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Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -When The Planiverse rst appeared 16 years ago, it caught more than a few readers off guard. The line between willing suspension of dis- lief and innocent acceptance, if it exists at all, is a thin one. There were those who wanted to believe, despite the tongue-in-cheek subtext, that we had made contact with a two-dimensional world called Arde, a di- shaped planet embedded in the skin of a vast, balloon-shaped space called the planiverse. It is tempting to imagine that those who believed, as well as those who suspended disbelief, did so because of a persuasive consistency in the cosmology and physics of this in nitesimally thin universe, and x preface to the millennium edition in its bizarre but oddly workable organisms. This was not just your r- of-the-mill universe fashioned out of the whole cloth of wish-driven imagination. The planiverse is a weirder place than that precisely - cause so much of it was ¿worked out¿ by a virtual team of scientists and technologists. Reality, even thepseudoreality of such a place, is - variably stranger than anything we merely dream up.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 280 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Bayesian and likelihood approaches to inference have a number of points of close contact, especially from an asymptotic point of view. Both approaches emphasize the construction of interval estimates of unknown parameters. Empirical Bayes methods have historically emphasized instead the construction of point estimates. In this volume researchers present recent work on several aspects of Bayesian, likelihood and empirical Bayes methods, presented at a workshop held in Montreal, Canada. The goal of the workshop was to explore the linkages among the methods, and to suggest new directions for research in the theory of inference.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 256 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -These notes represent our summary of much of the recent research that has been done in recent years on approximations and bounds that have been developed for compound distributions and related quantities which are of interest in insurance and other areas of application in applied probability. The basic technique employed in the derivation of many bounds is induc tive, an approach that is motivated by arguments used by Sparre-Andersen (1957) in connection with a renewal risk model in insurance. This technique is both simple and powerful, and yields quite general results. The bounds themselves are motivated by the classical Lundberg exponential bounds which apply to ruin probabilities, and the connection to compound dis tributions is through the interpretation of the ruin probability as the tail probability of a compound geometric distribution. The initial exponential bounds were given in Willmot and Lin (1994), followed by the nonexpo nential generalization in Willmot (1994). Other related work on approximations for compound distributions and applications to various problems in insurance in particular and applied probability in general is also discussed in subsequent chapters. The results obtained or the arguments employed in these situations are similar to those for the compound distributions, and thus we felt it useful to include them in the notes. In many cases we have included exact results, since these are useful in conjunction with the bounds and approximations developed.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 264 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This is the fourth edition of an acclaimed introductory textbook on the structure and function of human chromosomes. The explosion of information on human genetic diseases has meant that there is a greater need than ever for students, practising physicians, laboratory technicians, and researchers to have a concise, up-to-date summary of the normal and abnormal behavior of chromosomes. This book continues to fulfill that need, and is strengthened by the complete revision of material on the molecular genetics of chromosomes and chromosomal defects.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 524 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The aim of this book is twofold: (i) to give an exposition of the basic theory of finite-dimensional algebras at a levelthat isappropriate for senior undergraduate and first-year graduate students, and (ii) to provide the mathematical foundation needed to prepare the reader for the advanced study of anyone of several fields of mathematics. The subject under study is by no means new-indeed it is classical yet a book that offers a straightforward and concrete treatment of this theory seems justified for several reasons. First, algebras and linear trans formations in one guise or another are standard features of various parts of modern mathematics. These include well-entrenched fields such as repre sentation theory, as well as newer ones such as quantum groups. Second, a study ofthe elementary theory offinite-dimensional algebras is particularly useful in motivating and casting light upon more sophisticated topics such as module theory and operator algebras. Indeed, the reader who acquires a good understanding of the basic theory of algebras is wellpositioned to ap preciate results in operator algebras, representation theory, and ring theory. In return for their efforts, readers are rewarded by the results themselves, several of which are fundamental theorems of striking elegance.