Bücher veröffentlicht von Springer London

The transition to lead-free solders seems to be a foregone conclusion with Japan and Europe leading the way. Indeed some key companies will move to lead free soon and the WEEE Directive 2002/96/EC on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment will require all companies doing business in the EU to transition to lead-free. Compliance with forthcoming lead-free regulations will ultimately fall to individual companies and the engineers responsible for design and prod- tion of electronic products and they must be prepared with adequate knowledge of the materials that are leading candidates and they must be prepared to fill the gaps in the data base for their own products. Research worldwide over the past 10 years has produced data and direction for choosing an alloy to substitute for near-eutectic SnPb alloys. This book will provide a valuable resource for engineers involved in the transition to products. Basic theory is presented on the physical metallurgy of soldering technology including elements of assembly, surface finishes and solder-paste technology, wetting and solidification, microstructural instability and intermetallic c- pounds and mechanical, creep and fatigue behavior. Techniques for measuring and testing are discussed and data on SnPb and various lead-free solders are presented and compared. If lead-free solder data are not available on the re- vant topic, information is presented on near-eutectic SnPb, so as to show where the gaps in knowledge need to be filled.

This book provides an introduction to complex analysis in several variables. The viewpoint of integral representation theory together with Grauert's bumping method offers a natural extension of single variable techniques to several variables analysis and leads rapidly to important global results. Applications focus on global extension problems for CR functions, such as the Hartogs-Bochner phenomenon and removable singularities for CR functions. Three appendices on differential manifolds, sheaf theory and functional analysis make the book self-contained.Each chapter begins with a detailed abstract, clearly demonstrating the structure and relations of following chapters. New concepts are clearly defined and theorems and propositions are proved in detail. Historical notes are also provided at the end of each chapter.Clear and succinct, this book will appeal to post-graduate students, young researchers seeking an introduction to holomorphic function theory in several variables and lecturers seeking a concise book on the subject.

The theory of dynamical systems is a broad and active research subject with connections to most parts of mathematics. Dynamical Systems: An Introduction undertakes the difficult task to provide a self-contained and compact introduction. Topics covered include topological, low-dimensional, hyperbolic and symbolic dynamics, as well as a brief introduction to ergodic theory. In particular, the authors consider topological recurrence, topological entropy, homeomorphisms and diffeomorphisms of the circle, Sharkovski's ordering, the Poincare-Bendixson theory, and the construction of stable manifolds, as well as an introduction to geodesic flows and the study of hyperbolicity (the latter is often absent in a first introduction). Moreover, the authors introduce the basics of symbolic dynamics, the construction of symbolic codings, invariant measures, Poincare's recurrence theorem and Birkhoff's ergodic theorem. The exposition is mathematically rigorous, concise and direct: all statements (except for some results from other areas) are proven. At the same time, the text illustrates the theory with many examples and 140 exercises of variable levels of difficulty. The only prerequisites are a background in linear algebra, analysis and elementary topology.This is a textbook primarily designed for a one-semester or two-semesters course at the advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate levels. It can also be used for self-study and as a starting point for more advanced topics.

This book is intended as an introduction to the theory of tensor products of Banach spaces. The prerequisites for reading the book are a first course in Functional Analysis and in Measure Theory, as far as the Radon-Nikodym theorem. The book is entirely self-contained and two appendices give addi- tional material on Banach Spaces and Measure Theory that may be unfamil- iar to the beginner. No knowledge of tensor products is assumed. Our viewpoint is that tensor products are a natural and productive way to understand many of the themes of modern Banach space theory and that "e;tensorial thinking"e; yields insights into many otherwise mysterious phenom- ena. We hope to convince the reader of the validity of this belief. We begin in Chapter 1 with a treatment of the purely algebraic theory of tensor products of vector spaces. We emphasize the use of the tensor product as a linearizing tool and we explain the use of tensor products in the duality theory of spaces of operators in finite dimensions. The ideas developed here, though simple, are fundamental for the rest of the book.

