الصفحة 1
الصفحة 1
Open and Distance Education in Australia, Europe and the Americas : National Perspectives in a Digital Age
This book describes the history, structure and institutions of open and distance education in six countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, the UK and the US. It discusses how open and distance education is evolving in a digital age to reflect the needs and circumstances of national higher education systems in these countries, and explores the similarities and differences between the ways in which they are organized and structured. It is the first book to make such comparisons and draw conclusions about the nature of open and distance education in the context of various national higher education systems. In a digital era with growing use of online education as well as open and distance education.
Open access databases and datasets for drug discovery
With an overview of 90 freely accessible databases and datasets on all aspects of drug design, development, and discovery, Open Access Databases and Datasets for Drug Discovery is a comprehensive guide to the vast amount of “free data” available to today’s pharmaceutical researchers. The applicability of open-source data for drug discovery and development is analyzed, and their usefulness in comparison with commercially available tools is evaluated. The most relevant databases for small molecules, drugs and druglike substances, ligand design, protein 3D structures (both experimental and calculated), and human drug targets are described in depth, including practical examples of how to access and work with the data. The first part is focused on databases for small molecules, followed by databases for macromolecular targets and diseases. The final part shows how to integrate various open-source tools into the academic and industrial drug discovery and development process.
On the Topology of Isolated Singularities in Analytic Spaces
The aim of this book is to give an overview of selected topics on the topology of real and complex isolated singularities, with emphasis on its relations to other branches of geometry and topology. The first chapters are mostly devoted to complex singularities and a myriad of results spread in a vast literature, which are presented here in a unified way, accessible to non-specialists. Among the topics are the fibration theorems of Milnor; the relation with 3-dimensional Lie groups; exotic spheres; spin structures and 3-manifold invariants; the geometry of quadrics and Arnold's theorem which states that the complex projective plane modulo conjugation is the 4-sphere. The second part of the book studies pioneer work about real analytic singularities which arise from the topological and geometric study of holomorphic vector fields and foliations. In the low dimensional case these turn out to be related to fibred links in the 3-sphere defined by meromorphic functions. This provides new methods for constructing manifolds equipped with a rich geometry.
On Line Citizenship : Emerging Technologies for European Cities
The book presents e-government issues from an institutional as well as a practical point of view through the contributions of distinguished authors representative of the European Union, the European network of cities (Telecities) and the Italian Government. On Line Citizenship offers an innovative approach in the analysis of technology's evolutionary paths in e-government through a comparison with e-business trends.
Old Buildings New Designs
Increasingly, architects are hired to design new work for existing structures. Whether for reasons of preservation, sustainability, or cost-effectiveness, the movement to reuse buildings presents a variety of design challenges and opportunities. Old Buildings, New Designs is an Architecture Brief devoted to working within a given architectural fabric from the technical issues that arise from aging construction to the controversy generated by the various project stakeholders to the unique aesthetic possibilities created through the juxtaposition of old and new.
Object-Oriented Programming Languages : Interpretation
This comprehensive examination of the main approaches to object-oriented language explains the key features of the languages in use today. Class-based, prototypes and Actor languages are all looked at and compared in terms of their semantic concepts. In providing such a wide-ranging comparison, this book provides a unique overview of the main approaches to object-oriented languages.
Nutrition, chemistry, and health effects of sugar, salt, and milkfat
Covers sugar, salt and milk fat from a chemical perspective, and presents an overview of the role of these ingredients in our food, focusing on their flavors, satiety-inducing properties, nutritional impact, and health effects. The book begins with a chapter devoted to the chemical composition of these taste enhancers and satiety-inducing components, followed by a chapter that sheds light on the persuasive tactics employed by the food industry and their impact on consumer behavior, ultimately discussing the complex relationship between marketing strategies and public health. In Chapter 3, the author presents case studies and explores the nutritional requirements of these ingredients, while considering their physiological effects ad potential implications for human health. In Chapter 4, the author evaluates current consumption patterns and their implications, analyzing trends, policies, and opportunities to shape healthier dietary choices.
Numerical partial differential equations for environmental scientists and engineers : A first practical course
This book concerns the practical solution of Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). It reflects an interdisciplinary approach to problems occurring in natural environmental media: the hydrosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, biosphere and ionosphere. It assumes the reader has gained some intuitive knowledge of PDE solution properties and now wants to solve some for real, in the context of practical problems arising in real situations. The practical aspect of this book is the infused focus on computation. It presents two major discretization methods - Finite Difference and Finite Element. The blend of theory, analysis, and implementation practicality supports solving and understanding complicated problems. It is divided into three parts. Part I is an overview of Finite Difference Methods. Part II focuses on Finite Element Methods, including an FEM tutorial. Part III deals with Inverse Methods, introducing formal approaches to practical problems which are ill-posed.
Numerical Methods in Finance
The use of mathematical models and numerical techniques in finance is a growing practice, and an increasing number of applied mathematicians are working on applications in finance and business. This book presents some exciting developments arising from the combination of mathematics, numerical analysis, and finance. It covers a wide range of topics, from portfolio management and asset pricing, to performance, risk, debt and real option evaluation. It also presents applications of a variety of cutting edge approaches and techniques, including robust control, min-max optimisation, Bessel processes, stochastic viability, variational inequalities, and Monte-Carlo test techniques. The book also presents surveys of models and approaches in specific areas in finance, such as corporate debt valuation and portfolio selection
Numerical Methods for Controlled Stochastic Delay Systems
The Markov chain approximation methods are widely used for the numerical solution of nonlinear stochastic control problems in continuous time. This book extends the methods to stochastic systems with delays. Because such problems are infinite-dimensional, many new issues arise in getting good numerical approximations and in the convergence proofs. Useful forms of numerical algorithms and system approximations are developed in this work, and the convergence proofs are given. All of the usual cost functions are treated as well as singular and impulsive controls. A major concern is on representations and approximations that use minimal memory.
