springer jan 2007 (329 resultados)

Heft. Condición: Gut. 66 Seiten Kanten gering bestossen, Adressaufkleber /// Standort Wimregal DBB-HL-J009 Sprache: Deutsch Gewicht in Gramm: 170.

Heft. Condición: Gut. 66 Seiten Mit der Beilage DKM Spezial 2017.- Kanten gering bestossen, Adressaufkleber /// Standort Wimregal DBB-HL-J008 Sprache: Deutsch Gewicht in Gramm: 215.

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -I was delighted to be invited by my colleagues Alessandra Celletti and Ettore Perozzi to provide a foreword to their book, Celestial Mechanics: The Waltz of the Planets. Having known them for many years and long admired their work in the subject so many of us love and are fascinated by, 1 read with great attention and pleasure the text when it arrived. It is a formidable task they have set themselves, to provide a book that describes attempts by successive generations of astronomers from the dawn of history five millennia ago to observe, record and understand the phenomena of the heavens, particularly the intricate and perplexing behaviour of the planets. Sun and Moon. As naked eye astronomy became aided by the telescope and the photographic plate, and since the middle of the twentieth century, by instruments launched on spacecraft into circum- Earth orbit or to the Moon and planets and beyond, the discovery of new satellites, scores of them, and ring systems displaying new and initially perplexing behaviour also demanded explanations for that behaviour. It is also the inspiring story of science itself with special reference to how lonely individuals, impelled by curiosity and dedicated to seeking the truth, and nothing but the truth, about the fascinating phenomena of nature, ultimately became accepted as scientists, those players in the most successful endeavour ever engaged in by the human race.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 288 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware - Many readers will doubtless be astonished to learn that animals were being fired aloft in U.S. and Soviet research rockets in the late 1940s. In fact most people not only believe that the Russian space dog Laika was the first canine to be launched into space, but also that the high-profile, precursory Mercury flights of chimps Ham and Enos were the only primate flights conducted by the United States. In fact, both countries had sent literally dozens of animals aloft for many years prior to these events and continued to do so for many years after. Other latter-day space nations, such as France and China, would also begin to use animals in their own space research. Animals in Space will explain why dogs, primates, mice and other rodents were chosen and tested, at a time when dedicated scientists from both space nations were determined to establish the survivability of human subjects on both ballistic and orbital space flights. It will also recount the way this happened; the secrecy involved and the methods employed, and offer an objective analysis of how the role of animals as spaceflight test subjects not only evolved, but subsequently changed over the years in response to a public outcry led by animal activists. It will explore the ways in which animal high-altitude and space flight research impacted on space flight biomedicine and technology, and how the results - both successful and disappointing - allowed human beings to then undertake that same hazardous journey with far greater understanding and confidence.This book is intended as a detailed yet highly readable and balanced account of the history of animal space flights, and the resultant application of hard-won research to space technology and astrobiology. It will undoubtedly become the ultimate authority on animal space flights.

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware - Carol Hayden reviews evidence about children in trouble across a range of circumstances, demonstrating the tensions between welfare and justice, care and control in the treatment of these vulnerable young people and evaluating the implications of the current 'what works' debate within social policy. This book will be invaluable to all students and professionals working with children in social work, teaching or the criminal justice system.

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -Im Labyrinth der Daten.Ilona Leyer und Karsten Wesche führen in diesem Lehrbuch in die multivariaten Verfahren in der Ökologie ein. Das Lehrbuch wendet sich an all jene, die in Studium und Beruf mit ökologischen sowie Landschafts- und Umweltdaten arbeiten. Es ist als Begleittext zu Lehrveranstaltungen und zum Selbststudium geeignet und bietet Hilfe bei der Datenanalyse in Diplom-, Doktor- und Forschungsarbeiten. Behandelt werden neben den relevanten statistischen Grundlagen die in der Ökologie verbreiteten Ordinationsverfahren, Klassifikationen und Permutationsverfahren zur Prüfung multivariater Beziehungen. Dabei werden die Methoden anschaulich anhand von Beispieldatensätzen unter weitgehender Vermeidung von Formeln erläutert. Das Buch bietet daher einen idealen Einstieg in das weite Feld der multivariaten Statistik in der Ökologie, um darauf aufbauend eigene Daten sinnvoll auswerten zu können.Umweltdaten auswerten - hier bekommen Sie den Überblick. 221 pp. Deutsch.

