Kinematics is an exciting area of computational mechanics which plays a central role in a great variety of fields and industrial applications. Apart from research in pure kinematics, the field offers challenging problems of practical relevance that need to be solved in an interdisciplinary manner in order for new technologies to develop. The present book collects a number of important contributions presented during the First Conference on Interdisciplinary Applications of Kinematics (IAK 2008) held in Lima, Peru. To share inspiration and non-standard solutions among the different applications, the conference brought together scientists from several research fields related to kinematics, such as for example, computational kinematics, multibody systems, industrial machines, robotics, biomechanics, mechatronics and chemistry. The conference focused on all aspects of kinematics, namely modeling, optimization, experimental validation, industrial applications, theoretical kinematical methods, and design. The results should be of interest for practicing and research engineers as well as Ph.D. students from the fields of mechanical and electrical engineering, computer science, and computer graphics.

Computational kinematics is an enthralling area of science with a rich spectrum of problems at the junction of mechanics, robotics, computer science, mathematics, and computer graphics. The present book collects up-to-date methods as presented during the Fifth International Workshop on Computational Kinematics (CK2009) held at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. The covered topics include design and optimization of cable-driven robots, analysis of parallel manipulators, motion planning, numerical methods for mechanism calibration and optimization, geometric approaches to mechanism analysis and design, synthesis of mechanisms, kinematical issues in biomechanics, balancing and construction of novel mechanical devices, detection and treatment of singularities, as well as computational methods for gear design. The results should be of interest for practicing and research engineers as well as Ph.D. students from the fields of mechanical and electrical engineering, computer science, and computer graphics.

This book presents the proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Robotics in Alpe-Adria-Danube Region (RAAD), held in Klagenfurt, Austria, June 8-10, 2022. It gathers contributions by researchers from several countries on all major areas of robotic research, development and innovation, as well as new applications and current trends. The topics covered include: novel designs and applications of robotic systems, intelligent cooperating and service robots, advanced robot control, human-robot interfaces, robot vision systems, mobile robots, humanoid and walking robots, bio-inspired and swarm robotic systems, aerial, underwater and spatial robots, robots for ambient assisted living, medical robots and bionic prostheses, cognitive robots, cloud robotics, ethical and social issues in robotics, etc. Given its scope, the book offers a source of information and inspiration for researchers seeking to improve their work and gather new ideas for future developments. Chapter "The Use of Robots in Aquatic Biomonitoring with Special Focus on Biohybrid Entities" is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Looking beyond prominent figures or major ecclesial events, Liberation Theology and the Others offers a fresh historical perspective on Latin American liberation theology. Thirteen case studies, from Mexico to Uruguay, depict a vivid picture of religious and lay activism that shaped the profile of the Latin American Catholic Church in the second half of the 20th century. Stressing the transnational character of Catholic activism and its intersections with prevalent discourses of citizenship, ethnicity or development, scholars from Latin America, the US, and Europe, analyze how pastoral renewal was debated and embraced in multiple local and culturally diverse contexts. Contributors explore the connections between Latin American liberation theology and anthropology in Peru, armed revolutionaries in highland Guatemala, and the implementation of neoliberalism in Bolivia. They identify conceptions of the popular church, indigenous religiosity, women's leadership, and student activism circulated among Latin American religious and lay activists between the 1960s and the 1980s. By revisiting the multifaceted and oftentimes contingent nature of church reforms, this edited volume provides fascinating new insights into one of the most controversial religious movements of the 20th century.

While the importance of consent has been discussed widely over the last few decades, interest in its study has received renewed attention in recent years, particularly regarding medical treatment, clinical research and sexual acts. The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Consent is an outstanding reference source to this exciting subject and the first collection of its kind. Comprising over thirty chapters by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into five main parts: * General questions * Normative ethics * Legal theory * Medical ethics * Political philosophy. Within these sections central issues, debates and problems are examined, including: the nature and normative importance of consent, paternalism, exploitation and coercion, privacy, sexual consent, consent and criminal law, informed consent, organ donation, clinical research, and consent theory of political obligation and authority. The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Consent is essential reading for students and researchers in moral theory, applied ethics, medical ethics, philosophy of law and political philosophy. This volume will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as political science, law, medicine and social science.

The book introduces the main problems, key methods, and milestone results in singularity analysis of mechanisms. It provides a comprehensive and concise overview of basic results while also addressing a few advanced topics of singularities in mechanical systems and robots.

