Lap lambert academic publishing jun 2009 (294 résultats)

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This study is a qualitative analysis that focuses on how agencies in Saskatoon define youth gang activities and behaviours. The agencies involved constitute community based organizations, permanent and part-time holding residences, justice and city officials. Grounded theory analysis was utilized to maintain the original interviewees own voices from interviews to the final product. The final analysis is divided into three sections that focus on: characteristics of Saskatoon youth gangs, implications of defining, and programming. By analyzing these themes we begin to see that defining youth gangs becomes a very political issue and that agencies who work with youth have difficulty in coming to terms in creating a common definition or criteria to assess youth gangs for Saskatoon. 120 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Zimbabwe is a republic without a homegrown democratic constitution.The absence of a people's constitution that dictates a democratic electoral framework, formation of legitimate government, observance of human rights, and good governance has led to the country's deepening crises of political dictatorship, violent electoral conflicts,state violence against citizens,economic collapse, financial corruption, social disintegration,and international isolation.These tragedies have left the country without a currency of its own.This book, based on a study on Constitutionalism in Zimbabwe, provides the people of Zimbabwe with a constitution-making process that should lead to the creation of a multiparty constitutional democracy in the country as a permanent solution to the nation's serious problems.The central role that people should play in the constitution-making process is analyzed. Obstacles to a people-driven constitution-making process are identified and analyzed.The analysis should result in empowering individuals,political parties, civil society bodies, government,and the international community with information that may make them more effective in fulfilling their mandates. 76 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Because it is a chronic process that includes the proliferation of multiple stressors, chronic illness can lead to significant psychological distress. Within the framework of a stress proliferation model, chronic illness is a significant predictor of such distress. The 1996 National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) was utilized for this secondary analysis. There were 4242 adult respondents surveyed by phone on physical health, midlife development, and social support. Chronic illness was reported by 2095 (71%) respondents. Chronic illness, mediated by perceived control, was a significant predictor of depression. Social support and healthcare discrimination were also significant in the likelihood of depression. The current analysis supports the premise that chronic illness is a stressor that not only leads to poor mental health outcomes but is associated with the emergence of other stressors, such as distress from discrimination. The book highlights the significant impact personal agency and quality support have on dealing with stress from chronic illness. 120 pp. Englisch. …

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -'Everybody Learns English' has become a national movement in China. From TV to teashops, English has thickly infiltrated the everyday lives of the Chinese populous and they are crazy about it. Through ethnography this book examines how this cultural appropriation of the foreign - English language - in the names of 'Nationalism' and 'modernization' is affecting the younger urban people (ages 18-25) of contemporary China. The book unfolds as a series of vignettes on English-speaking urban residents from either Sichuan province or Chongqing municipality during 2001-2002. More than just amusing, this book should be insightful for those interested in contemporary Chinese culture, development, and globalization. 108 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Whilst tourism development has brought economic prosperity for many people on Phuket (Thailand), it has also confronted the local population with the very negative impacts. Especially for the people 'excluded' - the locals not actively participating in tourism and unable to take advantage of the development - the negative impacts in the environmental and socio-cultural sphere are extremely evident. Also in economic terms, the development of tourism has often worsened the situation for these 'excluded' since the costs of many everyday goods have increased. As is the case in many developing countries, tourism development has led to the reinforcement of socio-economic inequalities on Phuket. This study indicates and analyses the opportunities for Phuket to increase the participation of the locals 'excluded' from the tourism development process, in order to combat the socio-economic inequality within the local population at the destination. 