Search results for ""author francis"

Project success requires a solid understanding and proper implementation of the tools, techniques, and principles of project management. A reference for both the novice and expert project manager, The Project Manager's Emergency Kit provides you with everything you will need to get your project off to a solid start and overcome any emergencies that may arise during the project life cycle. It supplies you with over 200 project management tools, techniques, and principles arranged in alphabetical order.The text provides guidance on how to complete projects on time and within budget while meeting the needs of your customers. It presents easy-to-follow project planning steps covering the responsibilities, work breakdown structures, time and cost estimating, scheduling, resource allocation, and budgeting. The Project Manager's Emergency Kit provides you with straightforward guidelines that will help you overcome any challenges that may arise and deliver a product or service that will satisfy everyone who has a stake in the outcome of your project.

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The quality management revolution has resulted in considerable trial and error as well as frustration. Here is a book that explores why many management trends don't translate into process improvement. It recommends establishing a condition of "rationality" as a guide and measure for all organizational and quality improvement efforts. Instead of imposing radical new "breakthroughs", Phoenix Without the Ashes: Achieving Organizational Excellence Through Common Sense Management suggests an approach that fits with the normal routines and operations of an organization in a way that makes sense.Part One of this text discusses the nature of common sense, and of quality as a condition of organizational excellence. In Part Two, the elements that negatively affect quality improvement are explained from an operating management perspective. Part Three looks at the impediments to improvement set by organizational structures. Part Four discusses the relationship among leadership, motivation, and organizational excellence, and Part Five suggests a rational strategy for effective, enduring organizational improvement.Managers in every industry will benefit from the information provided in Phoenix Without the Ashes.

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This authoritative text addresses the latest in bioremediation technologies for three difficult-to-treat contaminant groups: chlorinated solvents, PCBs, and PAHs - one of the most complex and expensive areas of applied remediation engineering.Bioremediation of Recalcitrant Compounds assesses innovative R&D projects developed for each contaminant group by a specially funded consortium of experts. Considering factors such as availability, toxicity, and treatability, world-class experts chronicle the development of field-ready biotechnologies, reflecting on the science and engineering challenges encountered as the research team progressed from bench-scale testing to the field. This book features the experimental work involved in enzymatic reactions for the biodegradation of co-solvent extraction of chlorinated solvents, bioaugmentation enhanced PAH degradation, and genetically engineered microorganisms (GEMs) for enhanced PCB degradation. Comparisons to traditional methods of remediation also provide new insight on how to optimize biotreatment.Concluding with future directions of research and development in this area, Bioremediation of Recalcitrant Compounds is a must-have for professionals seeking cutting-edge, innovative biotreatment technologies for these hazardous organic compounds.

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This edited collection of presentations by major speakers at AAHE's 1999 and 2000 Assessment Conferences offers cutting-edge ideas from: Jorge Klor de Alva; Noel Entwistle; James Anderson; Victor Borden; Jean MacGregor, Vincent Tinto, Jerri Holland Lindblad; Barbara Wright; and others. Questions explored include: (1) How does a successful for-profit institution define and assess its learning outcomes and use that information to develop programs? (2) How can we create curricula and assessments that promote "deep" learning that endures, rather than superficial surface learning? (3) What is an effective performance indicator, and what keys determine the best utilization in varied situations? (4) What have we learned from assessments of the learning community movement? (5) How can we use both assessment and accreditation to promote cultural change?

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Ninth in the Service-Learning in the Disciplines Series, this book discusses the pervasive use of service-learning in environmental studies programs and explains why it often is a required part of the environmental studies curriculum. Contributors from a wide range of college and university environmental studies programs discuss the benefits and challenges these programs provide and the consequent natural fit between environmental studies and service-learning.

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This practical reference describes the occurrence of cavitation in a centrifugal pump, and how unacceptable cavitation can be avoided. It explains cavitation problems such as hydraulic performance loss, hydrodynamically or thermodynamically induced surging, and cavitation erosion. General guidelines for acceptable operation conditions, such as, net positive suction head (NPSH) margins and minimum flowrates, are presented along with evidence and logic for these proposed guidelines.

