This book proposes that fundamental concepts of institutional law need to be rethought and revised. Contrary to conventional wisdom, international organizations do not need to have members, and the members do not need to be states and international organizations. Private sector entities may, for instance, also be full members. Furthermore, international organizations do not need to possess international legal personality, nor is their autonomy a corollary of their personality. Moreover, the notion of "subject of international law" also needs to be reconsidered and the very concepts and definitions of "intergovernmental organization" and "international organization" need to change and be defined in a wider manner. In this publication the legal implications of membership are analyzed and a new analytical framework for international organizations is proposed. The argument is propounded that the power of creation of new organizations has passed over to international organizations and other entities while an outlook on future development is also presented. Dr. Gerd Droesse is a recognized specialist in institutional law, international administrative law, complex institutional and financial policy matters and corporate governance issues, with over 30 years of experience in working for international organizations in senior and management positions. He was the Legal Counsel/Acting General Counsel of the Green Climate Fund and assisted the World Green Economy Organization as General Counsel in its transition to a new type of intergovernmental organization.

In this exciting and rapid development reflecting book twelve of the participants at the Symposium "From Simple Material Systems to Complex Ones" - "From Information to Structure" give a general view of todays knowledge with respect to multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary research in chemistry and science in general. How to analyse e. g. non-covalent interactions in the case of molecular recognitions or selfreplication, how to build up e. g. clusters and self-assembled molecules or how, in general, a knowledge of simple systems, acquired by the instruments of natural science research can be transferred to (more) complex systems and be utilized to improve our understanding, even of society was discussed by experts on chemical subjects like biochemistry, structure analysis, supramolecular chemistry and cluster formation up to biophysics, social sciences and philosophy.

Phylogenetic combinatorics is a branch of discrete applied mathematics concerned with the combinatorial description and analysis of phylogenetic trees and related mathematical structures such as phylogenetic networks and tight spans. Based on a natural conceptual framework, the book focuses on the interrelationship between the principal options for encoding phylogenetic trees: split systems, quartet systems and metrics. Such encodings provide useful options for analyzing and manipulating phylogenetic trees and networks, and are at the basis of much of phylogenetic data processing. This book highlights how each one provides a unique perspective for viewing and perceiving the combinatorial structure of a phylogenetic tree and is, simultaneously, a rich source for combinatorial analysis and theory building. Graduate students and researchers in mathematics and computer science will enjoy exploring this fascinating new area and learn how mathematics may be used to help solve topical problems arising in evolutionary biology.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Conference on Combinatorial Optimization and Applications, COCOA 2007, held in Xi'an, China in August 2007.

The 29 revised full papers presented together with 8 invited papers and 2 invited presentations were carefully reviewed and selected from 114 submissions. The papers feature original research in the areas of combinatorial optimization - both theoretical issues and and applications motivated by real-world problems thus showing convincingly the usefulness and efficiency of the algorithms discussed in a practical setting.

The "raison d'etre" of hierarchical dustering theory stems from one basic phe nomenon: This is the notorious non-transitivity of similarity relations. In spite of the fact that very often two objects may be quite similar to a third without being that similar to each other, one still wants to dassify objects according to their similarity. This should be achieved by grouping them into a hierarchy of non-overlapping dusters such that any two objects in ne duster appear to be more related to each other than they are to objects outside this duster. In everyday life, as well as in essentially every field of scientific investigation, there is an urge to reduce complexity by recognizing and establishing reasonable das sification schemes. Unfortunately, this is counterbalanced by the experience of seemingly unavoidable deadlocks caused by the existence of sequences of objects, each comparatively similar to the next, but the last rather different from the first."

Raise hopeful, grounded and action-oriented children in a time that feels full of uncertainty. Kids and parents alike are feeling the weight of these troubling times. Anxiety disorders are on the rise in teens and children. “Climate anxiety” is a phrase entering our cultural lexicon. Ancient practices of Christianity, both internal and external, can be a guidepost for parents navigating this uncharted territory. They give us a way to be grounded as well as provide a way of living with purpose in a time of urgency. The Hopeful Family is the guidebook for parents who are building a life of meaning and hope even in a time of unease. Readers will be reminded of the hope that is part of the Christian story and find both inspiration and evidence to step more fully into a framework of abundance and optimism.

Malte Dress liefert eine Analyse der parteipolitischen Auseinandersetzung uber den Islam und die religioesen Bedurfnisse der Muslime in Deutschland seit dem deutsch-turkischen Anwerbeabkommen von 1961. Der Autor entwickelt vier Kategorien zur Einordnung islampolitischer Positionen, Entwicklungsprozesse und Konfliktlinien. Es gelingt ihm, eine zielgerichtete Islampolitik unter Berucksichtigung integrationspolitischer Herausforderungen zu skizzieren, die eine Bewertung parteipolitischer Positionen ermoeglicht und islampolitische Empfehlungen begrundet. Der Autor befurwortet einen skeptischen Politikansatz, der integrationspolitische Realitaten genauso berucksichtigt wie drangende Fragen an die islamischen Verbande und die islamische Theologie.

Erleben wir den Beginn eines visuellen Zeitalters? Technisch erzeugte Bilder pragen die alltaglichen Formen moderner Unterhaltung ebenso wie sie in Wissenschaft und Forschung zur Quelle neuer Erkenntnis werden. Angesiedelt im Spannungsfeld zwischen Kunst und Design auf der einen und Informatik und Mathematik auf der anderen Seite reichen die Anwendungsgebiete des neuen Arbeitsbereiches Visualisierung von der Architektur uber die Natur- und Ingenieurwissenschaften bis zur Medizin. Ein neues Berufsfeld entsteht: die Computervisualistik. Sein Ziel ist die Veranschaulichung komplexer Sachverhalte. Seine Bildleistungen beruhen auf der Kreativitat des Gestalters ebenso wie auf dem Wissen des Ingenieurs. Die dazu bereits existierenden Studiengange und Curricula sind ebenfalls Gegenstand dieser Publikation. In ihr setzen sich renommierte Wissenschaftler wie Herbert W. Franke, Wolfgang Dahmen, Achim Bachem, Heinz-Otto Peitgen oder Frieder Nake aus der jeweils unterschiedlichen Sicht ihres Fachgebietes mit dem Thema auseinander. Damit entsteht ein Kompendium der Visualisierung, das seine mathematischen Grundlagen ebenso anschaulich beschriebt, wie den aktuellen Stand seiner vielfaltigen Anwendungen.