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Open and distance education in Asia, Africa and the Middle East : National perspectives in a digital age
This book describes the history, structure and institutions of open and distance education in six countries: China, India, Russia, Turkey, South Africa and South Korea. It describes how open and distance education is evolving in a digital age to reflect the needs and circumstances of the national higher education systems in these countries. It also explores the similarities and differences between how their open and distance higher education systems are managed and structured. The book compare and draw conclusions about the nature of open and distance education in the context of various national higher education systems. In a digital era characterized by the growing use of online, open and distance education, this book will prove particularly valuable for policy-makers and senior administrators who want to learn about establishing or expanding open and distance education services. In addition, it offers a valuable reference guide for researchers, academics and students interested in understanding the different approaches to open and distance education.
Ontology Alignment : Bridging the Semantic Gap
Ontology Alignment: Bridging the Semantic Gap introduces novel methods and approaches for semantic integration. In addition to developing new methods for ontology alignment, the author provides extensive explanations of up-to-date case studies. The topic of this book, coupled with the application-focused methodology, will appeal to professionals from a number of different domains.
Ontologies for Agents : Theory and Experiences
On the other hand, ontologies have established themselves as a powerful tool to enable kno- edge sharing, and a growing number of applications have bene?ted from the use of ontologies as a means to achieve semantic interoperability among heterogeneous, distributed systems. In principle ontologies and agents are a match made in heaven, that has failed to happen. What makes a simple piece of software an agent is its ability to communicate in a ”social” environment, to make autonomous decisions, and to be proactive on behalf of its user. Communication ultimately depends on und- standing the goals, preferences, and constraints posed by the user. Autonomy is theabilitytoperformataskwithlittleornouserintervention,whileproactiveness involves acting autonomously with no need for user prompting. Communication, but also autonomy and proactiveness, depend on knowledge. The ability to c- municate depends on understanding the syntax (terms and structure) and the semantics of a language. Ontologies provide the terms used to describe a domain and the semantics associated with them. In addition, ontologies are often comp- mented by some logical rules that constrain the meaning assigned to the terms. These constraints are represented by inference rules that can be used by agents to perform the reasoning on which autonomy and proactiveness are based.
Oncology : An Evidence-Based Approach
Reflect the principles and current practice of oncology with contributors from the fields of medical, surgical, and radiation oncology. The textbook will incorporate an evidence-based approach, enabling the reader to make decisions on the basis of concrete data. Sections on solid tumors, hematologic malignancies and the practice of oncology address the natural history and therapy for the full spectrum of neoplastic diseases in the adult. Further sections present fundamentals of supportive care of the cancer patient, the management of oncologic emergencies and acute toxicities of therapy, as well as care of metastatic disease and the terminally-ill patient. Breaking new ground, the textbook features thoughtful, in-depth sections on cancer prevention and control, cancer surviorship, the economics of cancer care, and cancer informatics. Cancer imaging is covered with an organ system-based approach, with an additional chapter on the especially intriguing potential of PET. Furthermore, a comprehensive section on translational basic science reviews the fundamentals of molecular biology, the cell cycle and signal transduction, carcinogenesis, cancer genetics, the biology of invations and metastasis, and tumor immunology.
On the move to meaningful internet systems 2007 : OTM 2007 Workshops ; OTM Confederated International Workshops and Posters, AWeSOMe, CAMS, OTM Academy Doctoral Consortium, MONET, On To Content, ORM, PerSys, PPN, RDDS, SSWS, and SWWS 2007, Vilamoura, Portugal, November 25-30, 2007, Proceedings, Part II
This two-volume set LNCS 4805/4806 constitutes the refereed proceedings of 10 international workshops and papers of the OTM Academy Doctoral Consortium held as part of OTM 2007 in Vilamoura, Portugal, in November 2007. The first volume begins with 23 additional revised short or poster papers of the OTM 2007 main conferences.
On the move to meaningful internet systems 2006 : OTM 2006 Workshops ; Vol.4278 ; OTM Confederated International Conferences and Posters, AWeSOMe, CAMS, COMINF ,IS, KSinBIT, MIOS-CIAO, MONET, On To Content, ORM, PerSys, OTM Academy Doctoral Consortium, RDDS,SWWS,SeBGIS 2006, Montpellier, France, October 29 - November 3, 2006, Proceedings, Part II
This two-volume set LNCS 4277/4278 constitutes the refereed proceedings of 14 international workshops held as part of OTM 2006 in Montpellier, France in October/November 2006. The first volume begins with 26 additional revised short or poster papers of the OTM 2006 main conferences.
