Theoretical Aspects of Local Search
Local search has been applied successfully to a diverse collection of optimization problems. It's appreciated for its basic conceptual foundation, its general applicability, and its power to serve as a source for new search paradigms. The typical characteristics of combinatorial optimization problems to which local search can be applied, its relation to complexity theory, and the combination with randomized search features have led to a wealth of interesting theoretical results. However, these results are scattered throughout the literature. This is the first book that presents a large collection of theoretical results in a consistent manner, thus providing the reader with a coherent overview of the achievements obtained so far, but also serving as a source of inspiration for the development of novel results in the challenging field of local search.
Theoretical Aspects of Computing - ICTAC 2005; Second International Colloquium, Hanoi, Vietnam, October 17-21, 2005, Proceedings
International Colloquium on Theoretical Aspects of Computing. ICTAC was founded by the International Institute for Software Technology of the United Nations University (UNU-IIST) to serve as a forum for practiti- ers, lecturers and researchers from academia, industry and government who are interested in theoretical aspects of computing and rigorous approaches to so- ware engineering. The colloquium is aimed particularly, but not exclusively, at participants from developing countries. We believe that this will help developing countries to strengthen their research, teaching and development in computer science and engineering, improve the links between developing countries and developed countries, and establish collaboration in research and education. By providing a venue for the discussion of common problems and their solutions, and for the exchangeof experiences and ideas, this colloquium supports research and development in computer science and software technology. ICTAC is attracting more and more attention from more and more countries.
Theoretical Aspects of Computing - ICTAC 2004 ; 1st International Colloquium Guiyand, China, September 20-24, 2004, Revised Selected Papers
Constitutes the thoroughly refereed postproceedings of the First International Colloquium on Theoretical Aspects of Computing, ICTAC 2004. The 34 revised full papers presented together with 4 invited contributions were carefully selected from 111 submissions during two rounds of reviewing and improvement. The papers are organized in topical sections on concurrent and distributed systems, model integration and theory unification, program reasoning and testing, verification, theories of programming and programming languages, real-time and co-design, and automata theory and logics.
Theoretical and Quantum Mechanics : Fundamentals for Chemists
Theoretical and Quantum Mechanics: Fundamentals provides an introduction to theoretical and quantum mechanics for chemists. The book includes carefully selected quantum mechanics topics of the most fundamental interest and use for chemists and classical mechanics topics that relate and illuminate these. A comprehensive treatment is given wherever possible. The book acquaints the chemists with the quantum structure of the basic object of chemistry – the atom – and the author bridges the gap between classical physics, general and inorganic chemistry, and quantum mechanics.
Theoretical and Practical Advances in Computer-based Educational Measurement
Presents a multitude of different, yet related, innovations in educational measurement and provides insight in their practical possibilities. The book not only addresses several improvements in the quality of educational measurement and innovations in (inter)national large scale assessments, but also several advances in psychometrics and improvements in computerized adaptive testing. Moreover, it also offers examples on the impact of new technology in assessment. By bringing together expertise from this variety of fields, advances in assessment are fostered and stimulated. It discussed, among which are review systems tailored for the evaluation of the quality of computer-based educational tests, the Curie-Weiss model as a paradigm for the analysis of educational data, Bayesian techniques to decide on mastery in formative educational measurement and the comparison of Elo chess ratings as strategies for on-the-fly item calibration in computerized adaptive tests.
Theoretical and Experimental DNA Computation
Provides a broad overview of the entire field of DNA computation, tracing its history and development. It contains detailed descriptions of all major theoretical models and experimental results to date, which are lacking in existing texts, and discusses potential future developments. This book will provide a useful reference source for researchers and students, as well as an accessible introduction for people new to the field. The field of DNA computation has flourished since the publication of Adleman's seminal article, in which he demonstrated for the first time how a computation may be performed at a molecular level by performing standard operations on a tube of DNA strands. Since Adleman's original experiment, interest in DNA computing has increased dramatically. This monograph provides a detailed survey of the field, before describing recent theoretical and experimental developments. It concludes by outlining the challenges faced by researchers in the field and suggests possible future directions.
