Double Fertilization : Embryo and Endosperm Development in Flowering Plants
Double Fertilization" provides a comprehensive overview of all aspects of this central event in the reproduction and development of flowering plants. Written by Val Raghavan, The Ohio State University, an acknowledged expert in plant developmental biology, the book vividly describes the molecular and cellular steps of the unique and complex fertilization process that culminates in the formation of embryo and endosperm, focusing on the latest results from the model plant Arabidopsis. The text is complemented by excellent illustrations, including 16 color plates.
DNA Computing Models
This book emphasizes computational methods to tackle central problems of DNA computing, such as controlling living cells, building patterns, and generating nanomachines.
Distribution and phenotype of proliferating cells in the Forebrain of adult macaque monkeys after transient global cerebral ischemia
The authors' results show that ischemia differentially activates endogenous neural precursors residing in diverse locations of the adult primate central nervous system. A limited endogenous potential for postischemic neuronal repair exists in neocortex and striatum, but not in the hippocampus proper of the adult macaque monkey brain. The presence of putative parenchymal progenitors and of sustained progenitors in germinative centers opens novel possibilities for precursor cell recruitment.
Digitalization and the Future of Financial Services : Innovation and Impact of Digital Finance
The aim of this book is to extend our understandings on how digitalization and the future of financial services can be helpful in different business circumstances in many cross-functional financial areas, such as financial markets, financial risk management, financial technologies, investment finance, etc. Thus, the book aims at addressing the relevance of digital finance for different players, highlighting differences in tools and processes as well as identifying innovative practices in financial digitalization.
Digital Restorative Dentistry : A Guide to Materials, Equipment, and Clinical Procedures
Offers up-to-date, readily understandable guidance on the materials and equipment employed in digital restorative dentistry and on the specific clinical procedures that may be performed using the new technologies. The key components of digital restorative dentistry – image acquisition, prosthetic/restorative design, and fabrication – are fully addressed. Readers will find helpful information on scanners, the software for prosthetic design, and the materials and technologies for prosthesis fabrication, including laser sintering, 3D printing, CAD/CAM, and laser ablation. The section on clinical procedures explains all aspects of the use of digital technologies in the treatment of patients requiring removable partial dentures, complete dentures, fixed partial prostheses, crowns, endodontics, and implant surgery and prosthodontics. The field of restorative and prosthetic dentistry is undergoing rapid transition as these new technologies come to play an increasingly central role in everyday dental practice. In bridging the knowledge gap that this technological revolution has created in the field of dentistry, the book will satisfy the needs of both dentists and dental students.
Diffusion in solids : Fundamentals, methods, materials, diffusion-controlled processes
This book first gives an account of the central aspects of diffusion in solids, for which the necessary background is a course in solid state physics. It then provides easy access to important information about diffuson in metals, alloys, semiconductors, ion-conducting materials, glasses and nanomaterials.
Dialogic Education and Technology : Expanding the Space of Learning
Dialogic Education and Technology is about using new technology to draw people into the kind of dialogues which take them beyond themselves into learning, thinking and creativity. The program of research reported in this book reveals key characteristics of learning dialogues and demonstrates ways in which computers and networks can deepen, enrich and expand such dialogues. A dialogic perspective is developed drawing upon recent work in communications theory, psychology, computer science and philosophy. The central argument of the book is that there is a convergence between this dialogic perspective in education and the affordances of new information and communications technology. A genuinely dialogic perspective is relatively new to the field of educational technology and there is a considerable amount of interest in this topic amongst researchers who wish to see what extra insights, if any, a dialogical approach can offer them.
Development in Turbulent Times: The Many Faces of Inequality Within Europe
This open access book explores the most recent trends in the EU in terms of development, progress, and performance.This book reflect upon the developmental challenges of the moment, such as sustainable development, reducing inequality, ensuring social cohesion, and driving the digital revolution. They particularly focus on the relation between the less-developed Eastern part of the EU and its more developed Western counterpart, and discuss the consequences of this development gap in detail. Lastly, the book presents a range of case studies from different areas of governance, such as economy and commerce, health services, education, migration and public opinion in order to investigate the trends most likely to impact the European Union's medium and long-term development.
Determinantal Ideals
Determinantal ideals are ideals generated by minors of a homogeneous polynomial matrix. Some classical ideals that can be generated in this way are the ideal of the Veronese varieties, of the Segre varieties, and of the rational normal scrolls. Determinantal ideals are a central topic in both commutative algebra and algebraic geometry, and they also have numerous connections with invariant theory, representation theory, and combinatorics. Due to their important role, their study has attracted many researchers and has received considerable attention in the literature. In this book three crucial problems are addressed: CI-liaison class and G-liaison class of standard determinantal ideals; the multiplicity conjecture for standard determinantal ideals; and unobstructedness and dimension of families of standard determinantal ideals.
Dense Molecular Gas around Protostars and in Galactic Nuclei : European Workshop on Astronomical Molecules 2004
The European Workshop on Astronomical Molecules was held at ‘The Conference Building’ in Zwolle, the Netherlands, on 18–20 February 2004. The idea behind the workshop was to bring together astronomers studying similar processes in different astrophysical environments; masers and dense molecular gas around young stars and galactic nuclei. There is considerable overlap in physical and chemical phenomena between these environments, with scales ranging from circumstellar to central regions of galaxies. This issue includes 12 reviews and 27 contributed papers presented in this Wo- shop, all of them were refereed by invited speakers or the editors. The quality of the papers is outstanding. The projects discussed here are often in an early stage and undoubtedly their progress has bene?ted greatly from the opportunity to discuss results with the experts in a wide range of areas. Similarly,
Dendritic Neurotransmitter Release
This book presents recent developments in the neurophysiology of dendritic release of several chemical classes of transmitters in a number of different areas of the mammalian central nervous system. Once released from a neuron, these substances can act as neurotransmitters and/or neuromodulators, to autoregulate the original neuron, its synaptic inputs, and adjacent cells or, by volume transmission, to affect distant cells.
