Books published by Springer

This open access book traces the research and teaching contributions of Kenneth Goodpaster over more than 45 years of his career. The book shows the content and the progression of these themes over the years identifying four insights in applied ethics: the moral insight, the institutional insight, the anthropological insight, and the Socratic insight. It highlights such concepts as conscience, corporate responsibility, corporations as agents and as recipients, stockholders, stakeholders, comprehensive moral thinking, and ethics education. In addition, Goodpaster explains phrases such as teleopathy, moral projection, human dignity, and the common good. Finally, the book examines with concern the implications of the foregoing for the polarizing and partisan trends in contemporary business behavior.Kenneth Goodpaster's new book, Times of Insight: Conscience, Corporations, and the Common Good reflects the culmination of 50 years of incredible philosophical insights forming the basis of business ethics. His concept of 'corporate conscience' as a moral projection from individual conscience to organizational behavior is both an original as well as a most worthwhile approach to organizational responsibility. Coupling that with a clear notion of the common good, Goodpaster provides substantive grounds for a creative analysis of ethical issues in business. This is one of the most exciting new books in the field. - Patricia H. Werhane, Professor Emerita, University of Virginia and Professor Emerita, DePaul University. "Beginners beware. "Wickedly interdisciplinary" describes corporate ethics. More than "interdisciplinary," the field asks questions that range across disciplines, nations and centuries. Who better to cut this Gordian Knot than Ken Goodpaster, a true giant in the field, who mixes a prodigious knowledge of contemporary corporations with a deep understanding of intellectual history to produce a new and stunning amalgam. A must-read." - Thomas Donaldson, The Mark O. Winkelman Professor, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania As one of the pioneers in business ethics, Kenneth Goodpaster has given us a great gift of synthesizing 50 years of philosophical reflection and corporate practice on some of the most important questions and issues for business today. This work is not nostalgia, but an important source of wisdom for leaders today and into the future. - Dr. Michael Naughton, Director, Center for Catholic Studies, Koch Chair in Catholic Studies, University of St. Thomas

This open access book provides a current view on education, equity and inclusion within the lens of education for a sustainable North. The first book published by the University of the Arctic Thematic Network for Teacher Education for Social Justice and Diversity (Including the North: A comparative study of the policies on inclusion and equity in the circumpolar North, 2019) highlighted policies of inclusion and equity in education in national and regional contexts. This new book explores in more depth the provision of education across the north, focusing on challenges and innovations in meeting the needs of diverse learners in remote and rapidly changing contexts.While many texts address issues of equity, inclusion and diversity, they are almost all focused on the global South, and miss the lessons that can be learned from Northern regions. This book offers an extended essay on teaching and learning through various perspectives and experiences with the aim of creating a more sustainable North. It is structured around two main themes: 1) Supporting Teachers for Diversity and Inclusion in the Classroom including consideration of language and identity issues, 2) Engendering community solutions to structural and geographical challenges in education in the circumpolar north.

This holistic guide brings rabbit production science and medicine together. It considers the full spectrum of commercial rabbit husbandry, including intensive, semi-intensive, and organic systems for meat, fur and leather. Drawn from an international authorship, the book addresses practical and fundamental topics. In comprehensive sections, readers will find easy-to-read chapters on: - rabbit breeds, anatomy essentials and lagomorph physiology- rabbit production with details on animal facilities and farm design, international trading, rabbit meat processing and biosafety, including a vivid appendix on meat inspection- rabbit herd and health management, considering latest findings in welfare and behavior, preventive medicine, antimicrobial resistance and demedication to necropsy and specimen collection- significant rabbit diseases, covering encephalitozoonosis cuniculi, rabbit enteropathies, and many more- complete veterinary treatment, supplemented by reference ranges and interpretation of hematological and biochemical valuesBesides an increasing keeping of pet rabbits, the animals are gaining interest for sustainable food production, leading to a rise in farming in various parts of the world. In this context, the present guide provides valuable contributions for consulting veterinarians and students, industry professionals, breeders and technicians, as well as for experts from the small and companion animal sector.The relevance of rabbit farming from the viewpoints of greenhouse gas reduction and sustainable use of ecological resources (use of local feed) also creates useful links for readers interested in the sustainable development goals SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production).

