Dictionaries, Reference & Language Books

Book SynopsisThis book constitutes the proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Smart Card Research and Advanced Applications, CARDIS 2021, which took place in November 2021. The conference took place in Lübeck, Germany, and changed to a hybrid format due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The 16 full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 32 submissions. They were organized in topical sections named Side-Channel Attacks, Fault Attacks, Public Key and Secure Implementations. Table of ContentsSide-Channel Attacks.- Fault Attacks.- Public Key.- Secure Implementations.

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Book SynopsisState-of-the-art database systems manage and process a variety of complex objects, including strings and trees. For such objects equality comparisons are often not meaningful and must be replaced by similarity comparisons. This book describes the concepts and techniques to incorporate similarity into database systems. We start out by discussing the properties of strings and trees, and identify the edit distance as the de facto standard for comparing complex objects. Since the edit distance is computationally expensive, token-based distances have been introduced to speed up edit distance computations. The basic idea is to decompose complex objects into sets of tokens that can be compared efficiently. Token-based distances are used to compute an approximation of the edit distance and prune expensive edit distance calculations. A key observation when computing similarity joins is that many of the object pairs, for which the similarity is computed, are very different from each other. Filters exploit this property to improve the performance of similarity joins. A filter preprocesses the input data sets and produces a set of candidate pairs. The distance function is evaluated on the candidate pairs only. We describe the essential query processing techniques for filters based on lower and upper bounds. For token equality joins we describe prefix, size, positional and partitioning filters, which can be used to avoid the computation of small intersections that are not needed since the similarity would be too low.Table of ContentsPreface.- Acknowledgments.- Introduction.- Data Types.- Edit-Based Distances.- Token-Based Distances.- Query Processing Techniques.- Filters for Token Equality Joins.- Conclusion.- Bibliography.- Authors' Biographies.- Index.

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Book SynopsisThis book constitutes thoroughly refereed and revised selected papers from the proceedings of 19th European Conference on Multi-Agent Systems, EUMAS 2022, held in Düsseldorf, Germany, during September 14–16, 2022.The 23 full papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 36 submissions. The book also contains 6 short summaries of talks from PhD students at the PhD day. The papers deal with current topics in the research and development of multi-agent systems.Table of ContentsEUMAS 2022 Papers.- Iterative Goal-Based Approval Voting.- Mind the Gap! Runtime Verification of Partially Observable MASs with Probabilistic Trace Expressions.- Advising Agent for Service-Providing Live-Chat Operators.- Initial Conditions Sensitivity Analysis of a Two-Species Butterfly-Effect Agent-Based Model.- Proxy Manipulation for Better Outcomes.- The Spread of Opinions via Boolean Networks.- Robustness of Greedy Approval Rules.- Using Multiwinner Voting to Search for Movies.- Allocating Teams to Tasks: An Anytime Heuristic Competence-Based Approach.- Collaborative Decision Making for Lane-Free Autonomous Driving in the Presence of Uncertainty.- Maximin Shares under Cardinality Constraints.- Welfare Effects of Strategic Voting under Scoring Rules.- Preserving Consistency for Liquid Knapsack Voting.- Strategic Nominee Selection in Tournament Solutions.- Sybil-Resilient Social Choice with Low Voter Turnout.- A Survey of Ad Hoc Teamwork Research.- Combining Theory of Mind and Abduction for Cooperation under Imperfect Information.- A Modular Architecture for Integrating Normative Advisors in MAS.- Participatory Budgeting with Multiple Resources.- A Methodology for Formalizing Different Types of Norms.- Explainability in Mechanism Design: Recent Advances and the Road Ahead.- Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Reasoning for Value Alignment.- Resource Allocation to Agents with Restrictions: Maximizing Likelihood with Minimum Compromise.- PhD Day Short Papers.- Proactivity in Intelligent Personal Assistants: A Simulation-based Approach.- Stability, Fairness, and Altruism in Coalition Formation.- Pro-Social Autonomous Agents.- Axiomatic and Algorithmic Study on Different Areas of Collective Decision Making.- Participatory Budgeting: Fairness and Welfare Maximization.- Human Consideration in Analysis and Algorithms for Mechanism Design.

