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Microwave Dielectric Behaviour of Wet Soils
This book, aimed for agriculture and soil physicists and those working in the areas of remote sensing, deals with the physical and dielectric properties of soils, methods of soil, dielectric measurements using microwaves and remote sensing techniques. Some of the results on soil moisture measurements, theoretical models of soil moisture data and the recently used synthetic aperture radar techniques for the purpose of remote sensing and their interpretation of soil moistures are also discussed. The course contents are developed and updated with the help of the latest literature available which will help bridge the existing need of scientists in the area.
Microstructuring of Glasses
As microstructured glass becomes increasingly important for microsystems technology, the main application fields include micro-fluidic systems, micro-analysis systems, sensors, micro-actuators and implants. And, because glass has quite distinct properties from silicon, PMMA and metals, applications exist where only glass devices meet the requirements. The main advantages of glass derive from its amorphous nature, the precondition for its - theoretically - direction-independent geometric structurability. Microstructuring of Glasses deals with the amorphous state, various glass compositions and their properties, the interactions between glasses and the electromagnetic waves used to modify it.
Micromammals and Macroparasites : From Evolutionary Ecology to Management
Small mammals are among the most ubiquitous and important components of terrestrial ecosystems. They have coevolved, and now coexist, with a diverse array of parasites, such that not only are all aspects of their biology influenced by parasitism but they also play key roles in the transmission and maintenance of parasitic diseases. This book provides a comprehensive survey of the diversity and biology of metazoan parasites affecting small mammals, of their impact on host individuals and populations, and of the management implications of these parasites for conservation biology and human welfare. Designed for a broad, multidisciplinary audience, it will be an essential resource for researchers, students, and practitioners alike in the fields of parasitology, evolutionary ecology, wildlife management, and conservation biology.
Methods of microarray data analysis V
In this volume, all investigators analyzed a single dataset on the lifecycle of the most deadly of malaria parasites, Plasmodium falciparum. The emphasis this year is on the application of novel and existing computational methodologies towards infectious disease. We highlight an introductory chapter by Raphael D. Isokpehi, a leading expert in the field of malaria. Ten of the papers presented at the conference are included, which range from the inference of genetic networks to the analysis of the spatial correlation of array data. This book is an excellent reference for academic and industrial researchers who want to keep abreast of the state-of-the-art in microarray data analysis.
Methods of Legal Reasoning
The book attempts to describe and criticize four methods used in legal practice, legal dogmatics and legal theory: logic, analysis, argumentation and hermeneutics. Apart from a presentation of basic ideas connected with the above mentioned methods, the essays contained in this book seek to answer questions concerning the assumptions standing behind these methods, the limits of using them and their usefulness in the practice and theory of law. A specific feature of the book is that in one study four different, sometimes competing concepts of legal method are discussed. The panorama, sketched like this, allows one to reflect deeply on the questions concerning the methodological conditioning of legal science and the existence of a unique, specific legal method. The authors argue that there exists no such method.
Methods for measuring greenhouse Gas balances and evaluating mitigation options in smallholder agriculture
This book provides standards and guidelines for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions and removals in smallholder agricultural systems and comparing options for climate change mitigation based on emission reductions and livelihood trade-offs. Globally, agriculture is directly responsible for about 11% of annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and induces an additional 17% through land use change, mostly in developing countries. Farms in the developing countries of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia are predominately managed by smallholders, with 80% of land holdings smaller than ten hectares. However, little to no information exists on greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation potentials in smallholder agriculture.
Methodology of Uniform Contract Law : The UNIDROIT Principles in International Legal Doctrine and Practice
In this book, the author examines uniform contract law comprehensively in all relevant areas of legal doctrine and practice and considers the barriers which exist toward it in modern nation states, namely in the German and English legal systems. She suggests ways in which these barriers can be overcome and develops an autonomous methodology of interpretation of transnational contract principles. The author wants to encourage the use of existing uniform transnational law rules, such as the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts, which are analysed here as an example.
Measuring Entrepreneurship : Building a Statistical System
This volume provides a comprehensive review of the theoretical concepts and empirical models of entrepreneurship from a non-conventional perspective. Its main purpose is to contribute to the design of an efficient system of indicators of entrepreneurship and competitiveness. The existence of a gap between the theory of entrepreneurship and the methods and data available for testing its main propositions has been widely recognized. Hence, some of the most prestigious researchers have collaborated to review and develop the statistical sources, indicators and proxies currently available for empirical studies on the phenomena of entrepreneurship. The book thereby makes recent advances in the theory and application of the economics of entrepreneurship accessible to a wider audience, including policy makers, emphasizing data requirements to advance the future research agenda and to allow for a better design and monitoring of entrepreneurial policy.
