Springer nature jan 2016 (53 resultados)

Buch. Condición: Neu. Neuware -This book explores the improvement in thermal insulation properties of protein-based silica aerogel composites fabricated by a novel, inexpensive and feasiblemethod. The resulting material exhibits polymeric foam behavior including high compressibility, super-hydrophobic qualities and excellent strain recovery in addition to low thermal conductivity. The fabrication methodologies are explained in great detail and represented in flowcharts for easy reference and understanding. This monograph gives readers a new perspective on composite fabrication using methods other than the traditional ones and explores the endless ways of altering the composition to modify the properties of the silica aerogel composites. Applications for this novel composite are diverse and range from those in the pharmaceutical and aerospace industries to the oil and gas industries. 152 pp. Englisch. …

Buch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book explores the reliability of official statisticaldata in the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), and thebenefits of a better vocabulary to discuss the quality of publicly availabledata to address the needs of all users. It introduces a rigorous method todisaggregate and rate data quality into principal factors containing a total often dimensions, which serves as the basis for a discussion on the opportunitiesand challenges for data quality, capacity building programs and data policy in SoutheastAsia. Tools to standardize and monitor statistical capacity and data qualityare presented, as well as methods and data sources to analyse data quality. Thebook analyses data quality in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines,Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, before concluding withthoughts on Open Data and the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). 196 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This study explores why democratization does not necessarily result in inequality reduction in emerging democracies and reveals the determinants of income inequality in emerging democracies, where the average level of inequality continues to be higher and where there is a larger variance of inequality levels than in advanced democracies. Apart from economic, demographic, and social factors, the book highlights political factors that obstruct redistributive policies. In contrast to conventional studies on advanced democracies, which emphasize the relations between different classes, this study asserts that several political factors cause malfunctioning of democratic institutions at various phases of the political process in emerging democracies: multidimensional preferences, the failure of the political market, and weak state capacity.The book employs econometric methods to examine the effects of these political factors. The results indicate their significant effects. The multilevel analysis using the World Values Survey demonstrates that multidimensional preferences, operationalized as ethnic fractionalization, weaken demand for income inequality. Political market quality and state capacity are measured by the age of the largest opposition party, and the Quality of Government indicator is used for the unbalanced panel analysis covering the 1985-2012 period for 75 democracies. Both political market quality and state capacity reduce inequality, but the latter takes more time to show its effect. 124 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book presents the current state of knowledge concerning developments in organisational behaviour and human capital management in the new millennium. It features an in-depth study among managerial staff in the manufacturing sector in Malaysia to reflect employee perceptions of organisational justice, organisational citizenship behaviour, job satisfaction and manager-employee exchanges. Specifically, it seeks to establish the relationships between these constructs to better manage human capital. With globalisation and the increased career mobility of young talents, organisational citizenship behaviour is of paramount importance in order to retain these workers. The study's greatest contribution is its identification of key indicators that influence organisational citizenship behaviour. Knowing which type of organisational justice is salient for each construct allows the management to proactively improve conditions at the workplace. In essence, this book is intended to draw attention to those aspects of managing human capital that ought to receive the most attention, but are often overlooked in practice. In light of ongoing global challenges, it seeks to improve governance at the workplace. It offers a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners alike, as well as graduate students writing their dissertations. 292 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book addresses the persistence of the optical media piracy trade in the Philippines and Vietnam. It goes beyond arguments of defective law enforcement and copyright legal systemsby applyingsociological perspectives to examine the socio-economic forces behind the advent of piracy in the region. Usingdocumentary and ethnographic data, in addition to resistance and ecological theories in sociology of law and technology as the overall theoretical framework, the book investigates factors that contribute to this phenomenonand factors that impede the full formalization of the optical media trade in the two countries. These factors include the government's attitude towards the informal sector and strong resistance to tougher IPR protection, unstable and sometimes conflicting policies on technologies, burdensome business registration process and weak enforcement of business regulations, bureaucratic corruption and loopholes in law enforcement system as well as trade ties with China. In addition to that, the book highlights the social background of the actors behind the illegal business of counterfeit CDs and DVDs, thereby explaining the reasons they continue to persist in this type of trade. It invites policymakers, law enforcers, advocates of anti-piracy groups,and the general public to use a more holistic lens in understanding the persistence of copyright piracy in developing countries, shifting the blame from the moral defect of the traders to the current problematic copyright policy and enforcement structure, and the difficulty of crafting effective anti-piracy measures in a constantly evolving and advancing technological environment. 