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Book SynopsisThis book constitutes the proceedings of the Third International Conference on Microelectronic Devices, Circuits and Systems, ICMDCS 2022, was held in Vellore, India, in August 2022.The 9 full papers and 5 short paper presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 84 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: System Level Design; Digital Design; Analog, Mixed-Signal and RF Design; and Emerging Technologies.Table of Contents​System Level Design.- Tapered Fed Modified Patch Antenna for SWB Communications using DGS.- Design of Hardware Accelerator for Facial Recognition System using Convolutional Neural Networks based on FPGA.- Digital Design.- Advanced TSV-BIST Repair Technique to target the Yield and Test challenges in 3-D Stacked IC’s.- Redundancy allocation problem evaluation using interval-based GA and PSO for multi-core system consisting of one instruction cores.- Design of Low Powered and High Speed Compressor based Multiplier.-A Route Planning for Idyllic Coverage in Sensor Networks with Efficient Area Coverage.- Low Power Mod 2 Synchronous Counter Design using Modified Gate Diffusion Input Technique.- Analog, Mixed-Signal and RF Design.- A novel blind zone free, low power phase frequency detector for fast locking of charge pump phase locked loops.- Performance Improvement of H-Shaped Antenna for Wireless Local Area Networks.- Emerging Technologies.- Real-Time Rainfall Prediction System using IoT and Machine Learning.- Performance Analysis of Image Caption Generation using Deep Learning Techniques.- The Heroes and Villains of the Mix Zone: The Preservation and Leaking of User’s Privacy in Future Vehicles.- Analysis and Design of High Speed and Low Power Finite Impulse Response Filter using Different Types of Multipliers.- MPPT using P&O algorithm for Solar-Battery powered Electric Vehicle.

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Book SynopsisThis book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 21st International Workshop, IWDW 2022, held in Guilin, China, during November 18-19, 2022. The 14 full papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 30 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: Steganology, Forensics and Security Analysis, Watermarking.Table of ContentsSteganology.- High-Performance Steganographic Coding Based on Sub-Polarized Channel.- High-Capacity Adaptive Steganography Based on Transform Coefficient for HEVC.- Forensics and Security Analysis.- SE-ResNet56: Robust Network Model for Deepfake Detection.- Voice Conversion Using Learnable Similarity-Guided Masked Autoencoder.- Visual Explanations for Exposing Potential Inconsistency of Deepfakes.- Improving the Transferability of Adversarial Attacks through Both Front and Rear Vector Method.- Manipulated Face Detection and Localization Based on Semantic Segmentation.- Deep Learning Image Age Approximation - What is more Relevant: Image Content or Age Information?.- Watermarking.- Physical Anti-Copying Semi-Robust Random Watermarking for QR Code.- Robust and Imperceptible Watermarking Scheme for GWAS Data Traceability.- Adaptive Robust Watermarking Method Based on Deep Neural Networks.- Adaptive Despread Spectrum-Based Image Watermarking for Fast Product Tracking.- Reversible Data Hiding via Arranging Blocks of Bit-Planes in Encrypted Images.- High Capacity Reversible Data Hiding for Encrypted 3D Mesh Models Based on Topology.

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Book SynopsisThis book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Modelling and Development of Intelligent Systems, MDIS 2022, held in Sibiu, Romania, during October 28–30, 2022.The 21 papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 48 submissions. They were organized in the following topical sections as follows: intelligent systems for decision support; machine learning; mathematical models for development of intelligent systems; and modelling and optimization of dynamic systems.Table of ContentsIntelligent Systems for Decision Support.- Effective LSTM Neural Network with Adam Optimizer for Improving Frost Prediction in Agriculture Data Stream.- Gaze Tracking: A Survey of Devices, Libraries and Applications.- Group Decision-Making Involving Competence of Experts in Relation to Evaluation Criteria: Case Study for e-Commerce Platform Selection.- Transparency and Traceability for AI-based Defect Detection in PCB Production.- Tasks Management Using Modern Devices.- Machine Learning.- A Method for Target Localization by Multistatic Radars.- Intrusion Detection by XGBoost Model Tuned by Improved Social Network Search Algorithm.- Bridging the Resource Gap in Cross-lingual Embedding Space.- Classification of Microstructure Images of Metals using Transfer Learning.- Generating Jigsaw Puzzles and an AI Powered Solver.- Morphology of Convolutional Neural Network with Diagonalized Pooling.- Challenges and Opportunities in Deep Learning Driven Fashion Design and Textiles Patterns Development.- Feature Selection and Extreme Learning Machine Tuning by Hybrid Sand Cat Optimization Algorithm for Diabetes Classification.- Enriching SQL-Driven Data Exploration With Different Machine Learning Models.- Mathematical Models for Development of Intelligent Systems.- Analytical Solution of the Simplest Entropiece Inversion Problem.- Latent Semantic Structure in Malicious Programs.- Innovative Lattice Sequences Based on Component by Component Construction Method for Multidimensional Sensitivity Analysis.- On an Optimization of the Lattice Sequence for the Multidimensional Integrals Connected with Bayesian Statistics.- Modelling and Optimization of Dynamic Systems.- Numerical Optimization Identification of a Keller-Segel Model for Thermoregulation in Honey Bee Colonies in Winter.- Gradient Optimization in Reconstruction of the Diffusion Coefficient in a Time Fractional Integro-Differential Equation of Pollution in Porous Media.- Flash Flood Simulation Between Slănic and Vărbilău Rivers in Vărbilău Village, Prahova County, Romania, Using Hydraulic Modeling and GIS Techniques.