Meaning in Action : Constructions, Narratives, and Representations
are far from genetically ? xing what behavioral preferences they may possess. Instead, learning mechanisms offer a ? exible way of attaining locally important cultural knowledge within temporal windows of opportunity as has been convi- ingly shown by research in language and culture attainment. Similar mechanisms are likely to exist for other social capacities, such as mate preferences, for example. It is this role of our biological inheritance that social science must appreciate in order to furnish a more complete understanding of human behavior. Within the natural range of variation of capacities and armed with biologically conditioned learning mechanisms we live out lives of meaning – in which we hold some things to be real, rational, valuable or morally right, and others not. It is this world of meaning in which we ? nd love and hate, struggles for justice, power, and money, and the dramas that lend to life both its depth and passion.
Mathematics for Life Science and Medicine
Dynamical systems theory in mathematical biology has attracted much attention from many scientific directions. The purpose of this volume is to present and discuss the many rich properties of the dynamical systems that appear in life science and medicine. The main topics include cancer treatment, dynamics of paroxysmal tachycardia, vector disease models, epidemic diseases and metapopulations, immune systems, pathogen competition and coexistence and the evolution of virulence and the rapid evolution of viruses within a host. Each chapter will serve to introduce students and scholars to the state-of-the-art in an exciting area, to present new results, and to inspire future contributions to mathematical modeling in life science and medicine.
Mathematical Models of Distribution Channels
In Chapters 1 and 2 the authors provide an introduction to the current, analytical literature on distribution channels, and they present an intuitively appealing prologue to the Channel Myths that are developed rigorously in later Chapters. In Chapters 3, 4, and 10 they extend the literature by ascertaining the relationship between the manufacturer-optimal wholesale-price strategy and channel breadth. Specific analyses include multiple, non-competing retailers, multiple states-of-nature, and multiple, competing retailers. In Chapters 5-7 the authors determine the profitability of various wholesale-price strategies; this analysis culminates in Chapters 8 and 9 with the determination of the (very limited) conditions under which channel coordination can be optimal for the manufacturer. In Chapter 11 they prove that existing methods of measuring the effect of a change in the degree of inter-retailer substitutability are totally misleading. They then develop an original, theoretical basis for measuring the impact of a change in the degree of inter-retailer substitutability that yields insightful, intuitively appealing results. In Chapter 12 the authors set forth an agenda for future research based on a meta-model that embraces all existing models in the literature. They also issue an appeal for creation of a "Unifying Theory of Distribution Channels" that will enable researchers to work independently and yet to contribute toward the common goal of deepening the marketing science professions’ understanding of distribution channels.
Isodual theory of antimatter : With applications to antigravity, grand unification and cosmology
Antimatter, already conjectured by A. Schuster in 1898, was actually predicted by P.A.M. Dirac in the late 19-twenties in the negative-energy solutions of the Dirac equation. Its existence was subsequently confirmed via the Wilson chamber and became an established part of theoretical physics. Dirac soon discovered that particles with negative energy do not behave in a physically conventional manner, and he therefore developed his "hole theory". This restricted the study of antimatter to the sole level of second quantization. As a result antimatter created a scientific imbalance, because matter was treated at all levels of study, while antimatter was treated only at the level of second quantization.In search of a new mathematics for the resolution of this imbalance the author conceived what we know today as Santilli’s isodual mathematics, which permitted the construction of isodual classical mechanics, isodual quantization and isodual quantum mechanics. The scope of this monograph is to show that our classical, quantum and cosmological knowledge of antimatter is at its beginning with much yet to be discovered, and that a commitment to antimatter by experimentalists will be invaluable to antimatter science.
Islamic banking and finance
Explores the nature and role of money in modern economies and elaborates on the process of credit deposit creation, trade cycles and instruments for the creation of value in financial markets through the perspectives of Islamic finance. The author explains its characteristics, especially the rationale for the lack of interest-based financial activities. He examines the intrinsic ethical and humanistic frameworks that govern financial theories and practices and the models for the creation of value, risk-sharing and socially responsible investing, as well as the governance and regulation that these systems follow. The author also does a comparative assessment of conventional financial systems with Islamic finance with relevant examples, assesses the performance of Islamic systems and examines existing and expanding markets for Islamic finance.
