الصفحة 33
الصفحة 33
Adaptive agents and multi-agent systems II : Adaptation and multi-agent learning
Adaptive agents and multi-agent systems is an emerging and exciting interdisciplinary area of research and development involving artificial intelligence, software engineering, and developmental biology, as well as cognitive and social science. This book presents 17 revised and carefully reviewed papers taken from two workshops on the topic as well as 2 invited papers by leading researchers in the area. The papers deal with various aspects of machine learning, adaptation, and evolution in the context of agent systems and autonomous agents.
Action Research in Software Engineering: Theory and Applications
This book addresses action research (AR), one of the main research methodologies used for academia-industry research collaborations. It elaborates on how to find the right research activities and how to distinguish them from non-significant ones. Further, it details how to glean lessons from the research results, no matter whether they are positive or negative. Lastly, it shows how companies can evolve and build talents while expanding their product portfolio.
Acid Rain - Deposition to Recovery
Acid rain is still with us. Although it is a problem that people have worked diligently to solve, there are still many problem areas throughout the world. In reality the focus of acid rain research has shifted, and this book adds new vision to the topic. It contains papers, selected from Acid Rain 2005, the 7th International Conference on Acid Deposition, that take a broad perspective of the issues, emphasizing a number of themes: - the emission, concentration and deposition of pollutants / - nitrogen and trace elements in ecosystems and their effects on forests, water and soil / - studies of material damage and recovery - critical loads / The book is aimed at scientists and researchers who are working in the area of acid rain and its effects, and on nutrient cycling. This latest research will be of value to those concerned with the mitigation of acid rain effects.
Acid in the Environment : Lessons Learned and Future Prospects
This book is the result of a conference held biannually at the Goodwin-Niering Center for Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies at Connecticut College.is a collection of essays that blends the research findings and the policy analyses of individuals from different academic disciplines with the positions advanced by representatives of NGOs. Acid in the Environment: Lessons Learned and Future Prospects presents a broad approach to the study of acid deposition, exposing readers with a scientific background to significant policy issues and those with a policy orientation to important ecological impacts. The book raises important questions that will serve as a springboard for discussion between diverse groups of teachers and students, concerned citizens and legislators, and scientists and policy makers.
Achieving the Paris Climate Agreement goals ; Part 2 : Science-based target setting for the finance industry — Net-Zero Sectoral 1.5˚C pathways for real economy sectors
Provides an in-depth analysis of industry sectors globally, and its purpose is to present emission reduction targets in 5-year steps (2025 to 2050) for the main twelve finance sectors per the Global Industry Classification System. This scientific analysis aims to support the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment initiative to give sustainability guidance for the global finance industry. The industry sector pathways presented here are based on the latest global and regional 100% renewable energy and non-energy greenhouse gas Representative Concentration Pathways in order to keep climate change significantly under +1.5 C and thereby achieve the Paris Climate Agreement goals. The heart of this book is three chapters presenting the results of industry scenario modelling. These chapters cover twelve industry and service sectors as well as transportation and buildings. The specific energy demand and specific emissions are presented based on the emission accounting concept of “Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3” emission pathways. This methodology has been developed to measure the climate and sustainability index for companies, and this research project expands the methodology to apply it to entire industry sectors ...
Accreditation and Evaluation in the European Higher Education Area
This volume presents a rich account of the development of accreditation and evaluation in 20 European countries. The authors are leaders in the field and they have cooperated in this effort by writing richly different, often deep and insightful analyses of the situation in their country. The two editors have added a synopsis detailing the main trends, and sketching commonalities as well as contrasts in the developments across Europe. The book shows how accreditation is becoming a main mechanism in the steering of higher education all over Europe. The book is unique in its analysis of forces driving towards the spread of different models of accreditation in the emerging European Higher Education area. Readers will obtain an up-to-date picture of the state of affairs of accreditation in the framework of evaluation activities in Europe.
