Search results for ""john wiley sons inc.""

Chance, Calculation and Life brings together 16 original papers from the colloquium of the same name, organized by the International Cultural Center of Cerisy in 2019. From mathematics to the humanities and biology, there are many concepts and questions related to chance. What are the different types of chance? Does chance correspond to a lack of knowledge about the causes of events, or is there a truly intrinsic and irreducible chance? Does chance preside over our decisions? Does it govern evolution? Is it at the origin of life? What part do chance and necessity play in biology? This book answers these fundamental questions by bringing together the clear and richly documented contributions of mathematicians, physicists, biologists and philosophers who make this book an incomparable tool for work and reflection.

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Thinking about development and the environment simultaneously is one of the biggest scientific and societal challenges of the 21st century. Understanding the interactions between biophysical systems and human activities in an era of global change requires overcoming disciplinary divides and opening up new epistemological perspectives. This book explores these challenges using a territorial lens. Combining various scales of analyses (from global to local) and contexts (both urban and rural) in the North and in the South, it analyzes the relationships between environment and development through a variety of geographical objects (i.e. cities, rural and agricultural areas, coastlines, watershed), themes (i.e. ecological transitions, food, energy, transport, agriculture, mining activities) and methodologies (i.e. qualitative and quantitative approaches, modeling, in situ measurements). By engaging in a dialogue between social science and natural science disciplines, within different fields and with a variety of forms of knowledge production, this book provides essential information for understanding and reading the complexity of a globalized world. This book is targeted at academics and students in social sciences and at stakeholders in the field of territorial and environmental management.

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The detection of marine pollution requires a scientific and operational response to identify contaminants, chemicals and hydrocarbons, and to support contrasting observations. Remote Detection and Maritime Pollution originates from the proceedings of CEDRE Information Day, held on October 13, 2016 in Brest, France. Containing four parts encompassing 13 chapters, this book explores remote detection channels for the multiform marine pollutions of today and of the future. With a focus on transatlantic cooperation, it covers remote detection sensors, the state of the art of maritime surveillance with regard to the interests of national and international authorities, the benefits of response strategy, and geophysical exploration. Future vectors (airplanes, drones, satellites, among others) and sensors (radar, optical, hyperspectral and so on) are also studied. This book is a valuable resource for practical solutions for marine authorities, industries (chemical, energy, aerospace, petroleum, shipping), lawyers and scientists.

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INTELLECTUAL TECHNOLOGIES SET Coordinated by Jean-Max Noyer and Maryse CarmesThe dynamics of production, circulation and dissemination of knowledge that are currently developing in the digital ecosystem testify to a profound change in capitalism. On the margins of the traditional duo of knowledge markets and exclusive property rights, the emerging notion of cultural commons is opening the door to new modes of production based on hybrid market arrangements and an inclusive understanding of property.This book studies the political economy of cultural commons in the digital ecosystem, outlining the contexts and areas of thought in which this concept has emerged and identifying the socio-economic, technical and political issues associated with it. It also analyzes the specific physical conditions that enable the implementation of the economy of cultural commons in a specific digital ecosystem, that of books, by studying the effects of digital libraries and self-publishing platforms.

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MODERN FINANCE, MANAGEMENT INNOVATION & ECONOMIC GROWTH SET Coordinated by Faten Ben Bouheni Financial operations depend on potential value creation, the nature of the shareholder base, the level of development of the company and its growth prospects. They result from different commercial and financial strategies that must integrate the interest of the capital holders, the influence and strategy of the group in the initiative and the structure of the offer. This book examines how, in practice, a company�s capital is structured, taking into account the interests of various stakeholders. The performance of valuation methods, which serve investors in their decision-making and financial arrangements, is developed in detail. Depending on the contexts present in the control market, the methods of stock market and transactional comparables, discounted cash flows and the patrimonial approach, will be favored to assess the value of a company�s shares. Performance of Valuation Methods in Financial Transactions is an in-depth analysis of equity transactions and is aimed at students and corporate finance professionals.