96 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Corrosion of reinforced concrete (RC) structure becomes severe problem worldwide and results in a need of a huge budget for the maintenance of the corroded structure. In spite of this need, the concept of repair design and execution is still not well established. Without correct understanding how repair work changes behaviors of the RC structure, the repair work become risky as can been seen from many early failures of repaired RC members. The traditional structural analysis seems to be irrelevant to the repaired structure. This book illustrates how the structural behaviors of the flexural RC members are degraded by corrosion and changed by patching repair. The clear example is given through a sound experimental investigation. The numerical analysis was conducted to reproduce the structural performance of repaired RC. The bonding characteristic between repair materials and base concrete is represented by basic Coulomb friction model. The methodology provided in this book should be beneficial especially to professionals in the repair of RC structure or anyone else who may be dealing with the corrosion problem of RC structure. 108 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -A classification is given of certain separablenuclear C -algebras not necessarily of real rankzero, namely, the class of simple C -algebras whichare inductive limits of continuous trace C -algebraswhose building blocks have spectrum homeomorphic tothe closed interval [0,1]. In particular, aclassification of simple stably AI algebras isobtained. Also, the range of the invariant is calculated. We start by approximating the building blocksappearing in a given inductive limit decomposition bycertain special building blocks. The special buildingblocks are continuous trace C -algebras with finitedimensional irreducible representations and such thatthe dimension of the representations, as a functionon the interval, is a finite (lower semicontinuous)step function. It is then proved that theseC -algebras have finite presentations and stablerelations. The advantage of having inductive limitsof special subhomogeneous algebras is that we canprove the existence of certain gaps for the inducedmaps between the affine function spaces. These gapsare necessary to prove the Existence Theorem. Alsothe Uniqueness theorem is proved for these specialbuilding blocks. 88 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In recent years, shrimp aquaculture, which is undertaken largely in the tropical countries, has experienced spectacular growth in response to expanding global demand and higher economic return. Despite a number positive aspects (e.g., foreign exchange, employment and food) of shrimp farming, the industry has serious negative environmental impacts. Because of the degradation of natural resources, commercial shrimp farming imposes socio-economic costs on rural resource-reliant communities as their traditional means of food production and livelihoods are displaced. Bangladesh is suffering because of unplanned expansion of this aquaculture and increasingly called as 'a desert in the delta'. The central concern of this book is to apply participatory research techniques to identify and understand the impacts of commercial shrimp farming to the livelihood patterns of coastal villagers in southwest Bangladesh. The findings of this is book should be useful for researchers, government and NGOs to understand vulnerabilities of rural communities in shrimp farming areas and to design alternative livelihood strategies for affected groups. 92 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The present doctoral thesis provides insights into two conventional labeling techniques used in the studies of microbial metabolism - the 13C and fluorescence labeling. Application of both methods on yeast as a model organism is illustrated by two individual research topics, such as metabolic modeling and visualization of stress response by expression of GFP-tagged heat shock protein Hsp12p, respectively. The dissertation begins with a review of the yeast metabolism and metabolic network, discusses the technical details of the respective labeling experiments and concludes with analysis of the experimental results. Special emphasis is given on the set-up of advanced continuous cultivation techniques (D-stat and auxo-accelerostat), used in the respective labeling experiments. The text is for academic researchers and students in microbiology and molecular biotechnology field. 64 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Anaplasma phagocytophilum is an emerging tick-bornepathogen of humans, horses, sheep, dogs, andwildlife. In humans, granulocytic anaplasmosis (GA)may be associated with pyrexia, headache, myalgia,nausea, and ataxia, organ failure, susceptibility toopportunistic infections, neuritis, or respiratorycomplications with a case fatality rate up to 5% insome areas. The putative reservoir for A.phagocytophilum in the western United States is thedusky-footed woodrat (Neotoma fuscipes). Evidence toimplicate the woodrat as the reservoir includes highPCR- and seroprevalence in enzootic areas, frequentinfestation with the tick vector, Ixodes pacificus,and results of experimental infection studies thatshow woodrat infection persisting for 1-8 months.Unlike in the eastern United States where a singlevector species and a dominant reservoir host speciesmaintain a sylvatic cycle, in the western US, thereare multiple ecologically significant reservoir hostsincluding gray squirrels (Sciurus griseus) andchipmunks (Tamias spp.). The goal of this researchwas to identify the role of a number of abundant butpotential reservoirs for A. phagocytophilum in theWestern United States. 52 pp. Englisch. …

