الصفحة 72
الصفحة 72
Agricultural biodiversity and biotechnology in economic development
The topics addressed in this book are of vital importance to the survival of humankind. Agricultural biodiversity, encompassing genetic diversity as well as human knowledge, is the base upon which agricultural production has been built, and protecting this resource is critical to ensuring the capacity of current and future generations to adapt to unforeseen challenges. Agricultural biodiversity underpins the productivity of all agricultural systems and is particularly important for poor and food-insecure farmers, who maintain highly diverse production systems in response to the marginal and risky production conditions they operate under. Understanding the importance of agricultural biodiversity in the livelihoods of the food insecure and enhancing its performance through the use of a variety of tools, including biotechnology, is a critically important issue in the world today
Aging, shaking, and cracking of infrastructures : From mechanics to concrete dams and nuclear structures
Focuses on the safety assessment of existing structures subjected to multi-hazard scenarios through advanced numerical methods. Whereas the focus is on concrete dams and nuclear containment structures, the presented methodologies can also be applied to other large-scale ones. This book is composed of seven sections: Fundamentals: theoretical coverage of solid mechnics, plasticity, fracture mechanics, creep, / seismology, dynamic analysis, probability and statistics / Damage: that can affect concrete structures, such as cracking of concrete, AAR, chloride ingress, and rebar corrosion, / Finite Element: formulation for both linear and nonlinear analysis including stress, heat and fracture mechanics, / Engineering Models: for soil/fluid-structure interaction, uncertainty quantification, probablilistic and random finite element analysis, machine learning, performance based earthquake engineering, ground motion intensity measures, seismic hazard analysis, capacity/fragility functions and damage indeces, / Applications to dams through potential failure mode analyses, risk-informed decision making, deterministic and probabilistic examples, / Applications to nuclear structures through modeling issues, aging management programs, critical review of some analyses, / Other applications and case studies: massive RC structures and bridges, detailed assessment of a nuclear containment structure evaluation for license renewal.
Agile software engineering
This textbook presents the crucial issues in software engineering using the agile approach to software development - one of the mainstream paradigms for the management of software projects and one that is being applied more and more extensively.
Agile processes in software engineering and extreme programming ; 8th International Conference, XP 2007, Como, Italy, June 18-22, 2007, Proceedings
Oorganized in topical sections on managing agile processes, extending agile methodologies, teaching and introducing agile methodologies, methods and tools, empirical studies, and methodology issue.
Agent-oriented software engineering V ; 5th International workshop, AOSE 2004, New York, NY, USA, July 2004, revised selected papers
The explosive growth of application areas such as electronic commerce, ent- prise resource planning and mobile computing has profoundly and irreversibly changed our views on software systems. Nowadays, software is to be based on open architectures that continuously change and evolve to accommodate new components and meet new requirements. Software must also operate on di?- ent platforms, without recompilation, and with minimal assumptions about its operating environment and its users. Furthermore, software must be robust and ¨ autonomous, capable of serving a naive user with a minimum of overhead and interference. Agent concepts hold great promise for responding to the new realities of software systems. They o?er higher-level abstractions and mechanisms which address issues such as knowledge representation and reasoning, communication, coordination, cooperation among heterogeneous and autonomous parties, p- ception, commitments, goals, beliefs, and intentions, all of which need conceptual modelling. On the one hand, the concrete implementation of these concepts can lead to advanced functionalities.
Agent-oriented information systems II ; 6th International bi-conference workshop, AOIS 2004, Riga, Latvia, June 8, 2004 and New York, NY, USA, July 20, 2004, revised selected papers
Information systems have become the backbone of all kinds of organizations - day. In almost every sector – manufacturing, education, health care, government and businesses large and small – information systems are relied upon for - eryday work, communication, information gathering and decision-making. Yet, the in?exibilities in current technologies and methods have also resulted in poor performance, incompatibilities and obstacles to change. As many organizations are reinventing themselves to meet the challenges of global competition and e-commerce, there is increasing pressure to develop and deploy new technologies that are ?exible, robust and responsive to rapid and unexpected change. Agent concepts hold great promise for responding to the new realities of - formation systems. They o?er higher-level abstractions and mechanisms which address issues such as knowledge representation and reasoning, communication, coordination, cooperation among heterogeneous and autonomous parties, p- ception, commitments, goals, beliefs, intentions, etc., all of which need conc- tual modelling. On the one hand, the concrete implementation of these concepts can lead to advanced functionalities.