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Equity crowdfunding is a new way for seed stage start-ups to generate initial capital and, as such, raises questions around the choices made by investors within this area. Understanding it is important for investor protection, as investors are generally unaware of the factors that can influence their decisions. However, investing in equity crowdfunding places the investor in a unique decision-making framework, in which resources such as images, videos and storytelling are all mobilized by entrepreneurs and platforms as tools of persuasion. This context thus seems to favor more holistic and emotional decision-making, rather than a process that is rational and analytical. This first volume centers on the emotional and axiological determinants of choice. A transdisciplinary theoretical analysis is carried out, combining different fields within the social sciences, primarily finance, marketing and psychology. This state of the art leads to the emergence of an original theoretical framework for understanding investment choices in equity crowdfunding.

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This book is a compilation of tools, techniques and frameworks for use in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation (E&I) education. Developed and honed over the past two decades, these teaching approaches are combined with well-versed practical insight. As professors know all too well, the human brain cannot articulate more than three or four dimensions of a problem without the aid of what could be referred to as �checklists for thinking�: frameworks (visual or otherwise) that help students think in terms of multiple variables affecting a problem. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Education provides a �toolbox� of more than 50 frameworks for analyzing entrepreneurship and innovation problems, and for enabling effective decision-making. It is a useful guide for professors and students alike who are looking for an overview of available tools, methods and approaches to actively learn how to go from the visionary idea to the market.

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By the year 2000, a balance was sought between security requirements and a respect for privacy, as well as for individual and collective freedoms. As we progress further into the 21st century, however, security is taking precedence within an increasingly controlled society.This shift is due to advances in innovative technologies and the investments made by commercial companies to drive constant technological progress. Despite the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) within the EU in 2018 or 2020’s California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), regulatory bodies do not have the ability to fully manage the consequences presented by emerging technologies. Security and Its Challenges in the 21st Century provides students and researchers with an international legal and geopolitical analysis; it is also intended for those interested in societal development, artificial intelligence, smart cities and quantum cryptology.

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Methods of diagnosis and prognosis play a key role in the reliability and safety of industrial systems. Failure diagnosis requires the use of suitable sensors, which provide signals that are processed to monitor features (health indicators) for defects. These features are required to distinguish between operating states, in order to inform the operator of the severity level, or even the type, of a failure. Prognosis is defined as the estimation of a system�s lifespan, including how long remains and how long has passed. It also encompasses the prediction of impending failures. This is a challenge that many researchers are currently trying to address. Electrical Systems, a book in two volumes, informs readers of the theoretical solutions to this problem, and the results obtained in several laboratories in France, Spain and further afield. To this end, many researchers from the scientific community have contributed to this book to share their research results.

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Triangulations, and more precisely meshes, are at the heart of many problems relating to a wide variety of scientific disciplines, and in particular numerical simulations of all kinds of physical phenomena. In Volume 1, the theoretical foundations relating to triangulations, finite element shape functions and their interpretations as geometric patches were explored. This has made it possible to build tools that make the geometric modeling of any object possible. These elements are used in Volume 2 to treat meshing problems in their different implementations. Meshing, Geometric Modeling and Numerical Simulation 3 offers technical additions to the methods seen in the first two volumes and a significant portion of this book is dedicated to mesh visualization problems and solutions, especially those with a high degree of complexity.

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The future of the human posture is in the spotlight. The 200-year-old locomotion paradigm can no longer resist the advancement of knowledge, yet 2,500 years of thinking on the place of verticalized human anatomy and its reflexive consciousness in the natural history of life and the Earth, is more relevant than ever.This book retraces these reflections from pre-Socratic philosophers, focusing on the link between verticality and the most complex and consciously reflexive nervous system on the top rung of the ladder of living beings. The origin of animated forms, or animals, was considered metaphysical until the 19th century but reflection on their inception, from fertilization, paved the way for mathematics of infinitesimal geometry and dynamics. The simian filiation was inconceivable until Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck bridged the gap in 1802 with the locomotion postulate to explain the transition from quadrupedal to bipedal posture, sustained by the hypothesis of inheritance of acquired characteristics. This doctrine was overturned in 1987 by the discovery of the embryonic origins of the straightening - specific dynamics linked to neurogenesis - confirming the natural place of human verticality and nervous system complexity with its psychomotor and cognitive consequences.Sapiens find themselves at the physical limit of the straightening while mechanisms of gametogenesis have never ceased in making neurogenesis exponentially more complex. Is the future exclusively terrestrial or does intrauterine hominization open up new perspectives for space exploration? Posturologists, occlusodontics, osteopaths, cognisciences - all anthropological sciences exposed to human verticality are concerned with this discovery, which allows Sapiens to face their natural destiny

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This book is a collective volume authored by leading scientists in the field of stochastic modelling, associated statistical topics and corresponding applications. The main classes of stochastic processes for dependent data investigated throughout this book are Markov, semi-Markov, autoregressive and piecewise deterministic Markov models. The material is divided into three parts corresponding to: (i) Markov and semi-Markov processes, (ii) autoregressive processes and (iii) techniques based on divergence measures and entropies. A special attention is payed to applications in reliability, survival analysis and related fields.