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 260 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This text provides an introduction to ergodic theory suitable for readers knowing basic measure theory. The mathematical prerequisites are summarized in Chapter 0. It is hoped the reader will be ready to tackle research papers after reading the book. The first part of the text is concerned with measure-preserving transformations of probability spaces; recurrence properties, mixing properties, the Birkhoff ergodic theorem, isomorphism and spectral isomorphism, and entropy theory are discussed. Some examples are described and are studied in detail when new properties are presented. The second part of the text focuses on the ergodic theory of continuous transformations of compact metrizable spaces. The family of invariant probability measures for such a transformation is studied and related to properties of the transformation such as topological traitivity, minimality, the size of the non-wandering set, and existence of periodic points. Topological entropy is introduced and related to measure-theoretic entropy. Topological pressure and equilibrium states are discussed, and a proof is given of the variational principle that relates pressure to measure-theoretic entropies. Several examples are studied in detail. The final chapter outlines significant results and some applications of ergodic theory to other branches of mathematics.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 268 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The aim of this book is to describe the underlying principles of algebraic geometry, some of its important developments in the twentieth century, and some of the problems that occupy its practitioners today. It is intended for the working or the aspiring mathematician who is unfamiliar with algebraic geometry but wishes to gain an appreciation of its foundations and its goals with a minimum of prerequisites. Few algebraic prerequisites are presumed beyond a basic course in linear algebra.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 184 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The building blocks of today's and future embedded systems are complex intellectual property components, or cores, many of which are programmable processors. Traditionally, these embedded processors mostly have been pro grammed in assembly languages due to efficiency reasons. This implies time consuming programming, extensive debugging, and low code portability. The requirements of short time-to-market and dependability of embedded systems are obviously much better met by using high-level language (e.g. C) compil ers instead of assembly. However, the use of C compilers frequently incurs a code quality overhead as compared to manually written assembly programs. Due to the need for efficient embedded systems, this overhead must be very low in order to make compilers useful in practice. In turn, this requires new compiler techniques that take the specific constraints in embedded system de sign into account. An example are the specialized architectures of recent DSP and multimedia processors, which are not yet sufficiently exploited by existing compilers.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 228 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The book presents current research into the effect that environmental conditions have on volcanic eruptions and the subsequent emplacement of volcanic products. This is accomplished through a series of chapters that investigate specific environments - both terrestrial and extraterrestrial - and the expression of volcanic materials found within those settings. Current state-of-the-art numerical, analytical and computer models are used in most chapters to provide robust, quantitative insights into how volcanoes behave in different environmental settings.Readership: Upper level undergraduates and new graduates. The book is primarily a presentation of research results rather than a tutorial for the general public. Textbook or supplementary reading for courses in volcanology or comparative planetology at college/university level.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 284 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Statistical disclosure control is the discipline that deals with producing statistical data that are safe enough to be released to external researchers. This book concentrates on the methodology of the area. It deals with both microdata (individual data) and tabular (aggregated) data. The book attempts to develop the theory from what can be called the paradigm of statistical confidentiality: to modify unsafe data in such a way that safe (enough) data emerge, with minimum information loss. This book discusses what safe data, are, how information loss can be measured, and how to modify the data in a (near) optimal way. Once it has been decided how to measure safety and information loss, the production of safe data from unsafe data is often a matter of solving an optimization problem. Several such problems are discussed in the book, and most of them turn out to be hard problems that can be solved only approximately. The authors present new results that have not been published before. The book is not a description of an area that is closed, but, on the contrary, one that still has many spots awaiting to be more fully explored. Some of these are indicated in the book. The book will be useful for official, social and medical statisticians and others who are involved in releasing personal or business data for statistical use. Operations researchers may be interested in the optimization problems involved, particularly for the challenges they present. Leon Willenborg has worked at the Department of Statistical Methods at Statistics Netherlands since 1983, first as a researcher and since 1989 as a senior researcher. Since 1989 his main field of research and consultancy has been statistical disclosure control. From 1996-1998 he was the project coordinator of the EU co-funded SDC project.