Business agility and information technology diffusion ; IFIP TC8 WG 8.6 International working Conference, May 8-11, 2005, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Addresses issues related to business agility and the diffusion of Information Technology (IT). Success, even survival, in today's business environment has been made complex and difficult by technologically-based competitive pressure. One promising strategy is to be agile and ready to adapt quickly to changes in the environment or market. Such strategy takes shape as an agile software development, agile manufacturing, agile modeling and agile iterations. In contrast, successful IT diffusion is known to be a process that takes time and careful effort. Many IT projects that succeeded in developing a product have subsequently failed in changing the behavior of the target group when diffusion just didn't happen. Therefore this volume responds to the question: What is the relationship between agility and IT diffusion? The book's scope will cover information systems and technology issues, as well as organizational and managerial issues, related to agility and IT diffusion. The planned perspectives include topics such as diffusion of agile methods, enabling business agility with IT, creating agile environments that facilitate diffusion of IT, theories and frameworks for understanding diffusion and agility issues, best practices relating to business agility and IT diffusion, software process improvement and agility, diffusion studies of specific agile technologies, and impacts of diffusion of IT agile methods.
Bulk Fill Resin Composites in Dentistry : A Clinical Guide
Dedicated to all relevant aspects of bulk fill materials and their uses in clinical practice. Today, we count over 30 different bulk fill materials, which can be used in the dental clinic. The composition of bulk fill materials and their different modes of application for moderate to large direct resin restorations placement are explained in this book. It is written by a group of international specialists and allows the reader to evaluate available materials, learn predictable techniques and evaluate long term survival as well as future developments. The book covers all fields related to the history of bulk fill composites, their composition and physical properties, and a step by step guide to their successful clinical applications.
Buildings : Theory and Applications
This book treats Jacques Tits's beautiful theory of buildings, making that theory accessible to readers with minimal background. It includes all the material of the earlier book Buildings by the second-named author, published by Springer-Verlag in 1989, which gave an introduction to buildings from the classical (simplicial) point of view. This new book also includes two other approaches to buildings, which nicely complement the simplicial approach: On the one hand, buildings may be viewed as abstract sets of chambers with a Weyl-group-valued distance function; this point of view has become increasingly important in the theory and applications of buildings. On the other hand, buildings may be viewed as metric spaces. Beginners can still use parts of the new book as a friendly introduction to buildings, but the book also contains valuable material for the active researcher.
Bringing the Jobless into Work? : Experiences with Activation Schemes in Europe and the US
Over the last decade, many industrialized countries shifted from passive unemployment and welfare benefit regimes and traditional active labor market and social policies to activation strategies by making benefit receipt conditional upon accepting job offers or participation in active labor market schemes. But countries differ with regard to the design of activation instruments and their implementation, the definition of target groups and the effects of activation in the national labor market setting. This volume provides an up-to-date overview of activation strategies in unemployment benefit systems and social assistance in selected European countries and the US. A particular focus lies on the development of activation schemes, governance and implementation as well as on the outcomes of activation in terms of labor market and social integration. The volume is the first to address these issues both from a socio-economic and a legal perspective.
Bridging laboratory and field research for genetic control of disease vectors
Contemporary research on genetic control of disease-transmitting insects knows two kinds of scientists: those that work in the laboratory and those known as ‘field people’. Over the last decade, both groups seem to have developed differing research priorities, address fundamentally different aspects within the overall discipline of infectious-disease control, and worse, have developed a scientific ‘language’ that is no longer understood by the ‘other’ party. This gap widens every day, between the North and the South, between ecologists and molecular biologists, geneticists and behaviourists, etc. The need to develop a common research agenda that bridges this gap has been identified as a top priority by all parties involved. Only then shall the goal of developing appropriate genetic-control strategies for vectors of disease become reality.
Breast cancer chemosensitivity
In Breast Cancer Chemosensitivity, a group of world leading experts review critical aspects of resistance to systemic therapy in breast cancer patients. Beginning with a clinical overview of the problem Breast Cancer Chemosensitivity moves on to focus on the latest findings of molecular mechanisms of drug resistance. These include in-depth discussions on multidrug resistance by P-glycoprotein and the multidrug resistance protein family, resistance to therapeutic agent-induced apoptosis, cell cycle deregulation, deregulation of DNA repair, loss of tumor suppressor genes, integrin-mediated adhesion, insulin-like growth factors, epidermal growth factor, and ErbB2 in modulating breast cancer response to systemic therapy, especially, certain chemotherapeutic agents. Breast Cancer Chemosensitivity provides an example of using novel approaches for chemosensitization of breast cancer cells that gives readers an idea about the future direction in breast cancer treatment.