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This book, presented in three volumes, examines �environmental� disciplines in relation to major players in contemporary science: Big Data, artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Today, there is a real sense of urgency regarding the evolution of computer technology, the ever-increasing volume of data, threats to our climate and the sustainable development of our planet. As such, we need to reduce technology just as much as we need to bridge the global socio-economic gap between the North and South; between universal free access to data (open data) and free software (open source). In this book, we pay particular attention to certain environmental subjects, in order to enrich our understanding of cloud computing. These subjects are: erosion; urban air pollution and atmospheric pollution in Southeast Asia; melting permafrost (causing the accelerated release of soil organic carbon in the atmosphere); alert systems of environmental hazards (such as forest fires, prospective modeling of socio-spatial practices and land use); and web fountains of geographical data. Finally, this book asks the question: in order to find a pattern in the data, how do we move from a traditional computing model-based world to pure mathematical research? After thorough examination of this topic, we conclude that this goal is both transdisciplinary and achievable.

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Based on research on the links between deep brain stimulation and its applications in the field of psychiatry, the history of techniques is of great importance in this book in order to understand the scope of the fields of application of electricity in brain sciences. The concepts of brain electricity, stimulation, measurement and therapy are further developed to identify lines of convergence, ruptures and conceptual perspectives for a materialistic understanding of human nature that emerged during the 18th century. In an epistemological posture, at the crossroads of the concepts of epistemes, as stated by Foucault, and phenomenotechnics, as conceived by Bachelard, the analyses focus on the technical content of the theories while inscribing them in the language and specificities of each era.

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This book demonstrates the federative power of the methodology of the sciences of culture by exploiting its critical, historical, and comparative principles to address both cultural objects and disciplines that report on them. Scientific activity is rethought in its dimension of interpretative act responsible for both the human and the non-human. This book fills a gap by reconnecting in an innovative and original way the scientific, artistic and ethico-political spheres.

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Cognitive Mechanisms of Learning presents experimental research works on the issue of knowledge acquisition in Cognitive Psychology. These research works – initiated by groups of researchers with academic backgrounds in Philosophy, Psychology, Linguistics and Artificial Intelligence – explore learning mechanisms by viewing humans as information processing systems. Although the book is centered on research studies conducted in a laboratory, one chapter is dedicated to applied research studies, derived directly from the fundamental research works. Computer modeling of learning mechanisms is presented, based on the concept of �cognitive architecture�. Three important issues – �the methodology�, �the achievements� and �the evolution� – in the field of learning research are also examined.

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Process engineering emerged at the beginning of the 20th Century and has become an essential scientific discipline for the matter and energy processing industries. Its success is incontrovertible, with the exponential increase in techniques and innovations. Rapid advances in new technologies such as artificial intelligence, as well as current societal needs – sustainable development, climate change, renewable energy, the environment – are developments that must be taken into account in industrial renewal. Process Engineering Renewal 3 presents a prospective analysis that demonstrates the significant disruptions linked to sustainable development, global warming, etc. These constraints may trigger changes in the social regulation system, which in turn applies pressure on actors of process engineering to evolve and adapt to these developments.

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This book pursues optimal design from the perspective of mechanical properties and resistance to failure caused by cracks and fatigue. The book abandons the scale separation hypothesis and takes up phase-field modeling, which is at the cutting edge of research and is of high industrial and practical relevance. Part 1 starts by testing the limits of the homogenization-based approach when the size of the representative volume element is non-negligible compared to the structure. The book then introduces a non-local homogenization scheme to take into account the strain gradient effects. Using a phase field method, Part 2 offers three significant contributions concerning optimal placement of the inclusion phases. Respectively, these contributions take into account fractures in quasi-brittle materials, interface cracks and periodic composites. The topology optimization proposed has significantly increased the fracture resistance of the composites studied.

