Search results for ""World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd""

This is a biography of Bernard G Sarnat, SB, MD, MS, DDS, FACS, a remarkable man who lived for most of the 20th century. Born in 1912 in the USA, he was the son of immigrant parents from Belarus, a former republic of the USSR. He received his MD degree from the University of Chicago, and his MS and DDS degrees from the University of Illinois. Dr Sarnat was a practitioner in the formative years of modern plastic surgery as well as an internationally known biological researcher in the area of craniofacial biology. He was one of the first bone researchers to apply the stain alizarin red S to document the pattern of dental and bone growth, and has published over 220 research papers dealing with bone and teeth biology.Bernard G Sarnat: 20th Century Plastic Surgeon and Biological Scientist is the story of not only a successful physician-scientist, but also a warm and caring individual who is dedicated to his family, as revealed by the many personal details in this biography. Thus, this biography is intended not just for researchers in the biology of bone and teeth, but also for medical and dental students as well the general reader interested in science and medicine.

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This book focuses on the research topics investigated during the three-year research project funded by the Italian Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca (MIUR: Ministry of Education, University and Research) under the FIRB project RBNE01CW3M. With the aim of introducing newer perspectives of the research on complexity, the final results of the project are presented after a general introduction to the subject. The book is intended to provide researchers, PhD students, and people involved in research projects in companies with the basic fundamentals of complex systems and the advanced project results recently obtained.

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This volume focuses on the importance of historical enquiry for the appreciation of philosophical problems concerning mathematics. It contains a well-balanced mixture of contributions by internationally established experts, such as Jeremy Gray and Jens Hoyrup; upcoming scholars, such as Erich Reck and Dirk Schlimm; and young, promising researchers at the beginning of their careers. The book is situated within a relatively new and broadly naturalistic tradition in the philosophy of mathematics. In this alternative philosophical current, which has been dramatically growing in importance in the last few decades, unlike in the traditional schools, proper attention is paid to scientific practices as informing for philosophical accounts.

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This volume is a collection of the Nobel Lectures delivered by the prizewinners, together with their biographies and the presentation speeches at the award ceremonies in Stockholm for the period 2001 - 2005. Each Nobel Lecture is based on the work for which the laureate was awarded the prize. This volume of inspiring lectures should be on the bookshelf of every keen student, teacher and professor of economics as well as of those in related fields.Below is a list of the prizewinners during the period 2001 - 2005 with a description of the works which won them their prizes:(2001) George A Akerlof, A Michael Spence & Joseph Stiglitz — for their analyses of markets with asymmetric information; (2002) Daniel Kahneman — for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty & Vernon L Smith — for having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms; (2003) Robert F Engle III — for methods of analyzing economic time series with time-varying volatility (ARCH) & Clive W J Granger — for methods of analyzing economic time series with common trends (cointegration); (2004) Finn E Kydland & Edward C Prescott — for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles; (2005) Robert J Aumann & Thomas C Schelling — for having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis.

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This book presents a self-contained and unified introduction to the properties of analytic functions. Based on recent research results, it provides many examples of functional equations to show how analytic solutions can be found.Unlike in other books, analytic functions are treated here as those generated by sequences with positive radii of convergence. By developing operational means for handling sequences, functional equations can then be transformed into recurrence relations or difference equations in a straightforward manner. Their solutions can also be found either by qualitative means or by computation. The subsequent formal power series function can then be asserted as a true solution once convergence is established by various convergence tests and majorization techniques. Functional equations in this book may also be functional differential equations or iterative equations, which are different from the differential equations studied in standard textbooks since composition of known or unknown functions are involved.

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The book presents a coherent treatment of Markov random walks and Markov additive processes together with their applications. Part I provides the foundations of these stochastic processes underpinned by a solid theoretical framework based on Semiregenerative phenomena. Part II presents some applications to queueing and storage systems.

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Chaos is considered as one of the most important concepts in modern science. It originally appeared only in computer simulation (the famous Lorenz equation of 1963), but this changed with the introduction of Chua's oscillator (1986) — a simple electronic circuit with the ability to generate a vast range of chaotic behaviors. With Chua's circuit, chaos became a physical phenomenon, readily understood and represented in mathematical language. Yet, even so, it is still difficult for the non-specialist to appreciate the full variety of behaviors that the system can produce.This book aims to bridge the gap. A gallery of nearly 900 “chaotic attractors” — some generated by Chua's physical circuit, the majority through computer simulation of the circuit and its generalizations — are illustrated as 3D color images, time series and fast Fourier transform algorithms. For interested researchers, also presented is the information necessary to replicate the behaviors and images. Finally, how the fractal richness can be plied to artistic ends in generating music and interesting sounds is shown; some examples are included in the DVD-ROM which comes with the book.The contents have also appeared in the International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos (2007).