This book is about semisimple Banach algebras with a focus on those that are commutative. After laying out the necessary background material from functional analysis, geometry of Banach spaces and measure theory, we introduce many specific Banach algebras from operator theory, harmonic analysis, and function theory and study their basic properties. Some of the questions dealt with in the book are: Whether the introduced Banach algebras are BSE-algebras, whether they have BSE norms, whether they have the separating ball property or some variant of it, and whether they are Arens regular. The book contains quite a few new results, as well as new proofs of a good many known results.The book is intended for those who are preparing to work in Banach algebras or who have been doing research in related areas.

This book is dedicated to the life and work of logician Janusz Czelakowski on the topic of logical consequence. It consists of three parts - a biography, a survey and research sections. The volume begins with an autobiographic chapter by Janusz Czelakowski followed by a historical chapter written by Jacek Malinowski. The survey section forms the backbone of the volume with each chapter covering one of Janusz Czelakowski's results. They focus on his results in the area of logical consequence, demonstrate how his results influenced following research, and presents potential future results, problems and applications. This volume is of interest to logicians and mathematicians.

This textbook presents an in-depth introductory survey of several fundamental advanced control concepts and techniques all ranging from modern ideas. The book emphasizes ideas, an understanding of key concepts, methodologies, and results. In line with this, the book addresses master's students in the overlap of engineering and computer science as well as engineers working in various application fields and interested in useful control techniques and less in system theories appealing from a mathematical point of view. The book aims to show what methods and results learned for single-variable systems are also applicable to multivariable systems, what is different and why. The structured text covers a broad spectrum of topics from decentralized control to the use of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Methods and results are illustrated by many examples and using free, open source mathematical software, predominately GNU Octave. In some cases, the free mathematical software package Scilab is also used. The book features exercises and examples throughout.

This book examines multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) and presents the Sequential Iterative Modelling for Urban Systems (SIMUS) as a method to be used for strategic decision making. It emphasizes the necessity to take into account aspects related to real world scenarios and incorporating possible real-life aspects for modelling. The book also highlights the use of sensitivity analysis and presents a method for using criteria marginal values instead of weights, which permits the drawing of curves that depicts the variations of the objective function due to increments/decrements of criteria values. In this way, it also gives quantitative values of the objective function allowing stakeholders to perform a comprehensive risk analysis for a solution when it is affected by exogenous variables. Strategic Multi-Criteria Decision Making: A Practical Guide for Complex Scenarios is divided into four parts. Part 1 is devoted to exploring the history and development of the discipline and the way it is currently used. It highlights drawbacks and problems that scholars have identified in different MCDM methods and techniques. Part 2 refers to what can be done using the MCDM process. Part 3 proposes the SIMUS method as a strategic procedure to deal with MCDM problems, and addressing how to approach complicate scenarios. Part 4 is entirely devoted to support practitioners through more than 100 questions a user may ask, and their corresponding answers, as well as a collection of solved six complex real-life scenarios. The decision-making process can be a complex task, especially with multi-criteria problems. With large amounts of information, it can be an extremely difficult to make a rational decision, due to the number of intervening variables, their interrelationships, potential solutions that might exist, diverse objectives envisioned for a project, etc. The SIMUS method has been designed to offer a strategy to help organize, classify, and evaluate this information effectively.

This book lays out a foundation and taxonomy for Behavioral Decision Analysis, featuring representative work across various domains. Traditional research in the domain of Decision Analysis has focused on the design and application of logically consistent tools to support decision makers during the process of structuring problem complexity, modeling uncertainty, generating predictions, eliciting preferences, and, ultimately, making better decisions. Two commonly held assumptions are that the decision maker¿s cognitive belief system is fully accessible and that this system can be understood and formalized by trained analysts. However, in past years, an active line of research has emerged studying instances in which such assumptions may not hold. This book unites this community under the common theme of Behavioral Decision Analysis. The taxonomy used in this book categorizes research based on task focus (prediction or decision) and behavioral level (individual or group). Two theoretical lenses that lie at the interface between (1) normative and descriptive research, and (2) normative and prescriptive research are introduced. The book then proceeds to highlight representative works across the two lenses focused on individual and group-level decision making. Featuring various methodologies and applications, the book serves as a reference for researchers, students, and professionals across different disciplines with a common interest in Behavioral Decision Analysis.