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 284 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Combinatorics and Matrix Theory have a symbiotic, or mutually beneficial, relationship. This relationship is discussed in my paper The symbiotic relationship of combinatorics and matrix theoryl where I attempted to justify this description. One could say that a more detailed justification was given in my book with H. J. Ryser entitled Combinatorial Matrix Theon where an attempt was made to give a broad picture of the use of combinatorial ideas in matrix theory and the use of matrix theory in proving theorems which, at least on the surface, are combinatorial in nature. In the book by Liu and Lai, this picture is enlarged and expanded to include recent developments and contributions of Chinese mathematicians, many of which have not been readily available to those of us who are unfamiliar with Chinese journals. Necessarily, there is some overlap with the book Combinatorial Matrix Theory. Some of the additional topics include: spectra of graphs, eulerian graph problems, Shannon capacity, generalized inverses of Boolean matrices, matrix rearrangements, and matrix completions. A topic to which many Chinese mathematicians have made substantial contributions is the combinatorial analysis of powers of nonnegative matrices, and a large chapter is devoted to this topic. This book should be a valuable resource for mathematicians working in the area of combinatorial matrix theory. Richard A. Brualdi University of Wisconsin - Madison 1 Linear Alg. Applies., vols. 162-4, 1992, 65-105 2Camhridge University Press, 1991.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 328 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Archaeology can either bolster memory and tradition, or contradict the status quo and provide an alternative view of the past. An archaeology of Harpers Ferry's wartime and Victorian eras confronts time-honored historical interpretations of the past (created and perpetuated by such interest groups as historians and the National Park Service) and in so doing allows us to be more inclusive of the town's forgotten histories and provides alternative voices to a past.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 220 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -No other book reviews clinical neuropsychological assessment from an empirical psychometric perspective. In this completely revised and updated 2nd edition, the concepts and methods of psychometric neuropsychology are presented as a framework by which to evaluate current instruments. Newer methodologies and statistical techniques are discussed, such as meta analysis, effect size, confirming factor analysis and ecological validity. The explosion of research in this area since the publication of the first edition in 1989, has been incorporated, including a greatly expanded chapter on child assessment instruments.This volume is a must for the bookshelf of every clinical neuropsychologist as well as researchers and students. Anyone conducting forensic evaluations will especially find useful the information on reliability and validity when preparing for court appearances.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 484 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This is the fourth edition of an acclaimed introductory textbook on the structure and function of human chromosomes. The explosion of information on human genetic diseases has meant that there is a greater need than ever for students, practising physicians, laboratory technicians, and researchers to have a concise, up-to-date summary of the normal and abnormal behavior of chromosomes. This book continues to fulfill that need, and is strengthened by the complete revision of material on the molecular genetics of chromosomes and chromosomal defects.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 528 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Intuitionistic logic is presented here as part of familiar classical logic which allows mechanical extraction of programs from proofs. to make the material more accessible, basic techniques are presented first for propositional logic; Part II contains extensions to predicate logic. This material provides an introduction and a safe background for reading research literature in logic and computer science as well as advanced monographs. Readers are assumed to be familiar with basic notions of first order logic. One device for making this book short was inventing new proofs of several theorems. The presentation is based on natural deduction. The topics include programming interpretation of intuitionistic logic by simply typed lambda-calculus (Curry-Howard isomorphism), negative translation of classical into intuitionistic logic, normalization of natural deductions, applications to category theory, Kripke models, algebraic and topological semantics, proof-search methods, interpolation theorem. The text developed from materal for several courses taught at Stanford University in 1992-1999. 144 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Contemporary Issues in Accounting Regulation looks at accounting regulation in a different way. The opening chapters explore the tension between the power of the state and the forces of the market, and other aspects of the political dimension to accounting regulation. The book also examines the process of setting accounting standards, highlighting the crucial role of standard setters in assessing the level of public support for an issue in the face of opposing positions taken by powerful interest groups. In addition, the book provides an introduction to the theoretical framework of accounting regulation, looking at choices between controversial accounting methods and at markets that are characterized by asymmetry of information and beliefs. The final chapters of the book are concerned with creative accounting, deregulation of financial reporting by smaller companies, and the link between price regulation and accounting policy choices.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 236 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This 121st IMA volume, entitled MATHEMATICAL MODELS FOR BIOLOGICAL PATTERN FORMATION is the first of a new series called FRONTIERS IN APPLICATION OF MATHEMATICS. The FRONTIERS volumes are motivated by IMA pro grams and workshops, but are specially planned and written to provide an entree to and assessment of exciting new areas for the application of mathematical tools and analysis. The emphasis in FRONTIERS volumes is on surveys, exposition and outlook, to attract more mathematicians and other scientists to the study of these areas and to focus efforts on the most important issues, rather than papers on the most recent research results aimed at an audience of specialists. The present volume of peer-reviewed papers grew out of the 1998-99 IMA program on 'Mathematics in Biology,' in particular the Fall 1998 em phasis on 'Theoretical Problems in Developmental Biology and Immunol ogy.' During that period there were two workshops on Pattern Formation and Morphogenesis, organized by Professors Murray, Maini and Othmer. James Murray was one of the principal organizers for the entire year pro gram. I am very grateful to James Murray for providing an introduction, and to Philip Maini and Hans Othmer for their excellent work in planning and preparing this first FRONTIERS volume. I also take this opportunity to thank the National Science Foundation, whose financial support of the IMA made the Mathematics in Biology pro gram possible.