Integral closure : Rees algebras, multiplicities, algorithms
Integral Closure gives an account of theoretical and algorithmic developments on the integral closure of algebraic structures. These are shared concerns in commutative algebra, algebraic geometry, number theory and the computational aspects of these fields. The overall goal is to determine and analyze the equations of the assemblages of the set of solutions that arise under various processes and algorithms. It gives a comprehensive treatment of Rees algebras and multiplicity theory - while pointing to applications in many other problem areas. Its main goal is to provide complexity estimates by tracking numerically invariants of the structures that may occur.
Integral bridges : a fundamental approach to the time–temperature loading problem
In recent years, integral bridges have become increasingly popular in the UK. The Highways Agency standard now requires, where possible, that all new bridges with a length of less than sixty metres should be of integral form. In addition, it has been found that, due especially to the problems and costs associated with failed expansion joints, integral bridges are not only cost effective but also have a longer lifespan. Integral Bridges was commissioned by the Highways Agency to produce guidance for bridge designers by addressing the thermally induced soil/structure interaction problem created by environmental changes of temperature and the associated cyclical displacements imposed on the granular backfill to the bridge abutments. It develops a better theoretical understanding of the cyclic performance, in particular the strain racheting in the backfill soil when in contact with a stiff structure. It also identifies the governing soil parameters and examines their influence in the interaction problem, develops numerical modelling procedures to predict interactive soil behaviour, and identifies and quantifies the controlling features of bridge structures relevant to the interaction problem.
Integrable Hamiltonian Hierarchies : Spectral and Geometric Methods
This book presents a detailed derivation of the spectral properties of the Recursion Operators allowing one to derive all the fundamental properties of the soliton equations and to study their Hamiltonian hierarchies. Thus it is demonstrated that the inverse scattering method for solving soliton equations is a nonlinear generalization of the Fourier transform. The book brings together the spectral and the geometric approaches and as such will be useful to a wide readership: from researchers in the field of nonlinear completely integrable evolution equations to graduate and post-graduate students.
Insurance intermediation : An economic analysis of the information services market
Insurance intermediaries can help consumers to economize on information and transaction costs in insurance markets. However, competing intermediaries provide heterogeneous information services, which are difficult to assess by incompletely informed consumers. Conduct and performance in the market for insurance information services are analyzed by applying search theoretical and industrial organization approaches. Based on a sample of 927 insurance intermediaries, the factors that affect the quality of the information services provided by them are studied empirically. The results obtained support the main hypotheses derived from industrial organization theories as to the poor working of quality competition under incomplete and asymmetric information on the side of consumers.
Instructional Scaffolding in STEM Education : Strategies and Efficacy Evidence
This book uses meta-analysis to synthesize research on scaffolding and scaffolding-related interventions in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. Specifically, the volume examines the extent to which study quality, assessment type, and scaffolding characteristics (strategy, intended outcome, fading schedule, scaffolding intervention, and paired intervention) influence cognitive student outcomes. It includes detailed descriptions of the theoretical foundations of scaffolding, scaffolding strategies that have been proposed to meet different intended learning outcomes in STEM, and associated efficacy information. Furthermore, the book describes assessment strategies and study designs which can be used to evaluate the influence of scaffolding, and suggests new fields in which scaffolding strategies that have proven efficacious may be used.
Institutions, Sustainability, and Natural Resources : Institutions for Sustainable Forest Management
A new economic theory, rather than a new public policy based on old theory, is needed to guide humanity toward sustainability. Institutions are a critical dimension of sustainability and sustainable forest management, and economic analysis of institutional dimension requires an inclusionist rather than an exclusionist approach. This book provides a systematic critique of neoclassical economic approaches and their limitations with respect to sustainability. Leading institutional economists discuss theoretical perspectives about appropriate institutions for sustainable forest management, markets for environmental services, deforestation and specialization, and some country experiences about Kyoto Protocol, international trade, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable forest management in general. The book includes the ideas from old as well as new institutional economics and discusses the main features of Post-Newtonian economics.This book follows a companion book, Economics, Sustainability, and Natural Resources: Economics of Sustainable Forest Management, volume 1 of the series.
Institution-independent Model Theory
A model theory that is independent of any concrete logical system allows a general handling of a large variety of logics. This generality can be achieved by applying the theory of institutions that provides a precise mathematical formulation for the intuitive concept of a logical system. Especially in computer science, where the development of a huge number of specification logics is observable, institution-independent model theory simplifies and sometimes even enables a concise model-theoretic analysis of the system. Besides incorporating important methods and concepts from conventional model theory, the proposed top-down methodology allows for a structurally clean understanding of model-theoretic phenomena. As a consequence, results from conventional concrete model theory can be understood more easily, and sometimes even new results are obtained.