276 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book offers an eyewitness account of China's twenty years of rural reform. It records the successive changes in different types of China's rural economic systems, from rural cooperatives to the people's communes to the household responsibility system. It demonstrates that, as the starting point of rural reform, the household contract management played an unexpected role in promoting the acceleration of China's modernization process. Further, the book presents a systematic explanation for the cause and results of the reforms without which it would be impossible to fully comprehend the rise of China over the last three decades. 280 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This bookconstitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Symposium onIntelligence Computation and Applications, ISICA 2015, held in Guangzhou,China, in November 2015.The 77revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 189submissions. The papers feature the most up-to-date research in analysis andtheory of evolutionary computation, neural network architectures and learning;neuro-dynamics and neuro-engineering; fuzzy logic and control; collectiveintelligence and hybrid systems; deep learning; knowledge discovery; learningand reasoning. 756 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The increase in GHG gases in the atmosphere due to expansions in industrial and vehicular concentration is attributed to warming of the climate world wide. The resultant change in climatic pattern can induce abnormalities in the hydrological cycle. As a result, the regular functionality of river watersheds will also be affected. This Brief highlights a new methodology to rank the watersheds in terms of its vulnerability to change in climate. This Brief introduces a Vulnerability Index which will be directly proportional to the climatic impacts of the watersheds. Analytical Hierarchy Process and Artificial Neural Networks are used in a cascading manner to develop the model for prediction of the vulnerability index. 100 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book presents some fundamental aspects of plasma technologythat are important for beginners interested to start research in the area ofplasma technology. These include the properties of plasma, methods of plasmageneration and basic plasma diagnostic techniques. It also discusses severallow cost plasma devices, including pulsed plasma sources such as plasma focus,pulsed capillary discharge, vacuum spark and exploding wire; as well as lowtemperature plasmas such as glow discharge and dielectric barrier dischargewhich the authors believe may have potential applications in industry. Thetreatments are experimental rather than theoretical, although some theoreticalbackground is provided where appropriate. The principles of operation of thesedevices are also reviewed and discussed. 136 pp. Englisch. …

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book offers a new way to justify privacy based on a theory derived from Buddhist insights. It uses insights obtained from the Buddhist teachings on Non-Self to create an alternative theory of privacy. In doing so, the author first spells out the inherent differences between the Buddhist insights and the beliefs underlying conventional theories of privacy. While Buddhism views the self as existing conventionally through interactions with others, as well as through interrelations with other basic components, non-Buddhist ideas of self are understood as being grounded upon autonomous subjects, commonly understood to be entitled to rights and dignity. In light of this, the book offers ways in which these seemingly disparate concepts can be reconciled, while keeping in mind the need for protecting citizens' privacy in a modern information society. It also argues that the new way of conceptualizing privacy, as presented in this book, would go a long way in helping unravel the difficult concept of group privacy. 96 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Creating a successful and distinctive approach to learning and teaching at scale is a challenge facing all universities. This brief presents the Self-Organizing University (SOU), a transformational whole-of-organization solution for the design, delivery, and evaluation of learning and teaching in all its forms. It describes the elements of the SOU approach along with the implementation process and expected outcomes. It also explains the rationale and research base for each element of the model and how they are connected to create a university-wide model of learning and teaching. It includes guidance for anyone responsible for institutional improvement in the learning and teaching space. 92 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Leidraad Diabetes mellitus type 2 sluit aan bij de informatiebehoefte in de dagelijkse praktijk van professionals die de zorg voor patiënten met diabetes mellitus type 2 uitvoeren. En biedt de mogelijkheid snel bepaalde zaken te checken en zet aan tot nadenken over de diverse mogelijkheden om patiënten optimaal te begeleiden. 90 pp. Niederländisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Thema's als intieme relaties en seksualiteit van adolescenten krijgen relatief weinig aandacht in de wetenschappelijke literatuur. Dit staat in schril contrast met de aandacht die jongeren er zelf voor hebben. Intieme relaties en seksualiteit geeft de resultaten weer van enkele studies die een uitgebreider licht werpen op het liefdesleven van Nederlandse en Vlaamse adolescenten. De studies maken gebruik van verschillende onderzoeksmethodes zoals cross-sectioneel en longitudinaal kwantitatief onderzoek, kwalitatief onderzoek en experimenten, en zijn uitgevoerd bij verschillende groepen jongeren: 'gewone' jongeren maar ook jongeren die afkomstig zijn uit etnische en seksuele minderheden en jongeren uit klinische populaties. Geconcludeerd wordt dat seksualiteit niet een opzichzelfstaand fenomeen is, maar een onderdeel is van de algemene ontwikkeling van adolescenten. Daarmee is dit boek uitermate geschikt achtergrondmateriaal, niet alleen voor ontwikkelingspsychologen, pedagogen en kinderpsychiaters maar ook voor ouders en andere geïnteresseerden die zich verder willen verdiepen in het thema seksualiteit van adolescenten. 