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 340 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Insects associated with raw grain and processed food cause qualitative and quantitative losses. Preventing these losses caused by stored-product insects is essential from the farmer's field to the consumer's table. While traditional pesticides play a significant role in stored-product integrated pest management (IPM), there has recently been, and will continue to be, a greater emphasis on alternative approaches. Alternatives to Pesticides in Stored-Product IPM details the most promising methods, ranging from extreme temperatures to the controversial radiation, and from insect-resistant packaging to pathogens. This collection is essential for anyone in academia, industry, or government interested in pest ecology or food or grain science.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 460 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Sex Hormone Replacement Therapy addresses important issues in contemporary endocrinology. Its major emphasis is on the consequences of the menopause and on androgen deficiency in the absence of overt disease of the hypothalamus and/or pituitary in men. The use of hormone therapy for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in post-menopausal women has become an area of major debate, and the pros and cons are examined in detail. Secondary prevention also remains controversial and is addressed in this volume.An issue of particular concern is the treatment of estrogen deficiency symptoms in women with the diagnosis of breast cancer. Whether older men with some androgen deficiency symptoms and equivocally low plasma testosterone concentrations should be treated with androgens is also a matter of great debate, as is the efficacy and safety of plant estrogens in the treatment of menopause-related complaints.Sex Hormone Replacement Therapy will be of interest to students and non-specialists, as well as a wide range of medical practitioners including endocrinologists, gynecologists, rheumatologists and cardiologists.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 156 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book presents an updated selection of the most representative contributions to the 2nd and 3rd IEEE Workshops on Signal Propagation on Interconnects (SPI) which were held in Travemtinde (Baltic See Side), Germany, May 13-15, 1998, and in Titisee-Neustadt (Black Forest), Germany, May 19-21, 1999. This publication addresses the need of developers and researchers in the field of VLSI chip and package design. It offers a survey of current problems regarding the influence of interconnect effects on the electrical performance of electronic circuits and suggests innovative solutions. In this sense the present book represents a continua tion and a supplement to the first book 'Signal Propagation on Interconnects', Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998. The papers in this book cover a wide area of research directions: Beneath the des cription of general trends they deal with the solution of signal integrity problems, the modeling of interconnects, parameter extraction using calculations and measurements and last but not least actual problems in the field of optical interconnects.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 248 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -People are facing more and more NP-complete or NP-hard problems of a combinatorial nature and of a continuous nature in economic, military and management practice. There are two ways in which one can enhance the efficiency of searching for the solutions of these problems. The first is to improve the speed and memory capacity of hardware. We all have witnessed the computer industry's amazing achievements with hardware and software developments over the last twenty years. On one hand many computers, bought only a few years ago, are being sent to elementary schools for children to learn the ABC's of computing. On the other hand, with economic, scientific and military developments, it seems that the increase of intricacy and the size of newly arising problems have no end. We all realize then that the second way, to design good algorithms, will definitely compensate for the hardware limitations in the case of complicated problems. It is the collective and parallel computation property of artificial neural net works that has activated the enthusiasm of researchers in the field of computer science and applied mathematics. It is hard to say that artificial neural networks are solvers of the above-mentioned dilemma, but at least they throw some new light on the difficulties we face. We not only anticipate that there will be neural computers with intelligence but we also believe that the research results of artificial neural networks might lead to new algorithms on von Neumann's computers.