الصفحة 11
الصفحة 11
Evolutionary Scheduling
Evolutionary scheduling is a vital research domain at the interface of two important sciences - artificial intelligence and operational research. Scheduling problems are generally complex, large scale, constrained, and multi-objective in nature, and classical operational research techniques are often inadequate at solving them effectively. With the advent of computation intelligence, there is renewed interest in solving scheduling problems using evolutionary computational techniques. These techniques, which include genetic algorithms, genetic programming, evolutionary strategies, memetic algorithms, particle swarm optimization, ant colony systems, etc, are derived from biologically inspired concepts and are well-suited to solve scheduling problems since they are highly scalable and flexible in terms of handling constraints and multiple objectives. This edited book gives an overview of many of the current developments in the large and growing field of evolutionary scheduling, and demonstrates the applicability of evolutionary computational techniques to solve scheduling problems, not only to small-scale test problems, but also fully-fledged real-world problems.
Evolution from Cellular to Social Scales
Evolution is a critical challenge for many areas of science, technology and development of society. The book reviews general evolutionary facts such as origin of life and evolution of the genome and clues to evolution through simple systems. Emerging areas of science such as "systems biology" and "bio-complexity" are founded on the idea that phenomena need to be understood in the context of highly interactive processes operating at different levels and on different scales. This is where physics meets complexity in nature, and where we must begin to learn about complexity if we are to understand it. Similarly, there is an increasingly urgent need to understand and predict the evolutionary behavior of highly interacting man-made systems, in areas such as communications and transport, which permeate the modern world. The same applies to the evolution of human networks such as social, political and financial systems, where technology has tended to vastly increase both the complexity and speed of interaction, which is sometimes effectively instantaneous.
Evaluating the Employment Effects of Job Creation Schemes in Germany
This book analyses the employment effects of job creation schemes for the participating individuals in Germany. Programmes provide subsidised jobs that are additional in nature and of value for society to hard-to-place individuals. International evidence on the effectiveness suggests that programmes should be targeted to the needs of the unemployed and should be offered early in the unemployment spell. Both questions are studied for job creation schemes in Germany. In the empirical analysis, propensity score matching methods extended to the dynamic setting are applied to administrative data of the Federal Employment Agency.
Evaluating competencies : Forensic assessments and instruments
As in its first edition, this book offers a conceptual model for understanding the nature of legal competencies. The model is interpreted to assist mental health professionals in designing and performing assessments for legal competencies defined in criminal and civil law, and to guide research that will improve the practice of evaluations for legal competencies. A special feature is the book's evaluative review of specialized forensic assessment instruments for each of several legal competencies. Three-fourths of the 37 instruments reviewed in the second edition are new and thus were not reviewed in the first edition.
European water law and hydropolitics : An inquiry into the resilience of transboundary water governance in the European Union
provides the first comprehensive assessment of the various issues faced by countries in the European Union, where progressing climate change and urbanization pose significant cooperative challenges in a large number of river basins. Conducting a thorough analysis of the intricate web of EU water governance, it reveals that the hydropolitical stability of the European Union is already at risk. Further, given the structural nature of the shortcomings in EU water policy—e.g. the rigidity of the EU’s founding treaties or the institutional complacency of the European Commission— argues that these risks are likely to turn into sources of prolonged conflict, unless EU decision-making bodies take steps to address the new hydrological realities early on.
E-Training Practices for Professional Organizations
E-Training Practices for Professional Organizations is an essential reference for anyone interested in the integration of e-business, e-work and e-learning processes. The book collects, for the first time, the proceedings from the 2003 IFIP eTrain Conference held in Pori, Finland. The text serves as a multi-disciplinary resource for information on the research, development and applications of all topics related to e-Learning. The first half of the book discusses theories, paradigms and their applications in academia and industry. The last half of the book examines learning environments, design issues and collaboration among the corporate, governmental and academic sectors. With academic and professional contributors, E-Training Practices for Professional Organizations reflects the multi-faceted and exciting nature of e-training studies. This volume presents the balanced view of past developments and current research necessary to truly reach the potential of this burgeoning field.
Ethnic Identity, Social Mobility and the Role of Soulmates
Based on a study among higher-educated adult children of lower-class Turkish and Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands, this open access book explores processes of identification among social climbers with ethnic minority backgrounds. Using both survey data and open interviews with these ‘minority climbers’, the study details the contextual and temporal nature of identification. The results illustrate how ethnicity is contextual but have tangible and inescapable effects at the same time. Also the findings call for a more reflexive use of terms like ethnic ingroup/outgroup and bonding/bridging. Overall, the book helps us understand the emergence of middle-class segments that articulate their minority identities and as such it will be of great interest to academics, policy makers and all those interested in processes of integration and/or diversity.