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If you think the future is a mystery, think again. With a solid foothold in realism, an extraordinary insight into scientific and technological developments, and a dry sense of humor, Nobel laureate Professor Gerard 't Hooft confidently dissects fact from fiction and shows us what our future might really hold. Professor 't Hooft takes the reader firmly by the hand and, within the boundaries of solid physics and proven laws of nature, takes us on a ride into the world of the future, which holds remarkable surprises for us all. “Do you dream of intergalaxy space travel, time warps, and mini-mes?” 't Hooft asks. “Then please, get yourself some more science fiction books, for fiction it is. But for those who are interested in the real world, let me tell you what we CAN expect for the future.” We meet robots with a sense of irony, ride elevators into space, and build floating cities; let us just say that Playing with Planets, which is translated from the original Dutch edition by Professor 't Hooft's daughter Saskia, supports the old adage that truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

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This unique book fills a vital gap present in most study and examination guides — it offers inspiration and motivation to make the student want to excel. As such, it is a valuable complement to the author's other book, Scholars' Secrets. The author shares his personal story about how he overcame poverty and parental abuse, and progressed from doing badly in primary school to topping his class in postgraduate studies. He also features stories about “famous failures” — people who succeeded in life despite having little or no formal education, such as Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln and multi-billionaire Li Ka Shing. Thus, academic qualifications are by no means the “be all and end all”. Ultimately, the difference lies in PRAISE, a life skills model developed by the author for excellence and success. Through the six key concepts of Prizedream, Rules, Analysis, Invincibility, Strategy and Excellence, this model will help you overcome whatever obstacles you face, as it leads you out of mediocrity and conformity towards your unique vision.Related Title:• Scholars' Secrets

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This volume comprises refereed papers and abstracts from the 7th International Conference on the Evolution of Language (EVOLANG7), held in Barcelona in March 2008. As the leading international conference in the field, the biennial EVOLANG meeting is characterized by an invigorating, multidisciplinary approach to the origins and evolution of human language, and brings together researchers from many fields including anthropology, archeology, artificial life, biology, cognitive science, computer science, ethology, genetics, linguistics, neuroscience, paleontology, primatology, psychology and statistical physics.The latest theoretical, experimental and modeling research on language evolution is presented in this collection. It includes contributions from leading scientists such as Derek Bickerton, Rudolf Botha, Camilo Cela Conde, Francesco d'Erico, Susan Goldin-Meadow, Simon Kirby, Gary Marcus, Friedemann Pulvermüller and Juan Uriagereka.

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This book is written primarily for engineers and researchers who use statistical robust design for quality engineering and Six Sigma, and for statisticians who wish to know about the wide range of applications of experimental design in industry. It is a valuable guide and reference material for students, managers, quality improvement specialists and other professionals interested in Taguchi's robust design methods as well as the implementation of Six Sigma. This book can also be useful to those who would like to learn about the role of Robust Design within the Six Sigma (Improve phase) methodology and Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) (Optimize) methodology. It combines classical experimental design methods with those of Taguchi's robust designs, demonstrating their prowess in DFSS and suggesting new directions for the development of statistical design and analysis.

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Learning and performing profoundly affect our results and actions. Yet getting the balance right is a challenge to individuals and organisations. While performing is about meeting the demands placed upon us, learning expands our capacity to meet future demands. Everyday successes and failures are shaped by the way we balance learning and performing. More than just actions, balance involves a set of values that are fundamental to the successful operation of organisations. These values are key dimensions around which organisational cultures form. Unfortunately, achieving balance is like a dance going wrong in organisations around the world: we have been following the same pattern for so long that we are now struggling to establish better ways of going about it.This intriguing book is a collection of essays from leading consultants, practitioners and scholars offering practical approaches, fresh insights and strategies to proposed solutions for sustained organisational growth and competitive advantage. The book explains the nature of the learning and performance “dance” and its importance to organisations today, and is an indispensable resource for managing the dilemmas and tensions faced by individuals and organisations.