Insects and Ecosystem Function
In the past two decades, an increasing number of ecologists have started to investigate the importance of biodiversity for ecological processes such as energy flow and nutrient cycling, often referred to as 'ecosystem functioning'. Insects are a dominant component of biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems and play a key role in mediating the relationship between plants and ecosystem processes. This volume is the first to summarize their effects on ecosystem functioning, focusing mainly, but not exclusively, on herbivorous insects. Renowned authors with extensive experience in the field of plant-insect interactions, contribute to the volume using examples from their own work. In addition to providing concise reviews of the field, this volume discusses in detail the advantages and disadvantages of various techniques of manipulating insect herbivory. Thus, the text provides both a theoretical basis as well as practical advice for future manipulative studies of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning.
Innovative Internet Community Systems ; Vol. 3473 ; 4th International Workshop, IICS 2004, Guadalajara, Mexico, June 21-23, 2004. Revised Papers
This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed postproceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Innovative Internet Community Systems, IICS 2004, held in Guadalajara, Mexico, in June 2004. The 25 revised full papers presented together with 2 invited papers have been carefully reviewed. They focus mainly on system-oriented problems, text processing, and theoretical foundations of distributed and Internet systems. They also deal with speed and quality-of-service problems of Internet protocols, aspects of cooperation and collaboration in Internet systems, as well as agent and text-processing-based methods. In addition, 9 papers stem from two mini-workshops, one on computational epidemiology and the other on optimization of urban traffic systems.
Innovations in Machine Learning : Theory and Applications
Machine learning is currently one of the most rapidly growing areas of research in computer science. In compiling this volume we have brought together contributions from some of the most prestigious researchers in this field. This book covers the three main learning systems; symbolic learning, neural networks and genetic algorithms as well as providing a tutorial on learning casual influences. Each of the nine chapters is self-contained. Both theoreticians and application scientists/engineers in the broad area of artificial intelligence will find this volume valuable. It also provides a useful sourcebook for Postgraduate since it shows the direction of current research.
Innovations in landscape architecture
The chapters explore digital technology, design processes and theoretical queries that shape the contemporary practice of landscape architecture. Topics covered include: Digital design Fabrication and prototyping Emerging technology Visualization of data System theory
Innovations in Applied Artificial Intelligence ; 18th International Conference on Industrial and Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems, IEA/AIE 2005, Bari, Italy, June 22-24, 2005, Proceedings
The contributions oriented to the technological aspects of AI and the quality of the papers are witness to a research activity clearly aimed at consolidating the theoretical results that have already been achieved. The c- ference program also included two invited lectures, by Katharina Morik and Roberto Pieraccini. Many people contributed in different ways to the success of the conference and to this volume. The authors who continue to show their enthusiastic interest in applied intelligence research are a very important part of our success. We highly appreciate the contribution of the members of the Program Committee, as well as others who reviewed all the submitted papers with eficiency and dedication.
Innovation, Industrial Dynamics and Structural Transformation : Schumpeterian Legacies
This book provides an account of work in the Schumpeterian and evolutionary tradition of industrial dynamics and the evolution of industries. It is shown that over time industries evolve and change their structure. In this dynamic process change is affected and sometimes constraint by many factors: knowledge and technologies, the capabilities and incentives of actors, new products and processes, and institutions. All these elements and their relations drive innovative activities and affect economic performance in an industry. Investigations into these complex phenomena show a deep interdependence between empirical work delivering a rich account of regularities and stylized facts in the structure of industries and their change, and theoretical analyses ranging from appreciate theorizing to formal modeling.
