Insurance distribution directive : A legal analysis
This book of the AIDA Europe Research Series on Insurance Law and Regulation offers the first comprehensive legal and regulatory analysis of the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD).
Insights into Receptor Function and New Drug Development Targets
G-Protein Coupled receptors (GPCRs) and other receptors are significant targets for drug discovery, due to their roles in fundamental physiological processes. Among these roles are: regulation of growth, food intake, reproduction, water balance, sensory perception, blood pressure and heart rate. GPCR-directed drugs account for approximately $40 billion in sales and, of drugs at market, approximately 70% target GPCR function. The availability of combinatorial chemistry coupled with high throughput screening techniques have facilitated discovery of peptidic and non-peptidic ligands of membrane receptors. Mutant receptor models have revealed their role in health and disease and provided insight to new therapeutic approaches, based on control of protein trafficking. Understanding receptor-receptor interactions has provided one mechanism for receptor cross-talk and revealed unexpected interactions.
Innovations in rehabilitation sciences education : Preparing Leaders for the future
We are most fortunate to be housed in an institution that embraces risk taking and innovation in education. Part of the joy of working at McMaster University is the sense that you will be supported in your efforts to develop new ways of facilitating learning even if these are not always successful. We are privileged to work with a group of exceptional colleagues who embrace - novation and strive for ongoing excellence in education.
Innovations in Macroeconomics ; 2nd ed.
Modern macroeconomics suffers from an unclear link between short-term Keynesian analysis and long-term growth modelling. Moreover, product and process innovations have been only partially integrated. The analysis suggests new approaches to innovations in open economies in many ways, including the Schumpeterian Mundell-Fleming model and new monetary growth models. A specific focus is on the role of innovations for output, employment and exchange rate developments. A new link between monetary analysis and growth modelling in open economies is presented. Structural change, innovations and growth are considered from a new perspective. This important new book sets a new direction for macroeconomics. By linking several strands of fundamental economic thinking into a coherent, integrated framework it provides a pathbreaking understanding into the fundamental forces shaping macroeconomic performance.
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.
Innovation, Networks, and Knowledge Spillovers : Selected Essays
The volume is in three parts. The first part demonstrates that the processes of innovation and technological change are spatially differentiated, both regionally within countries and internationally between countries. The second part broadens, both conceptually and empirically, our understanding of the innovation process and the process of network formation, by examining the increasing importance of knowledge creation and diffusion in the new economy and how this is changing the nature of firms in crucial ways. Particular focus is laid on identifying the growing pressures for firms to develop more inter- and intrafirm networks and on providing lucid illustrations of these different kinds of networks. The third part discusses key issues related to the systems of innovation approach as a conceptual framework for regional innovation analysis and directs attention to enlightening conceptual and empirical work on the issue how knowledge spills over locally.
Infrastructure for Agents, Multi-Agent Systems, and Scalable Multi-Agent Systems ; International Workshop on Infrastructure for Scalable Multi-Agent Systems, Barcelona, Spain, June 3-7, 2000 Revised Papers
Building research grade multi-agent systems usually involves a broad variety of software infrastructure ingredients like planning, scheduling, coordination, communication, transport, simulation, and module integration technologies and as such constitutes a great challenge to the individual researcher active in the area. The book presents a collection of papers on approaches that will help make deployed and large scale multi-agent systems a reality. The first part focuses on available infrastructure and requirements for constructing research-grade agents and multi-agent systems. The second part deals with support in infrastructure and software development methods for multi-agent systems that can directly support coordination and management of large multi-agent communities; performance analysis and scalability techniques are needed to promote deployment of multi-agent systems to professionals in software engineering and information technology.
Information Visualization : Beyond the Horizon
Information visualization is not only about creating graphical displays of complex and latent information structures; it contributes to a broader range of cognitive, social, and collaborative activities. This is the first book to examine information visualization from this perspective. This 2nd edition continues the unique and ambitious quest for setting information visualization and virtual environments in a unifying framework. Information Visualization: Beyond the Horizon pays special attention to the advances made over the last 5 years and potentially fruitful directions to pursue. It is particularly updated to meet the need for practitioners. The book is a valuable source for researchers and graduate students. This new edition is forwarded by Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland.
