Search results for ""Author Nicolas""

Microrobotics is an emerging and booming area with many and various applications, including in fields such as industrial/manufacturing robotics, medical robotics, and laboratory instrumentation. Microrobotics for Micromanipulation presents for the first time, in detail, a treatment of the field of robotics dedicated to handling objects of micrometer dimensions. At these dimensions, the behavior of objects is significantly different from the better known, larger scales, which leads to implementation techniques that can be radically different from the more commonly used solutions. This book details the behaviors of objects at the micrometer scale and provides robotics solutions that are suitable, in terms of actuators, grippers, manipulators, environmental perception, and microtechnology. Worked examples are included in the book - enabling engineers, students and researchers to familiarize themselves with this emerging area and to contribute to its development.

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Handbook - Soil mix wallsFor several decades now, the deep mixing method has been used for ground improvement works. A more recent application is the use of soil mix as structural elements for the construction of earth-water retaining structures and cut-off walls. Since 2000, due to the economic and environmental advantages of the method, these particular applications have shown an amazing growth. Nevertheless, in practice, no pragmatic standards or guidelines were available for the design, the execution, the quality control and the maintenance of this kind of applications. This is the reason why the present publication was initiated.The Handbook - Soil mix walls is based on existing literature and the knowledge and experiences of committee members, and includes an extensive description of the design and execution processes. It also establishes the link between the conditions of use (functional requirements), the design and the quality control of the final soil mix structure that is especially important in the construction of soil mix walls.Based on a large test campaign, a methodology is proposed for the design of the soil mix walls for which the interaction between steel and soil mix can possibly be taken into account dependent upon the application. Each potential function of the soil mix wall is described (e.g. earth retaining wall, cut-off wall, bearing capacity, etc.) and the temporary or permanent character of the application (its lifetime) is always considered. Furthermore, the design methodology presented in this handbook is in agreement with the Eurocodes.The Handbook - Soil mix walls also includes aspects such as the hydromechanical characterisation and the durability of the soil mix material, the interaction between steel and soil mix and the monitoring and quality control of soil mix structures. The purpose of this publication is to contribute to the realisation of soil mix walls of high quality and to minimise the risk of calamities or damage.This manual has been drawn up under the responsibility of a joint committee of SBRCURnet (the Netherlands) and the Belgian Building Research Institute (BBRI, Belgium). There is a certain difference in the design approach between Belgium and the Netherlands. These differences are also discussed in this handbook.Features:First reference handbook dedicated to the use of soil mix as structural elements for the construction of earth-water retaining structures and cut-off walls.Establishes the link between the functional requirements, the design and the quality control of the final soil mix structure.The design methodology presented in this handbook is in agreement with the Eurocodes.

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A unique figure in the world of contemporary art, Daniel Brush is in equal measure artist and craftsman. Over the course of forty years, Brush has created an unparalleled body of work, whose scope ranges from large-scale abstract drawings to sculptures in steel, aluminum, and gold. Collected here are more than 150 objects that bring to the fore Brush s astonishing work with jewels. Far from the products of the world of commercial jewelry, these are jewel-encrusted objects of virtue and fantasy that reflect not just the artist s rigorous personal aesthetic and mastery of technique, but his lifelong fascinations with philosophy and Asian thought, and his exhaustive knowledge of the history of precious stones. With photography made of the objects in situ inside Brush s studio in New York City, this book presents not only a catalog of his jewel work to date, but also an ethereal portrait of the artist himself. Housed in a slipcase, with photographs by Takaaki Matsumoto and an illuminating text by Vivienne Becker, this is an intimate study of the work of a master artist and a beautiful object in itself.

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In Praise of Theatre is Alain Badiou’s latest work on the ‘most complete of the arts,’ the theatrical stage. This book, certain to be of great interest to scholars and theatre practitioners alike, elaborates the theory of the theatre developed by Badiou in works such as Rhapsody for the Theatre and the ‘Theses on Theatre’ and enquires into the status of a theatre that would be adequate to our 'contemporary, market-oriented chaos.' In a departure from his usual emphasis upon canonical figures of the stage such as Bertolt Brecht and Samuel Beckett, Badiou devotes In Praise of Theatre largely to a consideration of contemporary practitioners, including Jan Fabre, Brigitte Jacques and Romeo Castellucci. In addition, the book features an incisive analysis of the precarious status of the theatre today, in which Badiou describes not only the current threats to the theatre from the right, but the far more insidious threat from the left.

