الصفحة 1
الصفحة 1
Open IT-Based Innovation : Moving Towards Cooperative IT Transfer and Knowledge Diffusion ; IFIP TC8 WG 8.6 International Working Conference October 22–24, 2008, Madrid, Spain
The IFIP series publishes state-of-the-art results in the sciences and technologies of information and communication. The scope of the series includes: foundations of computer science; software theory and practice; education; computer applications in technology; communication systems; systems modeling and optimization; information systems; computers and society; computer systems technology; security and protection in information processing systems; artificial intelligence; and human-computer interaction. Proceedings and post-proceedings of refereed international conferences in computer science and interdisciplinary fields are featured.
Open and distance education in Asia, Africa and the Middle East : National perspectives in a digital age
This book describes the history, structure and institutions of open and distance education in six countries: China, India, Russia, Turkey, South Africa and South Korea. It describes how open and distance education is evolving in a digital age to reflect the needs and circumstances of the national higher education systems in these countries. It also explores the similarities and differences between how their open and distance higher education systems are managed and structured. The book compare and draw conclusions about the nature of open and distance education in the context of various national higher education systems. In a digital era characterized by the growing use of online, open and distance education, this book will prove particularly valuable for policy-makers and senior administrators who want to learn about establishing or expanding open and distance education services. In addition, it offers a valuable reference guide for researchers, academics and students interested in understanding the different approaches to 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.
Ontologies-Based Business Integration
E-business integration is a vision we have developed over a long period of time. As we have worked in business practice for many years prior to and in parallel with our academic research, we have always thought of such - tegration not only as an intellectual challenge but also as a real business tool. Consequently, when we started our project on Ontologies-based R- onciliation for Business Integration (ORBI) in 2004, not only pure science but also business objectives were at the center of our research. We were very happy to be able to form a project consortium that consisted not only of renowned researchers but also of experienced business practitioners from a range of companies. Each played a specific role – as user, provider or co-developer of the application components that are based on the me- ods we have developed. So may this book find its way not only to the desks of researchers and students, but also into the offices and minds of business practitioners worldwide who are dealing with the challenge of integrating their business processes, applications and information.
Ontologies for Agents : Theory and Experiences
On the other hand, ontologies have established themselves as a powerful tool to enable kno- edge sharing, and a growing number of applications have bene?ted from the use of ontologies as a means to achieve semantic interoperability among heterogeneous, distributed systems. In principle ontologies and agents are a match made in heaven, that has failed to happen. What makes a simple piece of software an agent is its ability to communicate in a ”social” environment, to make autonomous decisions, and to be proactive on behalf of its user. Communication ultimately depends on und- standing the goals, preferences, and constraints posed by the user. Autonomy is theabilitytoperformataskwithlittleornouserintervention,whileproactiveness involves acting autonomously with no need for user prompting. Communication, but also autonomy and proactiveness, depend on knowledge. The ability to c- municate depends on understanding the syntax (terms and structure) and the semantics of a language. Ontologies provide the terms used to describe a domain and the semantics associated with them. In addition, ontologies are often comp- mented by some logical rules that constrain the meaning assigned to the terms. These constraints are represented by inference rules that can be used by agents to perform the reasoning on which autonomy and proactiveness are based.
Online Storage Systems and Transportation Problems with Applications : Optimization Models and Mathematical Solutions
This books covers the analysis and development of online algorithms involving exact optimization and heuristic techniques, and their application to solve two real life problems. The first problem is concerned with a complex technical system: a special carousel based high-speed storage system - Rotastore. It is shown that this logistic problem leads to an NP-hard Batch PreSorting problem which is not easy to solve optimally in offline situations. The second problem originates in the health sector and leads to a vehicle routing problem. Reasonable solutions for the offline case covering a whole day with a few hundred orders are constructed with a heuristic approach, as well as by simulated annealing. Optimal solutions for typical online instances are computed by an efficient column enumeration approach leading to a set partitioning problem and a set of routing-scheduling subproblems. The latter are solved exactly with a branch-and-bound method which prunes nodes if they are value-dominated by previous found solutions or if they are infeasible with respect to the capacity or temporal constraints.