Agent-mediated electronic commerce : automated negotiation and strategy design for electronic markets : AAMAS 2006 workshop, TADA/AMEC 2006, Hakodate, Japan, May 9, 2006 : selected and revised papers
The design and an alysis of trading agents and electronic trading systems in which they are deployed involve finding solutions to a diverse set of problems, invo- ing individual behaviors, interaction, and collective behavior in the context of trade. A wide variety of trading scenarios and systems, and agent approaches to these, have been studied in recent years. The AMEC series of wo- shops presents interdisciplinary researchon both theoretical and practical issues of agent-mediated electronic commerce ranging from the design of electronic marketplaces and e?cient protocols to behavioral aspects of agents operating in suchenvironments.
Agent-based Supply Network Event Management
Supply Chain Event Management (SCEM)" is one of the major topics in application-oriented Supply Chain Management. However, many solutions lack conceptual precision and currently available client-server SCEM-systems are ill-suited for complex supply networks in today's business environment,In this book a thorough analysis of the event management problem domain is the starting point to develop a generic agent-based approach to Supply Network Event Management. The concept is illustrated with prototypical implementations and assessed in a multi-dimensional evaluation of potential benefits. The main focus lies on practical issues of event management (e.g. semantic interoperability) and economic benefits to be achieved with agent technology in this state-of-the-art problem domain.
Agent-Based Approaches in Economic and Social Complex Systems IV ; Post Proceedings of The AESCS International Workshop 2005
Agent-Based Modeling/Simulation (ABM/ABS) is an emerging field that enables bottom-up and experimental analysis in social sciences such as economics, management, sociology and politics. The chapters of this book are the selected papers from those presented the Third International Workshop on Agent-Based Approaches in Economic and Social Complex Systems held in Tokyo, Japan in 2005. Articles in this book covers methodological issues, computational model/software, combination with gaming simulation, and real-world applications to economic, management/organizational and social issues.
Ageing and the Glass Transition
Understanding cooperative phenomena far from equilibrium is one of fascinating challenges of present-day many-body physics. Glassy behaviour and the physical ageing process of such materials are paradigmatic examples. The present volume, primarily intended as introduction and reference for postgraduate students and nonspecialist researchers from related fields, collects six extensive lectures addressing selected experimental and theoretical issues in the field of glassy systems.
African Languages and Literatures in the 21st Century
Examines the crucial role still played by African languages in pedagogy and literatures in the 21st century, generating insights into how they effectively serve cultural needs across the African continent and beyond. Boldly positioning African languages as key resources in the 21st century, chapters focus on themes such as language revolt by marginalized groups at grassroots level, the experience of American students learning African languages, female empowerment through the use of African languages in music, film and literary works, and immigration issues. The contributions are written by scholars of language, literature, education and linguistics, and will be of interest to students and scholars in these and related areas.
African Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation
discusses current thinking and presents the main issues and challenges associated with climate change in Africa. It introduces evidences from studies and projects which show how climate change adaptation is being - and may continue to be successfully implemented in African countries. Thanks to its scope and wide range of themes surrounding climate change, the ambition is that will be a lead publication on the topic, which may be regularly updated and hence capture further works.
Affect and Emotion in Human-Computer Interaction : From Theory to Applications
The present book provides an account of the latest work on a variety of aspects related to affect and emotion in human-technology interaction. It covers theoretical issues, user experience and design aspects as well as sensing issues, and reports on a number of affective applications that have been developed in recent years.
Aesthetic Surgery of the Abdominal Wall
We have come a long way since the days when abdominal wall contouring was p- formed by simple dermolipectomies, with no attention to diastasis correction and muscular reinforcement, and little regard for the final aesthetic result. Nowadays, an abdominoplasty may be indicated for even the most demanding of patients. Details such as placement of the incision and umbilicoplasty are meticulously planned so as to conceal undesirable scars. Since the advent of suction-assisted lipectomy, in as- ciation with a classical operation or as an isolated procedure, the plastic surgeon has become capable of remodeling the entire trunk, assuring removal of considerable amounts of adipose tissue.
Aesthetic Facial Surgery
Rhytidoplasty is a palliative procedure in which face wrinkles are surgically removed to promote a more youthful appearance.The first sections focus on the surgical planning, including psychological considerations, preparation of the patient and anatomical and biochemical changes caused by the aging process. It also describes the surgical anatomy of the forehead, face, neck and eyelids. The third section provides a comprehensive overview of the basic techniques of facelift with details of refined surgical approaches for each segment of the face and neck. It highlights liposuction techniques, lipoinjection as well as transference of stem cells, showing their importance in reshaping the facial contours. It addresses both the treatment of soft tissue and craniofacial bone structures to improve the aesthetics of the face. The next sections present the final scars after face-lifting, minimally invasive procedures as complementary approaches during rhytidoplasty and the associated procedures during rhytidoplasty. The last section discusses postoperative care.