Kinematics is an exciting area of computational mechanics which plays a central role in a great variety of fields and industrial applications. Apart from research in pure kinematics, the field offers challenging problems of practical relevance that need to be solved in an interdisciplinary manner in order for new technologies to develop. The present book collects a number of important contributions presented during the First Conference on Interdisciplinary Applications of Kinematics (IAK 2008) held in Lima, Peru. To share inspiration and non-standard solutions among the different applications, the conference brought together scientists from several research fields related to kinematics, such as for example, computational kinematics, multibody systems, industrial machines, robotics, biomechanics, mechatronics and chemistry. The conference focused on all aspects of kinematics, namely modeling, optimization, experimental validation, industrial applications, theoretical kinematical methods, and design. The results should be of interest for practicing and research engineers as well as Ph.D. students from the fields of mechanical and electrical engineering, computer science, and computer graphics.

Computational kinematics is an enthralling area of science with a rich spectrum of problems at the junction of mechanics, robotics, computer science, mathematics, and computer graphics. The present book collects up-to-date methods as presented during the Fifth International Workshop on Computational Kinematics (CK2009) held at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. The covered topics include design and optimization of cable-driven robots, analysis of parallel manipulators, motion planning, numerical methods for mechanism calibration and optimization, geometric approaches to mechanism analysis and design, synthesis of mechanisms, kinematical issues in biomechanics, balancing and construction of novel mechanical devices, detection and treatment of singularities, as well as computational methods for gear design. The results should be of interest for practicing and research engineers as well as Ph.D. students from the fields of mechanical and electrical engineering, computer science, and computer graphics.

Underserved Communities and Digital Discourse: Getting Voices Heard presents a series of case studies which evaluate the elevation and suppression of voices within marginalized and minority communities. It examines the use of digital media and its role in the construction of reality-specifically who is included, who is left out, and who feels they must remain silent. Through both quantitative and qualitative measures, this book discusses digital discourse in terms of ethnic media, political communication, ethics, crisis communication, myth, and health frameworks.

Ein funktionierendes Forderungsmanagement ist heute unerlasslich. Dieses Buch vermittelt juristisches Basiswissen und zeigt systematisch, wie es Unternehmen gelingt, Forderungen abzusichern und durchzusetzen. Zahlreiche Praxishinweise und Beispiele machen deutlich, worauf es ankommt."

While the importance of consent has been discussed widely over the last few decades, interest in its study has received renewed attention in recent years, particularly regarding medical treatment, clinical research and sexual acts. The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Consent is an outstanding reference source to this exciting subject and the first collection of its kind. Comprising over thirty chapters by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into five main parts: * General questions * Normative ethics * Legal theory * Medical ethics * Political philosophy. Within these sections central issues, debates and problems are examined, including: the nature and normative importance of consent, paternalism, exploitation and coercion, privacy, sexual consent, consent and criminal law, informed consent, organ donation, clinical research, and consent theory of political obligation and authority. The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Consent is essential reading for students and researchers in moral theory, applied ethics, medical ethics, philosophy of law and political philosophy. This volume will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as political science, law, medicine and social science.

This volume entails a collection of new ideas, themes and questions towards a phenomenon which we are used to refer to with the key term "diversity". The aim of the book is to offer a cultural sciences perspective on "diversity", to advance knowledge about it and enrich the dialogue between academics and practitioners in related domains of action. Today, changes in the demographic structures of the population, the migration flux, multiculturalism, the rising awareness concerning minorities' rights, gender studies and so on lead to a complex picture of what "diversity" means. The narrative of a society and of most organizations is constituted by multiple layers of social categorization, segregation and identity. Therefore, "diversity" defies simple definition. The contributions in this volume approach the phenomenon from different angles and reveal new theoretical, methodological and practical perspectives on it.

Some things are reasons for us to perform certain actions. That it will spare you great pain in the future, for example, is a reason for you to go to the dentist now, and that you are already late for work is a reason for you not to read the next article in the morning paper. Why are such considerations reasons for or against certain actions? Constructivism offers an intriguing answer to this question. Its basic idea is often encapsulated in the slogan that reasons are not discovered but made by us. Andreas Muller elaborates this idea into a fully-fledged account of practical reasons, makes its theoretical commitments explicit, and defends it against some well-known objections. Constructing Practical Reasons begins with an examination of the distinctive role that reason judgements play in the process of practical reasoning. This provides the resources for an anti-representationalist conception of the nature of those judgements, according to which they are true, if they are true, not because they accurately represent certain normative facts, but because of their role in sound reasoning. On the resulting view, a consideration owes its status as a reason to the truth of the corresponding reason judgement and thus, ultimately, to the soundness of a certain episode of reasoning. Consequently, our practical reasons exhibit a kind of mind-dependence, but this does not force us to deny their objectivity.