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These substantial selections from The Search after Truth , Elucidations of the Search after Truth , Dialogues on Metaphysics , and Treatise on Nature and Grace , provide the student of modern philosophy with both a broad view of Malebranche's philosophical system and a detailed picture of his most important doctrines. Malebranche's occasionalism, his theory of knowledge and the 'vision in God', and his writings on theodicy and freedom are solidly represented.

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These substantial selections from The Search after Truth , Elucidations of the Search after Truth , Dialogues on Metaphysics , and Treatise on Nature and Grace , provide the student of modern philosophy with both a broad view of Malebranche's philosophical system and a detailed picture of his most important doctrines. Malebranche's occasionalism, his theory of knowledge and the 'vision in God', and his writings on theodicy and freedom are solidly represented.

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In Dracula and Philosophy 24 nocturnal philosophers stake out and vivisect Dracula from many angles. John C. Altmann decides whether Dracula can really be blamed for his crimes, since it's his nature as a vampire to behave a certain way. Robert Arp argues that Dracula's addiction to live human blood dooms him to perpetual frustration and misery. John V. Karavitis sees Dracula as a Randian individual pitted against the Marxist collective. Greg Littmann maintains that if we disapprove of Dracula's behavior, we ought to be vegetarians. James Edwin Mahon uses the example of Dracula to resolve nagging problems about the desirability of immortality. Adam Barkman and Michael Versteeg ponder what it would really feel like to be Dracula, and thereby shed some light on the nature of consciousness. Robert Vuckovich looks at the sexual morality of Dracula and other characters in the Dracula saga. Ariane de Waal explains that "Dragula" is scary because every time this being appears, it causes "gender trouble." And Cari Callis demonstrates that the Count is really the Jungian Shadow archetype -- with added Shapeshifter elements -- in the journey of Mina Harker, heroine/victim of Stoker's novel, from silly girl to empowered woman.

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The volume Nicolas Party | L’Heure Mauve collects a vast visual epic in which Party plays a variety of roles, sometimes impersonating the artist, others the scenographer, the conservator, or the sculptor. His work, and the title of the show, are inspired by L’Heure Mauve, a piece created in 1921 by the Canadian painter Ozlas Leduc that highlights the different interpretations given to the relationship between man and nature throughout the history of art. The result is a constantly changing natural environment: it can be a place full of danger and catastrophe, a territory to be conquered, an expanse disseminated with ancient ruins, or even silences where there are no traces of human presence. Nature finally becomes the theatre for the Anthropocene, its connection with humanity by now inextricable, and the passing of time and the finiteness of existence make way for a feeling of melancholy. Our artist interrogates the world’s image, and he does so by dialoguing very concretely with the spaces and the works belonging to the collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The present volume reflects this personal evolution by employing a unique graphic framework and a packaging that is as precious as its contents. Text in English and French.

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The Wolf Man's Magic Word reopens the examination of the "Wolf Man," a Russian emigre who was Freud's patient and who wrote his own memoirs. Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok's work is at once the account of the Wolf Man's psychological inventions, a reading of his dreams and symptoms, and a critique of basic Freudian notions.

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Novel techniques for modeling 3D cracks and their evolution in solids are presented. Cracks are modeled in terms of signed distance functions (level sets). Stress, strain and displacement field are determined using the extended finite elements method (X-FEM). Non-linear constitutive behavior for the crack tip region are developed within this framework to account for non-linear effect in crack propagation. Applications for static or dynamics case are provided.

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Six Lethal Adventures, One Legendary CampaignIn the sleepy coastal town of Sandpoint, evil is brewing. An attack by crazed goblins reveals the shadows of a forgotten past returning to threaten the town-and perhaps all of Varisia. The Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path begins with this goblin raid and takes players on an epic journey through the land of Varisia as they track a cult of serial killers, fight backwoods ogres, stop an advancing army of stone giants, delve into ancient dungeons, and finally face off against a wizard-king in his ancient mountaintop city. This hardcover compilation updates the fan-favorite campaign to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules with revised and new content in more than 400 pages packed with mayhem, excitement, and adventure!Celebrating both the fifth anniversary of the Pathfinder Adventure Path and the tenth anniversary of Paizo Publishing, this new edition expands the original campaign with new options and refined encounters throughout, incorporating 5 years of community feedback.