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Purposes: To analyze the low weight gain (WG) from birth to the sixth week of life as a risk factor for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Methods: A prospective cohort study comparing incidence of ROP and WG after preterm birth. Were included infants with birth weight (BW) 1,500 grams and gestational age 32 weeks at birth. Main clinical outcome were development of any stage and severe ROP. Main variable was the proportion of WG to the BW at the sixth week of life. Prevalence of ROP was determined and chi-square and Student-t test were used to compare data. Logistic regression was performed and the accuracy of WG for the development of ROP were evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC)curves. Results: Of 317 studied preterms, 98 (30.9%) developed ROP in any stage. Adjusted logistic regression in Group 1 indicated 1.055 OR for ROP (P0.001) and Group 2, 1.031 (P=0.007). The area under the ROC curve for any stage ROP was 0.67% (P0.001) and for severe ROP 0.63% (P=0.037). Conclusions: Low WG measured by the 6th week of life was an independent risk factor capable to predict the development of any stage and severe ROP. 72 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book covers the development of a power system for an autonomous self-sufficient agricultural robot. The robotic system, designed for precision agriculture applications, was augmented with a new power system, to accommodate a solar energy source for recharging the batteries. The power system consists of a custom-made solar panel, a maximum power point tracker (MPPT), and power monitoring sensors. To increase the whole robotic system energy efficiency, the power system was programmed to monitor the intake and output, and to optimize its power usage accordingly. The robotic system was tested in field conditions, simulating the performance of useful tasks with its actuator. The tests were performed in order to demonstrate the improved run time of the system between manual battery recharges. This book presents the augmentation of the new robotic power system, the tests performed on the robotic system, the results of the performed tests, and a discussion of the results and possible improvements that can be made to the system. 80 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Security issues in Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) mainly come from attacks. In general, the attacks in WSNs can be classified as external attacks and internal attacks. In an external attack, the attacking node is not an authorized participant of the sensor network. Cryptography and other security methods can prevent some of external attacks. However, node compromise, the major and unique problem that leads to internal attacks, will eliminate all the efforts. Knowing the probability of node compromise will help systems to detect and defend against it. Although there are some approaches that can be used to detect and defend against node compromise, few of them have the ability to estimate the probability of node compromise. Hence, we develop basic uniform, basic gradient, intelligent uniform and intelligent gradient models for node compromise distribution in order to adapt to different application environments. These models allow systems to estimate the probability of node compromise. Applying these models in system security designs can improve system security and decrease the overheads nearly in every security area. 108 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This research discussed the relationship of organic material characteristics and thermal maturity versus hydrocarbon potential. The purpose is to establish the reliable indices of synthetic assessment of organic matter in the evaluation of petroleum potential. In addition, it is to present new guidelines for improved assessment of the kerogen type, generative potential and thermal maturity using Rock-Eval parameters. The analytic results indicate that petroleum generation potential is completely exhausted at a vitrinite reflectance of 2.00-2.20% or a Tmax of 510-520°C. A decline in BI signifies the start of the oil expulsion window and occurs within the vitrinite reflectance range 0.75- 1.05% or a Tmax of 440-455 oC. The petroleum potential can be divided into four different parts based on the cross-plot of HI vs. %Ro. The area with the highest petroleum potential is located in section B with %Ro=0.60-1.00%, and HI100. The start of the oil expulsion window occurs within the %Ro range of ~ 0.75-1.05%Ro or the Tmax range ~ 440-455° C and the total oil window extends to %Ro = ~ 1.25- 1.95 or Tmax = ~ 465-525°C. 152 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Wind farms are a proven environmentally sound and economically viable means of generating renewable energy. Energy security and sustainability are central to New Zealand's economic future. Population and economic growth and energy intensive industries are rising New Zealand's appetite for electricity. Recent power crisis along with the green image of New Zealand have reinforced the need to take positive steps to ensure a reliable, renewable and sustainable electricity supply for this country. But wind farm projects tend to face opposition at the local level because of its various potential environmental and socio-economic impacts. Therefore, gaining public acceptance becomes one of the most important factors for successful wind farm development. This book identifies the potential impacts of wind farm development with specific attention to those impacts and public dynamics surrounding wind farm development considering the policy context of New Zealand. It also looks into domestic and international wind farms along with drawing out the success and/or failure characteristics with respect to consultation, and impact mitigation providing empirical evidence from New Zealand. 