Innovation Policy in a Knowledge-Based Economy : Theory and Practice
Why Analyze Innovation Policies From a Knowledge- Based Perspective? It is broadly accepted that we have moved (or are moving) to a knowled- based economy, characterized at least by two main features: that knowl edge is a major factor in economic growth, and innovation processes are systemic by nature. It is not surprising that this change in the economic paradigm requires new analytical foundations for innovation policies. One of the purposes of this book is to make suggestions as to what they should include. Underpinning all the chapters in this book is a conviction of the impor tance of dynamic and systemic approaches to innovation policy. Nelson and Arrow saw innovation and the creation of new knowl edge as the emergence and the diffusion of new information, characterized essentially as a public good. The more recent theoretical literature regarded the rationale for innovation policies as being to provide solutions to "mar ket failures". Today, however, knowledge is seen as multidimensional (tacit vs. codified) and open to interpretation. Acknowledging that the creation, coordination and diffusion of knowledge are dynamic and cumu lative processes, and that innovation processes result from the coordination of distributed knowledge, renders the "market failure" view of innovation policies obsolete. Innovation policies must be systemic and dynamic
Innovation and Firm Performance : An Empirical Investigation for German Firms
The process of firms’ growth – in terms of productivity or employment – is a major concern of policy makers. In this context, innovations are considered to play a crucial role in stimulating firms’ performance. This book investigates this general hypothesis by looking at three topics: 1. Does innovation lead to an increase in employment growth? 2. Does innovation boost labour productivity? 3. Does innovation in one period improve innovation performance in subsequent periods? Based on a comprehensive innovation panel dataset for German firms, this book presents detailed results for each question, in particular by separating the effects induced by new products from those induced by the introduction of new production technologies. From a theoretical point of view, amongst others, a new multi-product model has been developed to study employment effects.
Informed Traders as Liquidity Providers : Evidence from the German Equity Market
A high frequency transaction data set for the German equity market is the basis for Alexandra Hachmeister’s extensive empirical analysis. This includes a detailed market description of the German equity market, a new methodological approach for the identification of informed traders and finally the analysis of the individual liquidity providing and demanding behavior of the identified informed traders. Questioning the existing theoretical literature on liquidity provision in equity markets, she finds strong evidence for liquidity providing behavior of informed traders.
Information theory and machine learning
The recent successes of machine learning, especially regarding systems based on deep neural networks, have encouraged further research activities and raised a new set of challenges in understanding and designing complex machine learning algorithms. New applications require learning algorithms to be distributed, have transferable learning results, use computation resources efficiently, convergence quickly on online settings, have performance guarantees, satisfy fairness or privacy constraints, incorporate domain knowledge on model structures, etc. A new wave of developments in statistical learning theory and information theory has set out to address these challenges.
Information theoretic security ; 3rd International Conference, ICITS 2008, Calgary, Canada, August 10-13, 2008. Proceedings
This book constitutes the proceedings of the Third International Conference on Information Theoretic Security, held in Calgary, Canada, in August 2008.The 14 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 43 submissions. There were nine invited speeches to the conference. The topics covered are secure and reliable communication; quantum information and communication; networks and devices; multiparty computation; information hiding and tracing; coding theory and security; quantum computation; foundation; and encryption.
Information Technology in Languages for Specific Purposes : Issues and Prospects
The purpose of this volume is to offer an overview of an ample variety of applications of IT in the field of LSP. It is addressed to a wide audience that includes LSP teachers and researchers, although the contents may also be relevant to applied linguists working in other fields. This book contains research studies as well as educational experiences and proposals, presented from different perspectives and backgrounds (both geographical and cultural), all of which are theoretically grounded and with a clear and sound rationale. Thus, the reader will find a variety of educational projects and research studies situated in specific educational contexts and in particular geographical locations.
Information Retrieval Technology ; Vol. 3689 ; 2nd Asia information retrieval symposium, AIRS 2005, Jeju Island, Korea, October 13-15, 2005, Proceedings
Asia Information Retrieval Symposium (AIRS) was established in 2004 by the Asian information retrieval community after the successful series of Information Retrieval with Asian Languages (IRAL) workshops held in six different locations in Asia, starting from 1996. The AIRS symposium aims to bring together international researchers and developers to exchange new ideas and the latest results in the field of information retrieval (IR). The scope of the symposium covers applications, systems, technologies and theoretical aspects of information retrieval in text, audio, image, video and multi-media data. We are very pleased to report that we saw a sharp and steady increase in the number of submissions and their qualities, compared with previous IRAL workshop series. We received 136 submissions from all over the world including Asia, North America, Europe, Australia, and even Africa, from which 32 papers (23%) were presented in oral sessions and 36 papers in poster sessions (26%). We also held a special session called “Digital Photo Albuming,” where 4 oral papers and 3 posters were presented. It was a great challenge and hard work for the program committee to select the best among the excellent papers. The high acceptance rates witness the success and stability of the AIRS series. All the papers and posters are included in this LNCS (Lecture Notes in Computer Science) proceedings volume, which is S- indexed. The technical program included two keynote talks by Prof. Walter Bender and Prof.



