Theatres of Architectural Imagination
Imagination is arguably the architect’s most crucial capacity, underpinning memory, invention, and compassion. No simple power of the mind, architectural imagination is deeply embodied, social, and situational. Its performative potential and holistic scope may be best understood through the model of theatre. Theatres of Architectural Imagination examines the fertile relationship between theatre and architecture with essays, interviews and entr’actes arranged in three sections: Bodies, Settings, and (Inter)Actions.
Theatre as a Medium for Children and Young People : Images and Observations
This book is a journey into the dual territory of educational and theatrical settings. It advances the knowledge in these settings by touching upon provocative questions, by dealing with the limitations and challenging the new possibilities of theatre for young people. It is an attempt to bring intellectual rigour and some theoretical perspectives drawn from recent theatre and aesthetic theory to the field of theatre for young people. It fills the gap in the literature on theatre for young audiences. The author poses questions of the work that are penetrating and thought provoking and clearly stem from her own observations of and reflections upon various kinds of children's theatre (CT) and of 'watching children watching' CT over many years. This book is an analysis of images and arguments in theatre for young people. It aims at triggering the reader's interest in this subject as an artistic, educational and cultural phenomenon.
The World of Rhabdoviruses
In this volume the unique and common features of rhabdoviruses, particularly their morphological, molecular, and pathogenic characteristics, and their phylogenetic relationships are reviewed. Rhabdoviruses have a very wide host range and have been isolated from plants, insects, and almost from all vertebrates including fish and primates. The Rhabdoviridae family consists of six genera which have all been associated with diseases. While rhabdoviruses that are etiological agents of human diseases can cause serious public health problems, other members of this family that infect domestic livestock and agricultural plants can also cause enormous economic loss.
The Welfare of Sheep
The book begins with a discussion of current welfare thinking and how this might be relevant to sheep husbandry. The adaptations of wild sheep to diverse environments, and how their behaviour and physiology has developed to deal with these conditions is described and compared to conditions in modern sheep husbandry. The varied welfare demands of disease, nutrition and metabolism, farming systems and management practices are then discussed by specialists in those areas. The book concludes by considering the economics of improved welfare, and by describing breeding goals and new challenges and opportunities for good sheep husbandry. This book will be of interest to students and academics in animal welfare, animal production, and veterinary medicine, and those with a particular interest in or concern for sheep.
The welfare of horses
This book describes the development of horse behaviour, and the way in which the management of horses today affects their welfare. Horses for sport, companionship and work are considered and ways of improving their welfare by better training and management is described. The book assesses welfare, nutrition, and behaviour problems with horses.
The Welfare of Dogs
Animal welfare is attracting increasing interest worldwide, but particularly from those in developed countries, who now have the knowledge and resources to be able to offer the best management systems for their farm animals, as well as potentially being able to offer plentiful resources for companion, zoo and laboratory animals. The increased attention given to farm animal welfare in the West derives largely from the fact that the relentless pursuit of financial reward and efficiency has led to the development of intensive animal production systems, that challenge the conscience of many consumers in those countries.
The Welfare of Cattle
Animal welfare is attracting increasing interest worldwide, but particularly from those in developed countries, who now have the knowledge and resources to be able to offer the best management systems for their farm animals, as well as potentially being able to offer plentiful resources for companion, zoo and laboratory animals. The increased attention given to farm animal welfare in the West derives largely from the fact that the relentless pursuit of financial reward and efficiency has led to the development of intensive animal production systems that challenge the conscience of many consumers in those countries. In developing countries, human survival is still a daily uncertainty, so that provision for animal welfare has to be balanced against human welfare. Welfare is usually provided for only if it supports the output of the animal, be it food, work, clothing, sport or companionship. In re- ity, there are resources for all if they are properly husbanded in both developing and developed countries. The inequitable division of the world’s riches creates physical and psychological poverty for humans and animals alike in many parts of the world.