108 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book explores the politics of heritage. Beyond its use in the construction of identity or the politics of representation, labeling something 'heritage' is an intensely political act that legitimises certain processes over others. As a 'policy document' the World Heritage Convention gives institutional authority to discourses of 'heritage' and 'internationalism'. At the core of the world heritage 'system' is a tension between the need to protect the world's heritage, and the sovereignty of 'State Parties'. While there have been many recent changes to the world heritage 'system' - provoked by the imbalances of the World Heritage List, the eurocentricities its definitions, and a growing concern for its wider credibility, what cannot change is the sovereignty of 'State Parties'. Through labelling something 'world heritage' certain actions of the state are legitimised and empowered by claims to its 'outstanding universal value', which must be preserved for 'humanity'. Thus the world heritage 'system' can be viewed as an 'anti-politics machine' (Ferguson1990) which reifies the role of state bureaucracy in Africa through de-politicised claims to 'universal value'. 100 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Analysis and design of communication systems in today's dynamically changing environment face a lot of challenges. Networks can become overloaded at one moment and underutilized at the next. In a randomly changing environment, such as time-varying arrivals, variable bandwidth demands, data traffic integrated with streaming traffic, and burst traffic with correlated arrivals, performance and dimensioning issues become very complicated. Little research has been carried out on dimensioning a system in such an environment to meet quality of service requirement. In this dissertation, one of our contributions is providing efficient dimensioning algorithms in closed-form with a constant or near linear complexity. Analytical models and efficient dimensioning algorithms are then proposed for different Scenarios. 120 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -A novel scheme is presented for an iterative decambering approach to predict the post-stall characteristics of wings using known section data as inputs. The new scheme differs from earlier ones in the details of how the residual in the Newton iteration is computed. With earlier schemes, multiple solutions are obtained for wings at high angles of attack as the final converged solution depends on the initial conditions used for the iteration. With this scheme, multiple solutions at high angles of attack are brought to light right during the computation of the residuals for the Newton iteration. In general, the new scheme is found to be more robust at achieving convergence. Experimental validation is provided using experimental airfoil lift curves from Naik and Ostowari for three different aspect ratios of rectangular wings. Results are presented from a study of the stall characteristics of wings of different planform shapes and two configurations of a wing-tail and a wing-canard configuration. Results are also presented from a study to investigate possible asymmetric lift distributions when the iterations were started with an initial asymmetric distribution of the decambering. 108 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Sphagnum fimbriatum Wilson is a peat moss species with a bipolar distribution. In Switzerland and other regions of Central Europe it is considered rare whilst it is frequent and abundant in the boreal zone and in the southernmost region of South America. In Europe it normally occupies modified habitats, in South America it grows in primary ecosystems, in minerotrophic bogs. This book gives information about the reproductive biology of S. fimbriatum and the life history traits of this species. Both asexual and sexual reproductions were studied in several ex-situ experiments. Furthermore, Analyses of genetic diversity and structure of populations of S. fimbriatum from both the northern and southern hemispheres using RAPD markers are presented here. Finally, a revision of the situation of S. fimbriatum in European mires is described, with emphasis on the Swiss localities where the species is rare, Information about the conservation status of this species and guidelines towards its preservation are given. This work should especially help people working in conservation programs of mires and should be useful to biology and ecology students and to teachers of population biology 76 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Vygotsky (1978) asserted that the path between a child's thinking and their academic achievement is influenced by the important people in their lives, in particular their parents. This book presents case stories that show how parents play a crucial role in influencing their children's academic achievement because of the way parents communicate their sociocultural values and practices. In the light of these stories and the critical exploration in connection with the prevalent literature in the field, parents are encouraged to maximise their children's academic achievement through the appropriate opportunities that allow for interaction and communication of their expectations and values. This book is useful for all students and researchers from the broad area of education and psychology, and most of all, for parents. 