Advertising culture and translation : From colonial to global
A first comprehensive study combining and integrating advertising, culture and translation within the framework of colonial, Commonwealth, and postcolonial studies, and globalization. It addresses a number of controversial issues evident in two relatively young disciplines, as a result of decades of research and teaching in university courses. A cross-cultural approach to translational issues and the translatability of advertising cohesively is adopted here, exploring the dynamics of the conflict between the 'centre' and the 'periphery'. It introduces the concept of advertising English as lingua franca (AELF), marking new trends in the domain of varieties of English around the world (VEAW). The data examined here show the ambivalent polarity conditioning advertising and translation: both have been mutually exclusive, and both have been subject to bans, censorship and ideological control, racism, propaganda, and stereotyping. In their fundamental principles and concepts of theories and applications, however, neither discipline cannot exist outside a free market and total freedom of expression and trust
Advancing Quality of Life in a Turbulent World
Environmental issues continued to loom large in the last decade of the twentieth century,especially environmental problems related to rising levels of CO emissions and 2 other greenhouse gases on the planet’s average temperatures and, subsequently, storm patterns. Floods and droughts, in combination with unseasonably high and low temperatures became the norm rather than the exception for large expanses of Africa,Asia and Oceania. Even large areas of Europe and NorthAmerica were s- jected to recurrent floods and droughts and experienced unseasonable extremes of hot and cold temperatures associated with man-made intrusions into the natural environment. And, still, a global plan of action to haltman-related patterns of def- estation, desertification, and over-fishing of the seas has yet to come into being. At the same time, the number of regional conflicts and civil wars increased and, with them, the lives of many women, children, old people and other n- combatants were lost in these conflicts.
Advancing Energy Policy : Lessons on the integration of Social Sciences and Humanities
Advocates for the Social Sciences and Humanities to be more involved in energy policymaking. It forms part of the European platform for energy-related Social Sciences and Humanities’ activities, and works on the premise that crossing disciplines is essential. All of its contributions are highly interdisciplinary, with each chapter grounded in at least three different Social Sciences and Humanities disciplines. These varying perspectives come together to cover an array of issues relevant to the energy transition, including: energy poverty, justice, political ecology, governance, behaviours, imaginaries, systems approaches, modelling, as well as the particular challenges faced by interdisciplinary work. As a whole, the book presents new ideas for future energy policy, particularly at the European level. It is a valuable resource for energy researchers interested in interdisciplinary and society-relevant perspectives. Those working outside the Social Sciences and Humanities will find this book an accessible way of learning more about how these subjects can constructively contribute to energy policy.
Advances in XML information retrieval ; 3rd International workshop of the Initiative for the evaluation of XML retrieval, INEX 2004, Dagstuhl Castle, Germany, December 6-8, 2004
The ultimate goal of many information access systems (e.g., digital libraries, the Web, intranets) is to provide the right content to their end-users. This content is increasingly a mixture of text, multimedia, and metadata, and is formatted according to the adopted –W3C standard for information repositories, the so-called eXtensible Markup L- guage (XML). Whereas many of today’s information access systems still treat do- ments as single large (text) blocks, XML offers the opportunity to exploit the internal structure of documents in order to allow for more precise access thus providing more specific answers to user requests. Providing effective access to XML-based content is therefore a key issue for the success of these systems. The aim of the INEX campaign (Initiative for the Evaluation of XML Retrieval), which was set up at the beginning of 2002, is to establish infrastructures, XML test suites, and appropriate measurements for evaluating the performance of information retrieval systems that aim at giving effective access to XML content. More precisely, the goal of the INEX initiative is to provide means, in the form of a large XML test collection and appropriate scoring methods, for the evaluation of content-oriented XML retrieval systems.
Advances in web-based learning - ICWL 2005 ; 4th international conference, Hong Kong, China, July 31 - August 3, 2005, proceedings
With the rapid development of Web-based learning, a new set of learning - vironments including virtual classrooms, virtual laboratories and virtual universities are being developed. These new learning environments, however, also introduce new problems that need to be addressed. On the technical side, there is a need for the deployment of effective technologies on Web-based education. On the learning side, the cyber mode of learning is very different from tra- tional classroom-based learning. On the management side, the establishment of a cyber university imposes very different requirements for the set up. ICWL 2005, the 4th International Conference on Web-Based Learning, was held in Hong Kong, China from July 31 to August 3, 2005, as a continued - tempt to address many of the above-mentioned issues. Following the great success of ICWL