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Book SynopsisThis text is an introduction to the spectral theory of the Laplacian on compact or finite area hyperbolic surfaces. For some of these surfaces, called “arithmetic hyperbolic surfaces”, the eigenfunctions are of arithmetic nature, and one may use analytic tools as well as powerful methods in number theory to study them. After an introduction to the hyperbolic geometry of surfaces, with a special emphasis on those of arithmetic type, and then an introduction to spectral analytic methods on the Laplace operator on these surfaces, the author develops the analogy between geometry (closed geodesics) and arithmetic (prime numbers) in proving the Selberg trace formula. Along with important number theoretic applications, the author exhibits applications of these tools to the spectral statistics of the Laplacian and the quantum unique ergodicity property. The latter refers to the arithmetic quantum unique ergodicity theorem, recently proved by Elon Lindenstrauss. The fruit of several graduate level courses at Orsay and Jussieu, The Spectrum of Hyperbolic Surfaces allows the reader to review an array of classical results and then to be led towards very active areas in modern mathematics.Trade Review“The French book under review gives an introduction to hyperbolic surfaces with an emphasis on the Selberg conjecture. … it is intended for advanced graduate students but is also well suited for all those who want to acquaint themselves with harmonic analysis on hyperbolic surfaces and automorphic forms.” (Frank Monheim, zbMATH, August, 2017)“This book gives a very nice introduction to the spectral theory of the Laplace-Beltrami operator on hyperbolic surfaces of constant negative curvature. … mainly intended for students with a knowledge of basic differential geometry and functional analysis but also for people doing research in other domains of mathematics or mathematical physics and interested in the present day problems in this very active field of research. … book gives one of the best introductions to this fascinating field of interdisciplinary research.” (Dieter H. Mayer, Mathematical Reviews, August, 2017)Table of ContentsPreface.- Introduction.- Arithmetic Hyperbolic Surfaces.- Spectral Decomposition.- Maass Forms.- The Trace Formula.- Multiplicity of lambda1 and the Selberg Conjecture.- L-Functions and the Selberg Conjecture.- Jacquet-Langlands Correspondence.- Arithmetic Quantum Unique Ergodicity.- Appendices.- References.- Index of notation.- Index.- Index of names.

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Book SynopsisIn the third edition of this classic the chapter on quantum Marcov processes has been replaced by a chapter on numerical treatment of stochastic differential equations to make the book even more valuable for practitioners.Trade ReviewFrom the reviews of the fourth edition:“This is the fourth edition of a textbook intended for everyone interested in practising stochastic processes. … this fourth one is ‘thoroughly revised and augmented, and has been completely reset. … this new edition is designed to cater better for the wider readership as well as to those [he] originally had in mind’. … The bibliography is well presented, with a list of the references cited in each chapter, a commented global bibliography and an author index.” (Yves Elskens, Belgian Physical Society Magazine, Issue 2, 2012)Table of ContentsA Historical Introduction.- Probability Concepts.- Markov Processes.- The Ito Calculus and Stochastic Differential Equations.- The Fokker-Planck Equation.- The Fokker-Planck Equation in Several Dimensions.- Small Noise Approximations for Diffusion Processes.- The White Noise Limit.- Beyond the White Noise Limit.- Lévy Processes and Financial Applications.- Master Equations and Jump Processes.- The Poisson Representation.- Spatially Distributed Systems.- Bistability, Metastability, and Escape Problems.- Simulation of Stochastic Differential Equations.

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Book SynopsisThe LNCS journal Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems focuses on data management, knowledge discovery, and knowledge processing, which are core and hot topics in computer science. Since the 1990s, the Internet has become the main driving force behind application development in all domains. An increase in the demand for resource sharing (e.g., computing resources, services, metadata, data sources) across different sites connected through networks has led to an evolution of data- and knowledge management systems from centralized systems to decentralized systems enabling large-scale distributed applications providing high scalability. This, the 48th issue of Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems, contains 8 invited papers dedicated to the memory of Prof. Dr. Roland Wagner. The topics covered include distributed database systems, NewSQL, scalable transaction management, strong consistency, caches, data warehouse, ETL, reinforcement learning, stochastic approximation, multi-agent systems, ontology, model-driven development, organisational modelling, digital government, new institutional economics and data governance.Table of ContentsDistributed Database Systems: The Case for NewSQL.- Boosting OLTP Performance using Write-back Client-side Caches.- pygrametl: A Powerful Programming Framework for Easy Creation and Testing of ETL Flows.- A Data Warehouse of Wi-Fi Sessions for Contact Tracing and Outbreak Investigation.- Convergence Proof for Actor-Critic Methods Applied to PPO and RUDDER.- Revival of MAS Technologies in Industry.- From Strategy to Code: Achieving Strategical Alignment in Software Development Projects through Conceptual Modelling.- On State-Level Architecture of Digital Government Ecosystems: From ICT-Driven to Data-Centric.

