Cross cultural issues in consumer science and consumer psychology : Current perspectives and future directions
Shows cross-cultural issues in consumer psychology and consumer science as the world becomes an increasingly global marketplace. An international panel of experts analyzes current trends in consumer behavior across diverse countries worldwide and across cultural groups within countries, depicting commonly-used cross-cultural frameworks and research methods. Beginning with conceptualizing and quantifying culture at the national level, the volume then moves to individual levels of analysis of consumer decision-making, examining consumer data as they affect business decisions in marketing products internationally. The resulting work synthesizes the consumer science, international business, and consumer psychology literatures for a deeper understanding of all three disciplines and pathways to future research as cultures interact and tastes evolve.
Critical Questions in STEM Education
This volume is divided into three sections: the first one describes the nature of the component disciplines of STEM. The next section presents work from leaders representing all STEM disciplines and deals with aspects such as K-12 and post-secondary education. The last section draws conclusions regarding the natures of the disciplines, challenges and advantages of STEM education in terms of theoretical and practical implications. The two final chapters compile arguments from the research chapters, describing themes in research results, and making recommendations for best STEM education practice, and examining areas for future research in STEM education.
Creative Environments : Issues of Creativity Support for the Knowledge Civilization Age
This book contains four parts. The first part presents a further development of models of knowledge creation presented already in Creative Space, in particular the Triple Helix of normal academic knowledge creation and a new, integrated model of normal academic and organizational knowledge creation, called Nanatsudaki (seven waterfalls) Model. The second part presents computational intelligence tools for knowledge acquisition by machine learning and data mining, for debating, brainstorming, for roadmapping and for integrated support of academic creativity. The third part presents the use of statistics for creativity support, virtual laboratories, gaming and role playing for creativity support, methods of knowledge representation and multiple criteria aggregation, distance and electronic learning. The last part addresses knowledge management and philosophical
Creating New Learning Experiences on a Global Scale ; 2nd European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2007, Crete, Greece, September 17-20, 2007, Proceedings
It is holding more than 500 pages of combined wisdom on Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) in your hands! With the advance of metadata, standards, learning objects, Web 2. 0 approaches to rip, mix and burn learning, wikis, blogs, syndication, user-generated content, W- based video, games and the ubiquitous availability of computing devices we can and have to offer more flexible learning services on a global scale.It provided a unique forum for all research related to technology enhanced learning, including its interactions with knowledge management, business processes and work environments.
Corrosion of Steel in Concrete : Understanding, Investigation and Repair
A guide for designing, constructing and maintaining reinforced concrete structures, such as buildings and bridges which are subject to reinforcement corrosion. It presents the basics of theory and practice in steel corrosion in concrete and reviews the latest research and developments, such as progress on measuring the corrosion threshold for chloride-induced corrosion.
Corporate Social Responsibility as an International Strategy
CSR, a concept aimed at determining the amount of responsibilities to be shouldered by private business toward stakeholder groups and society at large, deserves to be dealt with in considerable detail and not simply as another "PR fuzz" or marketing gag. As a model, CSR epitomises the old saying "business is business"; offering broader stakeholder management which can be seen as a competitive advantage. Increased financial performance and employee commitment are among the benefits the CSR model can offer corporations. This discussion presents practitioners and scholars with a unique examination of how firms can maximise productivity through the implementation of CSR programs.
Corporate governance : Evolving practices and emerging challenges ; Vol 21 : Business, management and economics
Provides a thorough analysis of the evolving dynamics of corporate gover- nance. the discussions encompass a broad range of issues, reflecting both the endur- ing foundations and the innovative approaches reshaping contemporary governance across various global contexts. the work begins by exploring the critical interplay between corporate social responsibility and corporate performance, examining trends across several economic sectors and geographic regions. this sets the stage for deeper inquiries into how different regulatory and cultural landscapes influence governance practices. particular emphasis is placed on the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, which are becoming increasingly significant in shap- ing corporate policies worldwide. the book also investigates how these practices are implemented in different industries and the emerging challenges that corporations face in adhering to these new standards.
Cooperative Information Agents XII ; 12th International Workshop, CIA 2008, Prague, Czech Republic, September 10-12, 2008. Proceedings
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents, CIA 2008, held in Prague, Czech Republik, in September 2008.
Cooperative Information Agents XI ; Matthias Klusch, Koen V. Hindriks, Mike P. Papazoglou, Leon Sterling
In today’s world of ubiquitously connected heterogeneous information systems and computing devices, the intelligent coordination and provision of relevant added-value information at any time, anywhere is of key importance to a va- ety of applications. This challenge is envisioned to be coped with by means of appropriate intelligent and cooperative information agents. An information agent is a computational software entity that has access to one or multiple heterogeneous and geographically dispersed data and infor- tion sources. It pro-actively searches for and maintains information on behalf of its human users, or other agents preferably just in time. In other words, it is managing and overcoming the di?culties associated with information overload in open, pervasive information and service landscapes. Each component of a modern cooperative information system is represented by an appropriate intelligent information agent capable of resolving system and semantic heterogeneities in a given context on demand. Cooperative infor- tion agents are supposed to accomplish both individual and shared joint goals depending on the actual user preferences in line with given or deduced limits of time, budget and resources available.
Convex Polyhedra
Convex Polyhedra is one of the classics in geometry. There simply is no other book with so many of the aspects of the theory of 3-dimensional convex polyhedra in a comparable way, and in anywhere near its detail and completeness. It is the definitive source of the classical field of convex polyhedra and contains the available answers to the question of the data uniquely determining a convex polyhedron. This question concerns all data pertinent to a polyhedron, e.g. the lengths of edges, areas of faces, etc. This vital and clearly written book includes the basics of convex polyhedra and collects the most general existence theorems for convex polyhedra that are proved by a new and unified method.