Information Security Handbook
Provides a comprehensive collection of knowledge for emerging multidisciplinary research areas such as cybersecurity, IoT, Blockchain, Machine Learning, Data Science, and AI. This book brings together, in one resource, information security across multiple domains. It explores basic and high-level concepts and serves as a manual for industry while also helping beginners to understand both basic and advanced aspects in security-related issues. The handbook explores security and privacy issues through the IoT ecosystem and implications to the real world and, at the same time, explains the concepts of IoT-related technologies, trends, and future directions.
Information networking : Convergence in broadband and mobile networking ; International conference, ICOIN 2005, Jeju Island, Korea, January 31 - February 2, 2005, Proceedings
Welcome to ICOIN 2005,the International Conference on Information Netwo- ing, held at Ramada Plaza Jeju Hotel, Jeju Island, Korea during January 31– February2,2005.ICOIN2005followedthesuccessofpreviousconferences.Since 1986, the conference has provided a technical forum for various issues in inf- mation networking. The theme of each conference re?ects the historic events in the computer communication industry. (Please refer to www.icoin2005.or.kr for details.) The theme of ICOIN 2004, “Convergence in Broadband and Mobile Networking,” was used again for ICOIN 2005 since we believed it was ongoing. This year we received 427 submissions in total, which came from 22 co- tries. Upon submission, authors were asked to select one of the categories listed in the Call for Papers. The most popular category chosen was network se- rity, followed by mobile networks and wireless LANs. Other areas with strong showings included QoS and resource management, ad hoc and sensor networks, and wireless multimedia systems. From the outset, we could see where recent research interest lay and could make sure that the theme was still going in the right direction.
Information Fusion and Geographic Information Systems ; Proceedings of the Third International Workshop
This volume contains the papers presented at the International Workshop “Inf- mation Fusion and Geographical Information Systems” (IF&GIS’07) held in St. Petersburg, Russia, 2007. Research in the Geosciences field interprets the concept of Information Fusion as a synonym of an approach that permits research into all the problems and issues which program-makers and scientific researchers are faced with. Thus, topics that are to be covered during the workshop relate to issues such as harmonization, - tegration and information fusion. At the same time the spectrum of problems - der discussion exceeds the current bounds of developing GIS applications. This is a significant modern trend since GIS technology is more often used as an interface in support and decision making systems. As a result, it is difficult to consider Geoinformation Science without considering related scientific directions such as Ontology, Artificial Intelligent Systems and Situation Management.
Informatics for the Clinical Laboratory : A Practical Guide
This series is directed to healthcare professionals who are leading the tra- formation of health care by using information and knowledge. Launched in 1988 as Computers in Health Care, the series offers a broad range of titles: some addressed to specific professions such as nursing, medicine, and health administration; others to special areas of practice such as trauma and radi- ogy. Still other books in the series focus on interdisciplinary issues, such as the computer-based patient record, electronic health records, and networked healthcare systems. Renamed Health Informatics in 1998 to reflect the rapid evolution in the discipline now known as health informatics, the series will continue to add titles that contribute to the evolution of the field. In the series, eminent - perts, serving as editors or authors, offer their accounts of innovations in health informatics. Increasingly, these accounts go beyond hardware and so- ware to address the role of information in influencing the transformation of healthcare delivery systems around the world. The series also increasingly focuses on “peopleware” and the organizational, behavioral, and societal changes that accompany the diffusion of information technology in health services environments.