Many salmonids inhabit streams during the whole, or a substantial part of their lifetime. Streams, as networks of cold waters running over rifles, pools and tables of gravel, pebble and stony substratum, are fed by rainfall and snowmelt and may be subject to spates and droughts. Hence, these lotic systems are heterogeneous by nature and vary substantially in temperature and discharge along their environmental gradients. In these habitats, salmonids encounter suitable reproductive and feeding habitats where they exhibit a dizzying array of life‐history traits and an overwhelming variability in size, growth and density. Essentially predators upon organisms drifting across the water column, they become apex piscivores at large sizes. They may also serve as prey for aquatic macroinvertebrates at the youngest stages, and as they grow, they may become prey for birds and mammals. In addition, many populations play a major role in the recycling of biogeochemical elements critical for the trophic dynamics of their home streams. Empirical assessment of the ecological functioning of stream salmonids has been a tireless endeavor since the pioneer studies by Allen (1951), Chapman (1966), McFadden (1964) and Northcote (1966) further enhanced by the IBP (1964-1974; Gerking 1967) and extended to experimental approaches during the last decades (Northcote Lobon-Cervia 2010, Lobon-Cervia & Sanz 2017, Kershner et al. 2019). It has become increasingly apparent that streams are severely threatened by human abuse and misuse, including over-extraction, diversion, damming and pollution, in addition to the more recent threat of global warming. Furthermore, salmonids themselves are threatened by genetic introgressions, diseases, and parasites related to uncontrolled introductions of individuals from aquaculture, and over-exploitation by angling. These threats have triggered important social and political concerns, to the extent of becoming research priorities for major agencies and institutions. In this context, we attempt to add an overview to this endeavor by updating and summarizing the documented ecology of stream-living salmonids, with reference to the factors and mechanisms underlying the growth, density and life history that interact to determine the size, number, and distribution of individuals encountered in any wild population.

This open access monograph offers a detailed study and a systematic defense of a key intuition we typically have, as human beings, with respect to the nature of time: the intuition that the future is open, whereas the past is fixed. For example, whereas it seems unsettled whether there will be a fourth world war, it is settled that there was a first world war.The book contributes, in particular, three major and original insights. First, it provides a coherent, non-metaphorical, and metaphysically illuminating elucidation of the intuition. Second, it determines which model of the temporal structure of the world is most appropriate to accommodate the intuition, and settles on a specific version of the Growing Block Theory of time (GBT). Third, it puts forward a naturalistic foundation for GBT, by exploiting recent results of our best physics (viz. General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and Quantum Gravity). Three main challenges are addressed: the dismissal of temporal asymmetries as non-fundamental phenomena only (e.g., thermodynamic or causal phenomena), the epistemic objection against GBT, and the apparent tension between GBT and relativistic physics. It is argued that the asymmetry between the open future and the fixed past must be grounded in the temporal structure of the world, and that this is neither precluded by our epistemic device, nor by the latest approaches to Quantum Gravity (​e.g., the Causal Set Theory). Aiming at reconciling time as we find it in ordinary experience and time as physics describes it, this ​innovative book ​will raise the interest of both academic researchers and ​graduate students working on the philosophy of time. More generally, it ​presents contents of interest for all metaphysicians and non-dogmatic philosophers of physics.This is an open access book.

Although difficult, change in academic structures is necessary today, especially in fast-changing fields today such as biology, computing, management, the social sciences, and others. This includes changes within existing organizations as well as creation of new structures and reorganizations or eliminations of older ones. This narrative attempts first to document the historical rise of an organization, Georgia Tech's College of Computing, that has touched and successfully changed the lives of thousands of people. Second, it aims to identify and explicate some of what has led to this widely acknowledged success. The book provides a chronological narrative that highlights major changes taken under each successive leader. These changes have built on one another, knowingly or otherwise, to create a growing organization that rivals in size and prominence longer established parts of the university. The case study, while of an academic organization focused on computing, provides general lessons applicable almost anywhere. Topics and features: Discusses the nature and uses of visions, both general and specificShows how visions can be used to drive specific actions and resource allocationsIllustrates the choice and use of enduring organizational principlesOutlines a simple strategic-planning method and its applicationIndicates results of this overall approach This book will be of interest to anyone interested in organizational change, especially in academia, and to those interested in Georgia Tech. It will also appeal to policymakers in education, government, and industry; as well as anyone interested in the historical growth of the computing milieu broadly. Peter A. Freeman was Founding Dean and Professor in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech from 1990 to 2002. Today he is an Emeritus Dean and Professor.

