Bücher veröffentlicht von Springer Netherlands

Databases and database systems in particular, are considered as kerneIs of any Information System (IS). The rapid growth of the web on the Internet has dramatically increased the use of semi-structured data and the need to store and retrieve such data in a database. The database community quickly reacted to these new requirements by providing models for semi-structured data and by integrating database research to XML web services and mobile computing. On the other hand, IS community who never than before faces problems of IS development is seeking for new approaches to IS design. Ontology- based approaches are gaining popularity, because of a need for shared conceptualisation by different stakeholders of IS development teams. Many web-based IS would fail without domain ontologies to capture meaning of terms in their web interfaces. This volume contains revised versions of 24 best papers presented at the th 5 International Baltic Conference on Databases and Information Systems (BalticDB&IS'2002). The conference papers present original research results in the novel fields of IS and databases such as web IS, XML and databases, data mining and knowledge management, mobile agents and databases, and UML based IS development methodologies. The book's intended readers are researchers and practitioners who are interested in advanced topics on databases and IS.

Old and new problems of the foundations of quantum mechanics are viewed from the new perspective provided by a generalization of the mathematical formalism encompassing positive operator-valued measures. One objective is to demonstrate the crucial role the generalized formalism plays in fundamental issues as well as in practical applications, and to contribute to the development of the operational approach. A second objective is the development of an empiricist interpretation of this approach, duly taking into account the role played by the measuring instrument in quantum mechanical measurements. Copenhagen and anti-Copenhagen interpretations are critically assessed, and found to be wanting due to insufficiently taking into account the measurement interaction. The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen problem and the problem of the Bell inequalities are discussed, starting from this new perspective. An explanation of violation of the Bell inequalities is developed, providing an alternative to the usual explanation on the basis of non-locality. This treatise is based on lecture notes of an advanced course on the foundations of quantum mechanics.

Despite a long history of almost 180 years stretching back to the times of Carnot and, later, Clausius and Lord Kelvin, amongst others following him, the subject of thermodynamics has not as yet seen its full maturity, in the sense that the theory of irreversible processes has remained incomplete. The works of L. Onsager, J. Meixner, I. Prigogine on the thermodyn- ics of linear irreversible processes are, in effect, the early efforts toward the desired goal of giving an adequate description of irreversible processes, but their theory is confined to near-equilibrium phenomena. The works in recent years by various research workers on the extension of the aforem- tioned thermodynamic theory of linear irreversible processes are further efforts toward the goal mentioned. The present work is another of such efforts and a contribution to the subject of generalizing the thermodyn- ics of reversible processes, namely, equilibrium thermodynamics, to that of irreversible processes-non-equilibrium thermodynamics, without being restricted to linear irreversible processes. In this context the terms 'far - moved from equilibrium' is often used in the literature, and such states of macroscopic systems and non-linear irreversible phenomena in them are the objects of interest in this work. The thermodynamics of processes, either reversible or irreversible, is a continuum mechanical theory of matter and energy and their exchange between different parts of the system, and as such it makes no direct r- erence to the molecules constituting the substance under consideration.

One of the foundations for change in our society comes from designing. Its genesis is the notion that the world around us either is unsuited to our needs or can be improved. The need for designing is driven by a society's view that it can improve or add value to human existence well beyond simple subsistence. As a consequence of designing the world which we inhabit is increasingly a designed rather than a naturally occurring one. In that sense it is an "e;artificial"e; world. Designing is a fundamental precursor to manufacturing, fabrication, construction or implementation. Design research aims to develop an understanding of designing and to produce models of designing that can be used to aid designing. Artificial intelligence has provided an environmental paradigm within which design research based on computational constructions, can be carried out. Design research can be carried out in variety of ways. It can be viewed as largely an empirical endeavour in which experiments are designed and executed in order to test some hypothesis about some design phenomenon or design behaviour. This is the approach adopted in cognitive science. It often manifests itself through the use of protocol studies of designers. The results of such research form the basis of a computational model. A second view is that design research can be carried out by positing axioms and then deriving consequences from them.

This book presents the most recent research advances in the theory, design, control and application of robotic systems, which are intended for a variety of purposes such as manipulation, manufacturing, automation, surgery, locomotion and biomechanics. The issues addressed are fundamentally kinematic in nature, including synthesis, calibration, redundancy, force control, dexterity, inverse and forward kinematics, kinematic singularities, as well as over-constrained systems. Methods used include line geometry, quaternion algebra, screw algebra, and linear algebra. These methods are applied to both parallel and serial multi-degree-of-freedom systems. The results should interest researchers, teachers and students, in fields of engineering and mathematics related to robot theory, design, control and application. All articles in the book were reported at the seventh international symposium on Advances in Robot Kinematics that was organised in June 2000 in the beautiful ancient Mediterranean town of Piran in Slovenia. The preceding symposia of the series took place in Ljubljana (1988), Linz (1990), Ferrara (1992), Ljubljana (1994), and Piran (1996), and Salzburg (1998).