accounts of a future heightened direct citizen involvement in political decision-making and an increasingly withered state apparatus, to more prosaic investigations of party and governmental website content and micro level analyses of voters' online activities. Rather than levelling the communications and participation playing field, most studies concluded that existing patterns of bias and power distribution were being repeated online, with the one exception of a genuine change in the potential for protest and e-activism. Across all of these accounts, the question remains whether the internet is a levelling communication tool that elevates the profile of marginalised players in the political system, or whether it is a medium that simply reinforces existing power and participatory biases. While employing case studies from various global perspectives, this book investigates the role of digital media and competitive advantage, campaigns and the effect of social media, online communication as way of fomenting nonviolent revolutions and the undeniable and important role of the internet on democracy around the world. 160 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The book analyzes the topic of judicial reforms in four countries of South-East Europe, focusing on two specific factors that have influenced the reforms in the past two decades: the role played by the European Union in light of the east Enlargement process and the legacies of the communist regimes. Specifically, the aim is to account for similarities and differences in the reform paths of Slovenia, Romania, Croatia, and Serbia. In each country, in fact, the influence of the EU policies has been differently mediated by national factors that, broadly conceived, may be considered as expressing the legacies of the past regimes. In some cases, these legacies challenged judicial reforms and inhibited the influence of the EU; in other cases, they were positively overcome by following the route suggested by the EU. Some explanatory factors for these differences will be proposed drawing from democratization studies, Europeanization literature, and comparative judicial systems.The book focuses on countries having different status vis-a` -vis the EU and differently involved, in term of timing, in the EU accession process: some of them are new member states entered in 2004 (Slovenia) or in 2007 (Romania); others were, until recently, acceding countries (Croatia) or candidates to the membership (Serbia). This comparison allows investigation of the power of EU conditionality in different phases of the EU enlargement process.vis-a` -vis the EU and differently involved, in term of timing, in the EU accession process: some of them are new member states entered in 2004 (Slovenia) or in 2007 (Romania); others were, until recently, acceding countries (Croatia) or candidates to the membership (Serbia). This comparison allows investigation of the power of EU conditionality in different phases of the EU enlargement process. 152 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Information Theory (IT) tools, widely used in many scientific fields such as engineering, physics, genetics, neuroscience, and many others, are also useful transversal tools in image processing. In this book, we present the basic concepts of IT and how they have been used in the image processing areas of registration, segmentation, video processing, and computational aesthetics. Some of the approaches presented, such as the application of mutual information to registration, are the state of the art in the field. All techniques presented in this book have been previously published in peer-reviewed conference proceedings or international journals. We have stressed here their common aspects, and presented them in an unified way, so to make clear to the reader which problems IT tools can help to solve, which specific tools to use, and how to apply them. The IT basics are presented so as to be self-contained in the book. The intended audiences are students and practitioners of image processing and related areas such as computer graphics and visualization. In addition, students and practitioners of IT will be interested in knowing about these applications.Table of Contents: Preface / Acknowledgments / Information Theory Basics / Image Registration / Image Segmentation / Video Key Frame Selection / Informational Aesthetics Measures / Bibliography / Authors' Biographies 168 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 14th International Workshop on Information Security Applications, WISA 2013, held on Jeju Island, Korea, in August 2013. The 15 revised full papers and 2 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 39 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections such as cryptography, social network security, mobile security, network security, future applications and privacy. 288 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In this book, a novel optimization method inspired by a paradigm from nature is introduced. The chemical reactions are used as a paradigm to propose an optimization method that simulates these natural processes. The proposed algorithm is described in detail and then a set of typical complex benchmark functions is used to evaluate the performance of the algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed optimization algorithm can outperform other methods in a set of benchmark functions.This chemical reaction optimization paradigm is also applied to solve the tracking problem for the dynamic model of a unicycle mobile robot by integrating a kinematic and a torque controller based on fuzzy logic theory. Computer simulations are presented confirming that this optimization paradigm is able to outperform other optimization techniques applied to this particular robot application. 88 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This Springer Brief examines the tools based on attack graphs that help reveal network hardening threats. Existing tools detail all possible attack paths leading to critical network resources. Though no current tool provides a direct solution to remove the threats, they are a more efficient means of network defense than relying solely on the experience and skills of a human analyst. Key background information on attack graphs and network hardening helps readers understand the complexities of these tools and techniques. A common network hardening technique generates hardening solutions comprised of initially satisfied conditions, thereby making the solution more enforceable. Following a discussion of the complexity issues in this technique, the authors provide an improved technique that considers the dependencies between hardening options and employs a near-optimal approximation algorithm to scale linearly with the size of the inputs. Also included are automated solutions for hardening a network against sophisticated multi-step intrusions. Network Hardening: An Automated Approach to Improving Network Security is a valuable resource for researchers and professionals working in network security. It is also a useful tool for advanced-level students focused on security in computer science and electrical engineering. 