Braid Groups
Braids and braid groups have been at the heart of mathematical development over the last two decades. Braids play an important role in diverse areas of mathematics and theoretical physics. The special beauty of the theory of braids stems from their attractive geometric nature and their close relations to other fundamental geometric objects, such as knots, links, mapping class groups of surfaces, and configuration spaces. In this presentation the authors thoroughly examine various aspects of the theory of braids, starting from basic definitions and then moving to more recent results. The advanced topics cover the Burau and the Lawrence--Krammer--Bigelow representations of the braid groups, the Alexander--Conway and Jones link polynomials, connections with the representation theory of the Iwahori--Hecke algebras, and the Garside structure and orderability of the braid groups.
Botany Illustrated : Introduction to Plants, Major Groups, Flowering Plant Families
This easy-to-use book helps you acquire a wealth of fascinating information about plants. There are 130 pages with text, each facing 130 pages of beautiful illustrations. Each page is a separate subject. Included is a coloring guide for the realistic illustrations. The illustration pages are composed of scientifically accurate line drawings with the true sizes of the plants indicated. Using colored pencils and the authors’ instructions, you can color the various plant structures to stand out in vivid clarity. Your knowledge of plants increases rapidly as you color the illustrations.
Biometrics, Computer Security Systems and Artificial Intelligence Applications
This book presents the most recent achievements in some fascinating and rapidly developing fields within Computer Science. The scientific works presented in this book have been partitioned into three topical groups: Image Analysis and Biometrics, Computer Security Systems, and Artificial Intelligence and Applications. Image Analysis and Biometrics is the branch of Computer Science dealing with the very difficult task of artificial, visual perception of objects and surroundings, as well as the problems connected with it. Computer Security and Safety is at present a very important and intensively investigated branch of Computer Science because of the menacing activity of hackers and computer viruses.
BioMEMS and biomedical nanotechnology ; Vol. IV : Biomolecular Sensing, Processing and Analysis
This volume contains 18 chapters focused on ‘Biomolecular Sensing, Processing and Analysis’, written by experts in the field of BioMEMS and biomedical nanotechnology. The chapters are groups into three broad categories of Sensors and Materials, Processing and Integrated Systems, and Microfluidics.Prof. Taun Vo-Dinh from Oakridge National Labs begins the Sensors and Materials section by providing a review of biosensors and biochips. This review is followed by an example of mechanical cantilever sensor work described by Prof. Arun Majumdar’s group at UC Berkeley and Prof. Tom Thundat at Oakridge National Laboratory.
Biology and Control Theory : Current Challenges
Creating some links between control feedback and biology modeling communities based on similarities in modeling, observing and perceiving alive structures, and analyzing interconnections between biological structures and subsystems was the main objective of this volume. The idea of this book was conceived in the context mentioned above with the objective to help in claiming many of the problems for control researchers, starting discussions and opening interactive debates between the control and biology communities, and, finally, to alert graduate students to the many interesting ideas at the frontier between control feedback theory and biology.
Biologie und epidemiologie der hormonersatztherapie : Diskussionen zur postmenopausalen gesundheit = Biology and epidemiology of hormone replacement therapy : Discussions on postmenopausal health
The advantages and disadvantages of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) are discussed by a group of experts with regard to the epidemiological evidence. However, the focus of the discussion is the problem of breast cancer risk. Among other things, it is shown that the results derived from epidemiological studies do not coincide with the growth characteristics of these tumors, so that further population studies with the inclusion of pathobiological expertise appear necessary. The benefits and risks of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) are discussed by a group of experts with a view towards the evidence provided by recent epidemiological studies. Although all aspects of HRT indications and contra-indications are reviewed, the particular emphasis of this discussion is on breast cancer. Among other things, it is shown that the evidence on breast cancer provided in epidemiological studies does not match the growth characteristics of the tumors, and that further population research incorporating pathobiological assessments is required.
Biological Low-Voltage Scanning Electron Microscopy
Biological Low-Voltage Scanning Electron Microscopy is the first book to address both of these aspects of biological LVSEM. After providing a thorough description of the unique advantages and the operating constraints related to operating a scanning electron microscope at low beam voltage, the remainder of book focuses on the the best way to image all types of plant and animal cells and covers specimens that range from macromolecules to the surfaces revealed by de-embedding resin-embedded samples. Advanced specimen preparation techniques such as cryo-LVSEM, and immuno-gold-LVSEM are fully covered, as is x-ray microanalysis at low beam voltage and live-time stereo imaging. The preparative protocols provided represent the distilled essence of the experience of a group of world-renowned authors who have, for many decades, been instrumental in developing and applying new approaches to LVSEM to support their own biological research.