On the move to meaningful internet systems 2006 : OTM 2006 Workshops ; Vol. 4277 ; OTM Confederated International Conferences and Posters, AWeSOMe, CAMS, COMINF, IS, KSinBIT, MIOS-CIAO, MONET, On To Content, ORM, PerSys, OTM Academy Doctoral Consortium, RDDS, SWWS, SeBGIS 2006, Montpellier, France, October 29 - November 3, 2006, Proceedings, Part I
This two-volume set LNCS 4277/4278 constitutes the refereed proceedings of 14 international workshops held as part of OTM 2006 in Montpellier, France in October/November 2006. The 191 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 493 submissions to the workshops. The first volume begins with 26 additional revised short or poster papers of the OTM 2006 main conferences.
On the move to meaningful internet systems : OTM 2008 Workshops ; OTM Confederated International Workshops and Posters, ADI, AWeSoMe, COMBEK, EI2N, IWSSA, MONET, OnToContent + QSI, ORM, PerSys, RDDS, SEMELS, and SWWS 2008, Monterrey, Mexico, November 9-14, 2008. Proceedings
This volume constitutes the refereed proceedings of 13 international workshops held as part of OTM 2008 in Monterrey, Mexico, in November 2008.The 106 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 171 submissions to the workshops. The volume starts with 19 additional revised poster papers of the OTM 2008 main conferences CoopIS and ODBASE. Topics of the workshop papers are ambient data integration (ADI 2008), agents and web services merging in distributed environment (AWeSoMe 2008), community-based evolution of knowledge-intensive systems (COMBEK 2008), enterprise integration, interoperability and networking (EI2N 2008), system/software architectures .
Olfactory knows the truth
Olfaction, the sense of smell detects and discriminate odors as well as social cues which influence our innate responses. The olfactory system in human beings is found to be weak as compared to other animals; however, it seems to be very precise. It can detect and discriminate millions of chemical moieties (odorants) even in minuscule quantities. The sense of smell is greatly underappreciated, despite the fact that it monitors the intake of airborne agents into the human respiratory system and determine to a large degree the flavor and palatability of foods and beverage. In addition to enhancing quality of life, this primary sensory system warns of spoiled foods, leaking natural gas, polluted air and smoke, and mediates basic elements of communication (e.g., mother-infant interaction). It is now apparent that smell dysfunction is among the first clinical signs of such neurodegenerative diseases as Alzheimer’s disease and sporadic Parkinson’s disease.
Ocean Wave Energy : Current Status and Future Prespectives
The authors of this reference provide an updated and global view on ocean wave energy conversion for wave energy developers as well as for students and professors. The book is orientated to the practical solutions that this new industry has found so far and the problems that any device needs to face. It describes the actual principles applied to machines that convert wave power in electricity. Additionally, an historical review, state of the art of modern systems, a full scale prototype experience, and future perspectives are given.
Object-Oriented Technology. ECOOP 2004 Workshop Reader ; ECOOP 2004 Workshop, Oslo, Norway, June 14-18, 2004, Final Reports
Following the tradition of the ECOOP Workshop Reader, we strove for hi- quality, value-adding and open-ended workshop reports. The result, as you can judge from the following pages, is a thought-provoking snap shot of the current- searchinobject-orientation, full of pointers for further exploration of the covered topics. We want to thank our workshop organizers who, despite the additional burden, did a great job in putting together these reports.
Obesity and Cancer
This book highlights the concordance between signaling pathways that are involved in obesity and cancer cross-talks. It describes the role of cytokines, chemokines, growth factors, insulin, and adipokines in the development of obesity-associated cancers. The book reviews the role of inflammatory signaling pathways such as estrogen-mediated signaling, mTOR and AMP-activated protein kinase pathway and the involvement of adaptive and innate immunity, oxidative stress, gene polymorphism, dietary phytochemicals, and miRNAs in obesity and cancer. In addition, it covers the latest research on the drugs and natural therapeutic agents that target obesity-induced cancers and discusses various in vivo models for studying obesity and obesity-associated cancer. Lastly, it analyses the role of genetic polymorphisms in the obesity-related genes that influence cancer development.
Nutrition and dietary interventions in cancer
Presents the most up-to-date information on the effects of nutrition and food on cancer prevention and management. The book will provide clinicians and other healthcare practitioners with an educational source on how to educate cancer patients and their families on nutrition and dietary during cancer treatment. Recent nutritional epidemiology studies have occasionally produced controversial or unexpected results and highlight the need for additional research on diet and cancer risk. Chapters within the book focus among others on the role of natural antioxidants in cancer, the importance of micronutrients in cancer prevention and nutritional genomics and their role in cancer prevention.