68 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, and Prediction, SBP 2014, held in Washington, DC, USA, in April 2014. The 51 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 101 submissions. The SBP conference provides a forum for researchers and practitioners from academia, industry, and government agencies to exchange ideas on current challenges in social computing, behavioral-cultural modeling and prediction, and on state-of-the-art methods and best practices being adopted to tackle these challenges. The topical areas addressed by the papers are social and behavioral sciences, health sciences, military science, and information science. 448 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Although used with increasing frequency in many branches of physics, random matrix ensembles are not always sufficiently specific to account for important features of the physical system at hand. One refinement which retains the basic stochastic approach but allows for such features consists in the use of embedded ensembles.The present text is an exhaustive introduction to and survey of this important field. Starting with an easy-to-read introduction to general random matrix theory, the text then develops the necessary concepts from the beginning, accompanying the reader to the frontiers of present-day research. With some notable exceptions, to date these ensembles have primarily been applied in nuclear spectroscopy. A characteristic example is the use of a random two-body interaction in the framework of the nuclear shell model. Yet, topics in atomic physics, mesoscopic physics, quantum information science and statistical mechanics of isolated finite quantum systems can also be addressed using these ensembles.This book addresses graduate students and researchers with an interest in applications of random matrix theory to the modeling of more complex physical systems and interactions, with applications such as statistical spectroscopy in mind. 420 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 18th Annual International Conference on Research in Computational Molecular Biology, RECOMB 2014, held in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, in April 2014. The 35 extended abstracts were carefully reviewed and selected from 154 submissions. They report on original research in all areas of computational molecular biology and bioinformatics. 480 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In this book the author presents selected challenges of thermal-hydraulics modeling of two-phase flows in minichannels with change of phase. These encompass the common modeling of flow boiling and flow condensation using the same expression. Approaches to model these two respective cases show, however, that experimental data show different results to those obtained by methods of calculation of heat transfer coefficient for respective cases. Partially that can be devoted to the fact that there are non-adiabatic effects present in both types of phase change phenomena which modify the pressure drop due to friction, responsible for appropriate modelling. The modification of interface shear stresses between flow boiling and flow condensation in case of annular flow structure may be considered through incorporation of the so called blowing parameter, which differentiates between these two modes of heat transfer. On the other hand, in case of bubbly flows, the generation of bubbles also modifies the friction pressure drop by the influence of heat flux. Presented are also the results of a peculiar M-shape distribution of heat transfer coefficient specific to flow boiling in minichannels. Finally, some attention is devoted to mathematical modeling of dryout phenomena. A five equation model enabling determination of the dryout location is presented, where the mass balance equations for liquid film, droplets and gas are supplemented by momentum equations for liquid film and two-phase core. 72 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This Springer Brief presents recent research results on area coverage for intruder detection from an energy-efficient perspective. These results cover a variety of topics, including environmental surveillance and security monitoring. The authors also provide the background and range of applications for area coverage and elaborate on system models such as the formal definition of area coverage and sensing models. Several chapters focus on energy-efficient intruder detection and intruder trapping under the well-known binary sensing model, along with intruder trapping under the probabilistic sensing model. The brief illustrates efficient algorithms rotate the duty of each sensor to prolong the network lifetime and ensure intruder trapping performance. The brief concludes with future directions of the field. Designed for researchers and professionals working with wireless sensor networks, the brief also provides a wide range of applications which are also valuable for advanced-level students interested in efficiency and networking. 108 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book presents and discusses the state of the art and future trends in software engineering education. It introduces new and innovative methods, models and frameworks to focus the training towards the needs and requirements of the industry. Topics included in this book are: education models for software engineering, development of the software engineering discipline, innovation and evaluation of software engineering education, curriculum for software engineering education, requirements and cultivation of outstanding software engineers for the future and cooperation models for industries and software engineering education. 180 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book is among the first to address the novel process intensification technologies for biodiesel production, in particular the integrated reactive separations. It provides a comprehensive overview illustrated with many industrially relevant examples of novel reactive separation processes used in the production of biodiesel (e.g. fatty acid alkyl esters): reactive distillation, reactive absorption, reactive extraction, membrane reactors, and centrifugal contact separators. Readers will also learn about the working principles, design and control of integrated processes, while also getting a relevant and modern overview of the process intensification opportunities for biodiesel synthesis. Biodiesel is a biodegradable and renewable fuel that currently enjoys much attention. In spite of the recent advances, the existing biodiesel processes still suffer from problems associated with the use of homogeneous catalysts (e.g. salt waste streams) and the key limitations imposed by the chemical reaction equilibrium, thus leading to severe economic and environmental penalties. The integration of reaction and separation into one operating unit overcomes equilibrium limitations and provides key benefits such as low capital investment and operating costs. Many of these processes can be further enhanced by heat-integration and powered by heterogeneous catalysts, to eliminate all conventional catalyst related operations, using the raw materials efficiently and the reaction volume, while offering high conversion and selectivity, and significant energy savings. The targeted audience of this book includes both academia (students and researchers) and industry (project leaders, technology managers, researchers, biodiesel producers, and equipment suppliers). 