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According to Modern Cosmology, our Universe came from a primordial state 13.7 billion years ago, with no matter and very little energy. In other words, it was almost empty. Where do the stars and galaxies, and everything else in the present universe come from then?This captivating book provides an answer to this question, and explains the observations and evidence behind the assertion of an almost empty primordial universe. Aimed at a general audience, it assumes no prior knowledge of astronomy or physics.The emptiness of the primordial universe is reminiscent of the emptiness in Zen Buddhism. The similarities and differences of these two forms of emptiness are explored.

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The formation of an alluvial clay deposit normally goes through sedimentation and consolidation. While the bottom portion is undergoing self-weight consolidation, sedimentation continues to take place at the top. However, the compression behavior of such deposits upon loading is not well understood.This book describes the compression behavior of ultra-soft soil upon additional load application. Various types of laboratory compression tests suitable for this type of soil are discussed, such as tests using small- and large-scale consolidometers, hydraulic Rowe cells under different drainage conditions, constant rate of loading and constant rate of strain tests. It also explains how to determine the transition point, which differentiates the two distinct behaviors between slurry state and soil state deformation. Methods to determine the compression indices and coefficients of consolidation at different stress ranges, which are required for the prediction of magnitude of settlement and time rate of settlement, are developed. An equation for predicting settlement of ultra-soft soil in both the slurry and soil stages is elaborated upon. These proposed methods of characterization or analyses — which are validated against published data, laboratory measurements and a case study — serve as useful tools for designing and constructing embankments and for carrying out land reclamation on ultra-soft soil.

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This unique book offers an original way of thinking about two of the most significant problems confronting modern theoretical physics: the unification of the forces of nature and the evolution of the universe. In bringing out the inadequacies of the prevailing approach to these questions, the author demonstrates the need for more than just a new theory. The meanings of space and time themselves must be radically rethought, which requires a whole new philosophical foundation. To this end, the book turns to the phenomenological writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Martin Heidegger. Their insights into space and time bring the natural world to life in a manner well-suited to the dynamic phenomena of contemporary physics.In aligning continental thought with problems in physics and cosmology, the book makes use of topology. Phenomenological intuitions about space and time are systematically fleshed out via an unconventional and innovative approach to this qualitative branch of mathematics. The author's pioneering work in topological phenomenology is applied to such topics as quantum gravity, cosmogony, symmetry, spin, vorticity, dimension theory, Kaluza-Klein and string theories, fermion-boson interrelatedness, hypernumbers, and the mind-matter interface.

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Since women account for almost 50 percent of the world's population, the sustainability of development of the global economy can be greatly impaired if the state authorities in individual countries pay less attention to the improvement in the socio-economic status of women relative to men. Improvement in socio-economic status which facilitates empowerment of individuals is greatly dependent on conducive informal institutions and state institutions. This book is the first of its kind to critically examine the role of these institutions in women's empowerment in five continents in the world. The analysis of the role of institutions in individual countries is underpinned by a robust theoretical background presented in the first three chapters. The chapters on individual countries also include a section dealing with recommendations for changes in state policies affecting women's empowerment.

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This book provides a comprehensive discussion of the issues related to risk, volatility, value and risk management. It includes a selection of the best papers presented at the Fourth International Finance Conference 2007, qualified by Professor James Heckman, the 2000 Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics, as a “high level” one. The first half of the book examines ways to manage risk and compute value-at-risk for exchange risk associated to debt portfolios and portfolios of equity. It also covers the Basel II framework implementation and securitisation. The effects of volatility and risk on the valuation of financial assets are further studied in detail.The second half of the book is dedicated to the banking industry, banking competition on the credit market, banking risk and distress, market valuation, managerial risk taking, and value in the ICT activity. With its inclusion of new concepts and recent literature, academics and risk managers will want to read this book.

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Feeding Asia in the 21st century will require a second Green Revolution. However, unlike in the first generation, future yield increases will have to be grown using less water and nitrogen in a world of unfavorable climate change — this can only be done by increasing the efficiency of the photosynthetic system, i.e. developing a C4 rice plant. If and when achieved, it would be the first nonevolutionary example of reconstructing the primary metabolism of a plant. The impact of such a scientific achievement would be undeniable, but it requires either a superb feat of genetic engineering or forced evolution.This book describes the alternative ways of achieving C4 photosynthesis in rice. Featuring contributions from leading experts, case studies are used to present views on how C4 rice might be constructed and applied, along with the socioeconomic implications that it entails. Ultimately, readers will be better informed about this highly relevant and timely topic of improving rice yield in a global environment grappling with unpredictable climate change.