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This book analyzes stochastic evolutionary models under the impulse of diffusion, as well as Markov and semi-Markov switches. Models are investigated under the conditions of classical and non-classical (Levy and Poisson) approximations in addition to jumping stochastic approximations and continuous optimization procedures. Among other asymptotic properties, particular attention is given to weak convergence, dissipativity, stability and the control of processes and their generators. Weak convergence of stochastic processes is usually proved by verifying two conditions: the tightness of the distributions of the converging processes, which ensures the existence of a converging subsequence, and the uniqueness of the weak limit. Achieving the limit can be done on the semigroups that correspond to the converging process as well as on appropriate generators. While this provides the convergence of generators, a natural question arises concerning the uniqueness of a limit semigroup.

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Whether it is to look to the past in search of their origins, analyze their present activity, particularly digital, or to think about the effects of their actions on the future, 21st century humans regularly question their �traces�. Collective questions and technical progress offer new resources which, in turn, raise the problems of traces. In order to reveal the difficulties posed by the unanalyzed trace, this book proposes a journey through different contexts. Along the way, intellectuals (including Bateson, Barthes, Bourdieu, Derrida, Goffman, Peirce, Ricoeur, Varela, Thompson, Watsuji and Watzlawick) and trace professionals (such as police officers or computer scientists) shed light on the background to this veritable odyssey. This didactic book presents a contemporary exploration of the fundamental nature of the trace via the new French paradigm of the �Ichnos-Anthropos� (�Homme-trace�) and its corollary, the �corps-trace�.

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This new edited volume consists of a collection of original articles written by leading financial economists and industry experts in the area of machine learning for asset management. The chapters introduce the reader to some of the latest research developments in the area of equity, multi-asset and factor investing. Each chapter deals with new methods for return and risk forecasting, stock selection, portfolio construction, performance attribution and transaction costs modeling. This volume will be of great help to portfolio managers, asset owners and consultants, as well as academics and students who want to improve their knowledge of machine learning in asset management.

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It is a complete training in digital communications in the same book with all the aspects involved in such training: courses, tutorials with many typical problems targeted with detailed solutions, practical work concretely illustrating various aspects of technical implementation implemented. It breaks down into three parts. The Theory of information itself, which concerns both the sources of information and the channels of its transmission, taking into account the errors they introduce in the transmission of information and the means of protect by the use of appropriate coding methods. Then for the technical aspects of transmission, first the baseband transmission is presented with the important concept and fundamental technique of equalization. The performance evaluation in terms of probability of errors is systematically developed and detailed as well as the online codes used. Finally, the third part presents the Transmissions with digital modulation of carriers used in radio transmissions but also on electric cables. A second important aspect in learning a learner's knowledge and skills is this book. It concerns the "Directed Work" aspect of a training. This is an ordered set of 33 typical problems with detailed solutions covering the different parts of the course with practical work. Finally, the last aspect concerns the practical aspects in the proper sense of the term, an essential complement to training going as far as know-how. We propose here a set of 5 practical works.

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It is a complete training in digital communications in the same book with all the aspects involved in such training: courses, tutorials with many typical problems targeted with detailed solutions, practical work concretely illustrating various aspects of technical implementation implemented. It breaks down into three parts. The Theory of information itself, which concerns both the sources of information and the channels of its transmission, taking into account the errors they introduce in the transmission of information and the means of protect by the use of appropriate coding methods. Then for the technical aspects of transmission, first the baseband transmission is presented with the important concept and fundamental technique of equalization. The performance evaluation in terms of probability of errors is systematically developed and detailed as well as the online codes used. Finally, the third part presents the Transmissions with digital modulation of carriers used in radio transmissions but also on electric cables. A second important aspect in learning a learner's knowledge and skills is this book. It concerns the "Directed Work" aspect of a training. This is an ordered set of 33 typical problems with detailed solutions covering the different parts of the course with practical work. Finally, the last aspect concerns the practical aspects in the proper sense of the term, an essential complement to training going as far as know-how. We propose here a set of 5 practical works.