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Here is one of the first books to focus on the Internet?s impact on library services. Libraries have evolved over many years and contain traditions of organization. The Internet---disorganized, fluid, mutative--challenges the logic of the librarian. How responsive are librarians to the Internet? How do they use it? What are their interests? What does the Internet mean to their world? Librarians on the Internet addresses many questions such as these and provides a snapshot of librarians’work with the Internet.Authors from around the United States and Canada discuss many aspects of Internet use, including gophers, VERONICA, science sources, electronic text, bibliographic instruction, training, and implementation of information services. Chapters focus not so much on the Internet in general as on librarians’use of the Internet as they take on a new task--essentially using a virtual library. Readers will discover how their colleagues are using this new technology to their advantage. Librarians on the Internet makes it clear that librarians who utilize the Internet have an edge in the world of information. The questions this book answers--and those it raises--inform and challenge librarians as they forge ahead into the future on the Internet.

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Do stepfamilies experience greater levels of stressors than first families? Do they also experience more negative manifestations of stress? Find the latest research on these questions and more in this groundbreaking exploration of the complex factors and dynamics that make up stepfamilies. The Stepfamily Puzzle fills a gap in research that has not kept pace with the rapid growth of interest in this subject. It sets some of the pieces of the stepfamily puzzle into an intergenerational framework that includes the roles of grandparents, parent-child interactions, the struggles to define boundaries and achieve marital intimacy, and the underlying effects of financial support on stepfamily well-being. The Stepfamily Puzzle compares the effects of stress in stepfamilies and conditions in other families and reveals that the differences between the two types of families may not be as dramatic as long assumed. It also examines in-depth the emotional and financial stressors that impact stepfamilies and how this stress is exhibited in family relationships. Other groundbreaking research presented in this book includes: the closeness of relationships between children and grandparents in stepfamilies as compared to children and grandparents in first families effects of ongoing attachment to the former spouse on post-divorce relationships stepsibling subsystems a comparison of self-esteem and behavior problems of stepchildren and children in other family structures social support received by children in stepmother, stepfather, and intact families quality of stepfather-adolescent relationships effect of child support on stepfamily satisfactionTherapists, attorneys, and those interested in the numerous therapeutic and psychoeducational programs, self-help groups, and trade literature available on stepfamily relationships will find The Stepfamily Puzzle a valuable introduction to current research in this area. By presenting the complex variables that interact within stepfamilies, this book helps professionals understand the dynamics behind stepfamily relationships so they can provide effective support and care.

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In this readable book, Zvi Levy, Hadassim’s Director, provides a careful account of how, over time, he and others have shaped a community to foster health, identity, and competence in distressed young people. Canadian WIZO (Women’s International Zionist Organization) Hadassim is a thriving youth village in Israel that is home for 500 young people and a day educational program for an additional 1,000. Negotiating Positive Identity in a Residential Group Care Community illustrates the organizational expression of a developmental idea, in this case Erik Erikson’s identity development theory, to show how an environment can be created to cope with disrupted development processes among children and adolescents. The book describes an ongoing experiment that started fifteen years ago and has since been recognized as an outstanding success. The basic information and ideas expressed by Levy can be used to improve the effectiveness of any framework through which adolescents pass during the stages of development, including schools, community centers, and normal families. Some of the main topics discussed in this volume are: principles for running a multicultural facility organization of the daily life of a large residential setting major parameters in a residential setting as derived from the theories of Erik Erikson on adolescence as a developmental stage comprehensive care for youth in transition and adolescents suffering from aggravated identity crisesAll child and youth care workers and program administrators can learn much from Levy’s account of Hadassim. Negotiating Positive Identity in a Residential Group Care Community will be disturbing to many who adhere to the current tenets of good management and child care practice; readers need to be prepared to have many assumptions and beliefs challenged. The book emphasizes the distress of immigrant and troubled urban youth as an aggravated identity crisis, the cause of which needs to be treated before the symptom. This volume is of interest to theoreticians, practitioners, and policymakers in the fields of education, child and youth care, and developmental psychology, as well as scholars in Erikson’s theories. It is also useful in courses which study education in Israel or that seek solutions to problems such as homeless youth in the Third World.Negotiating Positive Identity in a Residential Group Care Community stresses that: The answer to deprivation is not the provision of efficient services, but an environment and an approach that encourages adolescents to see themselves as active participants and not as patients or passive inmates. Residential settings for children and adolescents can successfully handle large numbers and, in fact, larger numbers can offer some definite advantages. The best way to help children develop into autonomous adults is to give them responsibility for their own choices within the framework of a goal-oriented community.