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 388 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -'I have been using OmniMark for a decade to solve many different kinds of information management problems. When OmniMark Technologies Corporation added features to their excellent language that allowed server functionality and database access, OmniMark became an even better, more powerful platform for data processing. When they made it free, it made me wonder why anyone is still using Perl.I have used OmniMark as a very stable middle-tier programming language that is lightning fast, scaleable, and really fun to use. The language has a certain elegance that, once you learn how to `think OmniMark', you never want to even consider the alternatives. The native hierarchical architecture of the language, plus its luxuriously rich pattern matching syntax and support for structured information using XML and SGML parsing, make OmniMark a real joy.'This book covers the core language, plus practical examples for common Internet programming applications. OmniMark is such a powerful program that I can't think of any Internet programming problem that can't be solved with OmniMark. This book makes that clear in real, understandable terms.'Brian Travis, is the author of OmniMark At Work Volume 1: Getting Started and XML and SOAP Programming for Biz-Talk® Servers'OmniMark has been the secret weapon of markup language programmers since the earliest days of SGML. Its new XML support should bring it to a far wider audience.'Charles F. Goldfarb, is the inventor of SGML and author of The XML Handbook.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 416 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Intelligent Multimedia Multi-Agent Systems focuses on building intelligent successful systems. The book adopts a human-centered approach and considers various pragmatic issues and problems in areas like intelligent systems, software engineering, multimedia databases, electronic commerce, data mining, enterprise modeling and human-computer interaction for developing a human-centered virtual machine.The authors describe an ontology of the human-centered virtual machine which includes four components: activity-centered analysis component, problem solving adapter component, transformation agent component, and multimedia based interpretation component. These four components capture the external and internal planes of the system development spectrum. They integrate the physical, social and organizational reality on the external plane with stakeholder goals, tasks and incentives, and organization culture on the internal plane.The human-centered virtual machine and its four components are used for developing intelligent multimedia multi-agent systems in areas like medical decision support and health informatics, medical image retrieval, e-commerce, face detection and annotation, internet games and sales recruitment. The applications in these areas help to expound various aspects of the human-centered virtual machine including, human-centered domain modeling, distributed intelligence and communication, perceptual and cognitive task modeling, component based software development, and multimedia based data modeling. Further, the applications described in the book employ various intelligent technologies like neural networks, fuzzy logic and knowledge based systems, software engineering artifacts like agents and objects, internet technologies like XML and multimedia artifacts like image, audio, video and text.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 364 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Systems with sub-processes evolving on many different time scales are ubiquitous in applications: chemical reactions, electro-optical and neuro-biological systems, to name just a few. This volume contains papers that expose the state of the art in mathematical techniques for analyzing such systems. Recently developed geometric ideas are highlighted in this work that includes a theory of relaxation-oscillation phenomena in higher dimensional phase spaces. Subtle exponentially small effects result from singular perturbations implicit in certain multiple time scale systems. Their role in the slow motion of fronts, bifurcations, and jumping between invariant tori are all explored here. Neurobiology has played a particularly stimulating role in the development of these techniques and one paper is directed specifically at applying geometric singular perturbation theory to reveal the synchrony in networks of neural oscillators.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 292 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Introduction to Nutrition and Health Research aims to fill a critical gap in dietetics, nutrition and health education literature by providing a comprehensive guide to conducting research and understanding the research of others. Using actual articles, this book teaches how researchers identified problems; how they framed those problems; and how they reported, interpreted and implemented their findings. Step by step, the chapters cover an overview of the process, statistical and measurement concepts, types of research (including experimental, quasi-experimental, descriptive, and qualitative research), how to present results and computer techniques for data analysis. While this book is primarily aimed at masters and doctoral level students and beginning researchers, it will also have strong appeal for teachers, technicians and counselors.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 388 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - These days, the nature of services and the volume of demand in the telecommu nication industry is changing radically, with the replacement of analog transmis sion and traditional copper cables by digital technology and fiber optic transmis sion equipment. Moreover, we see an increasing competition among providers of telecommunication services, and the development of a broad range of new services for users, combining voice, data, graphics and video. Telecommunication network planning has thus become an important problem area for developing and applying optimization models. Telephone companies have initiated extensive modeling and planning efforts to expand and upgrade their transmission facilities, which are, for most national telecommunication networks, divided in three main levels (see Balakrishnan et al. [5]), namely, l. the long-distance or backbone network that typically connects city pairs through gateway nodes; 2. the inter-office or switching center network within each city, that interconnects switching centers in different subdivisions (clusters of customers) and provides access to the gateway(s) node(s); 1 2 DESIGN OF SURVNABLE NETWORKS WITH BOUNDED RINGS 3. the local access network that connects individual subscribers belonging to a cluster to the corresponding switching center. These three levels differ in several ways including their design criteria. Ideally, the design of a telecommunication network should simultaneously account for these three levels. However, to simplify the planning task, the overall planning problem is decomposed by considering each level separately.