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Advances in underwater exploration, in situ observation of fish populations, as well as the development of cutting-edge technologies, provide modern insights into behaviors and strategies of fish, whose cognitive abilities have long been underestimated and undervalued. Fish Behavior 1 presents current knowledge about fish biology, ecology and ethology. In light of the most recent scientific work, this book examines the habitats exploited by fish, as well as the strategies and tactics they have adopted regarding the occupation of available territories. It also addresses communication issues between individuals during social interactions. This book is intended for researchers, teachers, master�s and doctoral students in biology and biogeography, engineers and technicians responsible for the development and protection of natural environments and public aquariums, in addition to aquaculturists, fishermen, environmentalists and ecologists.

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This book – the first of two volumes – explores the syntactical constructs of the most common programming languages, and sheds a mathematical light on their semantics, while also providing an accurate presentation of the material aspects that interfere with coding. Concepts and Semantics of Programming Languages 1 is dedicated to functional and imperative features. Included is the formal study of the semantics of typing and execution; their acquisition is facilitated by implementation into OCaml and Python, as well as by worked examples. Data representation is considered in detail: endianness, pointers, memory management, union types and pattern-matching, etc., with examples in OCaml, C and C++. The second volume introduces a specific model for studying modular and object features and uses this model to present Ada and OCaml modules, and subsequently Java, C++, OCaml and Python classes and objects. This book is intended not only for computer science students and teachers but also seasoned programmers, who will find a guide to reading reference manuals and the foundations of program verification.

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Where the environment is concerned, regardless of scale, the logic of the Native American hummingbird which �does its part� should prevail. To act independently of others is indeed the sine qua non of the global shift towards a regenerative economy of humanity and ecosystems, expurgating the pervading pollution (particularly from oil use). Small- and medium-sized enterprises, which this book especially targets, do not need disproportionately-sized study facilities in order to reduce their impact on global warming. Climatic Impact of Activities provides valuable methodological and practical support for establishing a complete and reliable diagnosis of the greenhouse effect, and for planning the corresponding corrective actions. This book guides the reader step by step in developing an informed emissions assessment with realistic and advanced case studies, in full compliance with official methodological recommendations.

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The status of knowledge management (KM) as a mature science has long been recognized in the academic world. However, in the economic arena, its connection with companies and organizations has been more gradual. Jean-Louis Ermine established a theoretical and practical framework for KM in Knowledge Management: The Creative Loop, which was also published by Wiley. In this second volume, practical examples are illustrated with real case studies. Modeled on the four-step operational approach inspired by �the creative loop�, this book includes four sets of real case studies – each one following the basic presentation of the fundamental material. Knowledge Management in Innovative Companies 2 is especially useful for practitioners, as there are numerous illustrations based on best practices for each specific KM step and for global project implementation. Indeed, the last chapter is dedicated to the implementation of a global KM corporate project.

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Organizations, both private and public, are now evolving in a globalized "information society" that has been accelerated by digitization. They find themselves drawn into a spiral of transformations fueled by the incessant reinvention of information and communication technologies (ICT) that are changing digital uses and practices. They transform through the mediating action of ICTs, work activities and associated action situations. Platform and Collective Intelligence analyzes a specific declination of an organization that has become irreversibly reticular: the "platform organization". The network, at the heart of this new conception, proposes a model combining cybernetics and computing. The organization can thus be seen as an interface for contact, via its information systems, for employees or citizens, whatever their geographical location. With a view going beyond technocentrism and technological determinism, this book combines collective intelligence and sociotechnics with the platform to arrive at the notion of "organizational experience".

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The modeling of cities and territories has progressed greatly in the last 20 years. This is firstly due to geographic information systems, followed by the availability of large amounts of georeferenced data – both on the Internet and through the use of connected objects. In addition, the rise in performance of computational methods for the simulation and exploration of dynamic models has facilitated advancement. Geographical Modeling presents previously unpublished information on the main advances achieved by these new approaches. Each of the six chapters builds a bibliographic review and precisely describes the methods used, highlighting their advantages and discussing their interpretations. They are all illustrated by many examples. The book also explains with clarity the theoretical foundations of geographical analysis, the delicate operations of model selection, and the applications of fractals and scaling laws. These applications include gaining knowledge of the morphology of cities and the organization of urban transport, and finding new methods of building and exploring simulation models and visualizations of data and results.