Buch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -Recent years have witnessed exciting and important scientific breakthroughs in the study of Neanderthals and their place in human evolution which have transformed our appreciation of this group¿s paleobiology and evolution. This volume presents cutting-edge research by leading scientists re-examining the major debates in Neanderthal research with the use of innovative state-of-the art methods and exciting new theoretical approaches.Topics addressed include the re-evaluation of Neanderthal anatomy, inferred adaptations and habitual activities, developmental patterns, phylogenetic relationships, and the Neanderthal extinction; new methods include computer tomography, 3D geometric morphometrics, ancient DNA and bioenergetics. The diverse contributions offer fresh insights and advances in Neanderthal and modern human origins research.This is a Volume in The Max-Planck-Institute Subseries in Human Evolution coordinated by Jean-Jacques Hublin, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Human Evolution, Leipzig, GermanySpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 348 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -ReOrganization has been written as a practical guide for anyone faced with organizing a business. Because every organization situation is unique, the reader should be familiar with a number of conceptual models and tools which can be of help when creating a theory for a particular situation. As consultants and businessmen, as well as through the elaboration of certain methods, the authors have developed a sense of what is important in the work of shaping or redesigning an organization. This book will therefore be of interest to anyone on the point of realising a development in their organization and wishing to know how this can best be accomplished most effectively and successfully.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 160 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -Grid computing has become a topic of significant interest in the scientific community as a means of enabling application developers to aggregate resources scattered around the globe for solving large-scale scientific problems. This monograph addresses four critical software development aspects for the engineering and execution of applications on parallel and Grid architectures.A new directive-based language called ZEN is proposed for compact specification of wide value ranges of interest for arbitrary application parameters, including problem or machine sizes, array or loop distributions, software libraries, interconnection networks, or target execution machines. Based on the ZEN language, a novel experiment management tool called ZENTURIO is developed for automatic experiment management of large-scale performance and parameter studies on parallel and Grid architectures. This tool has been validated with respect to functionality and usefulness on several real-world parallel applications from various domains, including theoretical chemistry, photonics, finances, and numerical mathematics.Depending on the ZENTURIO experiment management architecture a generic optimization framework is built up that integrates general-purpose meta-heuristics for solving NP-complete performance and parameter optimization problems in an exponential search space specified using the ZEN experiment specification language. Finally a timely approach is proposed for modeling and executing scientific workflows in dynamic and heterogeneous Grid environments, introducing an abstract formal model for hierarchical representation of complex directed graph-based workflows.Thus this monograph contributes to various research areas related to integrated tool development for efficient engineering and high performance execution of scientific applications in Grid environments.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 348 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -Engineering litigation is rarely about who is right or who has been wronged. It is mostly about which side develops and secures a winning line of argument that will, at worst, persuade a ruling body to settle the litigation in their favour or, at best, dissuade the other side from proceeding with the litigation. It rarely proceeds without some doubt in the case evidence. The settlement of this doubt requires the judgement of a ruling body. Expert witnesses can add substance and credibility to the formalised litigation drama.This book provides a unique sourcebook for expert witness and underwriters in engineering litigation of a range of case examples that can be used to plan their future litigation work and to help them develop their own winning lines of arguments. These examples are based on the author¿s 30-year experience in engineering litigation and include. Students in forensic engineering and risk engineering will find the book¿s cross-displinary approach an ideal introduction to the subject.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 376 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -The world we live in is a dynamic one: we explore it by moving through it, and many of the objects which we are interested in are also moving. Tra c, for instance, is an example of a domain where detecting and processing visual motion is of vital interest, both in a metaphoric as well as in a purely literal sense. Visual communication is another important example of an area of science which is dominated by the need to measure, understand, and represent visual motion in an e cient way. Visual motion is a subject of research which forces the investigator to deal withcomplexity;complexityinthesenseoffacinge ectsofmotioninaverylarge diversity of forms, starting from analyzing simple motion in a changing envir- ment (illumination, shadows, . . . ), under adverse observation conditions, such as bad signal-to-noiseratio (low illumination, small-scaleprocesses, low-dosex-ray, etc. ), covering also multiple motions of independent objects, occlusions, and - ing as far as dealing with objects which are complex in themselves (articulated objects such as bodies of living beings). The spectrum of problems includes, but does not end at, objects which are not ¿bodies¿ at all, e. g. , when anal- ing uid motion, cloud motion, and so on. Analyzing the motion of a crowd in a shopping mall or in an airport is a further example that implies the need to struggleagainsttheproblemsinducedbycomplexity.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 252 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of two joint RECOMB 2005 satellite events: the First Annual Workshop on Systems Biology, RSB 2005 and the Second Annual Workshop on Regulatory Genomics, RRG 2005, held in San Diego, CA, USA in December 2005. It contains 21 revised full papers that address a broad variety of topics in systems biology and regulatory genomics.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 272 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 29th Annual German Conference on Artificial Intelligence, KI 2006, held in Bremen, Germany, in June 2006. This was co-located with RoboCup 2006, the innovative robot soccer world championship, and with ACTUATOR 2006, the 10th International Conference on New Actuators. The 29 revised full papers presented together with two invited contributions were carefully reviewed and selected from 112 submissions.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 476 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Formal Concept Analysis, ICFCA 2007, held in Clermont-Ferrand, France in February 2007. The 19 revised full papers presented together with 1 invited lecture comprise state of the art research from foundational to applied lattice theory and related fields, all of which involve methods and techniques of formal concept analysis.