Meliponini, the stingless bees of the tropics, process and store honey, pollen and plant resins to maintain their colonies. The chemical components of their nests are bioactive and believed to be therapeutic for a long list of maladies. However, only recently are tests and analyses being done with molecular and modern laboratory techniques, such as high throughput EDX, HPIC, HPLC, GC, NMR, PCR, and ultrastructural SEM; coupled with diverse detectors such as DAD, RI, MS, SCD.This two-volume book is about the cerumen -plant resins mixed with stingless bee wax- and propolis, which fortify the colony in ways that are beginning to be understood. It includes reviews and new research on diverse topics involving the chemistry and bioactivity of plant resins, cerumen, propolis, besides bee and microbe behavior and ecology. These analytic studies are presented along with stingless bee biodiversity, palynology, cultural knowledge, bee foraging behavior, resin flower evolution, ecology, and evolution of nest microbe mutualisms, social immunity, human health, the decisive role of microbiology investigation in moving forward, natural history of stingless bee colonies and nests, marketing, and bibliometrics for plant resin use by bees, propolis, and the Starmerella yeast.

In this textbook readers will acquire knowledge of problem-solving and learning to enhance both efficiency and the experience of service users in rapidly changing service environments, that can create new service models. Emphasizing that, above all else, individuals are at the centre of services, the book goes deeply into the nature of public services and their logic-of-practice. By applying learning and problem-solving approaches, the reader gains practical capabilities in addition to an appreciation of the latest research literature. Following a multidisciplinary, international approach, the book suggests a new typology of problem-framing and presents many examples of how new service solutions can be created in any public service context.  The book offers a conceptual toolkit to understand and analyse dynamically changing services and the application of new technologies. Topics covered include pressing issues surrounding public services, such as e-technology, digitalisation, e-services, artificial intelligence, entrepreneurialism, sustainability, climate, inequality, developing economies, and smart cities. Chapters follow a similar structure: issue, problems, what we know, learning framework, worked example, theory and practice conclusions, as well as teacher and learner notes. Addressing advanced undergraduate and graduate students of public administration, public management, political science, sociology, computer science, and information systems, the book will also be a valuable resource for practitioners, i.e. experts and managers in public organizations, professionals in organizations working at the business and public sectors, consultants, and IT suppliers.

Student engagement at the programme and university levels are both critical to students' success in higher education. This book establishes a theoretical and empirical framework for assessing these student experiences together. To this end, the book brings together the two major fields of university quality assurance (US [university engagement] and UK [programme experiences]). This edited book then shows how this integrated approach applies to university experiences across Pacific Asia (Hong Kong, Mainland China, Philippines, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan). It demonstrates how the proposed quality assurance framework can be applied as an intra-institutional tool to enhance student experiences. For readers interested in future of Asia Pacific higher education, this book presents a path towards enhanced cross-national communication between Asia Pacific universities.

The book is the second volume of a collection which consists of surveys that focus on important topics in geometry which are at the heart of current research. The topics in the present volume include the conformal and the metric geometry of surfaces, Teichmüller spaces, immersed surfaces of prescribed extrinsic curvature in 3-dimensional manifolds, symplectic geometry, the metric theory of Grassmann spaces, homogeneous metric spaces, polytopes, the higher-dimensional Gauss-Bonnet formula, isoperimetry in finitely generated groups and Coxeter groups.Each chapter is intended for graduate students and researchers. Several chapters are based on lectures given by their authors to middle-advanced level students and young researchers. The whole book is intended to be an introduction to important topics in geometry.

William Thurston's ideas have altered the course of twentieth century mathematics, and they continue to have a significant influence on succeeding generations of mathematicians. The purpose of the present volume and of the other volumes in the same series is to provide a collection of articles that allows the reader to learn the important aspects of Thurston's heritage. The topics covered in this volume include Kleinian groups, holomorphic motions, earthquakes from the Anti-de Sitter point of view, the Thurston and Weil-Petersson metrics on Teichmüller space, 3-manifolds, geometric structures, dynamics on surfaces, homeomorphism groups of 2-manifolds and the theory of orbifolds.

This second edition offers a comprehensive introduction to loop quantum gravity (LQG) in self-dual variables, including the necessary prerequisites. Additionally, it delves into various significant research areas that have emerged in recent years. New content (including an entirely new chapter dedicated to dynamics of quantum spacetime) explores the description of spin networks and spin-foams, their historical development as well as connections to tensor networks, BF theory, and emerging approaches including the spinorial representation of LQG, SU(2) coherent states, and group field theory. Furthermore, the book provides expanded appendices covering essential tools and concepts, such as the connection between information theory and entropy, and overviews of group theory and differential geometry. All topics are presented from a non-expert perspective, ensuring self-containment and accessibility. The primary aim of this second edition remains helping researchers, bewildered bythe vast array of topics within this rapidly growing field of quantum gravity, to gain a fundamental understanding of the current developments.