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Explore the conservation implications of recent armed conflicts in the tropical forest regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America! From the lowland rainforests of the Colombian Amazon to the rugged habitat of Rwanda's mountain gorillas, civil, ethnic, and international wars have had severe impacts on tropical forests and the communities they sustain. The reemergence of war and the persistence of its impacts have led many conservationists to reassess their efforts and adapt their strategies to a new set of responsibilities and urgent challenges. War and Tropical Forests: Conservation in Areas of Armed Conflict explores these challenges and the lessons learned by conservationists working in conflict zones around the world. It combines case studies and comparative analyses by leading experts in ecological research, environmental policy, and conservation field programs to provide insight into the environmental dimensions of recent social, political, and humanitarian crises. War and Tropical Forests reviews lessons learned from conflict zones around the world and explores: the potential of conservation to reduce the frequency, duration, and impact of war preparation of conservation programs and local communities for crises strategies for maintaining conservation capacity during times of conflict the underlying political and economic factors that fuel war legal mechanisms for addressing wartime damage to tropical forests building partnerships amidst civil strife and political upheaval This essential book also examines: the Indonesian military's role in illegal logging and deforestation violent conflict and gorilla poaching in the Democratic Republic of Congo armed movements and forest conservation in Nicaragua's largest protected area and much more! War and Tropical Forests also addresses the role of militaries in the inequitable control and illicit use of forest resources, the environmental impact of refugees, the growing social and environmental costs of efforts to eradicate drug crops, and the impact of conflict on protected area management in the habitat of Africa's endangered great apes. War and Tropical Forests is an essential resource for conservation practitioners and policymakers, as well as anyone involved with human rights, conflict resolution, rural development, international law, or foreign relations.

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Ever since the fifties, when television became ascendent in American popular culture, it has become commonplace to bemoan its "bad" effects. Little or nothing, however, has been said about its "good" effects. With this observation, Henry Perkinson introduces his provocative and original analysis of television and culture. Rejecting the determinism inherent in most studies of the effects of television ("We are what we watch"), he insists that it is people that actively change culture, media having no agency to do so. Nevertheless, he argues that television did facilitate the changes we have made in our culture over the past thirty years.Perkinson describes how television helped us become critical of our existing culture, especially of the relationships that were commonly accepted between men and women, blacks and whites, politicians and voters, employers and employees, and between people and the environment. These criticisms have brought about dramatic changes in our social, political, and economic arrangements, as well as changes in our intellectual outlook. Since these changes came about through our efforts to eliminate or reduce discrimination, suffering, and injustice, Perkinson argues that our culture has become more moral in the age of television.In what amounts to a history of recent social change in America, Getting Better examines the role television has played in the rise of feminism, the black protest movement, the presidential elections, the Vietnam War, Watergate, environmentalism, religious fundamentalism, and the New Age movement. This book will be essential reading for students of communications and American culture, and for anyone who wants to make sense of the transformations of American life from the 1950s to the present. Even those who do not agree that things are "getting better" will find that Perkinson's analysis helps to make things more coherent.

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Lack of family structure, violence in the schools, and overcrowded classrooms spur a never-ending cry for "reforms" to confront such issues. Quentin L. Quade cuts through the alarming din to what he feels is the real heart of the matter- the ways society assigns tax dollars dedicated to education, what he refers to as educational finance monopoly or EFM.In the United States, contrary to the practice of many other modern democracies, tax dollars are assigned by state bureaucratic structures to each state's own schools. Such a system spawns structures and personnel that stay in place irrespective of merit, and keep control of all finances. An alternative to EFM, at work in various other democracies, is programs aimed to permit school choice without financial penalty. In such systems, parents determine the allocation of education-dedicated tax dollars, and can select schools most suited to their children. In contrast, under EFM state schools are sheltered from competitive incentives to excel, to make themselves choiceworthy. And independent schools are damaged because they are deprived of the resources they would have if parents were free to choose.On the one side, defenders of EFM want political control for financial advantage and to block efforts to change. On the other side, critics want parents to be free to decide the educational environment for their children. Quade maintains that EFM is fundamentally injurious to children, parents, and the nation; that it is maintained by political defenses of financial interests, not for reasons of educational merit; and that school choice without financial penalty would create better educational conditions and outcomes.Financing Education examines the major problems of American K-12 education, establishes the casual connections with EFM, offers school choice without financial penalty as a powerful and obvious cure, and examines several American school choice proposals. It will be of interest to policymakers, policy analysts, educators, taxpayers, parents, and all persons concerned about American's educational quality.