72 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This thesis focuses on an analysis of Iranian filmmaker, Abbas Kiarostami, from an authorship study point-of-view. Specifically, this study explores the creation of the commodity Kiarostami through an analysis of film reviews of the director's Koker-Trilogy by Western film critics and scholars. It illustrates how Kiarostami has been mystified, which results in the current commodity Kiarostami. By discussing the three most often used authorship approaches to discussing this director's work-origin, personality, and reading strategy-it is illustrated how these approaches have shaped the Westerners' understanding of this man and his films. Resulting, a modified authorship approach is proposed to decrease the impact auteur study has on a filmmaker's image. 72 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The wide use of the quality management systems paves the way to accreditation and then to world rankings and competitiveness in higher education. Growing student numbers, mass enrolment rates, and different type of program delivery, changing society structures and job descriptions produce complex question of quality in the institutions of higher education. Within the new roles and function, higher education institutions must review their technical, managerial and social functions. The TQM evaluation model presented in this book is a key tool for assessing the three-dimension function of higher education institutions. The model may function as a mirror for present and a projection for the future when used systematically in the institutions of higher education. Through the assessment of management, technical procedures-programs and social dimension, the model offers a practice- process-oriented evaluation for the higher education institutions implement quality systems. 108 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -La obra del poeta español Miguel Hernández (1910-1942) se estudia a menudo bajo el poderoso influjo de su sobrecogedora biografía. El presente estudio propone un análisis del yo poético del autor mediante el procedimiento de someter algunos de sus poemas 'marginales' al constructo psicoanalítico y marco teórico del pensamiento de Jacques Lacan (1901-1981), seleccionando un número reducido, mas representativo, de conceptos lacanianos y aplicándolos a una serie de poemas que no suelen considerarse 'centrales' en la producción hernandiana. Así, este estudio busca dibujar la constitución del yo poético desde el principio psicoanalítico que escudriña los espacios liminales del discurso. Se dan, en la poética de Miguel Hernández, tres 'pulsiones': vida, muerte y amor. Los planteamientos lacanianos para el estudio de la obra del poeta oriolano se aventuran, pues, fértiles e iluminadores. 72 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Microcredit programs are of great interest to economists and policymakers because of their potential for reducing poverty, particularly among women. This book contains three essays which establish the linkages between microcredit programs and women's success in reducing household poverty. The first chapter mainly investigates the effectiveness aspect of microcredit programs. Using program evaluation methods, we find significant improvement in women's economic condition after participating in these programs. The second chapter studies the determinants of women's economic performance in microcredit programs. These determinants are in the form of different types of characteristics of women: their own characteristics, such as age or schooling or the characteristics of the household or village they live in. Microcredit programs originated from Bangladesh and now three major microcredit programs are operating: Grameen Bank, BRAC and RD-12. The third chapter investigates how these different microcredit programs have been performing relative to each other. 72 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The issue of Foreign Direct Investment has elicited international attention in recent times, mainly because of the growing awareness of the economic explioitation of millions of Africans. Some of the Leaders of the African continent, along with their governments, have equally placed the lack of FDI high on their agendas. This awareness has generated sustained debates within governments, international organisations and the private sector, to try and formulate policies aimed at addressing the problem regarding the lack of FDI. FDI has a clear and distinct effect on Africa and its economies; it therefore should be seen as the most positive approach that should be followed to address the problems listed below. The dominant debates around Africa are those concerning poverty alleviation, sustainable development, infrastucture development and economic stability. The lack of a collaborative approach within Africa with reference to economic integration, and the effects FDI has with specific reference to investment flows and the role of rating agencies, places Africa in a negative position. 