Estuaries
Aspects of the biogeochemistry of estuaries from a variety of environments, from the tropics to the Arctic, are discussed. In most cases the courses of these rivers have been altered by dams or diversions; the results of these changes on the nature of the estuary are also discussed, where such data is available. In the case of the Tasmanian rivers, the estuary of the Huon, a largely untouched river, is contrasted with that of the Derwent, a river heavily influenced by industry. The future state of all of these estuaries may be a sensitive indicator of shifts in global weather patterns.
Ester Boserup’s legacy on sustainability : Orientations for contemporary research
The contents are organized in three sections reflecting important focal points of Boserup’s own work: Long-Term Socio-Ecological Change; Agriculture, Land Use, and Development; and Gender, Population, and Economy. The first three chapters offer a comprehensive review of her political and scientific work. Section Two focuses on the applicability of Boserup’s reflections on land use, technology, and agriculture, incorporating case studies which illuminate and test Boserup’s hypotheses on land use intensification and soil degradation, the impact of population growth on land use, the agricultural transition, and the role of women in development. The case studies examine both long historical time series and present-day dynamics, and explore different levels of geographical scale, from the local to the regional and the global. Section Three emphasizes the key role of women and gender relations for agriculture and development.
Establishing medical reality : Essays in the metaphysics and epistemology of biomedical science
This volume approaches the philosophy of medicine from the broad naturalist perspective that holds that philosophy must be continuous with, constrained by, and relevant to empirical results of the natural and social sciences and that believes that the history, sociology, politics, and ethics of science provide relevant information for philosophical analysis. One traditional topic covered by several of the contributions is the nature of disease, but the approach is largely from the philosophy of science rather than traditional linguistic analysis. The complex interplay of epistemological and sociological factors in producing evidence in medicine is discussed by chapters on collective medical discussion making, experimental medicine, " genetic" diseases, mental illness, and race and gender categories. The upshot is a volume that ties medicine to contemporary issues in philosophy of science and metaphysics like no other.
Essentials of Chinese Materia medica and medical formulas : New century traditional Chinese medicine
Essentials of Chinese Materia Medica and Medical Formulas: New Century Traditional Chinese Medicine presents specific knowledge about the source, medicinal nature, action and application of more than 800 commonly-used Chinese materia medica, as well as the efficacy and application of more than 740 kinds of commonly-used Chinese medical formulas. Notably, all of the content is presented in table form, making the information easier to access, understand and apply. Each primary herbal medicine is introduced with color pictures, and each primary formula is presented with efficacy analysis pictures. The book provides readers with essential information on Chinese materia medica and formulas and how to use them accurately, including the most common Chinese materia medica used in clinics and in commonly used clinical formulas.
Environmental Security and Public Safety ; Problems and Needs in Conversion Policy and Research after 15 Years of Conversion in Central and Eastern Europe
Although the end of the Cold War has paved the way to a substantial demilitarisation and conversion, the leftovers of this process – such as former military installations, military training areas, and huge quantities of unserviceable ammunition and equipment – still pose a severe threat to the environment of both NATO and Partner countries.The rehabilitation of these areas for civilian uses is extremely costly and is generally in the short and medium term not possible. For this reason, the development of new methods for the estimation avoidance of risks should receive special priority. In the context of this ARW, the reconnaissance and appraisal of conversion areas with respect to costs, returns, and legal considerations were discussed. The decades-long use of some areas led to the heavy loading of contaminates. Every task of conversion has as its goal the elimination of dangers to humans and nature, and the return of areas to civil use, such that these areas can be used realise economic interests of the society.
Environmental History of the Rhine-Meuse Delta : An ecological story on evolving human–environmental relations coping with climate change and sea-level rise
This book presents the environmental history of the Delta of the lowland rivers Rhine and Meuse, an ecological story on evolving human–environmental relations coping with climate change and sea-level rise. It offers a combination of in-depth ecology and environmental history, dealing with exploitation of land and water, the use of everything nature provided, the development of fisheries and agriculture, changes in biodiversity of higher plants, fish, birds, mammals and invasive exotics. It is the first comprehensive book written in English on the integrated environmental history of the Delta, from prehistoric times up to the present day. It covers the l- acy of human intervention, the inescapable fate of reclaimed, nevertheless subs- ing and sinking polders, ‘bathtubs’ attacked by numerous floods, reclaimed in the Middle Ages and unwittingly exposed to the rising sea level and the increasing amplitude between high and low water in the rivers. The river channels, constricted and regulated between embankments, lost their flood plains, silted up, degraded and incised. Cultivation of raised bog deposits led to oxidation and compacting of peat and clay, resulting in progressive subsidence and flooding; arable land had to be changed into grassland and wetland. For millennia muscular strength and wind and water powers moulded the country into its basic form. From 1800 onwards, acceleration and scaling up by steam power and electricity, and exponential popu- tion growth, resulted in the erection of human structures ‘fixed forever’, and severe pressure on the environment.