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The conception of lasers and optoelectronic devices such as solar cells have been made possible, thanks to the modern day mastery of processes that harness the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter. This first volume is dedicated to thermal radiation and experimental facts that reveal the quantification of matter. The study of black body radiation allows the introduction of fundamental precepts such as Planck�s law and the energy-related qualities that characterize radiation. The properties of light and wave–particle duality are also examined, based on the interpretation of light interferences, the photoelectric effect and the Compton effect. This book goes on to investigate the hydrogen atomic emission spectrum and how it dovetails into our understanding of quantum numbers to describe the energy, angular momentum, magnetic moment and spin of an electron. A look at the spectroscopic notation of the states explains the different wavelengths measured from the splitting of spectral lines. Finally, this first volume is completed by the study of de Broglie�s wave theory and Heisenberg�s uncertainty principle, which facilitated the advancement of quantum mechanics.

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This book brings together a selection of the scientific results of the RI ADAPTCLIM project (International Network on Risk Assessment and Climatic Adaptation of Civil Engineering and Buildings Works). Funded by the Pays de la Loire region in France as part of the 2014 Stratégie Internationale call for projects, research teams from the scientific group LiRGeC (ECN, UN, IFSTTAR, CSTB) and several international partners contributed their human, experimental and digital resources. RI-ADAPTCLIM was established to study the short- and medium term effects of climatic conditions on buildings, infrastructures and the ground. Following an integrated, interdisciplinary and multi-physics approach, the researchers proposed decision support tools that would increase the resilience of structures and buildings against the impact of hazards due to climate change.

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Mastering chance has, for a long time, been a preoccupation of mathematical research. Today, we possess a predictive approach to the evolution of systems based on the theory of probabilities. Even so, uncovering this subject is sometimes complex, because it necessitates a good knowledge of the underlying mathematics. This book offers an introduction to the processes linked to the fluctuations in chance and the use of numerical methods to approach solutions that are difficult to obtain through an analytical approach. It takes classic examples of inventory and queueing management, and addresses more diverse subjects such as equipment reliability, genetics, population dynamics, physics and even market finance. It is addressed to those at Master�s level, at university, engineering school or management school, but also to an audience of those in continuing education, in order that they may discover the vast field of decision support.

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Apprenticeships can offer apprentices, their teacher-tutors and business apprenticeship supervisors experiences that are rich in knowledge. The Success of Apprenticeships presents the observations and opinions of 48 actors regarding apprenticeships. These testimonies recount how apprenticeships allowed them to improve their expertise, their professional practices and their organization skills. This book also examines how their interactions in the work/study process allowed them not only to develop the skills of apprentices, but also the skills of those who accompanied them – the teacher-tutors and the business apprenticeships supervisors. The creation of an authentic community of apprentices subscribes to the formation of an ecosystem of learning, in which each individual harvests fruits in terms of the development of their personal abilities.

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Methods of diagnosis and prognosis play a key role in the reliability and safety of industrial systems. Failure diagnosis requires the use of suitable sensors, which provide signals that are processed to monitor features (health indicators) for defects. These features are required to distinguish between operating states, in order to inform the operator of the severity level, or even the type, of a failure. Prognosis is defined as the estimation of a system�s lifespan, including how long remains and how long has passed. It also encompasses the prediction of impending failures. This is a challenge that many researchers are currently trying to address. Electrical Systems, a book in two volumes, informs readers of the theoretical solutions to this problem, and the results obtained in several laboratories in France, Spain and further afield. To this end, many researchers from the scientific community have contributed to this book to share their research results.

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Optimization is central to any problem involving decision-making in engineering. Optimization theory and methods deal with selecting the best option regarding the given objective function or performance index. New algorithmic and theoretical techniques have been developed for this purpose, and have rapidly diffused into other disciplines. As a result, our knowledge of all aspects of the field has grown even more profound. In Optimization for Engineering Problems, eminent researchers in the field present the latest knowledge and techniques on the subject of optimization in engineering. Whereas the majority of work in this area focuses on other applications, this book applies advanced and algorithm-based optimization techniques specifically to problems in engineering.

