This dissertation will discuss the uncertainty encountered in the daily operations of businesses. The concepts will be developed by first giving an overview of probability and statistics as used in our everyday activities, such as the basic principles of probability, univariate and multivariate statistics, data clustering and mapping, as well as time sequence and spectral analysis. The examples used will be from the oil and gas exploration industry because the risks taken in this industry are normally quite large and are ideal for showing the application of the various techniques for minimizing risk. Subsequently, the discussion will deal with basic risk analysis, spatial and time variations of risk, geotechnical risk analysis, risk aversion and how it is affected by personal biases, and how to use portfolios to hedge risk together with the application of real options. Next, fractal analysis and its application to economics and risk analysis will be examined, followed by some examples showing the change in the Value at Risk under Fractal Brownian Motions. Finally, a neural network application is shown whereby some of these risks and risk factors will be combined to forecast the best possible outcome given a certain knowledge base. The chapters will discuss: Basic probability techniques and uncertainty principles Analysis and diversification for exploration projects The value and risk of information in the decision process Simulation techniques and modeling of uncertainty Project valuation and project risk return Modeling risk propensity or preference analysis of exploration projects Application of fractals to risk analysis Simultaneous prediction of strategic risk and decision attributes using multivariate statistics and neural networks
This book has been written for those who need a solid understanding of the seismic exploration method without difficult mathematics. It is presented in a format that allows one to naturally progress from the underlying physical principles to the actual seismic method. The mathematics needed for the subject is kept as simple as possible; students only need high school physics and mathematics to thoroughly grasp the principles covered. Dr. Stark has developed this text and honed its content with feedback from hundreds of students over nearly two decades of teaching seismic exploration geophysics. This textbook will teach students the principles for the detection of geologic structures, earthquake zones and hazards, resource exploration, and geotechnical engineering.This title is Winner of 2009 Text and Academic Authors Association "Textbook Excellence Award
Radiation can be absorbed and re-emitted many times in atomic vapors before it reaches the boundaries of the container encasing the vapor. This effect is known as radiation trapping. It plays an important role practically everywhere atomic vapors occur, whether in spectroscopy, gas lasers, atomic line filters, the determination of atomic lifetimes, measurements of atomic interaction potentials, or electric discharge lamps. This book is the first to assemble all of the information necessary to handle practical problems related to radiation trapping, and it emphasizes both physical insights and mathematical methods. The introduction reviews resonance radiation and collision processes in atomic vapors. This is followed by detailed explanations of the physical effects and mathematical methods for various types of problems (e.g., with or without saturation, particle diffusion, reflecting cell walls). The last part of the book describes the applications of these methods to a variety of practical problems, such as cross-section measurements and the design of discharge lamps.
Brienne of Tarth - highborn and ridiculed by those around her because of her size and harsh appearance, she chose the difficult path of a sword fighter to fulfil her heart's desire to be in the service of a gracious Lord or Lady. Beginning with her victory against Loras Tyrell in the tournament, through the nerve-racking odyssey with Jaime Lannister, to her hasty escape from Riverrun, which was captured by the enemy, this book not only offers an illustrated and commentary review of her perilous journey through the Seven Kingdoms, but it also simultaneously looks behind the facade of an extraordinary woman.
This book investigates how the encounter between the U.S. filibuster expedition in 1855-1857 and Nicaraguans was imagined in both countries. The author examines transnational media and gives special emphasis to hitherto neglected publications like the bilingual newspaper El Nicaraguense. The study analyzes filibusters’ direct influence on their representations and how these form the basis for popular collective memories and academic discourses.
In a large majority of regions where forestry activities occur, roads are the backbone of their efficient management. Automatic planning of a road network is an ongoing, challenging task. Advances have been aided by the increased availability and accuracy of digital terrain models, greater computing power, and improvements in optimization techniques. Defining the objectives and deriving adequate objective functions are crucial steps in guiding the solution toward an ideal network, especially when individual goals may conflict. For example, whereas the conservationist might prefer that a layout minimizes any detrimental impacts on the environment, the forest landowner may favor cost-minimal roads while the forest operator would like to have a dense network in order to reduce transportation costs.This thesis introduces models for three objective functions: - forest road construction and maintenance costs, - negative ecological effects from such roads, - the suitability, or attractiveness, of a network for cable-yarding.Case studies in mountainous project areas illustrate the trade-offs among these conflicting goals, and demonstrate how to optimize different objectives in order to make an optimal decision overall.