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This book provides a comprehensive coverage of hybrid high-order methods for computational mechanics. The first three chapters offer a gentle introduction to the method and its mathematical foundations for the diffusion problem. The next four chapters address applications of increasing complexity in the field of computational mechanics: linear elasticity, hyperelasticity, wave propagation, contact, friction, and plasticity. The last chapter provides an overview of the main implementation aspects including some examples of Matlab code. The book is primarily intended for graduate students, researchers, and engineers working in related fields of application, and it can also be used as a support for graduate and doctoral lectures.

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‘Human zoos’, forgotten symbols of the colonial era, have been totally repressed in our collective memory. In these ‘anthropo-zoological’ exhibitions, ‘exotic’ individuals were placed alongside wild beasts and presented behind bars or in enclosures. Human zoos were a key factor, however, in the progressive shift in the West from scientific to popular racism. Beginning with the early nineteenth-century European exhibition of the Hottentot Venus, this thoroughly documented volume underlines the ways in which they affected the lives of tens of millions of visitors, from London to New York, from Warsaw to Milan, from Moscow to Tokyo… Through Barnum’s freak shows, Hagenbeck’s ‘ethnic shows’ (touring major European cities from their German base), French-style villages nègres, as well as the great universal and colonial exhibitions, the West invented the ‘savage’, exhibited the ‘peoples of the world’, whilst in many cases preparing for or contributing to their colonization… This first mass contact between ‘us’ and ‘them’, between the West and elsewhere, created an invisible border. Measured by scientists, exploited in shows, used in official exhibitions, these men, women and children became extras in an imaginary and in a history that were not their own. Based on the best-selling French volume Zoos Humains but with a number of newly commissioned chapters, Human Zoos puts into perspective the ‘spectacularization’ of the Other, a process that is at the origin of contemporary stereotypes and of the construction of our own identities. A unique book, on a crucial phenomenon, which takes us to the heart of Western fantasies, and allows us to understand the genesis of identity in Japan, Europe and North America.

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The past decade has witnessed a proliferation of regulatory agencies at both the national and the EU level. This coherent and clearly structured book is the first of its kind to analyse in equal measure, and interdependently, both national regulatory authorities and European agencies. It brings together a select group of highly esteemed contributors - authorities in their fields - to provide a systematic and over-arching view of regulation in the EU. Unlike many of the previous attempts to shed light on this increasingly opaque and complex co-existence of regulatory systems, this book takes a genuinely multi-disciplinary approach with integrated perspectives from law, politics and economics. Exploring firstly the rationales for the existence of agencies, the book then goes on to examine how agencies are designed in the EU before considering the legal and political challenges they raise, and finally comparing them with international agencies and agencies in an enlarged Europe and the wider world.Academic researchers in the fields of law, economics and politics will find Regulation through Agencies in the EU of great interest as will EU law practitioners, policymakers and regulators in Europe.

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"Mafia" has become an indigenous South Asian term. Like Italian mobsters, the South Asian "gangster politicians" are known for inflicting brutal violence while simultaneously upholding vigilante justice—inspiring fear and fantasy. But the term also refers to the diffuse spheres of crime, business, and politics operating within a shadow world that is popularly referred to as the rule of the mafia, or "Mafia Raj." Through intimate stories of the lives of powerful and aspiring bosses in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, this book illustrates their personal struggles for sovereignty as they climb the ladder of success. Ethnographically tracing the particularities of the South Asian case, the authors theorize what they call "the art of bossing," providing nuanced ideas about crime, corruption, and the lure of the strongman across the world.

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Celebrate Paizo’s 20th Anniversary with a glorious new edition of Crown of the Kobold King, the epic original Pathfinder adventure! The town of Falcon’s Hollow is no stranger to peril, yet the danger growing in the dungeons below a nearby ruin pose a threat that only a new band of heroes can face. Ravenous undead, cunning kobolds, and sinister necromancers are but a few of the foes that shall soon menace the small lumber town, yet none are potentially as dangerous as the Kobold King himself! This deluxe, 128-page hardcover gathers three classic Pathfinder adventures into one unforgettable compilation, expanding them into a mini-campaign and introducing a brand-new dungeon level for heroes to explore. Completely updated to Pathfinder Second Edition, the insidious Kobold King and his minions return to bedevil a new generation of adventurers! Will your heroes save the town of Falcon’s Hollow from the Kobold King, or are they doomed to become the king’s latest trophies? The Crown of the Kobold King Anniversary Edition contains: • The original adventures Hollow’s Last Hope, Crown of the Kobold King, and Hungry are the Dead, all expanded and updated for use with Pathfinder Second Edition. • Over a hundred pages of adventure for 1st to 6th-level parties. • A full gazetteer of the lumber town of Falcon’s Hollow. • Fifteen new magic items and other new treasures to discover. • Eight classic monsters from the original adventures, all brand new to Pathfinder Second Edition.