Biological Invasions Belowground : Earthworms as Invasive Species
he most conspicuous biological invasions in terrestrial ecosystems have been by exotic plants, insects and vertebrates. Less conspicuous but possibly of equal importance are invasions by soil invertebrates, which are occurring literally beneath our feet. Familiar examples include the South American fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) which has invaded North America and Australia, and the New Zealand flatworm (Arthurdendyus triangulatus) which has become wide-spread in the United Kingdom; both have caused considerable ecological and economic damage. There is now evidence that exotic earthworm invasions are increasing world-wide and may be having significant impacts on soil processes and plant communities in some regions. Much remains to be learned about these ‘cryptic’ biological invasions. The papers in this book are based on efforts by an international group of soil ecologists to assess the biological and ecological mechanisms of earthworm invasions, their geographic extent and impacts on terrestrial ecosystems, and possible means by which earthworm invasions might be mitigated.
Biogeography and Ecology of Bulgaria
The book includes 22 chapters by 28 authors united by the single theme: biogeography and ecology of Bulgaria. From the single-celled organisms in the Black Sea sand to the endemic cave crustaceans, from the mountain glacial relict insects to the most diverse bird fauna in Europe, the unique fauna of Bulgaria has been a subject of study of mostly Bulgarian zoologists for more than a century. This is the first monograph in English broadly addressing all vertebrate and many key invertebrate groups of Bulgaria, their faunistics, origin, geographical and ecological distribution, and conservation issues are addressed by the experts on each group.
Biodiversity Conservation and Phylogenetic Systematics : Preserving our evolutionary heritage in an extinction crisis
This book brings an updated state of the art of phylogenetic diversity in conservation biology. Nineteen chapters written by scientists from research institutions of fourteen countries demonstrate that approaches for preserving the evolutionary heritage are now very tuned into human impacts and sustainability issues. The questions, methods and applications around which it is organized show the importance of phylogenetic diversity in avoiding biodiversity losses in the present extinction crisis. They touch important points such as the way we value phylogenetic diversity, the importance of thinking at a much wider sample of the Tree of Life, the choice of adequate measures. In methods section, new solutions, such as dealing with abundances, sampling effort, or with information coming from conflicting phylogenetic trees are provided. Application section includes study cases of different groups of organi
Bioceramics and alternative bearings in joint arthroplasty ; 10th BIOLOX Symposium. Washington D.C., June 10-11, 2005. Proceedings
This group accomplishment has been made possible by the superb cooperation received from the speakers in sending us their manuscripts on a timely basis as well as by the supporting staff at both CeramTec and at the Publishing House in executing all of the details needed. We specially extend our most heartfelt thanks to the Scientific Committee for their assistance in evaluating and selecting the submissions as well as developing the Symposium program. We are more convinced than ever that the proceedings of this Symposium are a continuation of CeramTec's tradition of providing all members of the orthopedic surgical community with a valuable addition to your reference libraries. We hope that this book will present you with the latest and most up to date source of scientific and clinical information regarding the use of ceramics and other alternative bearings in joint replacement surgery.
Bioactive Heterocyles I
Bioactive Heterocycles I is a continuation of critical accounts about heterocyclic compounds within the series Topics in Heterocyclic Chemistry. The present volume provides comprehensive reviews of the chemistry and bioactivity of selected groups of heterocycles and natural products. … Overall, this book covers in detail several classes of bioactive heterocyclic compounds including selected natural products. The focus is on the most recent advances, and the clarity of the presentation is very good. It should be of interest to individuals interested in the discovery and synthesis of bioactive small molecules, including research scientists in academia and industry.
Bioactive Heterocycles V
This volume contains 10 chapters. The contributions are from researchers famous in their respective fields and the chapters contain high quality reviews on topics related to the chemo-biological studies of several different heterocyclic groups. The first chapter from Saracoglu reviews the functionalization of indoles and the pyrroles via Michael additions, as these compounds have potential for their biological activities. In second chapter Men ́endez reviews the chemistry of the welwitindolinones. Topcu and Demirkiran, in the third chapter, describe the chemistry and biological studies of lignans from Taxus species, including their biosynthesis and recent strategies for the synthesis of lignans.
Big Data : Conceptual Analysis and Applications
The book is devoted to the analysis of big data in order to extract from these data hidden patterns necessary for making decisions about the rational behavior of complex systems with the different nature that generate this data. To solve these problems, a group of new methods and tools is used, based on the self-organization of computational processes, the use of crisp and fuzzy cluster analysis methods, hybrid neural-fuzzy networks, and others. The book solves various practical problems. In particular, for the tasks of 3D image recognition and automatic speech recognition large-scale neural networks with applications for Deep Learning systems were used.



