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Book SynopsisThis book explains compactly, without theoretical superstructure and with as little mathematical formalism as possible, the essential concepts in the encryption of messages and data worthy of protection. The focus is on the description of the historically and practically important cipher, signature and authentication methods. Both symmetric encryption and public-key ciphers are discussed. In each case, the strategies used to attack and attempt to "crack" encryption are also discussed. Special emphasis is placed on the practical use of ciphers, especially in the everyday environment. The book is suitable for working groups at STEM schools and STEM teacher training, for introductory courses at universities as well as for interested students and adults.Table of ContentsBasics and history.- Symmetric ciphers.- Public-key ciphers.- Digital signature.

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Book SynopsisTaxonomy is an ever-changing, controversial and exCitmg field of biology. It has not remained motionless since the days of its founding fathers in the last century, but, just as with other fields of endeavour, it continues to advance in leaps and bounds, both in procedure and in philosophy. These changes are not only of interest to other taxonomists, but have far reaching implications for much of the rest of biology, and they have the potential to reshape a great deal of current biological thought, because taxonomy underpins much of biological methodology. It is not only important that an ethologist. physiologist. biochemist or ecologist can obtain information about the identities of the species which they are investigating; biology is also uniquely dependent on the comparative method and on the need to generalize. Both of these necessitate knowledge of the evolutionary relationships between organisms. and it is the science of taxonomy that can develop testable phylogenetic hypotheses and ultimately provide the best estimates of evolutionary history and relationships.Table of Contents1 Introduction.- 1.1 The compass of taxonomy and systematics.- 1.2 The 1960s and the emergence of new ideas.- 1.3 Cladistics and numerical taxonomy: the conflict.- 1.4 Assumptions and philosophy of cladistics and the use of parsimony criteria.- 1.5 Taxonomy and the comparative method in biology.- 2 Characters, Taxa and Species.- 2.1 Nature and handling of data.- 2.2 Characters.- 2.2.1 Discrete coding of continuous characters and ratios.- 2.2.2 Identifying primitive and advanced character states.- 2.2.3 Homoplasy: convergence, parallelisms and reversals.- 2.2.4 Homology versus analogy.- 2.2.5 Character state transitions.- 2.2.6 Dealing with missing data and polymorphic characters.- 2.3 Classes of characters requiring special consideration.- 2.3.1 Characters subject to strong selection pressures.- 2.3.2 Environmental effects.- 2.3.3 Molecular sequence characters.- 2.3.4 Electron microscopy and the use of microcharacters.- 2.3.5 Colour as a taxonomic character.- 2.3.6 Cryptic and internal characters.- 2.3.7 Animal artefacts.- 2.3.8 Behavioural characters.- 2.4 Taxa and species concepts.- 2.4.1 Phylogenetic groups: monophyly, polyphyly and paraphyly.- 2.5 What is a species?.- 2.5.1 Biological species concept.- 2.5.2 Phvlogenetic species concept.- 2.5.3 Evolutionary species concept.- 2.5.4 Problems with parthenogenetic species and asexual clones — some further considerations.- 3 Phylogenetic Reconstruction — Cladistics and Related Methods.- 3.1 Cladistics and cladograms.- 3.1.1 Parsimony.- 3.1.2 Compatibility analysis.- 3.1.3 Maximum likelihood and related methods.- 3.2 Parsimony and finding the shortest trees.- 3.2.1 Finding the shortest trees and the impact of computerization.- 3.2.2 Tree facts and figures.- 3.2.3 Building trees from distance data.- 3.2.4 Rooting trees.- 3.2.5 Consistency and other indices.- 3.2.6 Weighting characters.- 3.2.7 Coping with multiple trees.- 3.2.8 Consensus trees.- 3.2.9 Comparing trees.- 3.3 Which method? — an overview.- 3.3.1 How well does parsimony analysis estimate trees?.- 3.3.2 Compatibility versus parsimony.- 3.3.3 Congruence between data sets (or how do we know when to believe a phylogeny?).- 3.3.4 Reticulate evolution, hybrids and intraspecific evolution.- 3.4 Cladistics and classification.- 4 Phenetic Methods in Taxonomy.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.1.1 Similarity and distance measures.- 4.1.2 Measures using binary characters.- 4.1.3 Distance and similarity measures using continuous data.- 4.2 Analysing similarity and distance data.- 4.3 Hierarchic clustering procedures.- 4.3.1 Nearest neighbour clustering.- 4.3.2 Furthest neighbour (complete linkage).- 4.3.3 Unweighted pair-group method using arithmetic averages (UPGMA).- 4.3.4 Weighted pair-group method using arithmetic averages (WPGMA).- 4.3.5 Centroid clustering.- 4.4 Ordination methods.- 4.4.1 Principal components analysis.