Nutraceuticals in cardiac health management
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) constitute the major cause of death worldwide, claiming nearly 18 million lives each year. Multiple foods and nutraceuticals have been proven to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. This new book offers an informative update on the most recent scientific evidence addressing the use of nutraceuticals in the prevention and management of heart disease. It summarizes the functional foods that are involved in preventing the risk of CVDs, the mechanisms of the bioactive components that lower the risk of chronic illnesses, as well as the dietary patterns that are involved in the prevention of CVDs. It also covers specific nutraceuticals, including probiotics, dietary fibers, garlic, green tea, vitamins, tomatoes and other lycopene-rich fruits and vegetables, dietary supplements, bee products, and more. In addition, it focuses on detailing the endothelial effects of marine- and plant-derived omega-3 fatty acids and marine-derived natural flavonoids in hypertension and CVDs.
Numerical Treatment of Partial Differential Equations
In 1988 we started work on the frst German edition of our book, which appeared in 1992. Our aim was to give students a textbook that contained the basic concepts and ideas behind most numerical methods for partial di?er- tial equations. The success of this frst edition and the second edition in 1994 encouraged us, ten years later, to write an almost completely new version, taking into account comments from colleagues and students and drawing on the enormous progress made in the numerical analysis of partial di?erential equations in recent times. The present English version slightly improves the third German edition of 2005: we have corrected some minor errors and added additional material and references.
Nuel Belnap on Indeterminism and Free Action
Seeks to further the use of formal methods in clarifying one of the central problems of philosophy: that of our free human agency and its place in our indeterministic world. It celebrates the important contributions made in this area by Nuel Belnap, American logician and philosopher. Philosophically, indeterminism and free action can seem far apart, but in Belnap’s work, they are intimately linked. This book explores their philosophical interconnectedness through a selection of original research papers that build forth on Belnap’s logical and philosophical work. Some contributions take the form of critical discussions of Belnap's published work, some develop points made in his publications in new directions, and others provide additional insights on the topics of indeterminism and free action.
Nuclear Medicine Technology : Review Questions for the Board Examinations
Nuclear medicine technology has been a fascinating subject ever since the early rectilinear scanner produced images, and is becoming ever more interesting (and demanding) with the growth of positron emission tomography and other molecular imaging. Taking and passing the exam offered by the Nuclear Medicine Technology Certi? cation Board (NMTCB), or that offered by the American Registry of Radiologic Techno- gists (ARRT), is the ? nal step in reaching the status of Nuclear M edicine Technologist. These exams are both challenging and the breadth of knowledge that they cover mean that a th- ough review is in order before attempting either exam. This book was created to assist in preparation for those exams. In addition to recalling information, the questions require application of information, and analysis of situations.
Nuclear Import and Export in Plants and Animals
Nuclear Import and Export in Plants and Animals provides insight into the remarkable mechanisms of nuclear import and export. This book covers a range of topics from the nuclear pore structure, to nuclear import and export of macromolecules in plant and animal cells. In addition, the book covers the special cases of nuclear import of Agrobacterium T-DNA during plant genetic transformation, nuclear import and export of animal viruses, and nuclear intake of foreign DNA. A chapter on research methods to study nuclear transport concludes the book.
Nuclear back-end and transmutation technology for waste disposal : Beyond the Fukushima accident
Covers essential aspects of transmutation technologies, highlighting especially the advances in Japan. The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) has caused us to focus attention on a large amount of spent nuclear fuels stored in NPPs. In addition, public anxiety regarding the treatment and disposal of high-level radioactive wastes that require long-term control is growing. The Japanese policy on the back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle is still unpredictable in the aftermath of the accident. Therefore, research and development for enhancing the safety of various processes involved in nuclear energy production are being actively pursued worldwide.
Notions of Convexity
The first two chapters of this book are devoted to convexity in the classical sense, for functions of one and several real variables respectively. This gives a background for the study in the following chapters of related notions which occur in the theory of linear partial differential equations and complex analysis such as (pluri-)subharmonic functions, pseudoconvex sets, and sets which are convex for supports or singular supports with respect to a differential operator. In addition, the convexity conditions which are relevant for local or global existence of holomorphic differential equations are discussed, leading up to Trépreau’s theorem on sufficiency of condition (capital Greek letter Psi) for microlocal solvability in the analytic category.