119 pp. Niederländisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Sex work continues to provoke controversial legal and public policy debates world-wide that raise fundamental questions about the state's role in protecting individual rights, status quo social relations, and public health. This book unites ethnographic research from China, Canada, and the United States to argue that criminalization results in a totalizing set of negative consequences for sex workers' health, safety, and human rights. Such consequences are enabled through the operations of an exclusionary regime, a dense coalescence of punitive forces that involves both governance, in the form of the criminal justice system and other state agents, and dynamic interpersonal encounters in which individuals both enforce and negotiate stigma-related discrimination against sex workers. Chapter Two demonstrates how criminalization harms sex workers by isolating their work to potentially dangerous locations, fostering mistrust of authority figures, further limiting their abilities to find legal work and housing, and restricting possibilities for collective rights-based organizing. Criminalized sex workers report police harassment, seizure of condoms, and adversarial police-sex worker relations that enable others to abuse them with impunity. Chapter Three describes how sex workers negotiate these restrictions on their rights and personal autonomy via their arrest avoidance and client management strategies, self-treatment of health issues, selective mutual aid, rights-based organizing, and entrenchment in sex work or other criminalized activities. Chapter Four describes how researchers working in countries or locales that criminalize sex work face ethical concerns as well as barriers to their work at the practical, institutional, and political levels. 112 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book provides an overview of key features of (philosophical) materialism, in historical perspective. It is, thus, a study in the history and philosophy of materialism, with a particular focus on the early modern and Enlightenment periods, leading into the 19th and 20th centuries. For it was in the 18th century that the word was first used by a philosopher (La Mettrie) to refer to himself. Prior to that, 'materialism' was a pejorative term, used for wicked thinkers, as a near-synonym to 'atheist', 'Spinozist' or the delightful 'Hobbist'. The book provides the different forms of materialism, particularly distinguished into claims about the material nature of the world and about the material nature of the mind, and then focus on materialist approaches to body and embodiment, selfhood, ethics, laws of nature, reductionism and determinism, and overall, its relationship to science. For materialism is often understood as a kind of philosophical facilitator of the sciences, and the authorwant to suggest that is not always the case. Materialism takes on different forms and guises in different historical, ideological and scientific contexts as well, and the author wants to do justice to that diversity. Figures discussed include Lucretius, Hobbes, Gassendi, Spinoza, Toland, Collins, La Mettrie, Diderot, d'Holbach and Priestley; Büchner, Bergson, J.J.C. Smart and D.M. Armstrong. 144 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book focuses on the role of e-consumers and e-marketing in the era of new tourism. It addresses themes such as the tourism 'prosumer' at work, the evolution of tourism services, the collaboration and co-creation, as well as the e-complaint behavior of e-consumers in tourism. It also discusses topics such as mobile marketing, gamification as a marketing communication tool, the impact of social media on tourism consumers, and the use of e-loyalty programs in the accommodation sector. Students taking e-marketing and market research courses in tourism can use this work as a source book for the principles of new marketing management. e-Consumers in the Era of New Tourism serves as a helpful resource for practitioners, as well as researchers and students of e-marketing. 152 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book deals with the important aspects of green fashion including Animal Welfare in Ethical Fashion, Sustainable Processing of Textiles, Sustainable design case studies, Wool Composting, Consumer behaviour in sustainable clothing market, industrial case studies related to green fashion, etc. 260 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The global crisis has led to dramatic increases in unemployment rates over most of the countries of the OECD. This book provides alternative explanations of this phenomenon. Junankar begins with surveys of the labour market: labour demand, labour supply, and labour force participation. He argues that the growth of unemployment and long-term unemployment is mainly due to a lack of aggregated demand and not due to high unemployment benefits. Economics of the Labour Market shows that unemployment and long-term unemployment impose serious and significant costs on individuals, families, and society in general.Raja Junankar focuses on vital social issues arising from the malfunctioning of economies and this collection of essays tackles the real cost of unemployment. 488 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This report, written by senior scholars of international studies and Indian Ocean studies, focuses on international relations in the Indian Ocean region and covers many aspects of the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road. The report covers strategic reviews, major events and related data in this region, as well as the origin and aims, frameworks and regional and global impacts of the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road. The contributors hail from five prominent institutes in China. Together they provide the readers a comprehensive and authentic picture of the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road. This year's Annual Report is the third in the series and the only one that focuses exclusively on the Indian Ocean region in China. 