Online Marketing
Provides a clear and practice-oriented overview of the basics of online marketing. Short learning units, clear didactic modules and the accompanying learning control ensure a sustainable transfer of knowledge. It is thus aimed at all those who deal with questions of online marketing in the context of their education and training (also as a minor subject) as well as their professional practice.
Online Communities and Social Computing ; 2nd International Conference, OCSC 2007, Held as Part of HCI International 2007, Beijing, China, July 22-27, 2007, Proceedings
The 12th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCI Inter- tional 2007, was held in Beijing, P.R. China, 22-27 July 2007. This volume, edited by Douglas Schuler, contains papers in the thematic area of Online Communities and Social Computing, addressing the following major topics: • Designing and Developing On-line Communities • Knowledge, Collaboration, Learning and Local On-line Communities
One-Dimensional Nanostructures
One-dimensional (1D) nanostructures, including nanowires, nanotubes and quantum wires, have been regarded as the most promising building blocks for nanoscale electronic and optoelectronic devices. Worldwide efforts in both the theory and the experimental investigation of growth, characterization and applications of 1D nanostructures have resulted in a mature, multidisciplinary field. In this book, a wealth of state-of-the-art information offers the opportunity to uncover the underlying science from diverse perspectives. Leading researchers elucidate the synthesis and properties of 1D nanostructures for various morphologies and compositions (semiconductor, metal, carbon, etc.) as well as their considerable impact on spintronics, information storage, and the design of field-effect transistors.
One hundred years of social protection : The changing social question in Brazil, India, China, and South Africa
As the first in-depth study of the ideational foundations of social protection policies and programmes in these four countries, the contributions demonstrate that the social question was articulated in an increasingly inclusive way.
Oncology : An Evidence-Based Approach
Reflect the principles and current practice of oncology with contributors from the fields of medical, surgical, and radiation oncology. The textbook will incorporate an evidence-based approach, enabling the reader to make decisions on the basis of concrete data. Sections on solid tumors, hematologic malignancies and the practice of oncology address the natural history and therapy for the full spectrum of neoplastic diseases in the adult. Further sections present fundamentals of supportive care of the cancer patient, the management of oncologic emergencies and acute toxicities of therapy, as well as care of metastatic disease and the terminally-ill patient. Breaking new ground, the textbook features thoughtful, in-depth sections on cancer prevention and control, cancer surviorship, the economics of cancer care, and cancer informatics. Cancer imaging is covered with an organ system-based approach, with an additional chapter on the especially intriguing potential of PET. Furthermore, a comprehensive section on translational basic science reviews the fundamentals of molecular biology, the cell cycle and signal transduction, carcinogenesis, cancer genetics, the biology of invations and metastasis, and tumor immunology.
Oncologic and Cardiologic PET/CT-Diagnosis : An Interdisciplinary Atlas and Manual
Since 1999/2000 simultaneous imaging of anatomical features and metabolic activities using fused PET and CT images has complemented and in many cases even replaced what was originally done as separate analysis. – Is this a small revolution? – In fact, this new approach can be considered to be without a rival for imaging diagnosis. The complementary efforts of nuclear medicine physicians and radiologists have improved the diagnostic value of PET/CT scans. The successful use of PET/CT in the field of oncology has been documented world-wide, and in cardiology we can take advantage of the significant findings of PET diagnosis, particularly in the USA. New prospects are now available for paediatric oncology and molecular medicine.
On the construction of engineering handbooks : With an Illustration from the railway safety domain
This book is the first to reflect upon the question of how to construct a desktop handbook. It is demonstrated how concept analysis can be used for identifying settled knowledge as the key ingredient by utilizing the assembled data for classification; a presentation scheme for handbook articles is developed and demonstrated to be suitable. The sketched approach is then illustrated by an example from the railway safety domain. Finally, the limitations of the presented methods are discussed.