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New Bracelets showcases more than 400 bracelets by 200 jewellers, selected from a pool of artists from across the world. This new title by Nicolás Estrada confirms that contemporary jewellery is flourishing: readers will be surprised and delighted with the freshness, diversity, and colourfulness of the many different styles in this collection. It incorporates jewellery designs in a wide variety of materials and approaches, including classic gold, silver, and precious stones, as well as paper, wood, plastic, and resins. This comprehensive selection puts its finger on the pulse of what is happening in the world of jewellery artists right now. It is part of our ongoing series on contemporary jewellery. New Bracelets includes prefaces by Barbara Schmidt and Helen Britton.

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Filling a gap in literature, this concise and practical book presents the principles of virtual orthopedic assessment and shares insights into the use of technology for distance patient-physician communication. Offering expert know-how and best practices, it equips readers with essential information on how to best remotely manage the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of patients.The book starts by defining telemedicine and presenting the basic requirements. The following chapters each focus on a specific joint or compartment, highlighting its peculiarities in terms of remote clinical assessment, and also discussing data security, patient confidentiality and consent as well as medico-legal issues. Moreover, the book features a dedicated chapter that analyzes specific issues related to remote assessment in children, older patients, noncompliant patients, and patients with pain. Covering all the basic and practical aspects of this emerging field, this book is a must-read for orthopedists and other professionals, such as general practitioners and physiotherapists, wanting to gain insights into remote orthopedic patient care.

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These four volumes present innovative thematic applications implemented using the open source software QGIS. These are applications that use remote sensing over continental surfaces. The volumes detail applications of remote sensing over continental surfaces, with a first one discussing applications for agriculture. A second one presents applications for forest, a third presents applications for the continental hydrology, and finally the last volume details applications for environment and risk issues.

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This volume LNCS 14184 and 14185 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 20th International Conference, CAIP 2023, in Limassol, Cyprus, in September 2023. The 54 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 67 submissions. They were organized in the following section as follows:Part I: PAR Contest 2023; Deep Learning; Machine Learning for Image and Pattern Analysis; and Object Recognition and Segmentation.Part II : Biometrics- Human Pose Estimation- Action Recognition; Biomedical Image and Pattern Analysis; and General Vision- AI Applications.

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This volume LNCS 14184 and 14185 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 20th International Conference, CAIP 2023, in Limassol, Cyprus, in September 2023. The 54 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 67 submissions. They were organized in the following section as follows:Part I-:PAR Contest 2023; Deep Learning; Machine Learning for Image and Pattern Analysis; and Object Recognition and Segmentation.Part II : Biometrics- Human Pose Estimation- Action Recognition; Biomedical Image and Pattern Analysis; and General Vision- AI Applications.

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Electromagnetic wave scattering from randomly rough surfaces in the presence of scatterers is an active, interdisciplinary area of research with myriad practical applications in fields such as optics, acoustics, geoscience and remote sensing. In this book, the Method of Moments (MoM) is applied to compute the field scattered by scatterers such as canonical objects (cylinder or plate) or a randomly rough surface, and also by an object above or below a random rough surface. Since the problem is considered to be 2D, the integral equations (IEs) are scalar and only the TE (transverse electric) and TM (transverse magnetic) polarizations are addressed (no cross-polarizations occur). In Chapter 1, the MoM is applied to convert the IEs into a linear system, while Chapter 2 compares the MoM with the exact solution of the field scattered by a cylinder in free space, and with the Physical Optics (PO) approximation for the scattering from a plate in free space. Chapter 3 presents numerical results, obtained from the MoM, of the coherent and incoherent intensities scattered by a random rough surface and an object below a random rough surface. The final chapter presents the same results as in Chapter 3, but for an object above a random rough surface. In these last two chapters, the coupling between the two scatterers is also studied in detail by inverting the impedance matrix by blocks. Contents 1. Integral Equations for a Single Scatterer: Method of Moments and Rough Surfaces. 2. Validation of the Method of Moments for a Single Scatterer. 3. Scattering from Two Illuminated Scatterers. 4. Scattering from Two Scatterers Where Only One is Illuminated. Appendix. Matlab Codes. About the Authors Christophe Bourlier works at the IETR (Institut d’Electronique et de Télécommunications de Rennes) laboratory at Polytech Nantes (University of Nantes, France) as well as being a Researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) on electromagnetic wave scattering from rough surfaces and objects for remote sensing applications and radar signatures. He is the author of more than 160 journal articles and conference papers. Nicolas Pinel is currently working as a Research Engineer at the IETR laboratory at Polytech Nantes and is about to join Alyotech Technologies in Rennes, France. His research interests are in the areas of radar and optical remote sensing, scattering and propagation. In particular, he works on asymptotic methods of electromagnetic wave scattering from random rough surfaces and layers. Gildas Kubické is in charge of the “Expertise in electroMagnetism and Computation” (EMC) laboratory at the DGA (Direction Générale de l’Armement), French Ministry of Defense, where he works in the field of radar signatures and electromagnetic stealth. His research interests include electromagnetic scattering and radar cross-section modeling.