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The recent growth of credit derivatives has been explosive. The global credit derivatives market grew in notional value from $1 trillion to $20 trillion from 2000 to 2006. However, understanding the true nature of these instruments still poses both theoretical and practical challenges. For a long time now, the framework of Gaussian copulas parameterized by correlation, and more recently base correlation, has provided an adequate, if unintuitive, description of the market. However, the increased liquidity in credit indices and index tranches, as well as the proliferation of exotic instruments such as forward starting tranches, options on tranches, leveraged super senior tranches, and the like, have made it imperative to come up with models that describe market reality better.This book, originally and concurrently published in the International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance, Vol. 10, No. 4, 2007, agrees that base correlation has outlived its usefulness; opinions of how to replace it, however, are divided. Both the top-down and bottom-up approaches for describing the dynamics of credit baskets are presented, and pro and contra arguments are put forward. Readers will decide which direction is the most promising one at the moment. However, it is hoped that, in the near future, models that transcend base correlation will be proposed and accepted by the market.

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This is a book about the politics of the global economy — about how firms prosper by understanding those politics, or fail by misunderstanding them. Understanding the politics of globalization may once have been a luxury; it is now, for most high-level managers, simply a necessity. The book contains cases which can be used by instructors and students to build a framework of analysis that enables them to understand the challenges of international trade and investment and master the opportunities they represent. This framework is based on a systematic evaluation of the informal and formal rules that define markets for goods, services, and capital. These insightful cases allow for evaluation of: the political and economic origins of our current era of globalization and how the rules that constrain and enable firms are changing; the impact of governments' policies and which tools are available for predicting, avoiding, or even employing the long arm of the government; and the influence of informal and formal institutions on opportunities for success in international finance and trade.

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Cancer treatment has enjoyed half a century of healthy development, relying mainly on surgery, cytotoxic therapy and radiation. Achievements and successes are well reflected in the longer survival period and better quality of life. Nonetheless, cancer still spreads locally, recurs, metastasizes and remains one of the top killers.Instead of concentrating on cancer removal, it has become obvious that supportive measures are also important. These include the means to improve quality of life during treatment and to contain tumor growth. To this end, herbal medicine appears to offer holistic support via as yet unknown pathways.This volume reveals the practice of cancer treatment using herbs from all over the world, including China, India and Japan. It provides comprehensive information about the herbs commonly used, the logic of using the herbs, some of the mechanisms of action and other means of palliative treatment. While cancer victims have a thirst for choosing their own supplementary treatment, health providers have a duty to explain to them the justifications and the options.

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Information technology has changed our society radically. Just as the integrated circuits have been the prime mover for electronics, high-speed transistors and semiconductor lasers based on heterostructures are now playing the same role in modern telecommunications. Professor Kroemer's conceptual work on heterostructures began in the early 1950s as he was looking for a way to improve transistor speed and performance. In the 1960s, he applied the same principles to the development of lasers and light-emitting diodes, showing that they could achieve continuous operation at room temperature — something thought impossible at that time. His deep fundamental scientific work has had a profound effect on technology and society, transforming and improving our lives.This reprint collection brings together Professor Kroemer's most important papers, presenting a comprehensive perspective of the field. It covers topics ranging from substrate materials, electronic properties, process technology, and devices, to circuits and applications. This reprint collection will help the reader identify the key stages in the development of heterostructure devices and lasers from early research through to its integration in current manufacturing. Devoted to R&D engineers and scientists who are actively involved in extending the nano- and microelectronics roadmap mainly via heterostructure engineering, this volume may also serve as a reference for postgraduate and research students.

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Gabor and wavelet analyses have found widespread applications in signal analysis, image processing and many other information-related areas. Both deliver representations that are simultaneously local in time and in frequency. Due to their significance and success in practical applications, they formed some of the core topics of the program “Mathematics and Computation in Imaging Science and Information Processing”, which was held at the Institute for Mathematical Sciences, National University of Singapore, from July to December 2003 and in August 2004. As part of the program, tutorial lectures were conducted by international experts, and they covered a wide spectrum of topics in mathematical image, signal and information processing.This volume includes exposition articles by the tutorial speakers on the foundations of Gabor analysis, subband filters and wavelet algorithms, and operator-theoretic interpolation of wavelets and frames. It also presents research papers on Gabor analysis, written by specialists in their respective areas. The volume takes graduate students and researchers new to the field on a valuable learning journey from introductory Gabor and wavelet analyses to advanced topics of current research.

