The book provides an in-depth discussion on the human nature concept from different perspectives and from different disciplines, analyzing its use in the doping debate and researching its normative overtones. The relation between natural talent and enhanced abilitiesis scrutinized within a proper conceptual and theoretical framework: is doping to be seen as a factor of the athlete s dehumanization or is it a tool to fulfill his/her aspirations to go faster, higher and stronger? Which characteristics make sports such a peculiar subject of ethical discussion and what are the, both intrinsic and extrinsic, moral dangers and opportunities involved in athletic enhancement? This volume combines fundamental philosophical anthropological reflection with applied ethics and socio-cultural and empirical approaches. Furthermore guidelines will be presented to decision- and policy-makers on local, national and international levels. Zooming in on the intrinsic issue of what is valuable about our homo sapiens biological condition, this volume devotes only scant attention to the specific issue of natural talent and why such talent is appreciated so differently than biotechnological origins of ability. In addition, specific aspects of sports such as its competitive nature and its direct display of bodily prowess provide good reason to single out the issue of natural athletic talent for sustained ethical scrutiny. "

The book provides an in-depth discussion on the human nature concept from different perspectives and from different disciplines, analyzing its use in the doping debate and researching its normative overtones. The relation between natural talent and enhanced abilities is scrutinized within a proper conceptual and theoretical framework: is doping to be seen as a factor of the athlete's dehumanization or is it a tool to fulfill his/her aspirations to go faster, higher and stronger? Which characteristics make sports such a peculiar subject of ethical discussion and what are the, both intrinsic and extrinsic, moral dangers and opportunities involved in athletic enhancement? This volume combines fundamental philosophical anthropological reflection with applied ethics and socio-cultural and empirical approaches. Furthermore guidelines will be presented to decision- and policy-makers on local, national and international levels. Zooming in on the intrinsic issue of what is valuable about our homo sapiens biological condition, this volume devotes only scant attention to the specific issue of natural talent and why such talent is appreciated so differently than biotechnological origins of ability. In addition, specific aspects of sports such as its competitive nature and its direct display of bodily prowess provide good reason to single out the issue of natural athletic talent for sustained ethical scrutiny.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of core concepts and technological foundations for continuous engineering of Web streams. It presents various systems and applications and includes real-world examples. Last not least, it introduces the readers to RSP4J, a novel open-source project that aims to gather community efforts in software engineering and empirical research. The book starts with an introductory chapter that positions the work by explaining what motivates the design of specific techniques for processing data streams using Web technologies. Chapter 2 briefly summarizes the necessary background concepts and models needed to understand the remaining content of the book. Subsequently, chapter 3 focuses on processing RDF streams, taming data velocity in an open environment characterized by high data variety. It introduces query answering algorithms with RSP-QL and analytics functions over streaming data. Chapter 4 presents the life cycle of streaming linked data, it focuses on publishing streams on the Web as a prerequisite aspect to make data findable and accessible for applications. Chapter 5 touches on the problems of benchmarks and systems that analyze Web streams to foster technological progress. It surveys existing benchmarks and introduces guidelines that may support new practitioners in approaching the issue of continuous analytics. Finally, chapter 6 presents a list of examples and exercises that will help the reader to approach the area, get used to its practices and become confident in its technological possibilities. Overall, this book is mainly written for graduate students and researchers in Web and stream data management. It collects research results and will guide the next generation of researchers and practitioners.