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An overview of current knowledge and future research directions in magnetospheric physics In the six decades since the term 'magnetosphere' was first introduced, much has been theorized and discovered about the magnetized space surrounding each of the bodies in our solar system. Each magnetosphere is unique yet behaves according to universal physical processes. Magnetospheres in the Solar System brings together contributions from experimentalists, theoreticians, and numerical modelers to present an overview of diverse magnetospheres, from the mini-magnetospheres of Mercury to the giant planetary magnetospheres of Jupiter and Saturn. Volume highlights include: Concise history of magnetospheres, basic principles, and equations Overview of the fundamental processes that govern magnetospheric physics Tools and techniques used to investigate magnetospheric processes Special focus on Earth’s magnetosphere and its dynamics Coverage of planetary magnetic fields and magnetospheres throughout the solar system Identification of future research directions in magnetospheric physics The American Geophysical Union promotes discovery in Earth and space science for the benefit of humanity. Its publications disseminate scientific knowledge and provide resources for researchers, students, and professionals. Find out more about the Space Physics and Aeronomy collection in this Q&A with the Editors in Chief

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Founded in 331 BC by Alexander the Great, Alexandria’s unique urban, political and religious organization evolved alongside the numerous scientific innovations and philosophical expressions that shaped the city into one of the ancient world’s civilizational centres. Located at the intersection of art and history, this book revisits the former Egyptian megapolis of Alexandria with the aim of going beyond the usual depictions of the city – focusing on the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Lighthouse and the Library – to take a journey of discovery into an ancient city that is full of nuance. Several recent discoveries have enabled us to refine our knowledge of the lost city of Alexandria. By examining the city’s multi-layered temporalities, this book echoes dominant accounts of Alexandria as a city through which successive civilisations and political formations of the past (Byzantine, Arab, Modern) have rehearsed visions of futures that are either no longer present or remain felt through Alexandria’s remaining material culture and built environment. This book also features a series of contemporary artworks which develop a critical and poetic association with the themes it covers.Exhibition Schedule:BOZAR, Center for Fine Arts, Brussels : 29/09/2022 – 08/01/2023 MUCEM, Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée, Marseille : 08/02/2022 – 08/05/2023

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"Abandoned, forgotten form is reborn in the arms of an all-embracing nature, an envelope within which the origin of the human being, of a society gives us a sensibility, a presence of a fertility." - Vincent Dubourg A graduate of the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, Vincent Dubourg is a designer and a plastic artist. In 2004, he caught the eye of Julien Lombrail, founder of the Carpenters Workshop Gallery, where he has been exhibiting since 2006. Present at major salons and shows - the Pavillon des Arts et du Design, Paris; Design Miami Basel - he has received many public commissions from institutions such as Galeries Lafayette, Swarovski, Vienna, the musée de la chasse et de la nature, Paris, and the Sketch restaurant in London, among others. Vincent says that he feeds himself on the capitals like Paris and New York, which he regularly visits, and digests them in his isolated studio in the Creuse department in France. There, he questions contemporary furniture through the prism of nature and the five elements, like a perfect control of metal. With him, buffet, table and chairs become hallucinatory objects shifting between sculpture and functional furniture. A major exhibit will be devoted to him at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in New York in late 2017. Solo Show, Carpenters Workshop Gallery, New York, November 2017.

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