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The fast progress in computer networks and their wide availability complemented with on one hand the 'explosion' of the mobile computing and on the other hand the trends in the direction of ubiquitous computing, act as powerful enablers for new forms of highly dynamic collaborative organizations and emergence of new business practices. The first efforts in virtual enterprises (VE) were strongly constrained by the need to design and develop horizontal infrastructures aimed at supporting the basic collaboration needs of consortia of enterprises. Even pilot projects that were focused on specific business domains were forced to first develop some basic infrastructures before being able to develop their specific business models. Nowadays, although there is still a need to consolidate and standardize the horizontal infrastructures, the focus is more and more directed to the development of new vertical business models and the corresponding support tools. At the same time, in the earlier R&D projects, the attention was almost exclusively devoted to the operation phase of the VE life cycle, while now there are more activities addressing the creation phase, developing mechanisms to support the rapid formation of new virtual organizations for new business opportunities. In order to complete the life cycle, there is a need to also invest on support for VE dissolution.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 550 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Productivity, Technology and Economic Growth presents a selection of recent research advances on long term economic growth. While the contributions stem from both economic history, macro- and microeconomics and the economics of innovation, all papers depart from a common viewpoint: the key factor behind long term growth is productivity, and the latter is primarily driven by technological change. Most contributions show implicitly or explicitly that technological change is at least partly dependent on growth itself. Furthermore, technology appears to interact strongly with investment in physical and human capital as well as with changes in historical, political and institutional settings.Together these papers are an up-to-date account of the remarkable convergence in theoretical and empirical work on productivity and growth over the past decades. The first part deals with the characteristics of growth regimes over longer periods, ranging from 20 years to two centuries. The next four chapters study the determinants of productivity growth and, in some cases, productivity slowdown during the last quarter of the twentieth century. The final five chapters focus on the role of technology and innovation as the key determinants of growth. Productivity, Technology and Economic Growth is, therefore, a welcome collection for academic scholars and graduate students in economics, history and related social sciences as well as for policy makers.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 424 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The first, second, and third editions of this book seem to occur at ten year intervals. The intent is to keep the book up-to-date. Many-body theory is a field which continually evolves in time. Journals only publish new results, conferences only invite speakers to report new phenomena, and agencies only fund scientists to do new physics. Today's physics is old hat by tomorrow. Students want to learn new material, and textbooks must be modified to keep up with the times. The early chapters in this book teach the techniques of many-body theory. They are largely unchanged in format. The later chapters apply the techniques to specific problems. The third edition increases the number of applications. New sections have been added, while old sections have been modified to include recent applications. The previous editions were set in type using pre-computer technology. No computer file existed of the prior editions. The publisher scanned the second edition and gave me a disk with the contents. This scan recorded the words accurately and scrambled the equations into unintelligible form. So I retyped the equations using LaTeX. Although tedious, it allowed me to correct the infinite numbers of typographical errors in the previous edition. The earlier typesetting methods did not permit such corrections. The entire book was edited sentence-by sentence. Most old sections of the book were shortened by editing sentences and paragraphs.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 798 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Integrating Graphics and Vision for Object Recognition serves as a reference for electrical engineers and computer scientists researching computer vision or computer graphics. Computer graphics and computer vision can be viewed as different sides of the same coin. In graphics, algorithms are given knowledge about the world in the form of models, cameras, lighting, etc., and infer (or render) an image of a scene. In vision, the process is the exact opposite: algorithms are presented with an image, and infer (or interpret) the configuration of the world. This work focuses on using computer graphics to interpret camera images: using iterative rendering to predict what should be visible by the camera and then testing and refining that hypothesis. Features of the book include: Many illustrations to supplement the text; A novel approach to the integration of graphics and vision; Genetic algorithms for vision; Innovations in closed loop object recognition. Integrating Graphics and Vision for Object Recognition will be of interest to research scientists and practitioners working in fields related to the topic. It may also be used as an advanced-level graduate text.