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This book offers the first set of quantitative analyses of the results of deregulation of the gas wellhead process coupled with partial deregulation of pipeline transportation and product storage. This complex process — which involves taking pipelines out of the field markets as product purchasers, and creating spot gas and pipeline space markets — has changed the nature and extent of services for gas at the burner tip, and the level as well as volatility of prices for these services. Using econometric tools of analysis, the authors concentrating on these changes uncover surprising findings in contrast to what regulatory reform was supposed to accomplish.

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The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a competition for high school students. China has taken part in IMO twenty times since 1985 and has won the top ranking for countries thirteen times, with a multitude of golds for individual students. The 6 students China sent every year were selected from 20 to 30 students among approximately 130 students who take part in the China Mathematical Competition during the winter months. This volume comprises a collection of original problems with solutions that China used to train their Olympiad team in the years from 2003 to 2006.

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Security issues in distributed systems and network systems are extremely important. This edited book provides a comprehensive treatment on security issues in these systems, ranging from attacks to all kinds of solutions from prevention to detection approaches. The books includes security studies in a range of systems including peer-to-peer networks, distributed systems, Internet, wireless networks, Internet service, e-commerce, mobile and pervasive computing. Security issues in these systems include attacks, malicious node detection, access control, authentication, intrusion detection, privacy and anonymity, security architectures and protocols, security theory and tools, secrecy and integrity, and trust models. This volume provides an excellent reference for students, faculty, researchers and people in the industry related to these fields.

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In the summer of 2006, the 5th International Symposium on Middle Ear Mechanics in Research and Otology was held at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. More than 250 participants from 33 countries in all five continents came together to present their most current research results, exchange their knowledge in practical applications, to discuss open questions and discover new unsolved problems.This book includes representative, peer-reviewed articles of the lectures and papers presented during the symposium, and thereby gives an overview of the ongoing research and current knowledge in the function and mechanics of the normal, diseased and reconstructed middle ear. It covers basic research, engineering and clinical aspects of evaluation, diagnosis and surgery of the middle ear as well as implantable hearing devices in a very broad and interdisciplinary way. Following the tradition of the organizers of the previous conferences to collect the contributions of the symposium, this volume further initialized and promotes many fruitful discussions on middle ear mechanics with different points of view.

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This book provides the construction and characterization of important ultradistribution spaces and studies properties and calculations of ultradistributions such as boundedness and convolution. Integral transforms of ultradistributions are constructed and analyzed. The general theory of the representation of ultradistributions as boundary values of analytic functions is obtained and the recovery of the analytic functions as Cauchy, Fourier-Laplace, and Poisson integrals associated with the boundary value is proved.Ultradistributions are useful in applications in quantum field theory, partial differential equations, convolution equations, harmonic analysis, pseudo-differential theory, time-frequency analysis, and other areas of analysis. Thus this book is of interest to users of ultradistributions in applications as well as to research mathematicians in areas of analysis.

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Witchweeds (Striga species) decimate agriculture in much of Africa and parts of Asia, attacking the major cereal grains and legumes, and halving the already very low yields of subsistence farmers. Several years of research have provided promising technologies, based on the fundamental biology of the parasite-host associations, for dealing with this scourge. However, there is an apparent realization that these technologies will fail because highly successful weeds such as Striga evolve resistance to all types of controls unless proven methods are integrated with each other for a more sustainable solution.Integration is often an anathema to basic scientists who typically deal with single variables and solutions. However, key leaders in the development of the new knowledge-based control strategies, already in the field and under development, recently joined forces to develop strategies and projects in order to integrate the technologies in a symposium in Ethiopia in November 2006. The encouraging results are described in this peer-reviewed book, authored by leaders in the field who have been supplying the basic biology, genetics, biochemistry, and molecular information that have offered insights and generated technologies in how to deal with Striga.