Accounting, Cash Flow and Value Relevance
Investigates the value relevance of the operating cash flow as reported under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IAS/IFRS) for the largest European listed companies and US listed companies in the past recent years. Using the model based on the valuation theory developed by Ohlson, which measures the market value of equity as a function of accounting variables, the author concludes that operating cash flow represents a significant variable in determining the value relevance of the largest European and US listed companies. These findings provide siginificant implications for standard setters and support the continued requirements for disclosure of cash flow information under IAS 7.
Accounting for social and environmental sustainability : A multi-capital approach
Offers an in‑depth examination of multi‑capital accounting, which has already been integrated within the corporate sustainability reporting directive and will follow on from sustainability reporting. the LIFTS model (limits and foundations towards sustainability accounting model) used in this book combines various scientific and practical contributions to develop budgets for environmental impacts and social obligations on an organisational scale. it proposes an accounting mechanism that enables an organization to manage each of its budgets and measure variances between forecast and actual. it provides an introduction to the principles of this model and its conditions of application and describes its implementation in numerous companies.
Accounting for governmental & nonprofit entities
Gives generations of instructors and students a comprehensive knowledge of the specialized accounting and financial reporting practices of governmental and not-for-profit organizations, as well as an understanding of how those organizations can better meet the information needs of a diverse set of financial statement users and decision makers.
Accounting for business : Practicalities and strategies
Identifies the types of organizations that generate financial information and explains how you can use it for your benefit. The early chapters focus on the information that is publicly available for large companies and demonstrate how to select and analyze the figures for decision making. The later chapters concentrate on the detailed management accounting information that is available internally for managers so that they can make decisions, investigate problems, and set performance targets. The final chapter, explores emerging and very pertinent issues such as "Can the organization obtain the basic resources to stay in business?" and "Are its activities harmful to the environment??
Accounting : What the numbers mean
Designed for non-majors, Accounting: What the Numbers Mean, guides students through the basics: what accounting information is, how it is developed, how it is used, and what it means. Financial statements are examined to learn what they do and do not communicate, enhancing the student’s decision-making and problem-solving abilities from a user perspective.
Acceptance and Usage of Technology through the Digital User Experience
Sheds light on the challenges and solutions for companies when dealing with the online consumer on social media and in the era of Web 4.0. It investigates the digital transformation in terms of customer experience, customer empowerment, resistance, influencer marketing, and trust. The volume shows how consumers perceive, react and behave towards brands’ digital marketing strategies in addition to the barriers, constraints, advantages and modes of action of online consumers.
Abstraction, reformulation and approximation ; 6th International symposium, SARA 2005, Airth Castle, Scotland, UK, July 26-29, 2005, proceedings
This volume contains the proceedings of the 6th Symposium on Abstraction, Reformulation and Approximation (SARA 2005). the proceedings have been published in the LNAI series of Springer. Abstractions, reformulations and approximations (AR&A) have found app- cationsin avarietyofdisciplines andproblems, including constraintsatisfaction, design, diagnosis, machine learning, planning, qualitative reasoning, scheduling, resource allocation and theorem proving, but are also deeply rooted in philo- phy and cognitive science. The papers in this volume capture a cross-section of the various facets of the ?eld and of its applications. One of the primary uses of AR&A is oriented to overcome computational intractability. AR&A techniques, however, have also proved useful for knowledge acquisition, explanation and other applications.
Abstraction Refinement for Large Scale Model Checking
This book describes recent research developments in automatic abstraction refinement techniques. The authors address the main challenge in abstraction refinement, i.e., the ability to efficiently reach or come close to the optimum abstraction (the smallest abstract model that proves or refutes the given property). A suite of fully automatic abstraction techniques are proposed to improve the overall computation efficiency. The suite of algorithms presented in this book has demonstrated significant improvement over the prior art; some of them have already been adopted by the EDA companies in their commercial/in-house verification tools.