Content based image retrieval systems
With an advent of technology, huge collection of digital images is formed as repositories on crime prevention, medical diagnosis, military, face finding, satellites and remote sensing. The task of searching for similar images in the repository is difficult. The data is growing enormously which makes it difficult to store and manage. The traditional image retrieval technique is inefficient in retrieving these images. Content-based image retrieval is an approach from data mining community, which provides the solution of managing this huge quantity of data. In this research, a Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) system has been developed using color and texture as retrieval features from the image repository. The system allows the user to search for an image based on any of the two features alone or in combination by assigning weights to the features. The histogram and color moments approach is used to extract the color feature, texture feature is extracted using statistical moments and co-occurrence matrix method and the shape feature is extracted using the morphological operations. The images and the extracted feature vectors are stored in the Pickle file. The system is robust as it provides search based on the multiple features. The performance of the system was evaluated by analyzing the retrieval results using precision and recall.
Contemporary Accounts in Drug Discovery and Development
Drug discovery is a lengthy and complex process that typically involves identifying an unmet medical need, determining a biological target, chemical library screening to identify a lead, chemical optimization, preclinical studies and clinical trials. This process often takes many years to complete, and relies on practitioners’ knowledge of chemistry and biology, but also—and perhaps more importantly—on experience. Improving the success rate in discovery and development through a thorough knowledge of drug discovery principles and advances in technology is critical for advancement in the field.
Construction and Building Automation : From Concepts to Implementation
Intended to be used as a textbook in undergraduate civil engineering and construction courses to introduce cutting edge mechanical, electrical and computer science topics that are needed for civil and construction engineers to collaborate in inter-disciplinary automation projects. Introduces hardware and software needed for automating engineering tasks ; Presents examples of applications in the control of building systems ; Illustrates of the use of automation for improving construction processes ; Provides a lucid introduction to advanced computing concepts, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and control algorithms to construction and engineering students.
Constraint-Based Mining and Inductive Databases ; European Workshop on Inductive Databases and Constraint Based Mining, Hinterzarten, Germany, March 11-13, 2004, Revised Selected Papers
The interconnected ideas of inductive databases and constraint-based mining are appealing and have the potential to radically change the theory and practice of data mining and knowledge discovery.
Constraint Theory : Multidimensional Mathematical Model Management
The enormous potential of digital computation to manage new complex systems is impeded by exponential increases in complexity. As the model's dimensionality increases from hundreds to thousands of variables, and as submodels constructed by diverse technical teams are integrated into the total model, the model is likely to become inconsistent and even more likely, the computational requests on the model become unallowable. This text analyzes the way constraint theory employs bipartite graphs and constraint matrices to detect and correct these well-posed problems. It also presents the process of locating the "kernel of constraint", literally trillions of times faster than a random search, determining consistency and compatibility within seconds.
Conceptual Modeling - ER 2007 ; 26th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, Auckland, New Zealand, November 5-9, 2007, Proceedings
Conceptual modeling is fundamental to the development of complex systems, because it provides the key communication means between systems developers, end-users and customers.Conceptua lmodeling provides languages,methods and tools to understand and represent the application domain;to elicitate,concepalize and formalize system requirements and user needs;to communicate systems designs to all stakeholders; to formally verify and validate system designs on high levels of abstractions; and to minimize ambiguities in system development. Initially, conceptual modeling mainly addressed data-intensive information s- tems and contributed to data modeling and database application engineering. The area of conceptual modeling has now matured to encompass all kinds of application areas such as e-applications (including e-business and e-learning), web-based systems (including the semantic web and ubiquitous systems), life science and geographic applications.
Conceptual Modeling - ER 2006 ; 25th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, Tucson, AZ, USA, November 6-9, 2006, Proceedings
The International Conference on Conceptual Modeling provides the premiere - rum for presenting and discussing current research and applications in which the - jor emphasis is on conceptual modeling. Topics of interest span the entire spectrum of conceptual modeling including research and practice in areas such as theories of c- cepts and ontologies underlying conceptual modeling, methods and tools for devel- ing and communicating conceptual models, and techniques for transforming conc- tual models into effective implementations.
Conceptual Ecology and Invasion Biology : Reciprocal Approaches to Nature
In this edited volume, global experts in ecology and evolutionary biology explore how theories in ecology elucidate the invasion processes while also examining how specific invasions informs ecological theory. This reciprocal benefit is highlighted in a number of scales of organization: population, community and biogeographic, while employing example invaders in all major groups of organisms and from a number of regions around the globe. The chapters in this volume utilize many of the cutting edge observational, experimental, analytical and computational methods used in modern ecology. Through merging conceptual ecology and invasion biology we can obtain a better understanding of the invasion process while also developing a better understanding of how ecological systems function.
Concept Lattices and Their Applications ; Fourth International Conference, CLA 2006 Tunis, Tunisia, October 30-November 1, 2006 Selected Papers
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Concept Lattices and their Applications, CLA 2006, held in Tunis, Tunisia, October 30-November 1, 2006.
Computers and Games ; 6th International Conference, CG 2008, Beijing, China, September 29 - October 1, 2008. Proceedings
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computers and Games, CG 2008, held in Beijing, China, in September/October 2008 co-located with the 13th Computer Olympiad and the 16th World Computer-Chess Championship.



















