Managing Care : A Shared Responsibility
The concept of genuine responsibility, recognizing the complexity of health care and the need for stakeholder-specific interpretations of responsibility, proposes as the underlying premise of responsibility (at least in regard to health care) the social agreement that distributive choices should be made on the basis of the premise of deliberate reciprocity. When all parties share the same foundation on which the notion of responsibility is built the resulting trust and cooperation among stakeholders enables them to find morally appropriate solutions in reforming health care.This book that is at the same time provocative and important. It proposes to change the way we think about deploying healthcare resources. It will accomplish its goal for readers who are willing to be challenged at a basic level. Intellectually sound and a very good read too.
Machine Learning for Cyber Agents : Attack and Defence
The cyber world has been both enhanced and endangered by AI. On the one hand, the performance of many existing security services has been improved, and new tools created. On the other, it entails new cyber threats both through evolved attacking capacities and through its own imperfections and vulnerabilities. Moreover, quantum computers are further pushing the boundaries of what is possible, by making machine learning cyber agents faster and smarter.
Machine Ethics : From Machine Morals to the Machinery of Morality
Offers the first systematic guide to machine ethics, bridging between computer science, social sciences and philosophy. Based on a dialogue between an AI scientist and a novelist philosopher, the book discusses important findings on which moral values machines can be taught and how. In turn, it investigates what kind of artificial intelligence (AI) people do actually want.
Lippincott illustrated reviews : Pharmacology
Presents up-to-date drug information in an accessible format ideal for a fast, effective refresher. Part of the popular Lippincott® Illustrated Reviews series, this concise resource features clear, effective writing and hundreds of illustrations that break down complex information for rapid review. Sequential images present mechanisms of action and focus on showing rather than telling students how drugs work, and review questions with answers deliver powerful, practical exam preparation. Updated drug information reflects the most current, clinically relevant pharmacology material. Approachable outline format distills complex information for easier review. High-quality illustrations reinforce understanding in vibrant detail. Enhanced review questions with answers test students' understanding and identify areas for further study.
Life as We Know It
Life As we Know It ["LAKI"] covers several aspects of Life, ranging from the prebiotic level, origin of life, evolution of prokaryotes to eukaryotes and finally to various affairs of human beings. Although it is hard to define Life, one can, however, characterize it and describe its features. Topics treated are categories of bacteria, algae and fungi, conscience, philosophy, theology, aesthetics, appearance of sport and life destiny, life after clinical death, and thoughts of the world to come ("Olam Haba"). The various chapters have been written so that they are accessible to all - from the avid lay reader to the specialist – and make available multidisciplinary sources of information about Life. This volume will interest open minded scholars, students at all levels of general sciences, natural and Life science, researchers of philosophy, theology, history of Life, astrobiology, and those who wish to widen their knowledge about "who are we in the universe".
Learning and Adaption in Multi-Agent Systems ; 1st International Workshop, LAMAS 2005, Utrecht, The Netherlands, July 25, 2005, Revised Selected Papers
Contains selected and revised papers of the International Workshop on Lea- ing and Adaptation in Multi-Agent Systems (LAMAS 2005), held at the AAMAS 2005 Conference in Utrecht, The Netherlands, July 26. An important aspect in multi-agent systems (MASs) is that the environment evolves over time, not only due to external environmental changes but also due to agent int- actions. For this reason it is important that an agent can learn, based on experience, and adapt its knowledge to make rational decisions and act in this changing environment autonomously. Machine learning techniques for single-agent frameworks are well established. Agents operate in uncertain environments and must be able to learn and act - tonomously. This task is, however, more complex when the agent interacts with other agents that have potentially different capabilities and goals. The single-agent case is structurally different from the multi-agent case due to the added dimension of dynamic interactions between the adaptive agents. Multi-agent learning, i.e., the ability of the agents to learn how to cooperate and compete, becomes crucial in many domains. Autonomous agents and multi-agent systems (AAMAS) is an emerging multi-disciplinary area encompassing computer science, software engineering, biology, as well as cognitive and social sciences. A t- oretical framework, in which rationality of learning and interacting agents can be - derstood, is still under development in MASs, although there have been promising ?
Laser Resonators and Beam Propagation : Fundamentals, Advanced Concepts, Applications
Optical Resonators provides a detailed discussion of the properties of optical resonators for lasers from basic theory to recent research. In addition to describing the fundamental theories of resonators such as geometrical optics, diffraction, and polarisation the characteristics of all important resonator schemes and their calculation are presented. Experimental examples, practical problems and a collection of measurement techniques support the comprehensive treatment of the subject. Optical Resonators is the only book currently available that provides a comprehensive overview of the the subject. Combined with the structure of the text and the autonomous nature of the chapters this work will be as suitable for those new to the field as it will be invaluable to specialists conducting research. This second edition has been enlarged by new sections on Q-switching and resonators with internal phase/amplitude control. In addition, the whole book has been brought up-to-date.
Knowledge Representation Techniques : A Rough Set Approach
The basis for the material in this book centers around a long term research project with autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle systems. One of the main research topics in the project is knowledge representation and reasoning. The focus of the research has been on the development of tractable combinations of approximate and nonmonotonic reasoning systems. The techniques developed are based on intuitions from rough set theory. Efforts have been made to take theory into practice by instantiating research results in the context of traditional relational database or deductive database systems.