- 4.4.2 Principal coordinate analysis.- 4.4.3 Canonical variate analysis.- 4.4.4 Non-metric multidimensional scaling.- 5 Keys and Identification.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.1.1 Purpose of keys.- 5.1.2 Good practice in writing keys.- 5.2 Types of keys.- 5.2.1 Dichotomous keys.- 5.2.2 Multiple-entry keys.- 5.3 Efficiency.- 5.3.1 Length of dichotomous keys.- 5.3.2 Reliability.- 5.3.3 Choice of characters.- 5.3.4 Likelihood of encountering taxon.- 5.4 Computerized key construction.- 5.4.1 Interactive identification.- 5.4.2 Matching.- 5.4.3 Automated taxon descriptions.- 5.4.4 Databases.- 6 Nomenclature and Classification.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 The binomial system and the hierarchy of taxa.- 6.3 The International Commissions.- 6.3.1 Codes of nomenclature.- 6.3.2 Independence of the Codes.- 6.4 Basic principles of nomenclature.- 6.4.1 Priority.- 6.4.2 Synonymy.- 6.4.3 Homonymy.- 6.4.4 The type concept.- 6.5 Miscellaneous group-related factors.- 6.5.1 Animals and animal-like Protista.- 6.5.2 Plants and plant-like Protista.- 6.5.3 Fungi.- 6.5.4 Lichens.- 6.5.5 ‘Blue-green algae’ (Cyanophyta versus Cyanobacteria).- 6.5.6 Bacteria and other prokaryotes.- 6.5.7 Viruses.- 6.5.8 Organisms showing extreme polymorphisms.- 6.6 Names of higher groups.- 6.7 Starting dates for nomenclature.- 6.8 Citation of authors.- 6.9 Publication.- 6.10 Type depositories.- 6.11 Good practice.- 6.12 Major taxonomic publications.- 7 Cytotaxonomy.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Karyotypes.- 7.3 Chromosome banding.- 7.4 Chiasma frequency.- 7.5 Inversions. translocations and their significance.- 7.6In situhybridization.- 8 Chemotaxonomy and Related Topics.- 8.1 Origins of chemotaxonomy.- 8.2 Classes of compounds and their biological significance.- 8.2.1 Sex pheromones.- 8.2.2 Lipids and hydrocarbons.- 8.2.3 Secondary plant metabolites.- 8.2.4 Neurotransmitters.- 8.2.5 Pigments.- 8.2.6 Animal toxins.- 8.2.7 Pyrolysis products.- 8.3 Fermentation properties and drug resistance in microorganisms.- 8.4 The use of chemical data.- 9 Immunotaxonomy.- 9.1 History.- 9.2 Precipitin reaction.- 9.3 Immunodiffusion.- 9.4 Immunoelectrophoresis.- 9.5 Microcomplement fixation (MC’F).- 9.6 Use of monoclonal antibodies.- 9.7 Radioimmunoassay.- 9.8 Analysis of immunological data.- 10 Proteins and Taxonomy.- 10.1 Introduction.- 10.2 Techniques of protein electrophoresis.- 10.2.1 SDS polyacrylamide electrophoresis.- 10.2.2 Gradient gel electrophoresis.- 10.2.3 Isoelectric focusing.- 10.2.4 Two-dimensional electrophoresis.- 10.3 Systematic aspects of electrophoresis.- 10.3.1 Isozymes and allozymes.- 10.3.2 Interpreting allozyme banding.- 10,3.3 Analysis of allozyme data.- 10.3.4 Isozymes at subspecies, species and genus level.- 10.4 Chemical protein analysis procedures.- 10.4. I Selective cutting of protein chains.- 10.4.2 Chromatography of digests.- 10.4.3 Amino acid sequencing.- 10.5 Analysis of amino acid sequence data.- 10.5.1 Minimum nucleotide replacement.- 10.5.2 Merits of minimum nucleotide replacement analysis.- 11 Nucleic Acid Methods.- 11.1 Nucleic acids in taxonomy.- 11.2 Nucleic acids in cells.- 11.2.1 Nuclear DNA.- 11.2.2 Repetitive DNA.- 11.2.3 Mitochondrial DNA.- 11.2.4 Chloroplast DNA.- 11.2.5 Ribosomal RNA and ribosomal genes.- 11.2.6 Transfer RNAs and the genetic code.- 11.2.7 Prokaryote and viral genomes.- 11.3 Amplifying DNA and dealing with small samples.- 11.3.1 Cloning.- 11.3.2 Polymerase chain reaction.- 11.4 G+C content.- 11.5 Restriction fragment analysis.- 11.6 DNA hybridization.- 11.6.1 Interpretation of DNA hybridization data.- 11.7 Sequencing and associated methods.- 11.8 Conservation versus variability.- 11.9 Analysing sequence data.- 11.9.1 Sequence alignment.- 11.9.2 Transition and transversion rates.- 11.9.3 Insertions and deletions.- 11.9.4 Paired and unpaired nucleotides in tRNAs and rRNAs.- 11.9.5 A brief overview of the phylogenetic analysis of sequence data.- 11.10 Pros and cons of hybridization and sequencing.- 11.11 Fossil DNA.- 12 Palaeotaxonomy, Biogeography, Evolution and Extinction.- 12.1 Palaeotaxonomy.- 12.1.1 Completeness of the fossil record.- 12.1.2 Interpretation of evidence.- 12.1.3 The palaeo-species concept.- 12.1.4 Phylogenetic analysis and classification of fossil taxa.- 12.1.5 Phylogenetic aspects of fossil taxa.- 12.1.6 Inclusion in classification of extant organisms.- 12.1.7 Stratigraphy, evolutionary rates and molecular clocks.- 12.2 Biogeography.- 12.3 Coevolution.- 12.4 Phylogenetic trees and the pattern of evolution.- 13 Museums, Herbaria, Biodiversity, Conservation and the Future of Taxonomy.- 13.1 Museums and their roles.- 13.1.1 Management of museum collections.- 13.1.2 Museum funding.- 13.1.3 Specimens and data.- 13.1.4 Living culture collections.- 13.1.5 Voucher specimens.- 13.2 The future of taxonomy.- 13.2.1 Biodiversity and conservation priorities.- 13.2.2 Taxonomy, zoos and captive breeding.- 13.2.3 Taxonomy and legislation.

