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Macroeconomic Risk Management Against Natural Disasters : Analysis focussed on governments in developing countries

Natural disasters cause considerable economic damage. While developed countries usually are able to cope with the impacts of natural hazards, developing countries are faced with severe consequences for their resources. In order to prevent long-term macroeconomic repercussions, governments need a comprehensive disaster risk management strategy.Budgetary resources are allocated to pre-disaster risk management strategies to reduce the probability of financing gaps. The framework and model approach allows cross country comparisons as well as the assessment of financial vulnerability, macroeconomic risk, and risk management strategies.

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Knowledge Networks for Business Growth

Companies are constantly searching for new ways of creating higher profit and a larger market share. Growth seems to be the most appropriate tactic for surviving economically in difficult times. New instruments and methods as a support to a company’s growth strategy can be essential in gaining a competitive advantage. Knowledge management is one of the answers to this challenge. It can support strategic goals such as the improvement of efficiency, the minimization of risk and an increase in innovation, but also has inherent potentials which have not been leveraged yet.

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Bringing the Jobless into Work? : Experiences with Activation Schemes in Europe and the US

Over the last decade, many industrialized countries shifted from passive unemployment and welfare benefit regimes and traditional active labor market and social policies to activation strategies by making benefit receipt conditional upon accepting job offers or participation in active labor market schemes. But countries differ with regard to the design of activation instruments and their implementation, the definition of target groups and the effects of activation in the national labor market setting. This volume provides an up-to-date overview of activation strategies in unemployment benefit systems and social assistance in selected European countries and the US. A particular focus lies on the development of activation schemes, governance and implementation as well as on the outcomes of activation in terms of labor market and social integration. The volume is the first to address these issues both from a socio-economic and a legal perspective.

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Architectures of sound

Architects are used to designing visually. In order to expand their basic design tools, this book explores the interactions between sound, space, hearing, and architecture. To this end, the author uses contemporary and historic buildings and projects, but also fictional, philosophical, and theoretical approaches – the idea is not only to define sound as a source, but also as an instrument of architectural space.

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Maritime Work Law Fundamentals : Responsible Shipowners, Reliable Seafarers

As the title suggests, a fundamental challenge of this branch of international maritime law is to achieve a balance between the interests of the two main stakeholders. Institutionally, the effort to achieve this balance dates back a number of decades with its genesis mainly found in the work of the International Labour Organization. It has to be said that whilst this effort achieved great progress, it has led to a haphazard, plethora of legal instruments.

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Managing Diversity in Intergovernmental Organisations

Intensifying worldwide environmental changes as well as political, cultural, religious, and economic crises have made intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) important instruments in international and global cooperation. In order to cope with their diverse stakeholders, it is more imperative than ever for intergovernmental organisations to engage in personnel policy on an international scale. Successful diversity management is an essential prerequisite for organisational performance, conflict management, and dynamics of IGOs. Björn A. Peters examines the challenges of diversity and managing diversity in IGOs on the basis of the Mekong River Commission case study.

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Making Beautiful Deep-Sky Images : Astrophotography with Affordable Equipment and Software

Professor Greg Parker's astronomical photographs are widely known for their excellence, and a selection of them has recently been shown as a public exhibition in the UK. In Making Beautiful Deep-Sky Images, he provides a detailed account of how spectacular deep-sky images can be taken by amateur astronomers using CCD cameras, and how they can subsequently be processed and enhanced in the "electronic darkroom" for maximum beauty and impact. Quite simply, this is a "how to do it" book for people who want to make stunning astronomical pictures.

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Maintenance of Process Instrumentation in Nuclear Power Plants

The resurgence of the nuclear power industry at a time when the nuclear plant I&C workforce is diminishing due to aging and retirements has been the motivation for writing this book. This book compiles 30 years of practical knowledge gained by the author and his staff in testing the I&C systems of nuclear power plants around the world. It focuses on process temperature and pressure sensors and the verification of these sensors’ calibration and response time.

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Levinas Concordance

The concrete impact of the Levinasian philosophy upon the variousdirections of thinking – from ontology and ethics to Jewish thought, theolo-gy, aesthetics or feminism – attests moreover the great significance of thissingular figure of our times.For more than three decades now his philosophy has come to be thesubject of many doctoral theses, articles and books. The complete “Levinasbibliography” counts currently thousands of titles in more than ten lan-guages. The important contribution that a Levinas Concordancewould bring asa valuable instrument for exegetes,

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Lasers, Clocks and Drag-Free Control : Exploration of Relativistic Gravity in Space

Over the next decade the gravitational physics community will benefit from dramatic improvements in many technologies critical to testing gravity. Highly accurate deep space navigation, interplanetary laser communication, interferometry and metrology, high precision frequency standards, precise pointing and attitude control, together with drag-free technologies, will revolutionize the field of experimental gravitational physics. The centennial of the general theory of relativity in 2015 will motivate a significant number of experiments designed to test this theory with unprecedented accuracy.

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LabVIEW based Advanced Instrumentation Systems

Information is a valuable resource to an organization. User-friendly, computer-controlled instrumentation and data analysis techniques are revolutionizing the way measurements are being made, allowing nearly instantaneous comparison between theoretical predictions, simulations, and actual experimental results. This book provides comprehensive coverage of fundamentals of advanced instrumentation systems based on LabVIEW concepts. This book is for those who wish a better understanding of virtual instrumentation concepts, its purpose, its nature, and the applications developed using the National Instrument’s LabVIEW software.