Irreversible Phenomena : Ignitions, Combustion and Detonation Waves
Ideals are simple and able to be easily understood, but never exist in reality. In this book a theory based on the second law of thermodynamics and its applications are described. In thermodynamics there is a concept of an ideal gas which satisfies a mathematical formula PV = RT. This formula can appro- mately be applied to the real gas, so far as the gas has not an especially high pressure and low temperature. In connection with the second law of thermo- namics there is also a concept of reversible and irreversible processes. The reversible process is a phenomenon proceeding at an infinitely low velocity, while the irreversible process is that proceeding with a finite velocity. Such a process with an infinitely slow velocity can really never take place, and all processes observed are always irreversible, therefore, the reversible process is an ideal process, while the irreversible process is a real process.
Inventory and Supply Chain Management with Forecast Updates
Inventory and Supply Chain Management with Forecast Updates is concerned with the problems of inventory and supply chain decision making with information updating over time. The models considered include inventory decisions with multiple sources and delivery modes, supply-contract design and evaluation, contracts with exercise price, volume-flexible contracts allowing for spot-market purchase decisions, and competitive supply chains. Real problems are formulated into tractable mathematical models, which allow for an analysis of various approaches, and provide insights for better supply chain management. The book provides a unified treatment of these models, presents a critique of the existing results, and points out potential research directions. Attention is focused on solutions – that is, inventory decisions prior and subsequent to information updates and the impact of the quality of information on these decisions.
Intrusion Detection and Correlation : Challenges and Solutions
Challenges and Solutions presents intrusion detection systems (IDSs) and addresses the problem of managing and correlating the alerts produced. This volume discusses the role of intrusion detection in the realm of network security with comparisons to traditional methods such as firewalls and cryptography. Challenges and Solutions analyzes the challenges in interpreting and combining (i.e., correlating) alerts produced by these systems. In addition, existing academic and commercial systems are classified; their advantage and shortcomings are presented, especially in the case of deployment in large, real-world sites. Challenges and Solutions is designed for a professional audience composed of researchers and practitioners in industry. This book is also suitable for graduate-level students in computer science.
Introductory Lectures on Fluctuations of Lévy Processes with Applications
Lévy processes are the natural continuous-time analogue of random walks and form a rich class of stochastic processes around which a robust mathematical theory exists. Their mathematical significance is justified by their application in many areas of classical and modern stochastic models including storage models, renewal processes, insurance risk models, optimal stopping problems, mathematical finance and continuous-state branching processes.The book aims to be mathematically rigorous while still providing an intuitive feel for underlying principles. The results and applications often focus on the case of Lévy processes with jumps in only one direction.
Introduction to Video Search Engines
Their book has a practical emphasis with the goal of bringing readers up to date on the state of the art in multimedia search technologies and systems. It explains the overall process of video content acquisition, indexing and retrieval with browsing, it provides overviews of constituent technologies such as information retrieval, Internet video systems, video and multimedia processing to extract index data, and it gives examples of research prototypes and existing commercial systems and describes their features.
Introduction to the Theory of Cooperative Games
This book systematically presents the main solutions of cooperative games: the core, bargaining set, kernel, nucleolus, and the Shapley value of TU games, and the core, the Shapley value, and the ordinal bargaining set of NTU games. To each solution the authors devote a separate chapter wherein they study its properties in full detail. Moreover, important variants are defined or even intensively analyzed. The authors also investigate in separate chapters continuity, dynamics, and geometric properties of solutions of TU games. The study culminates in uniform and coherent axiomatizations of all the foregoing solutions (excluding the bargaining set). Such axiomatizations have not appeared in any book. Moreover, the book contains a detailed analysis of the main results on cooperative games without side payments. Such analysis is very limited or non-existent in other books on game theory.
Introduction to Drug Disposition and Pharmacokinetics
The application of knowledge of drug disposition, and skills in pharmacokinetics, are crucial to the development of new drugs and to a better understanding of how to achieve maximum benefit from existing ones. The book takes the reader from basic concepts to a point where those who wish to will be able to perform pharmacokinetic calculations and be ready to read more advanced texts and research papers.