Northern Lights on Civic and Citizenship Education : A Cross-national Comparison of Nordic Data from ICCS
This book presents an in depth analysis of data from ICCS. An international group of scholars critically address the state of civic and citizenship education in the four Nordic countries that participated in the IEA International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) in 2009 and 2016. The findings are of particular relevance to educators at all levels, from school education through to teacher education.
Normal Development of Voice in Children : Advances in Evidence-Based Standards
With updated acoustical measures of voice profiles (phonetograms, the audiogram of the voice) and the fundamental frequency of the tone range, new standards have been reached . In particular, the comparison to normal pediatric and hormonal development highlights the statistical scientific validity of voice parameters. The relation to hormones and the predictive values for voice development open new and interesting perspectives for experts. This book offers valuable insight into acoustical, physiological and biological measures that compare boys and girls and are based on prospective and stratified studies.
Non-University Higher Education in Europe
This book represents the first-of-its-kind comprehensive discussion of the non-university higher education sector in Europe. Higher education throughout the world is facing rapid change. Despite the enormous attention devoted to that reality, this volume fills an important void. It describes and offers critical comparisons between the systems in 10 European countries. The book brings together the thinking of leading scholars on the non-university sectors in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom, with a chapter devoted to each country. National case studies are presented for the non-university sector in these countries that address issues such as historical developments, policy changes, governance structures, levels of institutional autonomy and future trends.
Nonsmooth Variational Problems and their Inequalities : Comparison Principles and Applications
The main purpose of this book is to provide a systematic and unified exposition of comparison principles based on a suitably extended sub-supersolution method. This method is an effective and flexible technique to obtain existence and comparison results of solutions. Also, it can be employed for the investigation of various qualitative properties, such as location, multiplicity and extremality of solutions. In the treatment of the problems under consideration a wide range of methods and techniques from nonlinear and nonsmooth analysis is applied, a brief outline of which has been provided in a preliminary chapter in order to make the book self-contained.
Nonlinear Smoothing and Multiresolution Analysis
This monograph presents a new theory for analysis, comparison and design of nonlinear smoothers, linking to established practices. Although a part of mathematical morphology, the special properties yield many simple, powerful and illuminating results leading to a novel nonlinear multiresolution analysis with pulses that may be as natural to vision as wavelet analysis is to acoustics. Similar to median transforms, they have the advantages of a supporting theory, computational simplicity, remarkable consistency, full trend preservation, and a Parceval-type identity.
Nonlinear Parabolic-Hyperbolic Coupled Systems and Their Attractors
This book presents recent results concerning the global existence in time, the large-time behaviour, decays of solutions and the existence of global attractors for some nonlinear parabolic-hyperbolic coupled systems of evolutionary partial differential equations arising from physics, mechanics and material science, such as the compressible Navier-Stokes equations, thermo(visco)elastic systems and elastic systems. To keep the book as self-contained as possible, the first chapter introduces to the needed results and tools from functional analysis, Sobolev spaces, differential and integral inequa.
Nonlinear Optimization with Financial Applications
The book introduces the key ideas behind practical nonlinear optimization. Computational finance—an increasingly popular area of mathematics degree programmes—is combined here with the study of an important class of numerical techniques. The essentials of most currently popular algorithms are described and their performance is demonstrated on a range of optimization problems arising in financial mathematics. Theoretical convergence properties of methods are stated and formal proofs are provided in enough cases to be instructive rather than overwhelming. Practical behaviour of methods is illustrated by computational examples and discussions of efficiency, accuracy and computational costs. Supporting software for the examples and exercises is available
Noetherian Semigroup Algebras
This work presents a comprehensive treatment of the main results and methods of the theory of Noetherian semigroup algebras. These general results are then applied and illustrated in the context of important classes of algebras that arise in a variety of areas and have been recently intensively studied. Several concrete constructions are described in full detail, in particular intriguing classes of quadratic algebras and algebras related to group rings of polycyclic-by-finite groups. These give new classes of Noetherian algebras of small Gelfand-Kirillov dimension. The focus is on the interplay between their combinatorics and the algebraic structure.
Nimesulide - Actions and Uses
Nimesulide is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) which acts as a cyclooxygenase- 2 inhibitor but also has other novel pharmacological features which account for its effect in the control of pain and inflammation. It has become a leading NSAID in over 50 countries worldwide. This book provides a comprehensive and fully up-to-date critical review of the published literature on nimesulide, including comparisons with anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic agents. The emphasis is on the action of nimesulide in relation to its therapeutic and side effects in comparison with other established NSAIDs, including the new class of Coxibs.
New Technologies, Mobility and Security
NTMS’2007 is the first IFIP International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security that was held from May 2 to May 4, 2007 in Paris, France. NTMS'2007 aims at fostering advances in the areas of New Technologies, Wireless Networks, Mobile Computing, Ad hoc and Ambient Networks, QoS, Network Security and E-commerce, to mention a few, and provides a dynamic forum for researchers, students and professionals to present their state-of-the-art research and development in these interesting areas. The event was combined with tutorial sessions and workshops. Tutorials preceded the main program, aiming at the dissemination of mature knowledge and technology advances in the field. One Workshop immediately followed the main conference, offering the opportunity for a more focused exchange of ideas and presentation of on-going research relevant to selected topics.