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Table of ContentsI: The ICMI Study Conference.- Discussion Document.- List of Participants.- What is the Specific Object of Study in Mathematics Education? Report of Working Group 1.- What are the Aims of Research in Mathematics Education? Report of Working Group 2.- What are the Specific Research Questions or Problématiques of Research in Mathematics Education? Report of Working Group 3.- What are the Results of Research in Mathematics Education? Report of Working Group 4.- What Criteria Should Be Used to Evaluate the Results of Research in Mathematics Education? Report of Working Group 5.- Research, Effectiveness, and the Practitioners’ World.- II: Mathematics Education as a Research Discipline.- A Glance Over the Evolution of Research in Mathematics Education.- Balancing Complex Human Worlds: Mathematics Education as an Emergent Discipline in its Own Right.- A Postmodern Perspective on Research in Mathematics Education.- Mathematics Education as a ‘Design Science’.- What is Mathematics Education? A Survey of Mathematics Educators in Canada.- Programs for the Education of Researchers in Mathematics Education.- III: Goals, Orientations and Results of Research in Mathematics Education.- The Aims of Research.- Aiming Research Toward Understanding: Lessons We Can Learn From Children.- Transforming the International Mathematics Education Research Agenda.- Clarifying the Meaning of Mathematical Objects as a Priority Area for Research in Mathematics Education.- Research and Results in Mathematics Education: Some Contradictory Aspects.- Models in Mathematics Education Research: A Broader View of Research Results.- Towards a Cognitive Theory of Practice.- IV: Different Research Paradigms in Mathematics Education.- Italian Trends in Research in Mathematical Education: A National Case Study from an International Perspective.- The Paradigm of Modeling by Iterative Conceptualization in Mathematics Education Research.- Developmental Research as a Research Method.- Practitioner Research and the Construction of Knowledge in Mathematics Education.- On the Generation of Basic Ideas and Individual Images: Normative, Descriptive and Constructive Aspects.- Research on Socio-Cultural Perspectives of Mathematics Teaching and Learning.- Relations between the Theoretical Field and the Practical Field in Mathematics Education.- Researching from the Inside in Mathematics Education.- The Social Organization of Research Programs in Mathematical Sciences Education.- Mathematics Education Research as Socially and Culturally Situated.- V: Evaluation of Research in Mathematics Education.- Evaluating Research Papers in Mathematics Education.- Basic Criteria for Research in Mathematics Education.- The Ship of Theseus and Other Metaphors for Thinking about What We Value in Mathematics Education Research.- Ethics in Mathematics Education Research.- VI: Mathematics Education and Mathematics.- A Mathematician’s View of Research in Mathematics Education: An Interview with Shimshon A. Amitsur.- What Should be the Output of Mathematical Education?.- Research in Mathematics Education Through the Eyes of Mathematicians.- The Many Faces of Mathematics: Do Mathematicians and Researchers in Mathematics Education Speak about the Same Thing?.- Epistemological Constraints of Mathematical Knowledge in Social Learning Settings.- Continuing the Search.- Notes on Authors.