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La musica del Big Bang : Come la radiazione cosmica di fondo ci ha svelato i segreti dell’Universo = The music of the Big Bang : How the cosmic background radiation revealed the secrets of the Universe to us

Cosmic microwave background radiation is the residue of the great heat following the Big Bang. A tenuous sign, over 13 billion years old, in which the answers to many of the questions about the nature of our Universe are hidden. Discovered by chance in 1964, in the last forty years this fossil trace of the origins of the Cosmos has been explored with every available means. Two Nobel Prizes in physics have already been awarded for research involving it, the last in 2006 for the results of the COBE satellite. Much of the information encoded in the cosmic background radiation was impressed by the superimposition of acoustic waves present in the early Universe: a "music" of the Big Bang, which cosmologists have tried for years to reconstruct, using techniques similar to those that allow to distinguish the sound of different musical instruments. Only recently have the first notes of this extraordinary cosmic symphony finally been revealed, but the investigation is not over yet. This book illustrates, with a language suitable even for non-specialists, the theories, observations and discoveries that have brought cosmology into a new era.

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La correspondance entre Henri Poincaré et les physiciens, chimistes et ingénieurs = The correspondence between Henri Poincaré and physicists, chemists and engineers

Cosmic microwave background radiation is the residue of the great heat following the Big Bang. A tenuous sign, over 13 billion years old, in which the answers to many of the questions about the nature of our Universe are hidden. Discovered by chance in 1964, in the last forty years this fossil trace of the origins of the Cosmos has been explored with every available means. Two Nobel Prizes in physics have already been awarded for research involving it, the last in 2006 for the results of the COBE satellite. Much of the information encoded in the cosmic background radiation was impressed by the superimposition of acoustic waves present in the early Universe: a "music" of the Big Bang, which cosmologists have tried for years to reconstruct, using techniques similar to those that allow to distinguish the sound of different musical instruments. Only recently have the first notes of this extraordinary cosmic symphony finally been revealed, but the investigation is not over yet. This book illustrates, with a language suitable even for non-specialists, the theories, observations and discoveries that have brought cosmology into a new era.

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Computational and Instrumental Methods in EPR

This volume is devoted to both instrumentation and computation aspects of EPR, while addressing applications such as spin relaxation time measurements, the measurement of hyperfine interaction parameters, and the recovery of Mn(II) spin Hamiltonian parameters via spectral simulation.

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Climate of the middle : Understanding climate change as a common challenge

This book presents a multidisciplinary perspective to increase our understanding of climate policies that are rooted in the natural moral inclinations of people, families and firms. Which policies prevent a widening gap between higher and lower educated people? Which policy instruments are there, and how could they be used? What is the role of free entrepreneurship?

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Climate Change and Technological Options : Basic facts, Evaluation and Practical Solutions

climate change focussing on technical solutions for the most important and climate relevant economic sectors is presented. It is intended for key decision makers, and administrators within industry, agricultural and energy sectors, as well as masters students and post graduates. The first of three sections covers the scientific basis of climate change and the instruments to prevent or reduce negative climate effects. It includes a survey covering current practices at different levels.It discusses evaluation methods for climate impacts from industrial processes. Climate relevant processes and measures to reduce their impact such as sequestration are defined in the final section, with the main focus being on renewable resources. Details are given on climate impacts of waste prevention, recycling and waste management as well as are proposals for every day solutions.

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Climate change : Environment and history of the Near East

When the ?rst edition of this book was published in 2004, the following year 2005 has happened to have been the warmest year since 1880, when the ?rst reliable worldwide instrumental records came into existance. Claiming no li- age between the publication of our book and the temperature record, yet this record demonstrates the trend of increase in the global surface temperatures during thepast20years,reinforcedbyevidenceofriseofatmosphere’sand oceans’ temperatures, and increased melting of ice and snow in the arctic and antarctic regions as well as on mountain tops. All these observations are par- leled by the increase in the quantity of heat trapping gases in the atmosphere, causing most probably, the global greenhouse effect. In order to try and predict, what might be the impact of this effect on the on the natural and human environments of the Near East, (Figs. 1–1d) the authors adopted the saying that the past is the key for the future. The practical conclusion of this principle says that the acquiring knowledge of the impact of past climate changes on the nature and human societies, may allow conclusions with regard to future possible impact of climate changes. By correlating proxy data of all types, paleo-sea and lake levels, paleo-hydrology, pollen pro?les, environmental isotopes as well as archaeological and historical documents, the authors tried to collect as much as possible of this knowledge.

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Circular Migration and the Rights of Migrant Workers in Central and Eastern Europe : The EU Promise of a Triple Win Solution

This book adopts a rights-based approach to shed light on the different legal and policy instruments that have been developed to implement circular migration policies in the EU, and their consequences for the rights of migrant workers.

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Circuits and Systems Based on Delta Modulation : Linear, Nonlinear and Mixed Mode Processing

This book is intended for students and professionals who are interested in the field of digital signal processing of delta-sigma modulated sequences. The overall focus is on the development of algorithms and circuits for linear, non-linear, and mixed mode processing of delta-sigma modulated pulse streams. The material presented here is directly relevant to applications in digital communication, DSP, instrumentation, and control.

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Child Neuropsychology : Assessment and Interventions for Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Child Neuropsychology guides therapists and neurologists toward common goals: early, accurate diagnosis and finely focused interventions across disciplines. By analyzing the affects of brain development on children and adolescents’ behavioral, cognitive, learning, and psychosocial abilities and deficits, this groundbreaking volume brings vital perspectives to assessment and treatment. Leading experts Ellison and Semrud-Clikeman start with the basics of child clinical neuropsychology and functional neuroanatomy, taking readers through examination protocols and assessment instruments to treatment planning and methods. In this volume, the authors address the full range of neurodevelopmental pathologies, from learning disabilities to autism, ADHD to CNS disorders, traumatic brain injury to fetal alcohol syndrome.

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