Democracy in an Age of Globalisation
In Democracy in an Age of Globalisation, Otfried Höffe develops a comprehensive analysis of the demands, which the process of globalization exerts on the political organisations of humanity. The author starts from a diagnosis of the process of globalisation and frees its concept from its economistic narrowing: Globalisation is a comprehensive process which puts new strains on the economies and political systems of the world, the cultural and social structures of peoples. The scope of its challenges demands solutions, which transcend the powers of the classical nation-state. The question central to the book can be formulated as follows: "How can the social, moral and legal achievements of the nation-state be retained while its structure is reshaped to satisfy the requirements of a globalised world?"
Decentralised Government in an Integrating World: Quantitative Studies for OECD Countries
The book offers a comprehensive empirical analysis of the determinants of changes in the distribution of expenditure and revenue-raising powers among fiscal tiers in OECD countries. Using a new indicator of fiscal decentralisation which accounts for subnational decision-making autonomy, common decentralisation trends are investigated.
Decentralisation and Privatisation in Education : The Role of the State
The book examines the overall interplay between privatisation, decentralisation and the role of the state. The authors draw upon recent studies in the areas of decentralisation, privatisation and the role of the state in education. By referring to Bourdieu’s call for critical policy analysts to engage in a ‘critical sociology’ of their own contexts of practice, and poststructuralist and postmodernist pedagogy, this collection of book chapters demonstrate how central discourses surrounding the debate of privatisation, decentralisation and the role of the state are formed in the contexts of dominant ideology, power, and culturally and historically derived perceptions and practices.
Data Monitoring in Clinical Trials : A Case Studies Approach
Randomized clinical trials are the gold standard for establishing many clinical practice guidelines and are central to evidence based medicine. Obtaining the best evidence through clinical trials must be done within the boundaries of rigorous science and ethical principles. One fundamental principle is that trials should not continue longer than necessary to reach their objectives. Therefore, trials must be monitored for recruitment progress, quality of data, adherence to patient care or prevention standards, and early evidence of benefit or harm. Frequently, a group of external experts, independent from the investigators and trial sponsor, is charged with this monitoring responsibility, especially for safety and early benefit. This group is referred to by various names, such as a data monitoring committee or a data and safety monitoring board. This book, through a series of case studies presented by many distinguished clinical trial experts, illustrates the complexity of this monitoring process.No other text has as extensive a collection of cases which provide insight into the many issues, often conflicting, that must be examined before recommendations to continue or discontinue a trial can be made. While depth in statistical methods is not required, some familiarity with statistical design and analysis issues in clinical trials is helpful. The cases cover trials which were terminated early for convincing evidence of benefit, or for harmful effects. Cases with complex issues are also included. This series of cases should provide broad background information for potential monitoring committee members and better prepare them for the challenges that may exist in the trials for which they are responsible.
Data management in a connected world : Essays dedicated to Hartmut Wedekind on the occasion of his 70th birthday
Data management systems play the most crucial role in building large application s- tems. Since modern applications are no longer single monolithic software blocks but highly flexible and configurable collections of cooperative services, the data mana- ment layer also has to adapt to these new requirements. Therefore, within recent years, data management systems have faced a tremendous shift from the central management of individual records in a transactional way to a platform for data integration, fede- tion, search services, and data analysis. This book addresses these new issues in the area of data management from multiple perspectives, in the form of individual contributions, and it outlines future challenges in the context of data management.
Data collection in fragile states : Innovations from Africa and beyond
This book addresses an urgent issue on which little organized information exists. It reflects experience in Africa but is highly relevant to other fragile states as well. —Constantine Michalopoulos, John Hopkins University, USA and former Director of Economic Policy and Co-ordination at the World Bank
Dark Matter in Astro- and Particle Physics ; Proceedings of the International Conference DARK 2004, College Station, USA, 3-9 October, 2004
The search for dark matter in the universe has established itself as one of the most exciting and central fields of astrophysics, particle physics and cosmology. The lectures and talks in this book emphasize the experimental and theoretical status and future perspectives, stressing in particular the interplay between astro- and particle physics.
Cyclotomic Fields and Zeta Values
Cyclotomic fields have always occupied a central place in number theory, and the so called "main conjecture" on cyclotomic fields is arguably the deepest and most beautiful theorem known about them. It is also the simplest example of a vast array of subsequent, unproven "main conjectures'' in modern arithmetic geometry involving the arithmetic behaviour of motives over p-adic Lie extensions of number fields. These main conjectures are concerned with what one might loosely call the exact formulae of number theory which conjecturally link the special values of zeta and L-functions to purely arithmetic expressions.
Current Drug Synthesis
Delivers an authoritative and comprehensive discussion of the medicinal chemistry of current drugs, as well as the cutting-edge science involved in their synthesis. The book demystifies the process of modern drug discovery for both industry practitioners and students, while capturing the state-of-the-art techniques used to discover some of the most impactful medicines on the market today. Covering six different disease areas – including infectious disease, cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic disease, the central nervous system, anti-inflammatory disease, and a miscellaneous section – the book explores 18 different drugs before concluding with chapters on computational drug discovery and peptide drugs.



