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Hysteria as a neurosis seems to have disappeared altogether from the psychiatric manuals; but there are articles here and there, particularly in the United States and France, which advocate the existence of hysteria as a psychosis. Hysterical psychosis is the clinical combination of a hysterical personality with a seemingly psychotic state. Looking back to nineteenth-century psychiatry, Katrien Libbrecht attempts to answer the question: Is there such a thing as a hysterical psychosis or are we dealing with hysteria exhibiting psychotic features?Hysterical Psychosis is divided into three sections. The first part of the book carries the reader back to the second half of the nineteenth century, the heyday of the study of hysteria on the eve of the discovery of psychonanalysis. The second part of the book discusses the implications of the generalized impact of Bleuler's concept of schizophrenia during the interbellum period. The last section of the book deals with the current reemergence of hysterical psychosis from the 1960s to the 1990s.Libbrecht provides a historical survey of the most important psychiatric and psychoanalytic references on hysterical psychosis, as well as a review of current research on the matter. She sheds new light on reasons for the disappearance of the diagnosis of hysteria rn the 1950s and the emergence of the notion of hysterical psychosis during the 1960s. Hysterical Psychosis is a landmark study that is essential for psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, medical practitioners, and historians of psychology.

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This is Volume 2 of Praxiology: The International Annual of Practical Philosophy and Methology, focusing on Philosophy and Action Theory. This volume is divided into three parts: the first one being, so to speak, a ‘business card’ of Finland’s contemporary practical philosophy, the second one being a ‘business card’ of the P oland’s present praxiology, and a collection of contributions from other philosophical environments related to the topics.

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This book is about the process of using analytics and the capabilities of analytics in today’s organizations. Cutting through the buzz surrounding the term analytics and the overloaded expectations about using analytics, the book demystifies analytics with an in-depth examination of concepts grounded in operations research and management science. Analytics as a set of tools and processes is only as effective as: The data with which it is working The human judgment applying the processes and understanding the output of these processes. For this reason, the book focuses on the analytics process. What is intrinsic to analytics’ real organizational impact are the careful application of tools and the thoughtful application of their outcomes. This work emphasizes analytics as part of a process that supports decision-making within organizations. It wants to debunk overblown expectations that somehow analytics outputs or analytics as applied to other concepts, such as Big Data, are the be-all and end-all of the analytics process. They are, instead, only a step within a holistic and critical approach to management thinking that can create real value for an organization.To develop this holistic approach, the book is divided into two sections that examine concepts and applications. The first section makes the case for executive management taking a holistic approach to analytics. It draws on rich research in operations and management science that form the context in which analytics tools are to be applied. There is a strong emphasis on knowledge management concepts and techniques, as well as risk management concepts and techniques. The second section focuses on both the use of the analytics process and organizational issues that are required to make the analytics process relevant and impactful.

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From the ForewordUmberto Quattrocchi has brought us some amazing and useful works through the various dictionaries that he has compiled. This time it is for two very important plant families the palms and the cycads that are synthesized here in these two volumes. Each entry is fascinating not just for the botany and full nomenclature of the plant species but for all the associated uses, folklore and interactions with other organisms. ...These entries are fascinating glimpses of natural history. ... Botanists, conservationists, ethnobotanists, anthropologists, geographers, bird watchers, naturalists, historians and those of many other disciplines will find these volumes a most valuable and useful resource. It is the sort of book that will be in frequent use in my library.----- Professor Sir Ghillean Prance FRS, VMH, Former Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Following the same format as Umberto Quattrocchi's highly praised and well-used previous w

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Future remote sensing systems will make extensive use of Compressive Sensing (CS) as it becomes more integrated into the system design with increased high resolution sensor developments and the rising earth observation data generated each year. Written by leading experts in the field Compressive Sensing of Earth Observations provides a comprehensive and balanced coverage of the theory and applications of CS in all aspects of earth observations. This work covers a myriad of practical aspects such as the use of CS in detection of human vital signs in a cluttered environment and the corresponding modeling of rib-cage breathing. Readers are also presented with three different applications of CS to the ISAR imaging problem, which includes image reconstruction from compressed data, resolution enhancement, and image reconstruction from incomplete data.

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Dosimetry refers to the calculation and assessment of the radiation dose received by the human body. The proposed book will place emphasis on the existence of physical and biophysical dosimetry. It will be discussed for the proper description and evaluation of the signal at the power generation system. It will cover in detail 10 different parameters of EMF (electromagnetism) exposure such as amplitude, frequency, vector, time of exposure, orientation, etc. In most published papers, these parameters are not well defined.