Meliponini, the stingless bees of the tropics, process and store honey, pollen and plant resins to maintain their colonies. The chemical components of their nests are bioactive and believed to be therapeutic for a long list of maladies. However, only recently are tests and analyses being done with molecular and modern laboratory techniques, such as high throughput EDX, HPIC, HPLC, GC, NMR, PCR, and ultrastructural SEM; coupled with diverse detectors such as DAD, RI, MS, SCD.This two-volume book is about the cerumen ¿plant resins mixed with stingless bee wax¿ and propolis, which fortify the colony in ways that are beginning to be understood. It includes reviews and new research on diverse topics involving the chemistry and bioactivity of plant resins, cerumen, propolis, besides bee and microbe behavior and ecology. These analytic studies are presented along with stingless bee biodiversity, palynology, cultural knowledge, bee foraging behavior, resin flower evolution, ecology, and evolution of nest microbe mutualisms, social immunity, human health, the decisive role of microbiology investigation in moving forward, natural history of stingless bee colonies and nests, marketing, and bibliometrics for plant resin use by bees, propolis, and the Starmerella yeast.

With Directive 2013/34/EU - which replaced the 4th and 7th accounting Directives - a new step towards European accounting harmonization has been taken: accounting rules on private firms have been further standardized and, at the same time, brought closer to IAS/IFRS. This book develops a comparative analysis of the most relevant issues in the process of preparing the financial statements after the recent transposition of the aforementioned Directive into the local accounting rules and standards. This book is of interest for several reasons. First, private firms, which are not necessarily small-medium sized companies, are the most prevalent and the engine of growth in all European countries. At the same time, the international academic literature is mainly devoted to listed companies, due to the limited availability of data for private companies and the idea that accounting information is less relevant for this kind of companies. In addition, the analysis contained in the book is the result of the work of more than 30 European researchers, who contributed to both a vertical analysis of eight countries (Germany, Spain, Italy, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Denmark) and a horizontal analysis of the most relevant cross-cutting issues (fundamental principles, financial statement formats, impairment losses, capital reserves and profit distribution, income taxes, and non-financial reporting). More specifically, the book aims to examine, from a comparative perspective, the methods of application of the Directive in Europe, in parallel with the evolutionary processes of national GAAPs, in order to verify the impact of both legal regulations and professional rules on the quality and comparability of accounting information, as well as the degree of convergence towards the IAS/IFRS model.

The book is devoted to exploring the organizational dimensions of the general space of problem-solution dualities within epistemic fields to examine the diversity and unity of knowing and information-knowledge production in science and non-science and how to account for and explain the forces of variety transformations, as induced by decision-choice actions in creating the functor space and the space of categorial converters as well as to integrate decision-choice qualities of curiosity, creativity, hope, despair, success, failure, and their relationships with epistemic anomalies in the production of intellectual investment flows and capital stocks, and the rise and fall of institutions in response to the dynamics of the open space of problem-solution dualities with open algorithms under the principle of non-satiation. The conditions and sources of uncertainties in human actions are traced though the space of ontic-epistemic dualities as generated by cognitive capacity limitations leading to the concepts of imagination, possibility, and probability with corresponding worlds and then link to the discussions on thinking-reasoning processes with goals, objectives, and visions of education in social set-ups. The concepts and phenomena of anticipation, necessity, expectation, freedom, anomaly, curiosity, creativity, hope, despair, success, and failure contained in the space of imaginations are defined under the concepts of onticity and epistemicity, where their roles in the dualistic-polar journeys are discussed, analyzed, and connected to epistemic transversality conditions under the principle of opposites relative to the conditions of input-output and cost-benefit dualities. The book is to fill in some of the important phenomena needed in my investigation of theory of knowing as a production of intellectual investment flows and information-knowledge accumulation as the production of intellectual capital stocks relative to the disequilibrium dynamics of human intellectual heritage based on fuzzy paradigm of thought, thus providing an added foundation in integrating subjective elements into the development of open artificial intelligence, where cost-benefit values operate to determine varieties over the spaces of true-false and yes-no dualities in maching learning.

This book focuses on the relevance of equity-side innovative financial tools for SMEs in overcoming financial threats. Scholars identify difficulties in the financial sphere as the main causes of SME mortality. Such problems do not allow them to reach sustainable growth. It thus becomes critical to have the best knowledge of innovative financial tools to overcome financial constraints. By exploring the origin of financial needs, the book aims to observe how innovative equity-side financing tools, particularly equity crowdfunding, contribute to the SME dimension. The work outlines the main development factors, observing equity-crowdfunding's effect on the rate at which SMEs reach sustainable total development (STD). Moreover, outlining the fundamentals of the main theories developed on financing choices, the work concludes with a systematic literature analysis on equity crowdfunding, highlighting the main features that currently increase scholars' interest in the topic.