During the 21st century business environments have become more complex and dynamic than ever before. Companies operate in a world of change influenced by globalisation, volatile markets, legal changes and technical progress. As a result, they have to handle growing volumes of data and therefore require fast storage, reliable data access, intelligent retrieval of information and automated decision-making mechanisms, all provided at the highest level of service quality. Successful enterprises are aware of these challenges and efficiently respond to the dynamic environment in which their business operates.Business Intelligence (BI) and Performance Management (PM) offer solutions to these challenges and provide techniques to enable effective business change. The important aspects of both topics are discussed within this state-of-the-art volume. It covers the strategic support, business applications, methodologies and technologies from the field, and explores the benefits, issues and challenges of each. Issues are analysed from many different perspectives, ranging from strategic management to data technologies, and the different subjects are complimented and illustrated by numerous examples of industrial applications. Contributions are authored by leading academics and practitioners representing various universities, research centres and companies worldwide. Their experience covers multiple disciplines and industries, including finance, construction, logistics, and public services, amongst others.Business Intelligence and Performance Management is a valuable source of reference for graduates approaching MSc or PhD programs and for professionals in industry researching in the fields of BI and PM for industrial application.

User Modeling and Adaptation for Daily Routines is motivated by the need to bring attention to how people with special needs can benefit from adaptive methods and techniques in their everyday lives. Assistive technologies, adaptive systems and context-aware applications are three well-established research fields. There is, in fact, a vast amount of literature that covers HCI-related issues in each area separately. However, the contributions in the intersection of these areas have been less visible, despite the fact that such synergies may have a great impact on improving daily living.Presenting a comprehensive review of state-of-the-art practices on user modeling and adaptation for people with special needs, as well as some reflections on the challenges that need to be addressed in this direction, topics covered within this volume include the analysis, design, implementation and evaluation of adaptive systems to assist users with special needs to take decisions and fulfil daily routine activities. Particular emphasis is paid to major trends in user modeling, ubiquitous adaptive support, diagnostic and accessibility, recommender systems, social interaction, designing and building adaptive assistants for daily routines, field studies and automated evaluation.Nine leading contributors write on key current research in the domain of adaptive applications for people with special needs, integrating and summarizing findings from the best known international research groups in these areas. User Modeling and Adaptation for Daily Routines highlights how adaptation technologies can ease daily living for all, and support sustainable high-quality healthcare, demographic ageing and social/economic inclusion. highlights how adaptation technologies can ease daily living for all, and support sustainable high-quality healthcare, demographic ageing and social/economic inclusion.

Numerous treatments have been proposed. But the treatment of itch remains difficult and it depends on its etiology. The understanding of the pathophysiogeny of itch is necessary. Fortunately, many very interesting results of research have been reported in the recent years. 'Pruritis' will explain the pathophysiogeny of itch, describe all causes, and give guidelines for management and treatment.

Algebraic K-theory encodes important invariants for several mathematical disciplines, spanning from geometric topology and functional analysis to number theory and algebraic geometry. As is commonly encountered, this powerful mathematical object is very hard to calculate. Apart from Quillen's calculations of finite fields and Suslin's calculation of algebraically closed fields, few complete calculations were available before the discovery of homological invariants offered by motivic cohomology and topological cyclic homology. This book covers the connection between algebraic K-theory and Bökstedt, Hsiang and Madsen's topological cyclic homology and proves that the difference between the theories are ¿locally constant¿. The usefulness of this theorem stems from being more accessible for calculations than K-theory, and hence a single calculation of K-theory can be used with homological calculations to obtain a host of ¿nearby¿ calculations in K-theory. For instance, Quillen's calculation of the K-theory of finite fields gives rise to Hesselholt and Madsen's calculations for local fields, and Voevodsky's calculations for the integers give insight into the diffeomorphisms of manifolds. In addition to the proof of the full integral version of the local correspondence between K-theory and topological cyclic homology, the book provides an introduction to the necessary background in algebraic K-theory and highly structured homotopy theory; collecting all necessary tools into one common framework. It relies on simplicial techniques, and contains an appendix summarizing the methods widely used in the field. The book is intended for graduate students and scientists interested in algebraic K-theory, and presupposes a basic knowledge of algebraic topology.