A detailed account of various applications and uses of transparent ceramics and the future of the industry In Transparent Ceramics: Materials, Engineering, and Applications, readers will discover the necessary foundation for understanding transparent ceramics (TCs) and the technical and economic factors that determine the overall worth of TCs. This book provides readers with a thorough history of TCs, as well as a detailed account of the materials, engineering and applications of TC in its various forms; fabrication and characterization specifics are also described. With this book, researchers, engineers, and students find a definitive guide to past and present use cases, and a glimpse into the future of TC materials. The book covers a variety of TC topics, including: ● The methods employed for materials produced in a transparent state ● Detailed applications of TCs for use in lasers, IR domes, armor-windows, and various medical prosthetics ● A review of traditionally used transparent materials that highlights the benefits of TCs ● Theoretical science and engineering theories presented in correlation with learned data ● A look at past, present, and future use-cases of TCs This insightful guide to ceramics that can be fabricated into bulk transparent parts will serve as a must-read for professionals in the industry, as well as students looking to gain a more thorough understanding of the field.
The liberalization of transatlantic trade relations since the Great Depression is one of the key developments in the global political economy of the last hundred years. This period has seen the negotiated reduction of both tariffs and nontariff barriers among developed countries, which allowed for the rapid expansion of trade flows, a driving force of economic globalization. In Protection for Exporters, Andreas Dür provides a novel explanation for this phenomenon that stresses the role of societal interests in shaping trade politics. He argues that exporters lobby more in reaction to losses of foreign market access than in pursuit of opportunities, thus providing a rationale for periods of acceleration and slowdown in the pace of liberalization. Dür also presents hypotheses about the form in which protection for exporters is provided (preferential or nonpreferential) and the balance of concessions that is exchanged in trade negotiations. Protection for Exporters includes case studies of major developments in international trade relations, such as the passage of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act in the 1930s, the creation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in the 1940s, the Kennedy Round in the 1960s, the debate over Fortress Europe in the 1980s, and U.S.-European competition over access to emerging markets in the early 2000s. Dür's rigorous argument and systematic empirical analyses not only explain transatlantic trade relations but also allow for a better understanding of the dynamics of international economic relations.
Situated at the intersection of film studies, the history of science and medicine, and the history of modern Germany, Homo Cinematicus: Science, Motion Pictures, and the Making of Modern Germany connects the emergence of cinema as a social institution to an inquiry into the history of knowledge production in the human sciences.
Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: Information companies are sociotechnological, targeted and open systems with at least one strategic business unit (SBU) that sells or rents (digital) information products. Operational activities are carried out in business units. Strategies define the broad directions for the system and for its subsystems. Visions are the targets of strategies, and specific, measurable, achievable, result-oriented and time-based (SMART) objectives need to be defined to give systems that possess a degree of inertia a concrete, measurable direction. In this thesis, both a bottom-up and a top-down approach to strategy will be taken. As an example for a bottom-up approach, a sequential, parallel, customer-oriented business strategy for the management of digital information products, a strategy that can be implemented through customer involvement in the product lifecycle, and through customer integration in the supply chain, will be elaborated. This strategy is best induced by a preceding timely shift towards (radical) product and process innovation, a limited punctuation of a long-term equilibrium of customer orientation and incremental innovation. Hybrid strategies like the one presented in this thesis are built on modular, independent and homogenous subsystems that communicate, collaborate, compete and finally agree on joint activities, manifested in plans that then are implemented by the actors involved in order to achieve the various primary and secondary objectives on the way towards a greater, common vision. Simultaneous hybrid strategies are a top-down or abstract view on this whole system. As simultaneous hybrid strategies possess a degree of ambiguity or even impossibility because they hide implementation details of the system, the ambiguity needs to be handled on the operational level when a hybrid strategy is implemented. Ambiguity can be resolved by introducing priorities for strategic objectives, by parallelizing strategy execution in regard to system structure, or by sequentializing strategy execution in regard to time. A top-level strategy first of all is responsibility, responsibility for the lower levels of organizational hierarchy. After the introduction, chapter 2 starts with the definition of central strategic terms. Then, the options for business strategies and hybrid strategies in the context of information companies are sketched. Chapter 3 essentially describes the theory of the product lifecycle, which can be [...]