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The book should serve as a text for a university graduate course or for an advanced undergraduate course on neural networks in engineering and computer science departments. It should also serve as a self-study course for engineers and computer scientists in the industry. Covering major neural network approaches and architectures with the theories, this text presents detailed case studies for each of the approaches, accompanied with complete computer codes and the corresponding computed results. The case studies are designed to allow easy comparison of network performance to illustrate strengths and weaknesses of the different networks.

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NewsProfessor Cheng-Few Lee ranks #1 based on his publications in the 26 core finance journals, and #163 based on publications in the 7 leading finance journals (Source: Most Prolific Authors in the Finance Literature: 1959-2008 by Jean L Heck and Philip L Cooley (Saint Joseph's University and Trinity University).Advances in Quantitative Analysis of Finance and Accounting is an annual publication designed to disseminate recent developments in the quantitative analysis of finance and accounting. The publication is a forum for statistical and quantitative analyses of issues in finance and accounting as well as applications of quantitative methods to problems in financial management, financial accounting, and business management. Its objective is to promote interaction between academic research in finance and accounting with applied research in the financial community and the accounting profession.The chapters in this volume cover a wide range of pressing topics including security analysis and mutual fund management, option pricing theory and application, interest rate spread, and electricity pricing.

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The diversity and specialization in orchid floral morphology have fascinated botanists and collectors for centuries. In the past 10 years, the orchid industry has been growing substantially worldwide. This interesting book focuses on the recent advances in orchid biotechnology research since the last 10 years in Taiwan. To advance the orchid industry, enhancement of basic research as well as advanced biotechnology will provide a good platform to improve the flower quality and breeding of new varieties. Important topics covered include the new knowledge of basic genome, through floral morphogenesis, floral ontology, embryogenesis, micropropagation, to functional genomics such as EST, virus-induced gene silencing, and genetic transformation.

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This graduate-level monographic textbook treats applied differential geometry from a modern scientific perspective. Co-authored by the originator of the world's leading human motion simulator — “Human Biodynamics Engine”, a complex, 264-DOF bio-mechanical system, modeled by differential-geometric tools — this is the first book that combines modern differential geometry with a wide spectrum of applications, from modern mechanics and physics, via nonlinear control, to biology and human sciences. The book is designed for a two-semester course, which gives mathematicians a variety of applications for their theory and physicists, as well as other scientists and engineers, a strong theory underlying their models.

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This important book discusses the need for gamma irradiation in the processing of tissue allografts. With particular emphasis on tissue banking in the Asia-Pacific region, it covers a wide range of issues in tissue banking, including the basic science of radiation, quality control of the irradiation process, and clinical applications of irradiated bone grafts and amnions.A compulsory textbook for the well-regarded Singapore-based IAEA/NUS Diploma Course in Tissue Banking, it is also a useful guide for tissue bankers in establishing quality systems in their banks. Whether they be tissue banking students, tissue graft producers, radiation scientists, or transplantation surgeons, readers of this book will discover the latest developments in this exciting interdisciplinary field.

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Whereas other fields continue to become more complex and specialized, physiology happily remains an area that can still be understood by thinking from first principles. However, given the increasing quantity of information available today, it is easy to become overly concerned with details and give in to the temptation to memorize rather than understand. In this concise book, the authors convey their enthusiasm for physiology and convincingly persuade the reader that with a sound understanding of principles, details often fall effortlessly into place. It is by no means an attempt to produce another comprehensive textbook. Instead, a broad overview of the subject is presented, covering areas that are not given the attention they deserve in other texts whilst purposely omitting those aspects where memorization is an unfortunate necessity.

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Nonlinear dynamics of complex processes is an active research field with large numbers of publications in basic research, and broad applications from diverse fields of science. Nonlinear dynamics as manifested by deterministic and stochastic evolution models of complex behavior has entered statistical physics, physical chemistry, biophysics, geophysics, astrophysics, theoretical ecology, semiconductor physics and -optics, etc. This field of research has induced a new terminology in science connected with new questions, problems, solutions and methods. New scenarios have emerged for spatio-temporal structures in dynamical systems far from equilibrium. Their analysis and possible control are intriguing and challenging aspects of the current research.The duality of fundamental and applied research is a focal point of its main attractivity and fascination. Basic topics and foundations are always linked to concrete and precise examples. Models and measurements of complex nonlinear processes evoke and provoke new fundamental questions that diversify and broaden the mathematical concepts and tools. In return, new mathematical approaches to modeling and analysis enlarge the scope and efficiency of applied research.