Demonstrating that computer science learning and teaching processes can be fun, thought-provoking and stimulating, this unique textbook presents both a conceptual framework and detailed implementation guidelines for computer science (CS) teaching.This highly-anticipated new edition has been updated with the latest teaching approaches and trends, and includes 110 learning activities (of which 15 are new). The content is clearly written and structured to be applicable to all levels of CS education and for any teaching organization, without limiting its focus to instruction of any specific institution, curriculum, programming language or paradigm.Topics and features: provides 110 detailed learning activities to be facilitated in different class settings; reviews curriculum and cross-curriculum topics in CS; explores the benefits of CS education research; describes strategies for cultivating problem-solving skills, for assessing learning processes, and for dealing with pupils' misunderstandings; proposes active-learning-based classroom teaching methods, including lab-based teaching; discusses various types of questions that a CS instructor or trainer can use for a range of teaching situations in class, homework and tests; investigates thoroughly issues of lesson planning and course design; examines the first field teaching experiences gained by CS teachers across different training frameworks.This preeminent textbook for CS teacher training programs draws on the authors' experience gained from three decades of teaching and training prospective and in-service CS teachers, as well as research in CS education. Concise, thorough and easy-to-follow, the book is also eminently suitable for use as a teaching guide for CS instructors at all levels.

The manipulation of pictures and video in digital form has been an established research activity for more than twenty years. It is only recently, however, that digital image and video processing equipment has been accessible to the gen- eral public. This is due in part to the rapidly growing economy. of the home computer. A major contributing factor has been the marked rise in the pres- ence of the non-academic user on the internet, particularly the World Wide Web (WWW). Manipulating digital imagery has become synonymous with the WWW. It is the drive to present audio and visual media to the home user in an interactive form and to increase the available range of choices, which has encouraged agreements to begin digital video television broadcasting before the turn of the century. With the increased demand for video material, there is a perceived increase in demand for material from archive sources and this has fuelled commercial interest in automatic digital restoration processes. Further- more there is a continuing effort to design techniques for correcting errors in received compressed video bit streams for the purposes of live communications links over noisy channels e. g. mobile telephones and the internet. This book introduces the reader to a range of digital restoration activities beyond the well traversed areas of noise reduction and deblurring. It describes a number of problems associated with archived film and video.

One of the wonderful aspects of the US Manned Spaceflight Program was the opportunity for people around the entire globe to participate in one of man's greatest adventures. As we laid out the plans for flying the first manned spaceflight program, it was obvious that we would require exten- sive operations around the earth. One of the most challenging features of this plan was to build a world-wide network of tracking stations to provide communications with the orbiting spacecraft. At the time, about 1958 and 59, the construction of these facilities, in what turned out to be some very interesting pieces of geography, was a tremendous task. Christopher C. Kroft, Jr. Australia is located roughly 180 degrees longitude from the launch site, Cape Canaveral, and so occupied not only a unique position but a very critical one. Determining the position of the spacecraft as it traversed the Australian continent was critical to the orbit determination. This set of parameters was necessary to properly manage the entire operation. Such things as the time of retrofire, paramount to recovery of the crew, and the information required for signal acquisition at each of the tracking sites around the world are but two examples. Also, because the status of the astronaut and the spaceship were extremely critical to the deci- sion-making process, the stations down under provided vital data to evalu- ate the progress and to allow the flight control team to manage the problems that inevitably developed.

Symmetries and Semi-invariants in the Analysis of Nonlinear Systems details the analysis of continuous- and discrete-time dynamical systems described by differential and difference equations respectively. Differential geometry provides the essential tools for the analysis, tools such as first-integrals or orbital symmetries, together with normal forms of vector fields and of maps. The use of such tools allows the solution of some important problems, studied in detail in the text, which include linearization by state immersion and the computation of nonlinear superposition formulae for nonlinear systems described by solvable Lie algebras.The theory is developed for general nonlinear systems and, in view of their importance for modeling physical systems, specialized for the class of Hamiltonian systems. By using the strong geometric structure of Hamiltonian systems, the results proposed are stated in a quite different, less complex and more easily comprehensible manner. Throughout the text the results are illustrated by many examples, some of them being physically motivated systems, so that the reader can appreciate how much insight is gained by means of these techniques. Various control systems applications of the techniques are characterized including:* computation of the flow of nonlinear systems;* computation of semi-invariants;* computation of Lyapunov functions for stability analysis.Symmetries and Semi-invariants in the Analysis of Nonlinear Systems will be of interest to researchers and graduate students studying control theory, particularly with respect to nonlinear systems. All the necessary background and mathematical derivations are related in detail but in a simple writing style that makes the book accessible in depth to readers having a standard knowledge of real analysis, linear algebra and systems theory.