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Valuing Agroforestry Systems : Methods and Applications
Offers practical means for strengthening the economics and policy dimension of the agroforestry discipline. The applied economic methodologies encompass a wide variety of case studies including enterprise/farm budget models through Faustmann models, Policy Analysis Matrix, production function approach, risk assessment models, dynamic programming, linear programming, meta-modeling, contingent valuation, attribute-based choice experiments, econometric modeling, and institutional economic analysis. It is our belief that these methodologies help agroforestry students and professionals conduct rigorous assessment of economic and policy aspects of agroforestry systems and to produce less biased and more credible information. Furthermore, the economic and policy issues explored in the book – profitability, environmental benefits, risk reduction, household constraints, rural development, and institutional arrangements – are central to further agroforestry adoption in both tropical and temperate regions
Value-Range Analysis of C Programs : Towards Proving the Absence of Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilities
The use of static analysis techniques to prove the partial correctness of C code has recently attracted much attention due to the high cost of software errors - particularly with respect to security vulnerabilities. However, research into new analysis techniques is often hampered by the technical difficulties of analysing accesses through pointers, pointer arithmetic, coercion between types, integer wrap-around and other low-level behaviour. Axel Simon provides a concise, yet formal description of a value-range analysis that soundly approximates the semantics of C programs using systems of linear inequalities (polyhedra). The analysis is formally specified down to the bit-level while providing a precise approximation of all low-level aspects of C using polyhedral operations and, as such, it provides a basis for implementing new analyses that are aimed at verifying higher-level program properties precisely. One example of such an analysis is the tracking of the NUL position in C string buffers, which is shown as an extension to the basic analysis and which thereby demonstrates the modularity of the approach.
Value-based management in an open economy : Optimizing strategy to improve business and performance
Investigates the relationship between strategy optimization mechanisms and the efficiency (performance and productivity) in the digital and open economy. The aim of this question on the interactions between strategies, performance, and market forms is to understand how, at the level of value-based management, productivity determines the optimized strategies and how the optimization process is modified according to the performance of the firm.
Value Creation in Successful LBOs
Daniel Pindur analyzes value creation in successful LBOs on investment level conceptually and empirically from an LBO equity investor perspective. Based on the LBO transaction model, the author decomposes total proceeds to LBO equity investors and derives a two-tier framework of an internal and an external perspective, thereby structuring the conceptual discussion of various determinants affecting these components. Founded on a novel database with detailed company- and transaction-specific information for a sample of 42 realized European LBO investments, he then quantifies LBO investment performance measures and their components and identifies the determinants of value creation in LBO investments.
Value Chain Management in the Chemical Industry : Global Value Chain Planning of Commodities
Supply chain management helped companies to manage volumes, fulfil customer demand and optimize costs in production and distribution. Specifically, chemical industry companies with high complexity in production and distribution used supply chain management to steer their operations. Confronted with globalization and increasing raw material and sales price volatility, optimizing supply chain costs is no longer sufficient to ensure the overall profitability of the business. Value chain management takes supply chain management to the next level by integrating all volume and value decisions from sales to procurement. The book presents the value chain management concept and demonstrates how it is applied in a global value chain planning model for commodities in the chemical industry. A comprehensive industry case study illustrates the effects of decision making integration, e.g. the influence of raw material prices or exchange rates on optimal sales, production, distribution and procurement plans as well as overall company profitability.
Validation of Risk Management Models for Financial Institutions : Theory and Practice
Covers all of the major risk areas that a financial institution is exposed to and uses models for, including market risk, interest rate risk, retail credit risk, wholesale credit risk, compliance risk, and investment management. The book discusses current practices and pitfalls that model risk users need to be aware of and identifies areas where validation can be advanced in the future. This provides the first unified framework for validating risk management models.
Validated Designs for Object-oriented Systems
Describes an object-oriented design approach that combines the benefits of abstract modelling with the analytic power of formal methods, to give designs that can be rigorously validated & assured with automated support. Aimed at software architects, designers & developers as well as computer scientists, no prior knowledge of formal methods is assumed. The elements of functional modelling are introduced using numerous examples & exercises, industrial case studies & experience reports. Industry-strength tools support the text.
Vacation Queueing Models : Theory and Applications
A classical queueing model consists of three parts - arrival process, service process, and queue discipline. However, a vacation queueing model has an additional part - the vacation process which is governed by a vacation policy - that can be characterized by three aspects: 1) vacation start-up rule; 2) vacation termination rule, and 3) vacation duration distribution. Hence, vacation queueing models are an extension of classical queueing theory.
Utility Maximization, Choice and Preference
The utility maximization paradigm forms the basis of many economic, psychological, cognitive and behavioral models. Since it was first devised in the eighteenth century, numerous examples have revealed the deficiencies of the concept. This book makes a contribution to overcome those deficiencies by taking into account insensitivity of measurement threshold and context of choice. It covers classic theory as a special, context-free case and gives a systematic overview of new models of utility maximization within a context-dependent threshold as well as related preference and choice models. The second edition has been updated to include the most recent developments and a new chapter on classic and new results for infinite sets.
Uses of technology in upper secondary mathematics education
This survey addresses the use of technology in upper secondary mathematics education from four points of view: theoretical analysis of epistemological and cognitive aspects of activity in new technology mediated learning environments, the changes brought by technology in the interactions between environment, students and teachers, the interrelations between mathematical activities and technology, skills and competencies that must be developed in teacher education. Research shows that the use of some technologies may deeply change the solving processes and contribute to impact the learning processes. The questions are which technologies to choose for which purposes, and how to integrate them, so as to maximize all students’ agency. In particular the role of the teacher in classrooms and the content of teacher education programs are critical for taking full advantage of technology in teaching practice.