Central bank independence has become one of the most widely accepted tenets of modern monetary policy. According to this view, the main role of independent central banks is to maintain price stability through the adjustment of short-term interest rates. Reconsidering Central Bank Independence argues that the global financial crisis has undermined confidence in this view as central banks increasingly have to address concerns other than price stability, such as financial stability, the need for output recovery and other broader policy goals. Large balance-sheet expansion by central banks followed the global financial crisis, which overlapped considerably with the financial policy of their respective governments. Exploring the consequences of this shift to a more diverse set of policy challenges, this book calls for a return to the consensus role for central banks and analyses what this might mean for their future independence.
In the early 1970's, due to serious epistemological flaws, the demise of traditional New Testament research paradigms became imminent. A new generation of scholars started the search for a fresh approach, based on scientifically sound principles. Working within the stimulating atmosphere of the New Testament Society of South Africa, the author was one of the pioneers in developing a new, multi-dimensional research approach for New Testament studies. The articles in the present volume, written over a period of 25 years, reflect part of this journey, as viewed from a Pauline perspective. Combining the positive aspects of the traditional biblical research paradigms with the important insights of modern linguistics, literary science, semantics and pragmatics, particularly rhetoric, the author investigates the convergence of various influences in Paul's pre-christian career. He proposes new possibilities of understanding Paul's language and style, such as hyperbolical contrasts, typical of his Semitic background. Various aspects of his strategies of persuasion are investigated, such as creating an ethos, vilification, alienation and re-identification. The majority of articles concentrate on central elements in Pauline theology: belief in the resurrection of Jesus, the centrality of grace, the in Christ and related formulae, faith and obedience, justification in Romans, Christian identity, ethics and ethos, as portrayed in Romans.
Reviewing the fundamental instrumental techniques and current observational results, this book unveils the mysteries of the physical processes in the central parsec of our Milky Way: the super-massive black hole embedded in a central stellar cluster as well as the gas and dust in the circumnuclear region.The observations described cover the entire electromagnetic spectrum from decimeter radio-waves to high energy X-ray and γ-rays, and a comprehensive summary of up-to-date astrophysical interpretations is given.The emphasis is put on observational techniques, image processing aspects, and a detailed presentation of the most cutting-edge work carried out in the near-infrared wavelength regime. These recent results include both the first orbits of stars around the central black hole and the multiwavelength variability of the central source./a
Berlin Electropolis ties the German discourse on nervousness in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to Berlin's transformation into a capital of the second industrial revolution. Focusing on three key groups—railway personnel, soldiers, and telephone operators—Andreas Killen traces the emergence in the 1880s and then later decline of the belief that modernity caused nervous illness. During this period, Killen explains, Berlin became arguably the most advanced metropolis in Europe. A host of changes, many associated with breakthroughs in technologies of transportation, communication, and leisure, combined to radically alter the shape and tempo of everyday life in Berlin. The resulting consciousness of accelerated social change and the shocks and afflictions that accompanied it found their consummate expression in the discourse about nervousness. Wonderfully researched and clearly written, this book offers a wealth of new insights into the nature of the modern metropolis, the psychological aftermath of World War I, and the operations of the German welfare state. Killen also explores cultural attitudes toward electricity, the evolution of psychiatric thought and practice, and the status of women workers in Germany's rapidly industrializing economy. Ultimately, he argues that the backlash against the welfare state that occurred during the late Weimar Republic brought about the final decoupling of modernity and nervous illness.
The rebels have claimed victory in Alzir System, but a hardcore of ISP die-hards is refusing to lay down their arms. Aided by Irina Petrova, Admiral Santana Pendergast makes a desperate attempt to free the prisoners from the detention camps on Pearl. Meanwhile, the crew of the HYPERION embarks on a mission to strike back at President Skolberg.