On Communication : An interdisciplinary and mathematical approach
This book offers a radical new approach for the understanding of communication. By using the theoretical framework of complex systems theory communication is defined as the interplay of social and cognitive dynamics: communicators are modelled as complex cognitive systems who interact according to social rules and generate communicative systems. Messages generate meaning, which is understood as an attractor in the cognitive system of the receiver. Information is measured via the difference between a factual message and the message expected by the receiver.
On color
Investigates color from numerous perspectives: literary, historical, cultural, anthropological, philosophical, art historical, political, and scientific. In ten lively and wide-ranging chapters, each devoted to a different color, they examine the various ways colors have shaped and continue to shape our social and moral imaginations. Each individual color becomes the focal point for a consideration of one of the extraordinary ways in which color appears and matters in our lives. Beautifully produced in full color, this book is a remarkably smart, entertaining, and fascinating guide to this elusive topic.
omputational science and its applications - ICCSA 2005 ; Vol. 3480 ; International Conference, Singapore, May 9-12, 2005, Proceedings, Part I
The four volume set assembled following The 2005 International Conference on Computational Science and its Applications, ICCSA 2005, held in Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centre, Singapore, from 9 May 2005 till 12 May 2005, represents the ?ne collection of 540 refereed papers selected from nearly 2,700 submissions. Computational Science has ?rmly established itself as a vital part of many scienti?c investigations, a?ecting researchers and practitioners in areas ranging from applications such as aerospace and automotive, to emerging technologies such as bioinformatics and nanotechnologies, to core disciplines such as ma- ematics, physics, and chemistry. Due to the shear size of many challenges in computational science, the use of supercomputing, parallel processing, and - phisticated algorithms is inevitable and becomes a part of fundamental t- oretical research as well as endeavors in emerging ?elds.
Omics sudies of medicinal plants
Herbal drugs play a pivotal role in modern medicine and pharmaceutical care; however, only limited biotechnology applications have been seen in medicinal plants. Revolutions in high-throughput approaches emphasize omics approaches, such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. A volume in the Exploring Medicinal Plants series, this book provides a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of breakthroughs in high-throughput approaches for the research of medicinal plants.
OMDoc : An Open Markup Format for Mathematical Documents [version 1.2]
Computers arechanging the way wethink. Of course,nearly all desk-workers have access to computers and use them to email their colleagues, search the Web for information and prepare documents. But I’m not referring to that. I mean that people have begun to think about what they do in compu- tional terms and to exploit the power of computers to do things that would previously have been unimaginable. This observation is especially true of mathematicians.
olution Sets for Net Zero Energy Buildings : Feedback from 30 Buildings Worldwide
Presents a unique study of 30 NZEBs that have been constructed and have had their performance measured for at least 12 months. The study is based upon an international collaborative research initiated by the International Energy Agency. It is the first book to evaluate building strategies in houses, educational buildings and offices that have been demonstrated to work in practice. It examines how the design challenges of climate and building type have been addressed, and to what extent the various design approaches have been successful. This book presents convincing evidence that a careful re-thinking of conventional design norms can achieve a far greater performance benefit than is normally feasible. It identifies 'solution sets' that work at the whole building level and at the individual building design challenge level for each climate and building type. In doing so, the book provides guidance as to how to improve the design by learning from these cases. Unusually for a book of this type it has examples of buildings in what are conventionally labeled 'hot' and 'cold' climates.
Olfactory knows the truth
Olfaction, the sense of smell detects and discriminate odors as well as social cues which influence our innate responses. The olfactory system in human beings is found to be weak as compared to other animals; however, it seems to be very precise. It can detect and discriminate millions of chemical moieties (odorants) even in minuscule quantities. The sense of smell is greatly underappreciated, despite the fact that it monitors the intake of airborne agents into the human respiratory system and determine to a large degree the flavor and palatability of foods and beverage. In addition to enhancing quality of life, this primary sensory system warns of spoiled foods, leaking natural gas, polluted air and smoke, and mediates basic elements of communication (e.g., mother-infant interaction). It is now apparent that smell dysfunction is among the first clinical signs of such neurodegenerative diseases as Alzheimer’s disease and sporadic Parkinson’s disease.
