Publications

The main objective of Action E36 was to promote the development and application of modelling and simulation techniques in pulp and paper manufacturing processes, in order to e.g. reduce emissions and increase the productivity and cost-efficiency of the processes. The main benefit was hoped to be a better understanding of the mechanisms of the processes and their control loops, to help to find solutions for pending problems in the paper industry: improving the paper quality, optimising the wet end chemistry, enhancing the runnability and reducing emissions by improving process design, process monitoring and decision support during operation.
In the long run this action should also contribute to designing superior or new product properties. This book contains speakers’ from the COST Action E36 CVs and Abstract.

This volume contains the research papers presented at the joint COST 2101 & 2102 International Conference on Biometric ID Management and Multimodal Communication. The aim of COST 2101 is to investigate novel technologeis for unsupervised multimodal biometric authentication systems using a new generation of biometrics-enabled identity documents and smart cards. COST 2102 is devoted to developing an advanced acoustical, perceptual and psychologial analysis of verbal and non-verbal communication signals originating in spontaneous face-to-face interaction, in order to identify algorithms and automatic procedures capable of recognizing human emotional states. The conference focused on both Action-specific and joint topics, including physiological biometric traits, transparent biometrics and smart remote sensing, biometric vulnerabilities and liveness detection, data encryption for identity documents and smart cards, quality and reliability measures in biometrics, multibiometric templates for next generation ID documents, operational scenarios and large-scale boimetric ID management, standarsd and privacy issues for biometrics, multibiometric databases, human factors and behavioural patterns, interactive and unsupervised multimodal systems…

Volume V: Ceramics for High-Tech Applications

Governance of Public Sector Organizations examines recent changes in central governmental administration in contemporary democracies by focusing on organizational forms and their effects. There is a considerable need for such knowledge in a period when governments are constantly restructuring their administration. This book studies and explains how New Public Management (NPM) and post-NPM reforms affect the organizational proliferation and specialization, as well as the autonomy and control of central agencies. New empirical data sheds light on the effects of these changes on organizational performance. The book describes how ‘whole-of-government’ initiatives with emphasis on reassertion of the centre and horizontal coordination supplement NPM reforms, producing increased layering and complexity in government organizations.

The contributors to this volume examine agencies in Australia, Canada, the UK, Hong Kong, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and Hungary. By combining survey, mapping and case study methodologies, they show that structural, cultural, task-related and historical features interact in shaping organizational reforms.