The Welfare of Cats
Animal welfare is attracting increasing interest worldwide, but particularly from those in developed countries, who now have the knowledge and resources to be able to offer the best management systems for their farm animals, as well as potentially being able to offer plentiful resources for companion, zoo and laboratory animals. The increased attention given to farm animal welfare in the West derives largely from the fact that the relentless pursuit of financial reward and efficiency has led to the development of intensive animal production systems, that challenge the conscience of many consumers in those countries. In developing countries human survival is still a daily uncertainty, so that provision for animal welfare has to be balanced against human welfare. Welfare is usually provided for only if it supports the output of the animal, be it food, work, clothing, sport or companionship. In reality, there are resources for all if they are properly husbanded in both developing and developed countries. The inequitable division of the world’s riches creates physical and psychological poverty for humans and animals alike in all sectors of the world. Livestock are the world’s biggest land user (FAO, 2002) and the population is increasing rapidly to meet the need of an expanding human population.
The Web Resource Space Model
Classifying objects into categories at different granularity levels, establishing links between known objects, and discovering clues between known and unknown objects are essential for new-generation semantic data models. This book introduces the Resource Space Model (RSM), which effectively organizes and correctly manages resources by normalizing classification semantics.
The Web of Data
This book concisely brings together the key standards and best practices relating to modelling, querying, validating and linking machine-readable data and semantics on the Web. Alongside practical examples and formal definitions, the book shows how these standards contribute to – and have been used thus far on – the "Web of Data": a machine readable evolution of the Web marked by increased automation, enabling powerful Web applications capable of discovering, cross-referencing, and organising data from numerous websites in a matter of seconds.
The Waste Market : Institutional Developments in Europe
The Waste Market undertakes the interesting task of examining the creative ways in which a handful of European countries, namely Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden, have managed their waste collection market. For instance, the Netherlands experimented a lot with competition and different types of ownership. It shows that competition is more important than ownership. The use of public firms, exceptional in other European countries, seems to be a powerful instrument to enhance competition. The lack of these firms might explain why private production is not always cheaper than own collection by municipalities in Sweden. Instead of public firms, cooperation is much more used in Spain and Norway to exploit economies of scale.
The Voice of Breast Cancer in Medicine and Bioethics
This volume offers a discursive analysis of breast cancer. From multiple perspectives—historical, philosophical, psychological, socio-political—these essays explore the competing narratives that have made breast cancer a contested site. It addresses debates about the autonomy of the patient in relation to the authority of the physician, as well as the importance of patient narratives in understanding disease. It analyzes the relation between the community and medical practice, particularly with regard to the effect of breast cancer activists and feminists on the medical understanding and treatment of breast cancer. And, it questions the intersection of medical science with political institutions and agencies of public policy in determining priorities of research and strategies of treatment.
The Vehicle Routing Problem : Latest Advances and New Challenges
The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) has been an especially active and fertile area of research. Over the past five to seven years, there have been numerous technological advances and exciting challenges that are of considerable interest to students, teachers, and researchers. The Vehicle Routing Problem: Latest Advances and New Challenges will focus on a host of significant technical advances that have evolved over the past few years for modeling and solving vehicle routing problems and variants. New approaches for solving VRPs have been developed from important methodological advances. These developments have resulted in faster solution algorithms, more accurate techniques, and an improvement in the ability to solve large-scale, complex problems.
The Use of Hybrid Securities : Market Timing, Investor Rationing, Signaling and Asset Restructuring
During recent years, an increasing number of corporations have decided to raise external capital via markets for hybrid securities. Hybrid securities share characteristics of common stock and straight debt and appear in different forms, such as convertible debt, mandatory convertibles or exchangeable debt.It provides interesting insights into the financing behaviour of issuing firms with regard to operating and stock price performance prior and subsequent to hybrid security issues. It turns out that issuance motives for the use of different forms of hybrid securities are as diverse as available structures for this asset class.



