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Book SynopsisThis book is the first one that provides a solid bridge between algorithmic information theory and statistical mechanics. Algorithmic information theory (AIT) is a theory of program size and recently is also known as algorithmic randomness. AIT provides a framework for characterizing the notion of randomness for an individual object and for studying it closely and comprehensively. In this book, a statistical mechanical interpretation of AIT is introduced while explaining the basic notions and results of AIT to the reader who has an acquaintance with an elementary theory of computation.A simplification of the setting of AIT is the noiseless source coding in information theory. First, in the book, a statistical mechanical interpretation of the noiseless source coding scheme is introduced. It can be seen that the notions in statistical mechanics such as entropy, temperature, and thermal equilibrium are translated into the context of noiseless source coding in a natural manner. Then, the framework of AIT is introduced. On this basis, the introduction of a statistical mechanical interpretation of AIT is begun. Namely, the notion of thermodynamic quantities, such as free energy, energy, and entropy, is introduced into AIT. In the interpretation, the temperature is shown to be equal to the partial randomness of the values of all these thermodynamic quantities, where the notion of partial randomness is a stronger representation of the compression rate measured by means of program-size complexity. Additionally, it is demonstrated that this situation holds for the temperature itself as a thermodynamic quantity. That is, for each of all the thermodynamic quantities above, the computability of its value at temperature T gives a sufficient condition for T to be a fixed point on partial randomness.In this groundbreaking book, the current status of the interpretation from both mathematical and physical points of view is reported. For example, a total statistical mechanical interpretation of AIT that actualizes a perfect correspondence to normal statistical mechanics can be developed by identifying a microcanonical ensemble in the framework of AIT. As a result, the statistical mechanical meaning of the thermodynamic quantities of AIT is clarified. In the book, the close relationship of the interpretation to Landauer's principle is pointed out.Table of ContentsStatistical Mechanical Interpretation of Noiseless Source Coding.- Algorithmic Information Theory.- Partial Randomness.- Temperature Equals to Partial Randomness.- Fixed Point Theorems on Partial Randomness.- Statistical Mechanical Meaning of the Thermodynamic Quantities of AIT.- The Partial Randomness of Recursively Enumerable Reals.- Computation-Theoretic Clarification of the Phase Transition at Temperature T=1.- Other Related Results and Future Development.

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Book SynopsisTechnical debt is an often-overlooked problem that the software industry needs to take more seriously. All organizations are impacted by it, most wish that they had less of it, but need help in understanding the nature of the beast. This book aims to clear up any misconceptions and show you how to implement a sound technical debt management program to suit your company's needs. You'll learn the greatest challenge in solving the technical debt dilemma is not to find solutions to it, but rather to find solutions to the human and organizational issues that lead to that debt. For example, convincing senior stakeholders of the importance of addressing technical debt, getting stakeholders to acknowledge how their actions lead to unintentional debt, and enabling teams to prioritize technical debt over short-term goals. Therefore, this book is divided into three parts: defining technical debt, understanding technical debt, and tackling technical debt. It begins by explaining why technical debt should not be considered a technical problem, but rather a problem of how trade-off decisions are made. You'll then examine how making decisions using the affect heuristic, more commonly known as a gut feeling, can lead to unnecessary technical debt, followed by some techniques for combating your vulnerability to this trap. Reducing your organization's level of technical debt is not easy. Taming Your Dragon will show you how to implement a technical debt management program. What You Will LearnReview a new paradigm based on technical debt being a combination of trade-off problems and system problemsUnderstand the many ways that technical debt adversely affects an organization's ability to deliver IT changeCreate an effective process for addressing technical debtSee why analogies are importantWho This Book Is ForSoftware teams supporting DevOps, managers, and other business stakeholders looking to implement a technical debt management program.

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Book SynopsisTeach English is a complete training course for teachers of English as a foreign language, especially designed for teachers whose first language is not English.Trade Review'Teach English … constitutes a fully comprehensive, self-contained series of methodology ideas which may be taught with very little preparation of material and without elaborate use of aids of equipment.' VATME Newsletter, 1993

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Book SynopsisAnyone interested in learning to read the Hebrew Bible in its original language will find within the pages of this book all the resources needed to begin this wonderful journey. The book is laid out in four parts. The first part teaches the Hebrew alphabet through a series of lessons. The second part teaches word and sentence structure of the Hebrew language by breaking down each Hebrew word in Genesis chapter one, verses one through five. The Hebrew text of Genesis chapter one is provided for reading and comprehension practices in part three. The fourth part of the book contains charts and dictionaries of prefixes, suffixes, words and roots of the Hebrew language to assist the reader with vocabulary definitions and comprehension. Within a short amount of time the Hebrew student will soon be reading the Bible through the eyes of the author rather than the opinions of a translator.