Written by two experts of the domain, this book presents the most recent advances in computer arithmetic hardware, with a focus on application-specific arithmetic beyond the classic operators and the standard precisions. It targets silicon designers who have to do better with less in the post-Moore era, and FPGA developers who want to exploit the full possibilities of reconfigurable computing platforms.

Body contouring surgeries are pretty common among plastic surgeons and the Brazilian Plastic Surgery is one of the most recognized in terms of innovations. This book proposes a new approach for treatment of all body abnormalities in order to achieve aesthetic improvement. Written by Brazilian expert contributors, it addresses all body segments related to body contouring, such as breast, abdomen, dorsum, buttocks, lower and upper limbs, and also body lifting techniques after large weight loss. Associated surgeries, new invasive and non-invasive techniques and technologies such as: robotics, lasers, ultrasound, among others will be carefully described in 59 chapters. The work will also discuss the behavior of lipografting to improve body contouring as well as the importance of isolated medial tight lifting.Body contouring - Current Concepts and Best Practices is richly illustrated by images and will be a reference book for plastic surgeons worldwide.

This is the first comprehensive book on Trotter-Kato approximations of stochastic differential equations (SDEs) in infinite dimensions and applications. This research monograph brings together the varied literature on this topic since 1985 when such a study was initiated. The author provides a clear and systematic introduction to the theory of Trotter-Kato approximations of SDEs and also presents its applications to practical topics such as stochastic stability and stochastic optimal control. The theory assimilated here is developed slowly and methodically in digestive pieces.The book begins with a motivational chapter introducing several different models that highlight the importance of the theory on abstract SDEs that will be considered in the subsequent chapters. The author next introduces the necessary mathematical background and then leads the reader into the main discussion of the monograph, namely, the Trotter-Kato approximations of many classes of SDEs in Hilbert spaces, Trotter-Kato approximations of SDEs in UMD Banach spaces and some of their applications. Most of the results presented in the main chapters appear for the first time in a book form. The monograph also contains many illustrative examples on stochastic partial differential equations and one in finance as an application of the Trotter-Kato formula. The key steps are included in all proofs which will help the reader to get a real insight into the theory of Trotter-Kato approximations and its use. This book is intended for researchers and graduate students in mathematics specializing in probability theory. It will also be useful to numerical analysts, engineers, physicists and practitioners who are interested in applying the theory of stochastic evolution equations. Since the approach is based mainly in semigroup theory, it is accessible to a wider audience including non-specialists in stochastic processes.

In major areas of research concerned with science it is not uncommon to see that historical studies are accompanied by the rise of complementary or contradictory historiographies. With time, it seems, scholars discover new approaches to studying topics, thus questioning old concepts, traditions, periodizations and historical labels. Apparently, this has not been the case in evolutionary thought. In that area, prevailing historiographic labels such as "Darwinian Revolution", "Eclipse of Darwinism", and "Modern Synthesis" have been in place and largely uncontested for nearly 50 years. These labels seem to work as irrefutable, and often hidden, premises of many historical reconstructions, philosophical analyses, and scientific conceptualizations. This volume aims to address this situation, opening new avenues of thought by revisiting the traditional historiography and laying the groundwork for a "new historiography" which considers the intertwined threads that compose evolutionary biology. In particular, it is worth noting evolutionary studies have been marked by the tension between unification attempts and the proliferation of approaches, methodologies, and styles of thinking. As the contributors to this volume illustrate, research traditions have branched off throughout history, before and after Charles Darwin. The resulting complexity challenges traditional conceptual categories, throwing a somewhat different light on a more recent label like the "Extended Evolutionary Synthesis". More than 40 years after the now classic The Evolutionary Synthesis: Perspectives on the Unification of Biology (1980), edited by Ernst Mayr and William Provine, the contributors to this volume aim to reevaluate how best should evolutionary biology be conceived today.