108 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The decision-maker is a crucial actor from the point of view of management accounting studies and management studies in general, but usually the human actor isn't dealt with as such at all. We suggest here that understanding the basics of the behaviour of decision-makers would be aided by a comprehensive view of the human actor. Our view covers both the way of functioning of the human brain and the philosophical dimensions of human actor. This aim in mind, we analyse and combine the so-called 'holistic individual image' (by Lauri Rauhala), and a brain model called the 'theater metaphor for conscious experience' (by Bernard J. Baars). On the basis of the resulting combined model, we assume the reader would understand better than before some basic characteristics of the decision-maker in a firm, in particular, in an accounting context. We assume that our results would be potentially useful for understanding human behaviour also in other fields of management studies, and indeed, in all disciplines dealing with human actor. In addition, the practitioners in these fields would also gain in knowing this model on human behaviour. 60 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Qualitative and quantitative trade information on West Africa has remained a scarce resource for several decades. Thus, seaports in the region, that are maritime corridors to the landlocked countries (LLCs) of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, compete in a vacuum without any reliable basis to assess their individual competitiveness vis-à-vis the regional market. This book, therefore, provides an analysis of transit trade and transport with emphasis on five seaports used by the three LLCs in West Africa. It assesses the LLCs seaborne trade type, volume, distribution and growth trend, and examines the competitive status of each of the transit corridors on the basis of regional share of transit traffic, distance, infrastructure, logistics costs, legal and institutional framework and overall quality of service. The book provides sufficient and necessary overview of the transit trade and transport sub-sector in West Africa. It can serve as a working document for a sustainable transit trade development in any corridor and would, therefore, be useful to maritime trade and transport sector professionals, researchers and policy makers of both coastal and landlocked countries. 120 pp. Englisch. …

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This work addresses the problem of finding the minimum number of vehicles required to service weekly a set of customers subject to time windows. The specific structure of the problem requires that a full loaded vehicle serve only one customer each time it leaves the depot. As a consequence, all feasible schedules involve the same total distance traveled. The fleet is homogeneous and is located in a common depot. Vehicle capacity is finite, weekly mileage is limited, and split service is not permitted. Four heuristics are developed to obtain feasible solutions. Results are reported for 1000 randomly generated problems with up to 150 deliveries. It is shown that the new heuristics outperform the actual algorithm used by the Transportation Company in terms of computation time and the quality of solution. To gauge the quality of the solutions, three lower bounding procedures are developed. The first considers the 'bin packing aspect of the problem' with regard to the maximum weekly mileage. The second exploits the time windows constraints while the third lowerbounding method uses a network flow formulation. 48 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This study explores the emergence of the profession of public relations in the recently democratic Russian Federation. The significance of this research is embedded in the need to understand the status of public relations in Russia, where few studies about public relations have been conducted. The purpose was to identify whether public relations practitioners in Russia practice Grunig and Hunt's (1984) models of public relations; how public relations has contributed to the political and economic transformation in Russia; and how the former communist propaganda has affected contemporary public relations. This book represents a contribution to the global body of knowledge about public relations. The Russian perspective augments this knowledge concerning a country where prior research has been scant. The goal of this study is to detect patterns that could guide future research involving Russian public relations. Additionally, principles discovered from this study could be meaningful to business entities desiring to mount effective PR campaigns. 92 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -While runtime compilation has in practice been largely restricted to programming languages that execute on virtual machines, such as Java and C#, parallel OpenMP programs show many promising traits for efficient and effective runtime optimization. This work introduces stOMP: a specializing thread-library for OpenMP. Using a combined compile-time and run-time system, stOMP specializes OpenMP parallel regions for frequently-seen values and the configuration of the runtime system. We present a detailed description of the system, focusing on the optimizations implemented and techniques to minimize the runtime overhead: a context-based hot-spot detector; a pruning mechanism that eliminates poorly behaved variables as specialization targets; several runtime optimization policies; and several code optimizations and transformations that further allow performance improvement. We evaluate our work on the SPEC OMP benchmark suite, showing a performance increase of up to 7.8%. 96 pp. Englisch.…