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This is one of few books on the quantitative assessment of trade liberalisation and its impact on micro and macro economics structure in developing countries. Addressing the prospects of economic growth at a macro level, gives a thorough analysis of various issues such as profitability of enterprises after liberalisation, structural change, imports and exports by sectors and regions, and the trade balances of developing countries. The aspects of terms of trade and the trade balances in African, Latin American and Asian economies are studied using econometric techniques.

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In architecting dependable systems, what is required to improve the overall system robustness is fault tolerance. Many methods have been proposed to this end, the solutions are usually considered late during the design and implementation phases of the software life-cycle (e.g., Java and Windows NT exception handling), thus reducing the effectiveness error and fault handling. Since the system design typically models only normal behaviour of the system while ignoring exceptional ones, the implementation of the system is unable to handle abnormal events. Consequently, the system may fail in unexpected ways due to faults.It has been argued that fault tolerance management during the entire life-cycle improves the overall system robustness and that different classes of threats need to be identified for and dealt with at each distinct phase of software development, depending on the abstraction level of the software system being modelled.This book builds on this trend and investigates how fault tolerance mechanisms can be applied when engineering a software system. In particular, it identifies the new problems arising in this area, introduces the new models to be applied at different abstraction levels, defines methodologies for model-driven engineering of such systems and outlines the new technologies and validation and verification environments supporting this.

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This book encompasses our current understanding of the ensemble approach to many-body physics, phase transitions and other thermal phenomena, as well as the quantum foundations of linear response theory, kinetic equations and stochastic processes. It is destined to be a standard text for graduate students, but it will also serve the specialist-researcher in this fascinating field; some more elementary topics have been included in order to make the book self-contained.The historical methods of J Willard Gibbs and Ludwig Boltzmann, applied to the quantum description rather than phase space, are featured. The tools for computations in the microcanonical, canonical and grand-canonical ensembles are carefully developed and then applied to a variety of classical and standard quantum situations. After the language of second quantization has been introduced, strongly interacting systems, such as quantum liquids, superfluids and superconductivity, are treated in detail. For the connoisseur, there is a section on diagrammatic methods and applications.In the second part dealing with non-equilibrium processes, the emphasis is on the quantum foundations of Markovian behaviour and irreversibility via the Pauli-Van Hove master equation. Justifiable linear response expressions and the quantum-Boltzmann approach are discussed and applied to various condensed matter problems. From this basis the Onsager-Casimir relations are derived, together with the mesoscopic master equation, the Langevin equation and the Fokker-Planck truncation procedure. Brownian motion and modern stochastic problems such as fluctuations in optical signals and radiation fields briefly make the round.

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Bringing together leading-edge research and innovative energy markets econometrics, this book collects the author's most important recent contributions in energy economics. In particular, the book:• applies recent advances in the field of applied econometrics to investigate a number of issues regarding energy markets, including the theory of storage and the efficient markets hypothesis• presents the basic stylized facts on energy price movements using correlation analysis, causality tests, integration theory, cointegration theory, as well as recently developed procedures for testing for shared and codependent cycles• uses recent advances in the financial econometrics literature to model time-varying returns and volatility in energy prices and to test for causal relationships between energy prices and their volatilities• explores the functioning of electricity markets and applies conventional models of time series analysis to investigate a number of issues regarding wholesale power prices in the western North American markets• applies tools from statistics and dynamical systems theory to test for nonlinear dynamics and deterministic chaos in a number of North American hydrocarbon markets (those of ethane, propane, normal butane, iso-butane, naptha, crude oil, and natural gas)

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Analogies play a fundamental role in science. To understand how and why, at a given moment, a certain analogy was used, one has to know the specific, historical circumstances under which the new idea was developed. This historical background is never presented in scientific articles and quite rarely in books. For the general reader, the undergraduate or graduate student who learns the subject for the first time, but also for the practitioner who looks for inspiration or who wants to understand what his colleague working in another field does, these historical circumstances can be fascinating and useful.This book discusses a series of analogy effects in subatomic physics, the prediction and theory of which the author has contributed to in the last 50 years. These phenomena are presented at a level accessible to the non-specialist, without formulae but with emphasis on the personal and historical background: memoirs of meetings, discussions and correspondence with collaborators and colleagues. As such, besides its scientific aspects, the book constitutes an absorbing witness account of a holocaust survivor who subsequently illegally crossed the Iron Curtain to escape communist persecution.