232 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book details the crux of green fashion, addressing various environmental aspects and discussing the importance of sustainable fashion in the apparel industry. It addresses various important topics such as Relationship marketing in green fashion, Animal Ethics and Welfare in the Fashion and Lifestyle Industries, Green Flame retardants, etc. 256 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book proposes a data-driven methodology using multi-way data analysis for the design of video-quality metrics. It also enables video- quality metrics to be created using arbitrary features. This data- driven design approach not only requires no detailed knowledge of the human visual system, but also allows a proper consideration of the temporal nature of video using a three-way prediction model, corresponding to the three-way structure of video. Using two simple example metrics, the author demonstrates not only that this purely data- driven approach outperforms state-of-the-art video-quality metrics, which are often optimized for specific properties of the human visual system, but also that multi-way data analysis methods outperform the combination of two-way data analysis methods and temporal pooling. 256 pp. Englisch. …

Buch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book contains the combined proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing Application and Wireless Sensor Network (UCAWSN-15) and the 16th International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing, Applications and Technologies (PDCAT-15). The combined proceedings present peer-reviewed contributions from academic and industrial researchers in fields including ubiquitous and context-aware computing, context-awareness reasoning and representation, location awareness services, and architectures, protocols and algorithms, energy, management and control of wireless sensor networks. The book includes the latest research results, practical developments and applications in parallel/distributed architectures, wireless networks and mobile computing, formal methods and programming languages, network routing and communication algorithms, database applications and data mining, access control and authorization and privacy preserving computation. 256 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware - This book is based on the project 'Development and Validation of High Resolution Climate System Models' with the support of the National Key Basic Research Project under grant No. 2010CB951900. It demonstrates the major advances in the development of new, dynamical Atmospheric General Circulation Model (AGCM) and Ocean General Circulation Model (OGCM) cores that are suitable for high resolution modeling, the improvement of model physics, and the design of a flexible, multi-model ensemble coupling framework. It is a useful reference for graduate students, researchers and professionals working in the related areas of climate modeling and climate change. Prof. Rucong Yu works at the China Meteorological Administration; Prof. Tianjun Zhou works at LASG, the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Tongwen Wu works at Beijing Climate Center, China Meteorological Administration; Associate Prof. Wei Xue works at the Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University; Prof. Guangqing Zhou works at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), Chinese Academy of Sciences. 268 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware - This book surveys recent advances in theranostics based on magnetic nanoparticles, ultrasound contrast agents, silica nanoparticles and polymeric micelles. It presents magnetic nanoparticles, which offer a robust tool for contrast enhanced MRI imaging, magnetic targeting, controlled drug delivery, molecular imaging guided gene therapy, magnetic hyperthermia, and controlling cell fate. Multifunctional ultrasound contrast agents have great potential in ultrasound molecular imaging, multimodal imaging, drug/gene delivery, and integrated diagnostics and therapeutics. Due to their diversity and multifunctionality, polymeric micelles and silica-based nanocomposites are highly capable of enhancing the efficacy of multimodal imaging and synergistic cancer therapy.This comprehensive book summarizes the main advances in multifunctional nanoprobes for targeted imaging and therapy of gastric cancer, and explores the clinical translational prospects and challenges. Although more research is needed to overcome the substantial obstacles that impede the development and availability of nanotheranostic products, such nontrivial nanoagents are expected to revolutionize medical treatments and help to realize the potential of personalized medicine to diagnose, treat, and follow-up patients with cancer. Zhifei Dai is a Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, China. 396 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book examines non-invasive, electrical-based methods for disease diagnosis and assessment of heart function. In particular, a formalized signal model is proposed since this offers several advantages over methods that rely on measured data alone. By using a formalized representation, the parameters of the signal model can be easily manipulated and/or modified, thus providing mechanisms that allow researchers to reproduce and control such signals. In addition, having such a formalized signal model makes it possible to develop computer tools that can be used for manipulating and understanding how signal changes result from various heart conditions, as well as for generating input signals for experimenting with and evaluating the performance of e.g. signal extraction methods. The work focuses on bioelectrical information, particularly electrical bio-impedance (EBI). Once the EBI has been measured, the corresponding signals have to be modelled for analysis. This requires a structured approach in order to move from real measured data to the model of the corresponding signals. This book proposes a generic framework for this procedure. It can be used as a guide for modelling impedance cardiography (ICG) and impedance respirography (IRG) signals, as well as for developing the corresponding bio-impedance signal simulator (BISS). 