I Introduction.- I-1 Femtosecond Technology and Its Industrial Impact.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Fundamental Nature of Femtosecond Optics.- 3. Device and Material Research Frontiers.- 4. Ultrafast System Goals.- 5. Summary and Future Tasks.- References.- II Optoelectronics Technology Roadmap and Industry.- II-1 Technology Roadmap for the Japanese Opto-Electronics Industry.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Roadmap for Optical Communication Technology.- 3. Future Prospects for Optoelectronics Technology in Japan.- 4. Summary and Conclusions.- Acknowledgment.- References.- II-2 Technology Roadmap for Optical Communication - A North American Perspective.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Socioeconomic Driving Forces.- 3. Anticipated Consumer Needs - Bandwidth Requirements.- 4. Core Network.- 5. Access Networks.- 6. LANs and Campus Networks.- 7. Conclusion.- References.- II-3 Structural Change in Industry and Reorganization of R&D Systems in Network-Oriented Societies.- 1. Introduction.- 2. From Vertical to Horizontal.- 3. Outsourcing of Industrial R&D Activities.- 4. From Linear Model to "Konoyubi-Tomar?" Model.- 5. From Proprietary to Licensing.- 6. Hopes for the Renaissance of Universities.- 7. Concluding Remarks.- References and Notes.- III Ultrafast Optoelectronics for Telecommunications.- III-1 Femtosecond Semiconductor-Based Optoelectonic Devices for Optical Communications and Signal-Processing Systems.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Semiconductor-Based Femtosecond Devices.- 3. Femtosecond Light Sources.- 4. Femtosecond All-Optical Switches.- 5. Conclusion.- Acknowledgment.- References.- III-2 Generation, Control and Processing of Ultrafast Optical Signals by Electrooptic Modulation/Deflection.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Generation of Wide Optical Spectra by Using Electrooptic Modulation.- 3. Generation of Ultrashort Optical Pulses by Electrooptic Modulation/Deflection.- 4. Overview of the Future.- References.- III-3 Subharmonic Mode-Locking of Semiconductor Lasers Operating at Millimetre-Wave Frequencies.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Devices.- 3. Subharmonic Hybrid Mode-Locking.- 4. Subharmonic Synchronous Mode-locking.- 5. Comparison between S L and SSML.- 6. Conclusions.- Acknowledgement.- References.- III-4 All-Optical Access Node Technologies.- 1. Introduction and Motivation for Ultrafast Systems.- 2. Soliton Ring Network Architecture & Protocols.- 3. Integration of Components for Access Node.- 4. Q-Parameter Measurements of System Performance.- 5. Summary.- References.- III-5 Ultrafast All-Optical Switch Using Low-Temperature-Grown InGaAs/InAlAs Multiple-Quantum Wells.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Nonlinear Properties of Multi-Quantum Well Structures.- 3. Operation Principle of a Surface-Reflection All-Optical Switch.- 4. Improvement in Switching Speed.- 5. Improvement in Optical Nonlinearity.- 6. Application to Optical Communication Systems.- 7. Future Works.- References.- III-6 High Bandwidth Photodetectors.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Vertically Illuminated Long-Wavelength p-i-n Photodetectors.- 3. Traveling-Wave Photodetector.- 4. Silicon Hetero-Interface Avalanche Photodetector.- 5. Summary.- Acknowledgment.- References.- III-7 Coherent Tunable THz Oscillation by Nonlinear Optics.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Calculation of Gain.- 3. Unidirectional THz-Wave Coupling.- 4. Experiments.- 5. Measurement.- 6. Conclusion.- Acknowledgment.- References.- III-8 Multi-Gap Photoconductive Switches Fabricated by a Scanning Probe Microscope.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Fabrication Process.- 3. Electrooptic Vector Sampling.- 4. Summary.- Acknowledgements.- References.- IV Semiconductor Quantum Structures for Femtosecond Devices.- IV-1 High Speed Quantum Dot Lasers: Phonon Bottleneck Issue in Quantum Dot Lasers.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Lifetime of Confined LO Phonons.- 3. Phonon Bottleneck Issue.- 4. Conclusion and Discussions.- References.- IV-2 Ultrafast Coherent Dynamics of Radiatively Coupled Excitons in Multiple Quantum Wells.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Theoretical Model.- 3. Experimental Techniques...