120 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Workshop on Databases in Networked Information Systems, DNIS 2014, held in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan, March 2014. The 21 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in topical section such as big data and cloud computing; astronomical data management; business data analytics and visualization; business data analytics in sciences; geo-spatial decision making and query languages; business data analytics in astronomy. 292 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This is a unique book addressing the integration of risk methodology from various fields. It will stimulate intellectual debate and communication across disciplines, promote better risk management practices and contribute to the development of risk management methodologies. Individual chapters explain fundamental risk models and measurement, and address risk and security issues from diverse areas such as finance and insurance, the health sciences, life sciences, engineering and information science. Integrated Risk Sciences is an emerging discipline that considers risks in different fields, aiming at a common language, and at sharing and improving methods developed in different fields. Readers should have a Bachelor degree and have taken at least one basic university course in statistics and probability. The main goal of the book is to provide basic knowledge on risk and security in a common language; the authors have taken particular care to ensure that all content can readily be understood by doctoral students and researchers across disciplines. Each chapter provides simple case studies and examples, open research questions and discussion points, and a selected bibliography inviting readers to further study. 488 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book takes a fresh look at biometrics and identity management, extending the dialogue beyond technical considerations, and exploring some of the broader societal and philosophical aspects surrounding the use of biometric applications. Features: presents a brief history of the development of biometrics, and describes some of the popularly held misconceptions surrounding the technology; investigates the challenges and possibilities of biometrics across third party infrastructures and on mobile computing devices; provides guidance on biometric systems design; explores the mechanisms necessary to enable identity intelligence, including logging mechanisms, data communications and data formats; discusses such usage issues as collaboration frameworks, and messaging and data translation; examines the impact of biometric technologies on society, covering issues of privacy and user factors; reviews the current situation in identity management, and predicts where these trends may take us in the future. 260 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In practice, the design and architecture of a cloud varies among cloud providers. We present a generic evaluation framework for the performance, availability and reliability characteristics of various cloud platforms. We describe a generic benchmark architecture for cloud databases, specifically NoSQL database as a service. It measures the performance of replication delay and monetary cost.Service Level Agreements (SLA) represent the contract which captures the agreed upon guarantees between a service provider and its customers. The specifications of existing service level agreements (SLA) for cloud services are not designed to flexibly handle even relatively straightforward performance and technical requirements of consumer applications. We present a novel approach for SLA-based management of cloud-hosted databases from the consumer perspective and an end-to-end framework for consumer-centric SLA management of cloud-hosted databases. The framework facilitates adaptive and dynamic provisioning of the database tier of the software applications based on application-defined policies for satisfying their own SLA performance requirements, avoiding the cost of any SLA violation and controlling the monetary cost of the allocated computing resources. In this framework, the SLA of the consumer applications are declaratively defined in terms of goals which are subjected to a number of constraints that are specific to the application requirements. The framework continuously monitors the application-defined SLA and automatically triggers the execution of necessary corrective actions (scaling out/in the database tier) when required. The framework is database platform-agnostic, uses virtualization-based database replication mechanisms and requires zero source code changes of the cloud-hosted software applications. 224 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This volume investigates the notion of reduction. Building on the idea that philosophers employ the term 'reduction' to reconcile diversity and directionality with unity, without relying on elimination, the book offers a powerful explication of an 'ontological', notion of reduction the extension of which is (primarily) formed by properties, kinds, individuals, or processes. It argues that related notions of reduction, such as theory-reduction and functional reduction, should be defined in terms of this explication. Thereby, the book offers a coherent framework, which sheds light on the history of the various reduction debates in the philosophy of science and in the philosophy of mind, and on related topics such as reduction and unification, the notion of a scientific level, and physicalism.The book takes its point of departure in the examination of a puzzle about reduction. To illustrate, the book takes as an example the reduction of water. If water reduces to H2O, then water is identical to H2O - thus we get unity. Unity does not come at the price of elimination - claiming that water reduces to H2O, we do not thereby claim that there is no water. But what about diversity and directionality Intuitively, there should be a difference between water and H2O, such that we get diversity. This is required for there to be directionality: in a sense, if water reduces to H2O, then H2O is prior to, or more basic than water. At least, if water reduces to H2O, then H2O does not reduce to water. But how can this be, if water is identical to H2O The book shows that the application of current models of reduction does not solve this puzzle, and proposes a new coherent definition, according to which unity is tied to identity, diversity is descriptive in nature, and directionality is the directionality of explanation. 240 pp. Englisch.