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Scientific research uses concepts (or constructs) and requires means to measure them. Often latent, abstract and not directly observable, these concepts demand special attention. When facing problems related to their operationalization, considerable efforts are required to construe measures that effectively represent the phenomena studied. Measurement in Marketing presents a wide range of ideas to help researchers in the selection, design and validation of measurements of constructs. It analyzes the provisions that must be implemented to allow the transition from a latent conceptual construct to an operational level close to reality, and thus to make possible a fluid, reliable and valid reading of the phenomena observed. This instructive book guides readers through all stages of the implementation of a measure. It is intended for a wide audience, offering examples, summary tables and boxes in order to emphasize the primary information.

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is arguably the most significant tool that marketeers have to push online content. As the hub of the computational engineering fields, SEO encompasses technical, editorial and link-building strategies, and is an integral part of our daily lives. As important as it is ubiquitous, SEO is needed for the development of a brand�s website and online reputation. When a website is live, one of its priorities is to drive organic traffic towards it, in order to attract visibility. In order to achieve such an aim, many proactive measures must be put in place, advice followed and tips implemented. There should also be an understanding of the holistic connection between a website�s HTML sources, content management system and its relationship with external websites too (SEO off-site). There are many different search engines in the world and depending on the international boundary, one web browser usually dominates the landscape. Google features prominently in SEO Management, but this book also goes into detail regarding Baidu SEO (China), Yandex SEO (Russia) and Naver SEO (South Korea). There is also guidance given on how to manage a SEO project.

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In February 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic became a worldwide health emergency, and in April of that year, the ITU and the WHO created a joint declaration to show their commitment to using ICTs to overcome the pandemic. Technologies and African Societies in Pandemic Times explores the impact of Covid-19 on African societies in North and West Africa through the lens of technology and social media. The authors of this book highlight how everyday people dealt with the pandemic from its onset, through the process of the development of the vaccine and to its eventual dissemination. This book tells stories of survival, of coping and, eventually, of economically thriving. The authors also describe how, in this extremely challenging moment for humanity, people used music, art and social media to reinvent the community, to share joy and pain and to try to remain connected.

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Technological change is exciting as much as it is daunting. The arrival of new digital tools affects consumption patterns, types of employment and working conditions, and can pose challenges to organizations and individuals alike. Indeed, although technological change is a factor for economic growth, it can also be an amplifier, or even a catalyst, of inequality. It is also a social change and interacts in complex ways: technology is both the source and the consequence of social transformation. To understand technological change and to harness its effects, this book studies transformations at different levels (societal, organizational and individual). In its analysis of the subject, it also draws on a number of disciplines of the human and social sciences, such as anthropology, sociology and psychology.

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The current “generalized digitization” of society is influencing the health environment, healthcare organizations as well as actors. In this context, human and social sciences deconstruct, nuance and sometimes even challenge certain preconceived ideas and/or dominant discourses. In this book, researchers of four nationalities and three different disciplines have agreed to open the “black box” of their work. They display their scientific practices from the perspective of epistemology, ethics and methodology. They present and analyze their values and postulates but, also, what may have influenced the project, the definition of the object and objectives, as well as their approaches. In a contextual way, the first part presents some changes in environments and infocommunicational practices related to digital health. The second part opens space to reflect on ethics and deontology. Finally, postulating that scientific fact is not an essence but the result of a process, the last part discusses the methods implemented, which may be different from those initially envisaged. This book is dedicated to the researchers and postgraduate students in the human and social sciences as well as the health practitioners likely to collaborate with them.

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This book explores the unity of life. It proposes that the concept of information is the inner essence of what we today call life. The importance of information for our species is obvious. Human beings are highly dependent on information, constantly exchanging with conspecifics. In a less apparent way, we are the product of genetic and epigenetic information which determines our development in a given environment from a fertilized egg to the adult stage. Even less apparent is that information plays a determining role in ecosystems. This observation may include the prebiotic systems in which life emerged. Our claim is that Nature processes information continuously. This means that even beyond living entities, we can see messages and decoding procedures. Nature can be said to send messages to its own future and then to decode them. Nature “talks” to itself! The systematic organization of messages suggests that, in some respects, we should even speak of the “languages” of Nature.