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Book SynopsisSociety is complicated. But this book argues that this does not place it beyond the reach of a science that can help to explain and perhaps even to predict social behaviour. As a system made up of many interacting agents – people, groups, institutions and governments, as well as physical and technological structures such as roads and computer networks – society can be regarded as a complex system. In recent years, scientists have made great progress in understanding how such complex systems operate, ranging from animal populations to earthquakes and weather. These systems show behaviours that cannot be predicted or intuited by focusing on the individual components, but which emerge spontaneously as a consequence of their interactions: they are said to be ‘self-organized’. Attempts to direct or manage such emergent properties generally reveal that ‘top-down’ approaches, which try to dictate a particular outcome, are ineffectual, and that what is needed instead is a ‘bottom-up’ approach that aims to guide self-organization towards desirable states.This book shows how some of these ideas from the science of complexity can be applied to the study and management of social phenomena, including traffic flow, economic markets, opinion formation and the growth and structure of cities. Building on these successes, the book argues that the complex-systems view of the social sciences has now matured sufficiently for it to be possible, desirable and perhaps essential to attempt a grander objective: to integrate these efforts into a unified scheme for studying, understanding and ultimately predicting what happens in the world we have made. Such a scheme would require the mobilization and collaboration of many different research communities, and would allow society and its interactions with the physical environment to be explored through realistic models and large-scale data collection and analysis. It should enable us to find new and effective solutions to major global problems such as conflict, disease, financial instability, environmental despoliation and poverty, while avoiding unintended policy consequences. It could give us the foresight to anticipate and ameliorate crises, and to begin tackling some of the most intractable problems of the twenty-first century.Trade ReviewFrom the reviews:“Phil Ball’s little book is one of the best summaries I have come across on complexity theory and its applications. This little triumph of clarity argues that society’s problems are those of highly connected systems. … Nice gentle text. If are a newcomer to complexity sciences, then read this first.” (Urban Models + Spatial Complexity + Smart Cities, August, 2012)Table of ContentsSociety: a Complex Problem.- On the Road: Predicting traffic.- Every Move You Make: Patterns of crowd movement.- Making Your Mind Up: Norms and decisions.- Broken Windows: The spread and control of crime.- The Social Web: Networks and their failures.- Spreading It Around: Mobility, disease and epidemics.- After the Crash: Economic and financial systems.- Love Thy Neighbour: How to foster cooperation.- Living Cities: Urban development as a complex system.- The Transformation of War: Modelling modern conflict.- Towards a Living Earth Simulator: The FuturICT Project.

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Book SynopsisThe Tudors are one of the best known royal families in English history. Over three generations, they constructed and maintained their status and authority during a period of social, political and religious unrest. This book examines the textual basis of Tudor royal power. Through analyses of correspondence alongside genres including proclamations and historical chronicles, the book explores the visual and verbal practices that came to symbolise monarchic authority in the Tudor era. Mel Evans combines concepts from sociolinguistics and pragmatics with corpus linguistic methods to explore the characteristics of authentic English language Tudor texts, alongside materials reporting and appropriating royal language. The book reveals a pervasive sixteenth-century royal voice - one which is central to the articulation and perpetuation of Tudor monarchic power.Trade Review'Evans (English and Linguistics, Univ. of Leicester, UK) studies the verbal and visual features of Tudor texts to track the ways in which monarchs' royal voices found expression and comprehension among their subjects.' L. C. Attreed, Choice'Evans' meticulous material and linguistic analysis of Tudor royal documents and their non-royal imitations and counterparts successfully demonstrates the importance of a royal register of language in royal documents and texts to the construction and representation of royal authority.' Jessica G. Purdy, Royal Studies JournalTable of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. Authentic Royal Voices: 1. Materiality and power in Tudor royal correspondence; 2. Royal epistolary language: trends and trajectories; 3. Pragmatic perspectives on royal letters; 4. Tudor royal proclamations: materiality, orality and performance; Part II. Appropriated Royal Voices: 5. Non-royal views of royal voices: afterlives and metalanguage; 6. Impostor, protector and queen: the textual power of royal pretenders; 7. Writing royal voices: royal discourse reports in sixteenth-century correspondence; 8. Royal voices, narrative and ideology in sixteenth-century chronicles; Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisNo one is better than Michael Hauge at finding what is most authentic in every moment of a story.... Will Smith, actorIn the field of teaching screenwriting, Michael Hauge is indeed a master. The Freelance Screenwriter''s ForumA bestseller for 20 years, Hauge''s unique six step'' approach to screenwriting cuts through nonsense, striking the perfect balance between commercial advice, artistic encouragement and lucid examples from hundreds of great films. Never losing sight of the fundamental purpose of a script: emotional impact, Hauge''s engaging and inspiring book takes you on a journey through story concept, character development, theme, structure and scenes. Screenwriting is an art, but Hague''s book is unashamedly commercial with advice on how to submit a manuscript, select an agent and market yourself.Updates to this edition include a new, masterful analysis of Avatar''s script, n

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Book SynopsisExplore the Somerset city of Bath in this fully illustrated A-Z guide to its history, people and places.

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Book SynopsisThe Illustrated Directory of Watches is a beautiful book that willprovide watch enthusiasts with a fully illustrated andcomprehensive book on all things watches. From historical timelines and facts, this beautifully photographed book will inform and excite both the novice and veteran watch aficionado. Enclosed is perhaps the most ambitious and lavishly illustrated history of watches for the collector and general reader. It shows in clear detailed pictures over one thousand important landmark timepieces from all the classic watchmakers from the 1930s to the present day. Organized A-Z by manufacturer, each watch will be shown face on and in some cases some will include reverse and internal views. Each watch will be specially photographed in the studio for this book. In addition to the beautiful design, The Illustrated Directory of Watchesincludes a comprehensive introduction on the history of wristwatches and a quick reference listing of every piece featured.

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