User Modeling 2007 ; 11th International Conference, UM 2007, Corfu, Greece, July 25-29, 2007, Proceedings
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 11th International Conference on User Modeling, UM 2007, held in Corfu, Greece in July 2007. The 30 revised full papers and 32 poster papers presented together with papers of 5 selected doctoral consortium articles and the abstracts of 3 lectures.The papers are organized in topical sections on evaluating user/student modeling techniques, data mining and machine learning for user modeling, collaborative filtering and recommender systems, cognitive modeling, user adaptation.
User Modeling 2005 ; 10th International Conference, UM 2005, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, July 24-29, 2005, Proceedings
The book offers topical sections on adaptive hypermedia, affective computing, data mining for personalization and cross-recommendation, ITS and adaptive advice, modeling and recognizing human activity, multimodality and ubiquitous computing, recommender systems, student modeling, user modeling and interactive systems, and Web site navigation support.
Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML : Theory and Practice
Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML: Theory and Practice shows how to drive an object-oriented software design from use case all the way through coding and testing, based on the minimalist, UML-based ICONIX process. In addition to a comprehensive explanation of the foundations of the approach, the book makes extensive use of examples and provides exercises at the back of each chapter.
Usability of Speech Dialog Systems : Listening to the Target Audience
This book is based on the fact that it is the usersâ judgments that is the final measure regarding usability and acceptance of any speech dialog system. It is the aim of this book to share views from experts from industry and academia who look a step ahead, providing their strategies and approaches for the future of user-friendly speech dialog systems.Contributions spotlight issues such as automatic user classification, uncovering users’ interaction schemes, speech interaction as part of multimodal user interfaces, relation of subjective and objective data, and the role of voice and style in designing a brand specific acoustic appearance
Usability and internationalization : HCI and culture ; 2nd International Conference on usability and internationalization, UI-HCII 2007, held as Part of HCI International 2007, Beijing, China, July 22-27, 2007, Proceedings, Part I
These papers address the latest research and development efforts and highlight the human aspects of design and use of computing systems. The papers accepted for presentation th- oughly cover the entire field of Human-Computer Interaction, addressing major - vances in knowledge and effective use of computers in a variety of application areas. This volume, edited by Nuray Aykin, contains papers in the thematic area of Usability and Internationalization, addressing the following major topics: Cross-Cultural Design / International and Intercultural Usability / User Studies.
Usability and internationalization : Global and local user interfaces ; 2nd International Conference on usability and internationalization, UI-HCII 2007, Held as Part of HCI International 2007, Beijing, China, July 22-27, 2007, Proceedings, Part II
The papers cover the entire field of Human-Computer Interaction, addressing major advances in knowledge and effective use of computers in a variety of application areas. This volume, edited by Nuray Aykin, contains papers in the thematic area of - ability and Internationalization, addressing the following major topics: Designing Global and Local Products and Services / Enhancing and Personalizing the User Experience
US Spacesuits
Successfully meeting the challenges to creating safe, reliable and comfortable spacesuits is an ongoing effort that has spanned over four decades. The book includes over 100 design models and 13 manufacturers that have thus far supported civilian and defense spacesuit programs." "Both authors have unparalleled experience in US spacesuit development, and this ensures a technically accurate and historically interesting text. The book is also illustrated by a unique collection that includes scores of never previously reproduced photographs. US Spacesuits is the most accurate and comprehensive text about the general topic of spacesuits, and US spacesuits in particular, that has ever been produced.
Urological Oncology
Urological Oncology provides a comprehensive overview of the multi-disciplinary management of adult genito-urinary (GU) cancers. In a concise, didactic and easy to assimilate format, this book will be helpful for trainee urologists and oncologists. It includes the important principles of evidence-based management of GU cancers to help the reader understand the latest diagnostic and therapeutic modalities. The main emphasis is on clinical presentation, investigations and standard management strategies. An international authorship ensures a consensus approach covering the differing views of various authorities on the subject is provided. The book includes chapters on etiology, pathology including TNM classification, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, indications for surgery and the complications of these treatments.
Urban Operating Systems : Producing the Computational City
A new wave of enthusiasm for smart cities, urban data, and the Internet of Things has created the impression that computation can solve almost any urban problem. Subjecting this claim to critical scrutiny, in this book, Andrés Luque-Ayala and Simon Marvin examine the cultural, historical, and contemporary contexts in which urban computational logics have emerged. They consider the rationalities and techniques that constitute emerging computational forms of urbanization, including work on digital urbanism, smart cities, and, more recently, platform urbanism. They explore the modest potentials and serious contradictions of reconfiguring urban life, city services, and urban-networked infrastructure through computational operating systems--an urban OS.
Urban Modernity in the Contemporary Gulf : Obsolescence and Opportunities
Offers a timely and engaging discussion on architectural production in the modernization era in the Arabian Peninsula. Focusing on the 20th century as a starting point, the book explores the display of transnational architectural practices resulting in different notions of locality, cosmopolitanism, and modernity. Contextually, with an eye on the present, the book reflects on the initiatives that recently re-engaged with the once ville moderne which, meanwhile, lost its pivotal function and meaning. A city within a bigger city, the urban fabric produced during the modernization era has the potential to narrate the social growth, East–West dynamics, and citizens’ memories of the recent past.