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 344 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Approximation and Online Algorithms, WAOA 2006, held in Zurich, Switzerland in September 2006 as part of the ALGO 2006 conference event. The 26 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 62 submissions. 360 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -The progress in information technology including arti cial intelligence (AI) in the last few decades is remarkable, and has attracted many young researchers to this eld. This trend is now accelerated along with the recent rapid growth of computer communicationnetworksandthe worldwideincreaseinresearchers. In this context, we have observed many outstanding AI studies in Japanese dom- tic conferences. They have high technical originality, quality and signi cance. The annual conference of JSAI (Japan Society for Arti cial Intelligence) is one of the key and representative domestic meetings in the eld of intelligent inf- mation technology. Award papers in this conference have an excellent quality of internationalstandards. The annualconferenceofJSAIalsoorganizesco-located international workshops to provide excellent study reports. The objectives of this book are to present the award papers of the 20th annual conference of JSAI 2006 and selected papers from the three co-located international workshops and to promote the study exchange among researchers worldwide. Eight papers were awarded among more than 200 presentations in the conference, and 21 papers were selected from a total of 44 presentations in the workshops of Logic and Engineering of Natural Language Semantics 2006 (LENLS 2006), Learning with Logics and Logics for Learning (LLLL 2006) and Risk Mining (RM 2006). The award papers in the 20th annual conference of JSAI 2006 were selected from presentations covering the wide eld of art- cial intelligence through the processes of candidate recommendations, detailed open discussions and voting by ProgramCommittee members of the conference.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 416 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -Although the Web is growing at an astounding pace, surpassing the 8 billion page mark, most pages are still designed for human consumption and cannot be processed by machines. Computers are used to display the information, but human intervention is still required to interpret the results. The Semantic Web unleashes a revolution of new possibilities in which content is given formal, machine processable semantics.This book provides a well-paced introduction to the Semantic Web. It covers a wide range of topics, from new trends (ontologies, rules) to existing technologies (Web Services and software agents) to more formal aspects (logic and inference). It includes: real-world (and complete) examples of the application of Semantic Web concepts; how the technology presented and discussed throughout the book can be extended to other application areas, i.e. Geographic Information Sciences, Bioinformatics and Fine Arts.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 344 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -The growing demand of speed, accuracy, and reliability in scientific and engineering computing has been accelerating the merging of symbolic and numeric computations, two types of computation coexisting in mathematics yet separated in traditional research of mathematical computation. This book presents 23 research articles on the integration and interaction of symbolic and numeric computation.Springer Basel AG in Springer Science + Business Media, Heidelberger Platz 3, 14197 Berlin 404 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -It was more than ten years ago that an original version of this monograph was published with the title Quantum Optics in Japanese from Iwanami Shoten in Tokyo. Therefore, making the best use of this chance to translate the book into an English version, we have tried to include the exciting developments of the relevant subjects in these ten years, especially novel nonlinear optical responses of materials. The rst example of these nonlinear optical phen- ena is laser cooling and subsequent observation of Bose¿Einstein and Fermi condensation of neutral atoms. Second, it is now possible to generate f- tosecond laser pulses. Then higher-harmonics in the extreme ultraviolet and soft X-ray regions and higher-order Raman scattering can be generated by irradiating these ultrashort laser pulses on atomic and molecular gases and crystals. These multistep signals are applied to the generation of attosecond laser pulses. Third, interference e ects of the second harmonics are used to observe the ferroelectric and antiferromagnetic domain structures of crystals with a strongly correlated electronic system. These novel nonlinear optical phenomena could not be treated without the quantized radiation eld. We already have classical textbooks treating, individually, the quantum theory of the radiation eld and nonlinear optics. Taking account of these situations, we have described these exciting nonlinear optical responses as well as laser oscillation and supperradiance, based upon the quantum theory of the radiation eld. At the same time, we have changed the title of this monograph toQuantum Nonlinear Optics.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 240 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -The book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation, VMCAI 2007, held in Nice, France in January 2007. This event was co-located with the Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (POPL 2007). The 21 revised full papers presented together with three invited lectures and three invited tutorials were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 85 submissions.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 412 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -A woman¿s middle age had traditionally been regarded as a time of loss and decline. But in the wake of the women's movement and other societal and cultural events, a profound shift has taken place. Far from being marginalized, midlife women stand at the forefront of a great transformation of cultural perceptions and attitudes. They are rejecting stereotypes, embracing new opportunities, and forming what this important book terms 'a new collective middle-aged identity.'Women over 50: Psychological Perspectives analyzes the challenges, benefits, coping strategies, problems, and accomplishments associated with the midlife experience. Ten chapters present the state of research (and correct longstanding myths) regarding significant aspects of middle-aged women's lives:Mind-body: illness, body image, exerciseLove, romance, and sexualityFriendship and support systems'The sandwich generation'Re-creating the role of grandmothersRetirement and financial stabilityUsing personal empowerment to empower othersQuality of life and future directionsWomen over 50 bridges a major knowledge gap in the feminist-psychology literature, making it an essential resource for clinicians and advanced students. It balances optimism and realism about older women¿s lives¿and younger women¿s futures.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 224 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -Questa è una raccolta di esercizi che illustra alcuni aspetti fondamentali della Finanza Matematica, in particolare della valutazione dei derivati. E¿ rivolta a studenti dei corsi di Laurea Magistrale, ma può essere utilizzata con successo anche nei corsi di Laurea del primo livello, da studenti che abbiano una adeguata formazione di tipo matematico (Corsi di Laurea in Matematica, Ingegneria). La risoluzione degli esercizi viene affrontata con l¿utilizzo di metodi propri sia della Teoria della Probabilità (processi stocastici) che dell¿Analisi Matematica (Equazioni alle Derivate Parziali).Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 200 pp. Italienisch.