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In geography, a region is one of the most obscure and controversial scientific research objects. However, the tourism sector frequently uses the term, both in the communication of tourism destinations and in daily-life vocabulary, to characterize spatial practices that overtake the scale of a place. That said, a geographic concentration of place, equipment and accommodation does not equate to a tourist region. In order to define the tourist region, this book presents the common thoughts and interpretations of it, which have been advanced by geographers since the beginning of the 20th Century. The Tourist Region also examines stakeholders’ logics that are identified in the practices of a tourist destination in a regional dimension, and explores the tourist region as a territorial co-construction. Finally, this book analyzes multi-level regional networks of tourist places, built according to tourist mobilities. By presenting several measurement methods of the tourist region, this book explains the spatial practices of tourists and anticipates the actions for tourism professionals.

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Living eXperience Design – the design of life experiences – is an extension of user experience design (UXD). The context comprises usage and practice in real contexts in which spatial, urban, social, temporal, historical and legal dimensions are considered. Reflecting upon LivXD is to examine the whole experience of a target audience in a variety of situations – and not only in those involving digital technology. This book begins with the definition of LivXD and its associated epistemology, and proceeds to detail field experiments in certain privileged areas: the relation to creation and works, mediation and adult education.

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Digital information, particularly for online newsgathering and reporting, is an industry fraught with uncertainty and rapid innovation. Digital Information Ecosystems: Smart Press crosses academic knowledge with research by media groups to understand this evolution and analyze the future of the sector, including the imminent employment of bots and artificial intelligence. The book adopts an original and multidisciplinary approach to this topic: combining the science of media economics with the experience of a practicing journalist of a major daily newspaper. The result is an essential guide to the opportunities of the media to respond to a changing global digital landscape. Independent news reporting is vital in the contemporary democracy; the media must itself become a new “smart press”.

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Digital Identities in Tension deals with the ambivalence of universal digitalization. While this transformation opens up new possibilities, it also redistributes the interplay of constraints and incentives, and tends insidiously to create a greater malleability of individuals. Today, companies and states are increasingly engaged in the surveillance and management of our digital identities. In response, we must study the effects that the new industrial, economic and political logics have on ethical issues and our ability to act. This book examines the effects of digitalization on new modes of existence and subjectivation in many spheres: digital identity management systems, Big Data and machine learning, the Internet of Things, smart cities, etc. The study of these transformations is one of the major conditions for more responsible modes of data governance to emerge.

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Information, Knowledge and Agile Creativity will enlighten entrepreneurs, and is ideal for facilitating an organization’s ability to react and adapt to its environment. Creativity is a system that engenders innovation. While integral at the conception stage, it is also important before and after this phase. This book offers a collection of tools, as well as a methodology, to estimate the agility of an organization to generate and transform ideas into solutions that are not only new but also adapted to their users. To this end, this book presents strategic foresight and problem comprehension methods; tools of sharing and visual information formatting; animation tips for creativity workshops; techniques for generating ideas; and tools for visualizing and mapping ideas, information, and knowledge.

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In recent years, there has been a proliferation of opinion-heavy texts on the Web: opinions of Internet users, comments on social networks, etc. Automating the synthesis of opinions has become crucial to gaining an overview on a given topic. Current automatic systems perform well on classifying the subjective or objective character of a document. However, classifications obtained from polarity analysis remain inconclusive, due to the algorithms' inability to understand the subtleties of human language. Automatic Detection of Irony presents, in three stages, a supervised learning approach to predicting whether a tweet is ironic or not. The book begins by analyzing some everyday examples of irony and presenting a reference corpus. It then develops an automatic irony detection model for French tweets that exploits semantic traits and extralinguistic context. Finally, it presents a study of portability in a multilingual framework (Italian, English, Arabic).

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Based on the most recent scientific data, and without neglecting historical publications, Fishes in Lagoons and Estuaries in the Mediterranean 3 comprehensively details Mediterranean lagoonal–marine migratory fish. It provides information regarding their systematics, ecobiology, ethology, genetics and their exploitation. This volume, third in a set of books on Mediterranean ichthyofauna, offers a synthesis of the knowledge acquired from 1890 to the present day for each of the 21 species most frequently found in Mediterranean lagoons and estuaries. These species are detailed across two volumes, 3A and 3B. The scientific data presented in this book concern their lagoon life as much as their marine life, and are therefore of particular interest for both the management of fish stocks and for the conservation of species. Designed to give rapid and comprehensive access to the body of knowledge on Mediterranean lagoonal and estuarine migratory fishes, this volume is for anyone involved in the use, management or protection of natural environments and their populations, including ecobiologists, geographers, engineers, teachers, students and researchers.

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