Infinite matrices and their finite sections : An introduction to the limit operator method
In this book we are concerned with the study of a certain class of infinite matrices and two important properties of them: their Fredholmness and the stability of the approximation by their finite truncations. Let us take these two properties as a starting point for the big picture that shall be presented in what follows. Stability Fredholmness We think of our infinite matrices as bounded linear operators on a Banach space E of two-sided infinite sequences.The class of operators we are interested in consists of those bounded and linear operatorson E which can be approximated in the operator norm by b and matrices. We refer to them as band-dominated operators. Of course, these considerations 2 are not limited to the space E = . We will widen the selection of the underlying space E in three directions: p
Industrial competitiveness : Cost reduction
The objectives of industrial management are: - Implementation of the policy adopted by the owners or the board of directors - Optimum return on investment - Efficient utilization of Men, Machine and Money. In other words, industry must make profit. Manufacturing represents only one aspect of the activities of industrial management. Present-day manufacturing methodology does not consider making profit as their primary objective. The manufacturing process requires the knowledge of many disciplines, such as design, process planning, costing, marketing, sales, customer relations, costing, purchasing, bookkeeping, inventory control, material handling, shipping, and so on.
Industrial archaeology : Future directions
With contributions from an international group of authors, this volume highlights the current thought in industrial archaeology, as well as explores future theoretical and methodological directions. Together, these chapters further the process of meaningful engagement with such weighty issues as globalization; post/modernity; power; production and consumption; innovation and invention; class, ethnic, and gender identities; social relations of technology and labour; and the spread and diversification of western capitalism.
Industrial applications of microbial enzymes
Microbial enzymes are important because they can be used for a wide variety of industrial purposes. There is dispersed and scanty information available with respect to microbial enzymes and their industrial applications. In this edited book, leading scientists have covered the various aspects of microbial enzymes and their industrial applications. Using microbial enzymes can help expedite various manufacturing processes and contribute to sustainable development, which is a priority worldwide. Research gaps in the entrainment of microbial enzymes with their direct application in product development are a major focus of this volume.
Indirect Sampling
This book is the reference on indirect sampling and the generalised weight share method. It contains the different developments done by the author on these subjects. The theory surrounding them is presented, but also different possible applications that drive its interest. The reader will find in this book the answer to questions that come, inevitably, when working in a context of indirect sampling.
Improving Inclusive Education through Universal Design for Learning
Provides an analysis of how the educational strategy of Universal Design for Learning can stimulate the process of inclusive education in different educational-cultural contexts and different areas of the educational system. The findings of the research deepen the conception of inclusive education and present an analysis of factors that are significant for developing the educational system as well as providing evidence-based recommendations for educational practice. The research for this work was done in four European countries with various historical-cultural contexts: Lithuania and Poland underwent a transformation of the educational systems at the turning point in their political system, shifting from a strictly centralized Soviet policy to a liberal and democratic education system; Austria has experienced changes in social stratification and a need for cultural harmonisation arising from active national migration processes, whereas Finland has been gradually developing a socio-democratic model of national welfare.
Improving Healthcare : A Dose of Competition
Improving Healthcare: A Dose of Competition systematically examines the American health care system from a competition-oriented perspective. The volume surveys the performance of each major sector of the health care system, and identifies impediments to more effective competition. Improving Healthcare examines such issues as competition v. regulation, public and private sector approaches to health care financing, cross-subsidies, licensure, provider market concentration, financial and clinical integration, payment for performance, quality, pharmacy benefit managers, direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceuticals, certificates of need, mandates, unionization, the significance of organizational status (nonprofit v. for-profit), and the role of antitrust and consumer protection in health care. It offers concrete recommendations to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of the American health care marketplace.
Implementing Strategic Environmental Assessment
More countries are now using Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) than ever before. This timely and comprehensive Handbook describes the implementation of SEA in 18 countries around the world, as well as a critical analysis of different SEA methodologies. The Handbook starts by introducing key SEA principles and the legal requirements of the new European SEA Directive (which became law in 2004). It then describes the implementation of SEA in 11 European Union countries, as well as the USA, Canada and New Zealand. This is contrasted with SEA requirements of four developing countries. The Handbook explores public participation issues and the wide-range of SEA methodologies used in terms of resources (soils, water and biodiversity) and sectors of activity (transport, agriculture, waste management and industry). The Handbook concludes with a discussion on best practice, capacity building and the future of SEA.



