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This indispensable volume contains a compendium of articles covering a vast range of topics in physics which were begun or influenced by the works of Albert Einstein: special relativity, quantum theory, statistical physics, condensed matter physics, general relativity, geometry, cosmology and unified field theory. An essay on the societal role of Einstein is included. These articles, written by some of the renowned experts, offer an insider's view of the exciting world of fundamental science.

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Carl Wieman's contributions have had a major impact on defining the field of atomic physics as it exists today. His ground-breaking research has included precision laser spectroscopy; using lasers and atoms to provide important table-top tests of theories of elementary particle physics; the development of techniques to cool and trap atoms using laser light, particularly in inventing much simpler, less expensive ways to do this; the understanding of how atoms interact with one another and light at ultracold temperatures; and the creation of the first Bose-Einstein condensation in a dilute gas, and the study of the properties of this condensate. In recent years, he has also turned his attention to physics education and new methods and research in that area. This indispensable volume presents his collected papers, with annotations from the author, tracing his fascinating research path and providing valuable insight about the significance of the works.

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Carl Wieman's contributions have had a major impact on defining the field of atomic physics as it exists today. His ground-breaking research has included precision laser spectroscopy; using lasers and atoms to provide important table-top tests of theories of elementary particle physics; the development of techniques to cool and trap atoms using laser light, particularly in inventing much simpler, less expensive ways to do this; the understanding of how atoms interact with one another and light at ultracold temperatures; and the creation of the first Bose-Einstein condensation in a dilute gas, and the study of the properties of this condensate. In recent years, he has also turned his attention to physics education and new methods and research in that area. This indispensable volume presents his collected papers, with annotations from the author, tracing his fascinating research path and providing valuable insight about the significance of the works.

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This unique book — based on the author's experience in teaching his grandchildren mathematics the fun way — provides the knowledge and skills to teach math to young children, through learning games with playing cards. Children grow to associate math with fun, pleasure and parental love and attention.The author's innovative approach to teaching math to young children is an ideal and highly productive way for parents and grandparents to spend quality time with their young loved ones.The book will be an immense help for children's progress in math in the kindergarten and school.

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This volume is a collection of papers in celebration of the 80th birthday of Yuan-Shih Chow, whose influential work in probability and mathematical statistics has contributed greatly to mathematics education and the development of statistics research and application in Taiwan and mainland China.The twenty-two papers cover a wide range of problems reflecting both the broad scope of areas where Professor Chow has made major contributions and recent advances in probability theory and statistics.

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Advanced Quantum Theory is a concised, comprehensive, well-organized text based on the techniques used in theoretical elementary particle physics and extended to other branches of modern physics as well. While it is especially valuable reading for students and professors of physics, a less cursory survey should aid the nonspecialist in mastering the principles and calculational tools that probe the quantum nature of the fundamental forces. The initial application is to nonrelativistic scattering graphs encountered in atomic, solid state, and nuclear physics. Then, focusing on relativistic Feynman Diagrams and their construction in lowest order — applied to electromagnetic, strong, weak, and gravitational interactions — this bestseller also covers relativistic quantum theory based on group theoretical language, scattering theory, and finite parts of higher order graphs. This new edition includes two chapters on the quark model at low energies.

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One of modern science's most famous and controversial figures, Jerzy Plebanski was an outstanding theoretical physicist and an author of many intriguing discoveries in general relativity and quantum theory. Known for his exceptional analytic talents, explosive character, inexhaustible energy, and bohemian nights with brandy, coffee, and enormous amounts of cigarettes, he was dedicated to both science and art, producing innumerable handwritten articles — resembling monk's calligraphy — as well as a collection of oil paintings.As a collaborator but also an antagonist of Leopold Infeld's (a coauthor of Albert Einstein's), Plebanski is recognized for designing the “heavenly” and “hyper-heavenly” equations, for introducing new variables to describe the gravitational field, for the exact solutions in Einstein's gravity and in quantum theory, for his classification of the tensor of matter, for some outstanding results in nonlinear electrodynamics, and for analyzing general relativity with continuous sources long before Chandrasekhar et al.A tribute to Plebański's contributions and the variety of his interests, this is a unique and wide-ranging collection of invited papers, covering gravity quantization, strings, branes, supersymmetry, ideas on the deformation quantization, and lesser known results on the continuous Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff problem.

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