Buch. Condición: Neu. Neuware - No statistical model is 'true' or 'false,' 'right' or 'wrong'; the models just have varying performance, which can be assessed. The main theme in this book is to teach modeling based on the principle that the objective is to extract the information from data that can be learned with suggested classes of probability models. The intuitive and fundamental concepts of complexity, learnable information, and noise are formalized, which provides a firm information theoretic foundation for statistical modeling. Inspired by Kolmogorov's structure function in the algorithmic theory of complexity, this is accomplished by finding the shortest code length, called the stochastic complexity, with which the data can be encoded when advantage is taken of the models in a suggested class, which amounts to the MDL (Minimum Description Length) principle. The complexity, in turn, breaks up into the shortest code length for the optimal model in a set of models that can be optimally distinguished from the given data and the rest, which defines 'noise' as the incompressible part in the data without useful information.Such a view of the modeling problem permits a unified treatment of any type of parameters, their number, and even their structure. Since only optimally distinguished models are worthy of testing, we get a logically sound and straightforward treatment of hypothesis testing, in which for the first time the confidence in the test result can be assessed. Although the prerequisites include only basic probability calculus and statistics, a moderate level of mathematical proficiency would be beneficial. The different and logically unassailable view of statistical modelling should provide excellent grounds for further research and suggest topics for graduate students in all fields of modern engineering, including and not restricted to signal and image processing, bioinformatics, pattern recognition, and machine learning to mention just a few.