A Stakeholder Rationale for Risk Management : Implications for Corporate Finance Decisions
Ordinarily, only the interests of shareholders, debtholders, and corporate management are taken into account when analyzing corporate financial decisions while the interests of non-financial stakeholders are often neglected. Gregor Gossy develops a so-called stakeholder rationale for risk management arguing that firms which are more dependent on implicit claims from their non-financial stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers, and employees, prefer conservative financial policies. In order to perform panel data analyses of the determinants of corporate financial decisions, the author uses data from Austrian and German industrial companies. He shows that variables for a firm’s most important non-financial stakeholders explain the firm’s capital structure and cash holding decisions. His findings suggest that a firm’s choice of accounting standards have a moderating effect on the determinants of corporate finance decisions.
A Guide to Sustainable Corporate Responsibility : From Theory to Action
Discusses the challenges and opportunities faced by companies in an age that increasingly values sustainability and demands corporate responsibility. Beginning with the historical development of corporate responsibility, this book moves from academic theory to practical application. It points to ways in which companies can successfully manage their transition to a more responsible, sustainable way of doing business, common mistakes to avoid and how the UN Sustainable Development Goals are integral to any sustainability transformation.
A Course on Mathematical Logic
This is a short, distinctive, modern, and motivated introduction to mathematical logic for senior undergraduate and beginning graduate students in mathematics and computer science. Any mathematician who is interested in knowing what logic is concerned with and who would like to learn Gödel’s incompleteness theorems should find this book particularly convenient. The treatment is thoroughly mathematical, and the entire subject has been approached like a branch of mathematics. Serious efforts have been made to make the book suitable for the classroom as well as for self-reading. The book does not strive to be a comprehensive encyclopedia of logic. Still, it gives essentially all the basic concepts and results in mathematical logic. The book prepares students to branch out in several areas of mathematics related to foundations and computability such as logic, axiomatic set theory, model theory, recursion theory, and computability.
A Contingency-Based View of Chief Executive Officers' Early Warning Behaviour : An Empirical Analysis of German Medium-Sized Companies
Organizations need to identify risks and chances of environmental changes in order to adapt to or possibly even to influence them. Early warning which comprises scanning and interpretation plays an important role in this process. Whereas the traditional contingency approach considers early warning as a part of the organizational structure, the extended contingency theory assumes the additional influence of an individual’s personality on early warning. Andreas Kirschkamp empirically analyses the early warning behavior of Chief Executive Officers in German medium-sized companies. First, he presents the design variables of early warning, then the influencing contingency variables. On the basis of the scholarly research on psychological and contingency theory, the author deduces hypotheses and tests them. The results show that early warning behavior is not only influenced by traditional contingency variables but also by personal attitudes.
3D printing in oral & maxillofacial surgery
A comprehensive guide to 3D printing and 3D bioprinting methods and their application in oral and maxillofacial surgeries. Among the 3D printing methods considered are fused deposition modeling, selective laser sintering, photopolymer jetting, powder binder printing, and stereolithography, while the coverage of 3D bioprinting encompasses inkjet, microextrusion, and laser techniques. In each case, the relevance of the technique to oral and maxillofacial surgery is explained. In addition, the available inks and bioinks for 3D printing are reviewed. The roles of soft and hard tissue printing in oral and maxillofacial tissue engineering and the use of 3D printing in multi- and interfacial tissue engineering are then examined in depth. The particular value of 3D printing in the treatment of critically sized defects is discussed separately. Finally, up-to-date information is provided on guided tissue/bone regeneration using 3D printing. The book will be of interest to both oral and maxillofacial surgeons and biomedical engineers.
21st century villa
People's everchanging lifestyles bring about more and more requirements for the overall qualities of houses, and the demands for residences have marched towards the psychological dimension and cultural sphere. Consequently, there arise new design trends and new requirements for environment, material selection and design concept. The design projects in this book lead readers to perceive the comfort and cosiness of the natural space. The designers of these projects have created more natural, and convenient living spaces in the most natural and purest design languages, giving them a comprehensive and vivid explanation of the architecture design concept that buildings are created for people.
