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A Successful Transformation? : Restructuring of the Czech Automobile Industry
This book investigates the complex processes of the post-1990 transformation in the Czech automotive industry and its selective integration in the West European automobile manufacturing system. The post-1990 restructuring of the Czech automotive industry is analyzed in the context of its pre-1990 development and in the context of the Central and East European automobile industry as a whole. Specifically, the book examines the development and post-1990 restructuring of the Czech passenger car industry, the components industry and truck manufacturing. Major topics covered include the development of the Czech automotive industry before 1990, the detailed case study of Škoda Auto, the effects of the post-1990 privatization in the Czech automotive industry, the role and effects of foreign direct investment during the post-1990 restructuring, the restructuring of the Czech truck industry, and the rapid development of the automotive components manufacturing.
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 Singular Introduction to Commutative Algebra
Aims to lead a further stage in the computational revolution in commutative algebra. Another feature of the book is its breadth of coverage of theoretical topics in the portions of commutative algebra closest to algebraic geometry, with algorithmic treatments of almost every topic.
A Short Course in Geology for Civil Engineers
Explains the process of ground formation - what it is made of and how it behaves as an engineering material. This enables the civil engineer to work from a few first principles to determine if the ground is an asset or a hazard. It focuses on the tectonic plate mechanisms that give rise to the geology of our planet and describes the way these create hazards such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis. The authors state that groundwater can be both a resource and a hazard and through this book they provide an overview of the origins of geomaterials.
A Primer for the Exercise and Nutrition Sciences : Thermodynamics, Bioenergetics, Metabolism
Provides a fresh approach to the study of energy expenditure by introducing the latest concepts in open system thermodynamics and cellular to whole-body energy exchange. A journey is undertaken by the reader, beginning with what energy is and where the energy in glucose is found, and ending with the concept of high versus low intensity exercise in augmenting weight loss.
A Practical Programming Model for the Multi-Core Era ; 3rd International Workshop on OpenMP, IWOMP 2007, Beijing, China, June 3-7, 2007 Proceedings
This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-workshop proceedings of the Third International Workshop on OpenMP, IWOMP 2007, held in Beijing, China, in June 2007.The 14 revised full papers and 8 revised short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 28 submissions. The papers address all topics related to OpenMP, such as OpenMP performance analysis and modeling, OpenMP performance and correctness tools and proposed OpenMP extensions, as well as applications in various domains, e.g., scientific computation, video games, computer graphics, multimedia, information retrieval, optimization, text processing, data mining, finance, signal and image processing, and numerical solvers.
A Pan-Chromatic View of Clusters of Galaxies and the Large-Scale Structure
The reviews presented in this volume cover a wide-range of cluster of galaxies topics like the physics of the ICM gas, the internal cluster dynamics, the detection of clusters using different observational techniques, the great advances in analytical or numerical modeling of clusters, weak and strong lensing effects, the large scale structure as traced by clusters, the cosmological significance of clusters as well as the formation and evolution of clusters within the new cosmological paradigm.
A Natural Introduction to Probability Theory
According to Leo Breiman (1968), probability theory has a right and a left hand. The right hand refers to rigorous mathematics, and the left hand refers to ‘pro- bilistic thinking’. The combination of these two aspects makes probability theory one of the most exciting ?elds in mathematics. One can study probability as a purely mathematical enterprise, but even when you do that, all the concepts that arisedo haveameaningontheintuitivelevel.Forinstance,wehaveto de?newhat we mean exactly by independent events as a mathematical concept, but clearly, we all know that when we ?ip a coin twice, the event that the ?rst gives heads is independent of the event that the second gives tails.
A Modular Calculus for the Average Cost of Data Structuring
This volume, with forewords by Greg Bollella and Dana Scott, presents novel programs based on the new advances in this area, including the first randomness-preserving version of Heapsort. Programs are provided, along with derivations of their average-case time, to illustrate the radically different approach to average-case timing. The automated static timing tool applies the Modular Calculus to extract the average-case running time of programs directly from their MOQA code.
A Modern Approach to Intelligent Animation : Theory and Practice
Part of the new series, Advanced Topics in Science and Technology in China, this book discusses concepts, theory, and core technologies of intelligent theory and human animation, including video based human animation, and intelligent technology of motion data management and reusing. It introduces systems developed to demonstrate the technologies of video based animation. Each chapter is independent. Lively pictures and demos will be presented to make the theory and technologies more understandable.
A Mathematical Introduction to Conformal Field Theory
The first part of this book gives a detailed, self-contained and mathematically rigorous exposition of classical conformal symmetry in n dimensions and its quantization in two dimensions. In particular, the conformal groups are determined and the appearance of the Virasoro algebra in the context of the quantization of two-dimensional conformal symmetry is explained via the classification of central extensions of Lie algebras and groups. The second part surveys some more advanced topics of conformal field theory, such as the representation theory of the Virasoro algebra, conformal symmetry within string theory, an axiomatic approach to Euclidean conformally covariant quantum field theory and a mathematical interpretation of the Verlinde formula in the context of moduli spaces of holomorphic vector bundles on a Riemann surface.
A Legacy for Living Systems : Gregory Bateson as Precursor to Biosemiotics
This book represents a major attempt to revise this deficiency. Scholars from ecology, biochemistry, evolutionary biology, cognitive science, anthropology and philosophy discuss how Bateson's thinking might lead to a fruitful reframing of central problems in modern science. Most important perhaps, Bateson's bioanthropology is shown to play a key role in developing the set of ideas explored in the new field of biosemiotics. The idea that organismic life is indeed basically semiotic or communicative lies at the heart of the biosemiotic approach to the study of life.The only book of its kind, this volume provides a key resource for the quickly-growing substratum of scholars in the biosciences, philosophy and medicine who are seeking an elegant new approach to exploring highly complex systems.
A History of Physical Theories of Comets, From Aristotle to Whipple
The book describes the major physical theories of comets in the past two millennia. It demonstrates the evolution of ideas about the nature, position, motion and physical constitution of comets from Aristotle to Whipple. Unlike the available works on the history of comets, which either illustrate relatively short periods in the history of physical cometology or portray a landscape view without adequate details, the present study focuses on details of each theory. It also investigates the interaction between observational and mathematical astronomy, and the physical sciences in defining the properties of comets.
A guide for delineation of lymph nodal clinical target volume in radiation therapy
This book will facilitate the understanding of cross-sectional anatomy details and assist radiation oncologists in the difficult task of a detailed delineation of lymph node targets in multiple anatomical locations.
A Geometry of Approximation : Rough Set Theory: Logic, Algebra and Topology of Conceptual Patterns
A Geometry of Approximation' addresses Rough Set Theory, a field of interdisciplinary research first proposed by Zdzislaw Pawlak in 1982, and focuses mainly on its logic-algebraic interpretation. The theory is embedded in a broader perspective that includes logical and mathematical methodologies pertaining to the theory, as well as related epistemological issues. Any mathematical technique that is introduced in the book is preceded by logical and epistemological explanations. Intuitive justifications are also provided, insofar as possible, so that the general perspective is not lost.
A Distributed Coordination Approach to Reconfigurable Process Control
A Distributed Coordination Approach to Reconfigurable Process Control presents research that addresses this critical question, via developing a new distributed framework that will enable the building of a process control system that is capable of reconfigurability.
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.
A Concise Introduction to Software Engineering
This text focuses on the essential elements, providing readers with the basic skills and introductory knowledge required to execute a software project successfully.
A Concise Introduction to Languages and Machines
This easy-to-follow text provides an accessible introduction to the key topics of formal languages and abstract machines within Computer Science.