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -Das Fallrepetitorium dient der Examensvorbereitung im Schwerpunkt Völkerrecht. Es behandelt am Beispiel aktueller Themen die examensrelevanten Probleme in Form von Fällen. Diese greifen neue Entwicklungen u.a. im Bereich des Völkerstrafrechts, der Menschenrechte und des Gewaltverbots auf. Zahlreiche Vertiefungshinweise und Übersichten ergänzen die Lösungen. Umfangreiche Anmerkungen zur Struktur der Falllösung unterstützen das gezielte Üben der Fallbearbeitung. In der zweiten Auflage wurden Fälle, Lösungen und Hinweise aktualisiert und überarbeitet. Das Buch eignet sich zur Wiederholung und Vertiefung. Es vermittelt aber auch einen Überblick über die Grundzüge des Völkerrechts.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 284 pp. Deutsch.

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware - Modern computer algebra systems are revolutionizing the teaching and learning of mathematically intensive subjects in science and engineering, enabling students to explore increasingly complex and computationally intensive models that provide analytic solutions, animated numerical solutions, and complex two- and three-dimensional graphic displays.This self-contained text benefits from a spiral structure that regularly revisits the general topics of graphics, symbolic computation, and numerical simulation with increasing intricacy at each turn. The text is built around a large number of computer algebra worksheets or 'recipes' that have been designed using MAPLE to provide tools for problem solving and to stimulate critical thinking. No prior knowledge of MAPLE is assumed. All relevant commands are introduced on a need-to-know basis and are indexed for easy reference. Each recipe is associated with a scientific model or method and an interesting or amusing story designed to both entertain and enhance concept comprehension and retention. Aimed at third- and fourth-year undergraduates in science and engineering, the text contains numerous examples in disciplines that will challenge students progressing in mathematics, physics, engineering, game theory, and physical chemistry. Computer Algebra Recipes: An Advanced Guide to Mathematical Modeling can serve as an effective computational science text, with a set of problems following each section of recipes to enable readers to apply and confirm their understanding. The book may also be used as a reference, for self-study, or as the basis of an on-line course.

Buch. Condición: Neu. Neuware - All real surfaces, both those occurring naturally, and those fabricated artificially and with great care, are rough to some degree. It is therefore of interest, and often of importance, to know the extent to which this roughness affects physical p- cesses occurring at a surface. A particularly interesting class of physical processes occurring at a rough surface is the scattering of electromagnetic waves from it, or their transmission through it. In this case the degree of the surface roughness is referred to the wavelength of the waves incident on it. The study of the scattering of electromagnetic waves from rough surfaces has been actively carried out for more than a century now, since Rayleigh's inves- gations of the scattering of a monochromatic plane wave incident normally on a 1 sinusoidal interface between two different media. The first theoretical treatment of the scattering of an electromagnetic wave from a randomly rough surface was due to Mandel'shtam/ in the context of the scattering of light from a liquid s- face. In these pioneering studies the angular dependence of the intensity of the scattered field was calculated by perturbation theory as an expansion in powers of the surface profile function though the first nonzero term, a single scattering approximation.

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware.

Buch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -Ausführlich erläutert: Screen-, Interface-, Interaction- und Informationsdesign. Zusammenhänge und Grundlagen, die zur Entwicklung und Gestaltung von Produkten und Dienstleistungen bedeutsam sind. 'Interaktivität' im Detail: mit zahlreichen praktischen Beispielen, realen Projekten, Zielgruppenanalyse und -ansprache. Wie Sie durch Usability-Testverfahren und Evaluierungsstrategien, Nutzerbedürfnisse ermitteln und Bedienqualität ermöglichen. Auf der beigefügten CD-ROM als PDF: Erläuterungsgrafiken, Listen der Tipps zum jeweiligen Kapitel, Beispiele für Flowcharts und Drehbücher, Skriptvorlagen zur Planung und Kommunikation, Normen u.v.a.m. 612 pp. Deutsch.

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are harmful to human health and to the environment. Their fate in the marine environment is not yet fully understood. An ocean model (FANTOM) has been developed to investigate the fate of selected POPs in the North Sea. The main focus of the model is on quantifying the distribution of POPs and their aquatic pathways. This is the first time that a spatially-resolved, measurement-based ocean transport model has been used to study POP-like substances, at least on the regional scale. The model was applied for the southern North Sea and tested by studying the behaviour of g-HCH, a-HCH and PCB 153 in sea water. This model study proves that transport models, such as FANTOM, are capable of reproducing realistic multi-year temporal and spatial trends of selected POPs and can be used to address further scientific questions.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 152 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -Over the past fifty years, local government in Europe has been confronted with escalating scales of production, population migration and market pressures. These developments have complicated its performance, challenged its domain and even threatened its existence. A popular coping strategy is inter-municipal cooperation, a phenomenon that, despite its ubiquity, has not been subject to systematic comparative research.This book presents an overview of inter-municipal cooperation in eight European countries. Each country study sketches its attendant forms, their institutional design, the tasks and competencies attributed to joint authorities of municipalities and the way inter-municipal cooperation operates in practice. Both performance and democratic aspects of cooperation are recurring topics. The last chapter of the book presents a comparative analysis and reflects on the future of inter-municipal cooperation.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 252 pp. Englisch.