Katzung & Trevor's pharmacology : Examination & board review
Excellent Q & A and rationales for course exams and USMLE Step 1. With 1,000+ board-style questions/answers and fully up-to-date content, this is the most popular review in pharmacology. Organized to reflect the syllabi in pharmacology courses, Katzung & Trevor's Pharmacology Exam and Board Review covers all current drugs and retrovirals, immunologic agents, and chemotherapies. Each chapter begins with 20 pages of informative text, followed by questions and answers, and includes concise discussions of the concepts underlying basic principles or specific drug groups. Edited by the world leading figures in pharmacology and medicine, this high-yield text focuses on basic principles, autonomic drugs, cardiovascular-renal drugs, and drugs with actions on smooth muscle, central nervous system drugs, and drugs used to treat chemotherapeutic drugs, and toxicology.
Kantianism for animals : A radical kantian animal ethic
The book gives readers in animal ethics an accessible introduction to Kant’s views on our duties to others, and his view that we have only ‘indirect’ duties regarding animals. It then investigates how one would have to depart from Kant in order to recognise that animals matter morally for their own sake. The result is a deliberately amended version of Kantianism which nevertheless remains faithful to central aspects of Kant’s thought. The book’s final part illustrates the framework’s use in applied contexts, addressing the issues of using animals as mere means, the ethics of veganism and vegetarianism, and environmental protection.
Issues in Multi-Agent Systems : The AgentCities.ES Experience
The purpose of this book is to present current status of this technology by looking at its application in different domains, such as electronic markets, e-tourism, ambience intelligence, and complex system analysis.It starts by discussing software engineering issues for the development of multi-agent systems, how much it costs to build a multi-agent system, and which methods and tools are currently available. Next chapters present some of the most relevant aspects that are considered for the development of multi-agent systems.
Competence Assessment in Dementia
The increasing proportion of demented elderly in populations, debates over patient's rights and autonomy, and the growing body of knowledge on dementia has inspired the European Dementia Consensus Network to regard competence assessment in dementia as an important topic of debate.
Competence and Vulnerability in Biomedical Research
In this book, the author develops a novel justificatory framework for making judgments of decisional competence to consent to biomedical research with reference to five groups of cognitively vulnerable individuals - older children and adolescents, adults with intellectual disabilities, adults with depression, adults with schizophrenia and adults with dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
Climbing and Walking Robots ; Proceedings of the 7th International Conference CLAWAR 2004
This book contains the proceedings of the 7th Climbing and Walking Robots 2004 (CLAWAR 2004) Conference offering the international scientific community one of the most excellent forums for academics, researchers and industrialists interested in this motivating area of climbing and walking robots. It provides a wide forum of original state-of-the-art contributions from various industrial and new/emerging research fields, presenting a full picture of climbing and walking robots.
Challenges for next generation network operations and service management : 11th Asia-Pacific network operations and management symposium, APNOMS 2008, Beijing, China, October 22-24, 2008. Proceedings
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 11th Asia-Pacific Network Operations and Management Symposium, APNOMS 2008, held in Beijing, China, in October 2008.
Certification and security in inter-organizational E-services ; IFIP 18th World Computer Congress, August 22-27, 2004, Toulouse, France
This collection of papers offers real-life application experiences, research results and methodological proposals of direct interest to systems experts and users in governmental, industrial and academic communities. This book also documents several important developments. The uptake of distributed computational infrastructure oriented to service provision, like Web-Services and Grid, is making C&S even more important. E-services based on legacy systems managed by autonomous and independent organizations, a common situation in the public administration sector, increase overall complexity. The increased presence and use of e-service IT-infrastructures depends on the critical ability required for all security issues, from the basic (availability, authentication, integrity, confidentiality) to the more complex (e.g. authorization, non-repudiation).
Cell-Cell Channels
The biological sciences are dominated by the idea that cells are the functionally autonomous, physically separated, discrete units of life. This concept was propounded in the 19th century by discoveries of the cellular structuring of both plants and animals. Moreover, the ap parent autonomy of unicellular eukaryotes, as well as the cellular basis of the mammalian brain (an organ whose anatomy for a long while defied attempts to validate the idea of the cellular nature of its neurons), seemed to provide the final conclusive evidence for the completeness of *cell theory', a theory which has persisted in an almost dogmatic form up to the present day. However, it is very obvious that there are numerous observations which indicate that it is not the cells which serve as the basic units of biological life but that this property falls to some other, subcellular assemblage. To deal with this intricate problem concerning the fundamental unit of living matter, we proposed the so-called Cell Body concept which, in fact, devel ops an exceedingly original idea proposed by Julius Sachs at the end of the 19th century. In the case of eukaryotic cells, DNA-enriched nuclei are intimately associated with a microtubular cytoskeleton. In this configuration—as a Cell Body—these two items comprise the fundamental functional and struc tural unit of eukaryotic living matter. The Cell Body seems to be inherent to all cells in all organisms.
Building the judiciary : law, courts, and the politics of institutional development
Building the Judiciary uncovers the causes and consequences of judicial institution-building in the United States from the commencement of the new government in 1789 through the close of the twentieth century.Explaining why and how the federal judiciary became an independent, autonomous, and powerful political institution.
Building better interfaces for remote sutonomous systems : An introduction for systems engineers
This book provides foundational knowledge for designing autonomous, asynchronous systems and explains aspects of users relevant to designing for these systems, introduces principles for user-centered design, and prepares readers for more advanced and specific readings.
Brain and Heart Dynamics
Despite the increasing awareness that neural mechanisms are the primary cause of cardiac disease and its progression, therapy continues to focus on end-organ protection and does not approach the neural core of the problem. Growing public health problems such as heart failure are still treated with autonomic drugs that are 30-40 years old and simply act on cardiac receptors. However, it has now been shown that the progression of ischemic heart disease to heart failure is mainly due to abnormal central responses to incipient cardiac disease, with neural activation the primary cause rather than the consequence of cardiac remodeling.



