As Europe finds itself once again caught between two superpowers – the USA and a rising China – little has been written about a relationship that will have a profound influence on the international order: the relationship between the People's Republic of China and Germany. In Germany and China, leading international relations expert Andreas Fulda looks critically at the increasingly interdependent relationship between the two countries. Drawing on examples from politics, industry, development aid and technology sectors and academia, the book explores how successive governments from Helmut Kohl to Angela Merkel have pursued ever-closer ties to China in the interests of short term economic gain. Fulda explores the danger of this increasing entanglement not just for Germany, but for Europe and the international world order.
This book reconsiders the linguistic notion of emphasis. For many, the concept of emphasis is confined to information structure. However, our understanding of the grammatical reflexes of emphasis is only partial as long as the expressive side of utterances is not taken into account. The book explores similarities, differences, and interactions between information structure and the expressive dimension of language in the domain of natural language grammar. Specifically, this monograph demonstrates that specific word order options, sometimes in combination with discourse particles, yield meaning effects that are typical for the expressive side of utterances and endow them with an exclamative flavor. Approaching this issue from a syntactic point of view, the book shows that there are syntactic categories (e.g., a certain class of particle verbs) and word orders (e.g., certain fronting patterns involving discourse particles) that directly connect to expressive meaning components. The work presented in this monograph combines theoretical analysis with experimental evidence from both perception and production studies.
This monograph examines the contributions of landscape design to authority and to organization of public life in imperial Russia. Analyzing how tsars and nobles inscribed their political aspirations in the gardens they designed or inhabited, this study maps out a distinct trajectory in the meaning of landscape design. Based partly on archival documents, it explores the reasons for Catherine the Great's keen interest in landscape design. It reconstructs Grigorii Potemkin's attempts to transform the Crimea physically and symbolically into the garden of the empire. And it reveals the centrality of the garden for noblemen such as Andrei Bolotov and Alexander Kurakin, who expressed their political philosophy and their anxieties about unstable social relations through landscaping. The book follows the destiny of western aesthetic categories, notably of the picturesque, as they are first adopted, then transformed, and ultimately rejected. It analyzes the historical role and mythological representations of the country estate, along with Leo Tolstoy's fraught commitment to Yasnaya Polyana and his critique of estate mythology in War and Peace. Finally, this study exposes how the current fashion for gardening in Russia, in particular among New Russians, alludes to imperial landscaping culture in order to justify a retreat from the public sphere.
Andreas Kirschkamp empirically analyses the early warning behavior of Chief Executive Officers in German medium-sized companies. First, he presents the design variables of early warning, then the influencing contingency variables. On the basis of the scholarly research on psychological and contingency theory, the author deduces hypotheses and tests them.
This thesis reports on major steps towards the realization of scalable quantum networks. It addresses the experimental implementation of a deterministic interaction mechanism between flying optical photons and a single trapped atom. In particular, it demonstrates the nondestructive detection of an optical photon. To this end, single rubidium atoms are trapped in a three-dimensional optical lattice at the center of an optical cavity in the strong coupling regime. Full control over the atomic state — its position, its motion, and its electronic state — is achieved with laser beams applied along the resonator and from the side. When faint laser pulses are reflected from the resonator, the combined atom-photon state acquires a state-dependent phase shift. In a first series of experiments, this is employed to nondestructively detect optical photons by measuring the atomic state after the reflection process. Then, quantum bits are encoded in the polarization of the laser pulse and in the Zeeman state of the atom. The state-dependent phase shift mediates a deterministic universal quantum gate between the atom and one or two successively reflected photons, which is used to generate entangled atom-photon, atom-photon-photon, and photon-photon states out of separable input states.
Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: The main goal of this thesis is to develop a framework for a Web based Spatial Decision Support System (WSDSS) for supporting the development of river restoration strategies. Due to their free availability, open source/free GIS tools and technology are used to develop this decision support framework supporting a multi-user decision support platform via the web. The integration of latest multi-scale river ecological knowledge is assured by the strong relatedness of this thesis to a project that has been run at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna between 2005 and 2008 the MIRR project (Model based Instrument for River Restoration). By order of the Austrian Ministry of Life, being responsible for the implementation of the EU-Water Framework Directive, a strategic instrument to identify hydro-morphological restoration measures for running waters to enhance the ecological status of rivers in Austria measured by fish was developed at the Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management (IHG) at the BOKU based on comprehensive multivariate analyses of fish/pressure relationships using data from Lower Austria. The identification and quantification of the effects of the main relevant pressure types allowed the development of flow charts for guiding restoration activities at multiple scales. Up to now no tool exists allowing an automated evaluation of the effects of different restoration strategies on the ecological status of the so called water bodies, the relevant scale for action and reporting with regard to the EU-WFD. Furthermore existing web based GIS tools related to rivers and the implementation of the EU WFD in Austria and on an EU level do not allow any interaction with the data, and are therefore not well suited for decision support (for example the Water Information system of Austria WISA , or the Water Information System of Europe WISE ). The following parts of the MIRR project conducted under the supervision of the author of this thesis as work package leader, and can be seen as part of this thesis, although mainly content relevant for the development of the WSDSS framework is reproduced here: Literature research and definition of relevant parameters to model fish/pressure relationships on multiple spatial and temporal scales, Investigation and collection of the available GIS datasets in Austria, that might be of relevance for the MIRR project, and matching [...]
Management and cost accounting has been the basic toolbox in business administration for decades. Today it is an integral part of all curricula in business education and no student can afford not to be familiar with its basic concepts and instruments. At the same time, business in general, and management accounting in particular, is becoming more and more international. English clearly has evolved as the "lingua franca" of international business. Academics, students as well as practitioners exchange their views and ideas, discuss concepts and communicate with each other in English. This is certainly also true for cost accounting and management accounting. Management Accounting is becoming increasingly international. "Management and Cost Accounting" is a new English language textbook covering concepts and instruments of cost and management accounting at an introductory level (Bachelor, but also suited for MBA courses due to strong focus on practical applications and cases). This textbook covers all topics that are relevant in management accounting in business organizations and that are typically covered in German and Central European Bachelor classes on cost accounting and management accounting. After an introduction to the topic, including major differences between the German approach and the purely Anglo-Saxon approach of management accounting, the book describes different cost terms and concepts applied in German cost accounting, The book is much more specific here compared to US-American standard textbooks. Based on different cost concepts, the topic of cost behavior is discussed, including the determination of cost functions. The heart of the book guides the reader through the general structure of a fully developed cost accounting system following the German and Central European standard: It starts with cost type accounting, moves on to cost center accounting and finally deals with cost unit accounting, assigning cost to goods and services offered in the market. The remaining parts of the book deal with decision making and how management and cost accounting data can support managers in this task. A comparison of absorption costing and variable costing introduces the reader to management decisions such as product portfolio and outsourcing decisions. Additionally, cost-volume-profit analysis (break-even-analysis) is covered. The book closes with a comprehensive treatment of cost planning and variance analysis.
This is the first complete bibliography of the writings of Yvan Goll (1891-1950), the French-German poet, novelist, dramatist, journalist and translator. The first part gives full details of Goll's publications during his lifetime, and includes books and pamphlets, contributions to periodicals, newspapers and anthologies, books and journals edited by Goll, translations by Goll, and his published letters. The second part makes it possible to trace the dissemination of Goll's work, with posthumous first publications, posthumous reprints in periodicals and anthologies, translations of Goll's works by others (into twenty languages) and musical collaborations and settings. A comprehensive index of titles or first lines allows the user to trace single works through the various sections; there are also indexes of writers translated by Goll and letters by recipient. This bibliography documents the huge scope of the writings of an author who wrote in three major languages and published in many countries. It contains a wide range of references to texts hitherto unknown, many of them items in journals and newspapers, and is by far the most reliable source to date of what Goll actually wrote.
In this work, different nanocrystalline metals and alloys were investigated by a synchrotron-based in situ XRD mechanical testing technique in order to investigate the dominant deformation mechanisms. All tested samples show a succession and coexistence of several mechanisms, regardless of grain size, loading condition, or sample geometry. However, the relative shares of the individual mechanisms strongly vary and depend on parameters such as grain size, sample purity, and alloy composition.
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