Sind Zeitreisen wirklich moeglich? In diesem Buch werden allgemein verstandlich die physikalischen Grundlagen fur Zeitreisen und drei verschiedene Arten von Zeitmaschinen vorgestellt, wobei es auch um die technische Umsetzbarkeit solcher Maschinen sowie die gesellschaftlichen und politischen Folgen von Zeitreisen geht. Auf unterhaltsame Weise wird eine spekulative Vision vom Jahr 2100 gezeichnet, wie es in den Bereichen Gesellschaft, Politik und Wirtschaft, Medizin, Technik und Verkehr sowie den Naturwissenschaften aussehen koennte. Um diese Vision besser beurteilen zu koennen, wird ihr eine Ruckschau in das Jahr 1910 entgegengestellt. Hatte ein Mensch aus dem Jahr 1910 eine Ahnung von den technischen Errungenschaften wie dem Computer oder der Entdeckung der Ausdehnung des Universums gehabt? Der Wissenschaftsautor Andreas Muller nimmt den Leser mit auf abenteuerliche Reisen durch die Zeit.

Aufgabenorientiertes Lernen und Lehren hat sich zu einem der fuhrenden Ansatze in der Fremdsprachendidaktik entwickelt. In diesem Band liegt der Fokus auf dem Zusammenspiel zwischen Medieneinsatz und Aufgabenorientierung im Fremdsprachenunterricht (Englisch, Spanisch, Deutsch als Fremdsprache). Einleitend wird ein umfassender UEberblick uber den Forschungsstand aus einer padagogisch-soziokulturellen Perspektive gegeben. Neben dem Einsatz von traditionellen Medien, wie Film, geht es in den Beitragen um die Entwicklung und den Einsatz von Multimedia-Software sowie internetbasiertem Material (webquest), Projekte im Bereich der Telekollaboration und den Einsatz neuer technischer Werkzeuge, wie weblogs, wikis und interaktive whiteboards. Die Forschungskontexte umfassen die Grundschule, Sekundarstufe und die Lehrerausbildung auf der Hochschulebene.

Andreas Muller untersucht die Wirtschaftlichkeit der Standardisierung betrieblicher Anwendungssysteme aus der Sicht okonomischer Theorien und entwickelt ein nutzen- und kostentheoretisches Modell der Wirkungen integrierter Anwendungssysteme. Dabei berucksichtigt er sowohl den fur den jeweiligen Anwender anfallenden originaren Nutzen als auch den derivativen Nutzen, so dass uber die indirekten Netzeffekte erstmals der Integrationsnutzen in komponentenbasierten Systemen aufgezeigt wird.

Auf der Basis einer fundierten theoretischen Analyse fuhrt Thilo Andreas Muller eine empirische Untersuchung zum Zusammenhang zwischen der Kunden- und Wettbewerbsorientierung, dem Erfolg neugegrundeter Softwareunternehmen und der Zusammenarbeit der Grunder durch und entwickelt Handlungsempfehlungen fur die Praxis.

Der Erhalt gew ssertypischer Strukturen und die naturnahe Entwicklung von Flie gew ssern z hlen heute zu den wichtigsten Aufgaben des Umweltschutzes. Um Defizite und Sanierungserfordernisse, aber auch Renaturierungserfolge einheitlich bewerten zu k nnen, wurde das Verfahren der Gew sserstrukturg tekartierung bundesweit verbindlich eingef hrt.
Die Autoren dieses Buches sind erfahrene Praktiker, die wesentlich an der Entwicklung des Kartierverfahrens beteiligt waren. Anhand zahlreicher Beispiele erl utern sie die offizielle Kartieranleitung und geben vielf ltige Hinweise zur Gel ndearbeit. Von grundlegenden Fragen der Flie gew sserbewertung bis zur DV-technischen Verarbeitung von Kartierdaten werden alle wichtigen Aspekte anschaulich dargestellt. Anwendungsbeispiele aus der Praxis runden das Bild ab.