I Grundlagen.- Wer braucht wofür Avatare? Konzeption und Implementierung natürlichsprachlicher Systeme - Zur Einführung.- Die Bedeutung von natürlichsprachlichen Dialogsystemen im Internet-Business.- Technische Grundlagen von natürlichsprachlichen Dialogsystemen.- Ein Quantensprung für Dialogsysteme.- II E-Business und Avatare.- "Ich habe Ihre Eingabe leider nicht verstanden" - Qualitätskriterien für Online-Tests von Bots.- Strategien für Dialogführungssysteme - Automation der Kundenkommunikation im Kontaktkanal Internet.- Schön - schnell - schlau: Online-Marketing mit Avataren.- Avatare und die Usability von Websites.- Support-Chat und Avatare als Mittel der persönlichen Kundenbetreuung im World Wide Web.- Cor@: Der Avatar der Deutschen Bank - Eine Fallstudie aus der Sicht des Auftragnehmers.- PIA - Der virtuelle Einkaufs-Guide - Eine Fallstudie des Club Bertelsmann.- Ein virtueller Berater für Yello - Auswahl, Implementierung und Betrieb eines Avatars.- III Marketing und Avatare.- Darf's ein bisschen menschlicher sein? - Virtuelle Charaktere am Point of Sale.- Robert T-Online - Eine Karriere zwischen Wirklichkeit und Cyberspace.- Robert T-Online - Ein universeller Markenbotschafter.- Avatare und Entertainment.- It's time for a Strike! - Wahlkampf einer digitalen Präsidentschaftskandidatin.- IV Ausblick.- Mehr als nur ein nettes Gesicht: Embodied conversational interface agents.- Mit Hand und Fuß - Die Bedeutung der nonverbalen Kommunikation für die Emotionalisierung von Dialogführungssystemen.- Virtualisierung und Personalisierung - Technologietrends machen Avatare zur innovativen Mensch-Maschine-Schnittstelle.

I Introduction - Overview, Technical Papers.- 1 Landslide Hazard - A Conceptual Approach in Risk Viewpoint.- 2 Flood Hazard Assessment and Mitigation.- 3 The Recognition of Landslides.- 4 Climate Change Impact on Frequency and Distribution of Natural Extreme Events: an Overview.- II Tools and Methodology.- 5 Dendrogeomorphology in Landslide Analysis.- 6 Rainfall and Flow Forecasting Using Weather Radar.- 7 Numerical Modelling Techniques as Predictive Tools of Ground Instability.- 8 New Applications of Monitoring Networks, Multipurpose, Cost/Benefits, Management.- 9 The Importance and the Problems of Cartography - An Example.- 10 From Meteorological Modelling to Flood Forecasting and the Management of Emergencies.- 11 Real-Time Flood Forecasting Systems: Perspectives and Prospects.- 12 Relationships Between Environment and Man in Terms of Landslide Induced Risk.- III Management and Socio-Economic Aspects.- 13 Innovative Approaches to Integrated Floodplain Management.- 14 The Economical Consequences of Floods and Landslides.- 15 Socio-Economic Perspective of Developing Country Megacities Vulnerable to Flood and Landslide Hazards.- 16 The Potentialities of a Risk Disaggregation Between Vulnerability and Hazard: Example of the Relative Stability Induced for Flooding Risk Alleviation.- IV Case Studies.- 17 Landslide Hazard Investigations in the Dolomites (Italy): The Case Study of Cortina d'Ampezzo.- 18 Monitoring and Warning Systems: Methodological Approach and Case Studies.- 19 Mass Movements in Austria.- 20 Landslides and Precipitation: the Event of 4-6th November 1994 in the Piemonte Region, North Italy.- 21 Evaluation of Radar and Panchromatic Imagery for the Study of Flood and Landslide Events in Piemonte, Italy, November 1994.- 22 Longitudinal Evaluation of the Bed Load Size and of its Mobilisation in a Gravel Bed River.- 23 Morphological Changes in Mountain Rivers During a Flood Event.- 24 Methodological Approach in the Analysis of Two Landslides in a Geologically Complex Area: The Case of Varenna Valley (Ligury).

Wirtschaftliche Grundlagen von Multimedia-Produktionsverträgen.- Grundlegende Begriffe (Multimedia, Teledienste, Rundfunk, Mediendienste).- Produktionsvertrag.- Vorbestehende Rechte.- Kennzeichenrecht im Besonderen anhand des Beispiels Domain-Name.- Das Wichtigste zu E-Commerce-Angeboten.- Verbraucherschutzvorschriften.- Einbindung von Dritten auf Seite des Produzenten.- Steuerrecht.- Spiele.- 1 to 1 Marketing und Datenschutz.- Haftung für Multimediaprodukte.- Streitschlichtung.- Kommunen im Netz.- Verhalten bei Abmahnungen. Rechtsfragen der Unternehmensorganisation.- Rechtsfragen bei Einführung eines QM-Systems.- Der Kriterienkatalog für E-Commerce-Projekte.- Projektmanagement aus rechtlicher Sicht.- Projektdokumentation und Beweismittel aus rechtlicher Sicht.