100 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This volume presents the proceedings of CLABIO 2015 - II Latin American Conference on Bioimpedance, held in Montevideo, Uruguay - September 30 - October 02, 2015.The works cover a broad range in Biomedical Engineering and Computing, Medical Physics and Medical Sciences, Environment, Biology and Chemistry. The topics are: Bioimpedance Applications Bioimpedance Instrumentation Body and Tissue Composition Cell Culture and Cell Suspension Electrical Impedance Tomography Electrode Modelling Magnetic Induction - Electrical Impedance Tomography Magnetic Resonance - Electrical Impedance Tomography Nonlinear Phenomena Organ and Tissue Impedance Plant Tissue Impedance Skin Impedance Modelling Technological Advances in Bioimpedance Theory and Modelling 104 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book presents the latest knowledge in liver resection. It includes preoperative assessment, hepatic vascular occlusion, live parenchyma transection, various liver resection techniques, liver transplantation, ex situ ex vivo resection, auto-transplantation, laparoscopic liver resection and outcome of liver resection. It describes 21 resection techniques in the same style. Each chapter is built around a series of descriptive photographs and illustrations, which are explained in detail in the text. At the end of each section there are key points that are critical for surgeons performing liver resections. The authors share their extensive experience of liver resections. This book will help practitioners perform safe and expeditious resections and reduce postoperative liver failure. Hepato-bilio pancreatic surgeons, hepatologists, radiologists, clinicians and researchers who are interested in liver surgery will find this book an invaluable guide. 354 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Edited by thought leaders in the fields of urban informatics and urban interaction design, this book brings together case studies and examples from around the world to discuss the role that urban interfaces, citizen action, and city making play in the quest to create and maintain not only secure and resilient, but productive, sustainable and viable urban environments. The book debates the impact of these trends on theory, policy and practice. The individual chapters are based on blind peer reviewed contributions by leading researchers working at the intersection of the social / cultural, technical / digital, and physical / spatial domains of urbanism scholarship. The book will appeal not only to researchers and students, but also to a vast number of practitioners in the private and public sector interested in accessible content that clearly and rigorously analyses the potential offered by urban interfaces, mobile technology, and location-based services in the context of engaging people with open, smart and participatory urban environments. 288 pp. Englisch. …

Buch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The Chinese government has long kept tight control on both traditional and new media to prevent potential challenges to its authority. But, for better or worse, China has now reached a stage where it is difficult to exercise political hegemony through laws and regulations and the control of the mass media. China has become a global superpower and in 2011 surpassed Japan as the world's second largest economy, second only to the USA. China's entertainment industry is also flourishing, and the market is large enough to attract foreign investors that either view China as an important market or are interested in Chinese capital. Today, more children in China watch television than in any other country in the world, and Internet usage is also increasing, making the implementation of media literacy education an important issue. This book presents the prevailing perspectives on media literacy education in China and describes how the current curriculum reform for implementing media literacy education is being developed. It will not only stimulate debate and further research, but will also influence policy decisions regarding media literacy education in China. 196 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Condición: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -This self-contained text develops a Markov chain approach that makes the rigorous analysis of a class of microscopic models that specify the dynamics of complex systems at the individual level possible. It presents a general framework of aggregation in agent-based and related computational models, one which makes use of lumpability and information theory in order to link the micro and macro levels of observation. The starting point is a microscopic Markov chain description of the dynamical process in complete correspondence with the dynamical behavior of the agent-based model (ABM), which is obtained by considering the set of all possible agent configurations as the state space of a huge Markov chain. An explicit formal representation of a resulting ¿micro-chain¿ including microscopic transition rates is derived for a class of models by using the random mapping representation of a Markov process. The type of probability distribution used to implement the stochastic part of the model, which defines the updating rule and governs the dynamics at a Markovian level, plays a crucial part in the analysis of ¿voter-like¿ models used in population genetics, evolutionary game theory and social dynamics. The book demonstrates that the problem of aggregation in ABMs - and the lumpability conditions in particular - can be embedded into a more general framework that employs information theory in order to identify different levels and relevant scales in complex dynamical systemsSpringer-Verlag KG, Sachsenplatz 4-6, 1201 Wien 212 pp. Englisch.…