Environmental Governance in Latin America
The multiple purposes of nature – livelihood for communities, revenues for states, commodities for companies, and biodiversity for conservationists – have turned environmental governance in Latin America into a highly contested arena. In such a resource-rich region, unequal power relations, conflicting priorities, and trade-offs among multiple goals have led to a myriad of contrasting initiatives that are reshaping social relations and rural territories. This edited collection addresses these tensions by unpacking environmental governance as a complex process of formulating and contesting values, procedures and practices shaping the access, control and use of natural resources. Contributors from various fields address the challenges, limitations, and possibilities for a more sustainable, equal, and fair development. In this book, environmental governance is seen as an overarching concept defining the dynamic and multi-layered repertoire of society-nature interactions, where images of nature and discourses on the use of natural resources are mediated by contextual processes at multiple scales.
Environmental Geotechnics
A guide to aid engineers in applying geotechnical principles, processes and techniques in a way that will not only reduce their environmental impact but should benefit the environment. The major construction-environment interface is geotechnical in nature. For engineers to be able to foresee environmental problems and modify construction projects, or derive novel approaches, to prevent negative impacts from their works, they need a thorough knowledge of their subject and a constant awareness of the pollution-output' of any construction operation.
Enhancing urban environment by environmental upgrading and restoration ; Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on enhancing urban environment : environmental upgrading of municipal pollution control facilities and restoration of urban waters, Rome, Italy from 6 - 9 November 2003.
As urban areas keep growing, water infrastructure ages, and the requirements on environmental protection become more rigorous, there is a continual need for upgrading water pollution control facilities and restoring degraded urban waters. Such issues are addressed in this book by focusing on five major topics: (a) Upgrading stormwater management facilities, (b) Retrofitting / upgrading combined sewer overflow (CSO) facilities, (c) Optimising/upgrading sewage treatment plant performance, (d) Urban stream restoration, and (e) Challenges in restoring urban environment. Each chapter contains some overview papers followed by research or case study papers. Besides presentations of new approaches and accomplishments in the field of upgrading and restoration, several papers provide analysis of vast needs in this field in several countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which either recently joined the European Union (EU) or are preparing for accession, and need to comply with the existing EU directives dealing with environmental protection. As such, this book will be of primary interest to researchers and university lecturers dealing with environmental upgrading and restoration, environmental planners from all levels of government, municipal engineers and politicians, and finally the private industry representatives (consultants, private utilities and environmental technology suppliers) searching for new business opportunities among the new or aspiring members of EU.
Energy Poverty : (Dis)Assembling Europe's Infrastructural Divide
Aims to consolidate and advance debates on European and global energy poverty by exploring the political and infrastructural drivers and implications of the condition across a variety of spatial scales. It highlights the need for a geographical conceptualization of the different ways in which household-level energy deprivation both influences and is contingent upon disparities occurring at a wider range of spatial scales. There is a strong focus on the relationships among energy transformation, institutional change and place-based factors in determining the nature and location of energy-related injustices. The book also explores how patterns and structures of energy poverty have changed over time, as evidenced by some of the common measures used to describe the condition. In part, this means investigating the makeup of energy poor demographics across various social and spatial cleavages. More broadly, it also argues that energy sector reconfigurations are both reflected in and shaped by various domains of social and political organization, especially in terms of creating poverty-relevant outcomes.
Endosomes
Endosomes are a heterogeneous population of endocytic vesicles and tubules that have captivated the interest of biologists for many years, partly due to their important cellular functions and partly due to their intriguing nature and dynamics. Endosomes represent a fascinating interconnected network of thousands of vesicles that transport various cargoes, mainly proteins and lipids, to distant cellular destinations. How endosomes function, what co-ordinates the molecular determinants at each step of their dynamic life cycle and what their biological and medical relevance is, are among the questions addressed in this book.
Emerging States and Economies : Their Origins, Drivers, and Challenges Ahead
This book asks why and how some of the developing countries have “emerged” under a set of similar global conditions, what led individual countries to choose the particular paths that led to their “emergence,” and what challenges confront them. If we are to understand the nature of major risks and uncertainties in the world, we must look squarely at the political and economic dynamics of emerging states. Their rapid economic development has changed the distribution of wealth and power in the world. Yet many of them have middle income status. To global governance issues, they tend to adopt approaches that differ from those of advanced industrialized democracies. At home, rapid economic growth and social changes put pressure on their institutions to change. This volume traces the historical trajectories of two major emerging states. It also analyzes cross-country data to find the general patterns of economic development and sociopolitical change in relation to globalization and to the middle income trap.
Emerging Conceptual, Ethical and Policy Issues in Bionanotechnology
This volume provides a critical overview of the nature of nanotechnology (and its applications in the biomedical sciences, i.e. bionanotechnology) and the philosophical and ethico-legal issues it raises.