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In many places in the world, forests dominate landscapes and provide various products. Future climate change could profoundly alter the productivity of forest ecosystems and species composition. Until now, climate impact research has primarily focused on the likely impacts of rise in temperature, increased atmospheric CO2 concentration, and varying precipitation on unmanaged forests. The issue that now needs to be addressed is how to sustainably manage climate change for timber production and biomass. Though climate change is a global issue, impacts on forests depend on local environmental conditions and management methods, so this book will look at the issue under varying local contexts.

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The global warming problem is becoming critical year by year, causing climate disaster all over the world, where it has been believed that the CO2 gas emitted from the factories and the burning of fossil fuels may be one of the reasons of global warming. Moreover, the global stock of fossil fuels is limited, and may run out soon within several tens of years. Although wind, geo-thermal, and tide energies have been considered as clean energy sources, those depend on the land or sea locations and subject to the climate change. Biofuel and biochemical production from renewable bio-resources has thus been paid recent attention from environmental protection and energy production points of view, where the current chemical and energy producing plants can be also utilized with slight modification. The so-called 1st generation biofuels have been produced from corn starch and sugarcane in particular in USA and Brazil. However, this causes the problem of the so-called "food and energy issues" as the production scale increases. The 2nd generation biofuel production from lingo-cellulosic biomass or wastes has thus been paid recent attention. However, it requires energy intensive pretreatment for the degradation of lingo-cellulosic biomass, and the fermentation is slow due to low growth rate, and thus the productivity of biofuels and bio-chemicals is low. The 3rd generation biofuel production from photosynthetic organisms such as cyanobacteria and algae has been also paid attention, because such organisms can grow with only sun light and CO2 in the air, but the cell growth rate and thus the productivity of the fuels is significantly low. The main part or core of such production processes is the fermentation by micro-organisms. In particular, it is critical to properly understand the cell metabolism followed by the efficient metabolic engineering. The book gives comprehensive explanation of the cell metabolism and the metabolic regulation mechanisms of a variety of micro-organisms. Then the efficient metabolic engineering approaches are explained to properly design the microbial cell factories for the efficient cell growth and biofuel and biochemical production.

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Nonlinear Control of Robots and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: An Integrated Approach presents control and regulation methods that rely upon feedback linearization techniques. Both robot manipulators and UAVs employ operating regimes with large magnitudes of state and control variables, making such an approach vital for their control systems design. Numerous application examples are included to facilitate the art of nonlinear control system design, for both robotic systems and UAVs, in a single unified framework. MATLAB® and Simulink® are integrated to demonstrate the importance of computational methods and systems simulation in this process.

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This book serves as an introduction to the level design process in Unreal Engine 4. By working with a number of different components within the Unreal Editor, readers will learn to create levels using BSPs, create custom materials, create custom Blueprints complete with events, import objects, create particle effects, create sound effects and combine them to create a complete playable game level. The book is designed to work step by step at the beginning of each chapter, then allow the reader to complete similar tasks on their own to show an understanding of the content. A companion website with project files and additional information is included.

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Himalaya, the world's most prominent mountain system of the world is a source of sustainence for the social, cultural and economic development of population across different countries. Unscientific, small-scale mining for harnessing reounrces including minerals has caused ecosystem damage. Therefore, an integrated and holistic approach to deal with the resource management is required. This book makes a focussed effort to explain how mining in the Himalaya is practiced with discussions pertaining to critiques and lacunas of mining and environmental practices. Status of mining practices in Himalaya is included along with the legal/environmental repercussions of mining.

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Cannabis sativa is best known as the source of marijuana, the world’s most widely consumed illicit recreational drug. However, the plant is also extremely useful as a source of stem fiber, edible seed oil, and medicinal compounds, all of which are undergoing extremely promising research, technological applications, and business investment. Indeed, despite its capacity for harm as a recreational drug, cannabis has phenomenal potential for providing new products to benefit society and for generating extensive employment and huge profits. Misguided policies, until recently, have prevented legitimate research on the beneficial properties of cannabis, but there is now an explosion of societal, scientific, and political support to reappraise and remove some of the barriers to usage. Unfortunately, there is also a corresponding dearth of objective analysis. Towards redressing the limitation of information, Cannabis: A Complete Guide is a comprehensive reference summarizing botanical, business, chemical, ecological, genetic, historical, horticultural, legal, and medical considerations that are critical for the wise advancement and management of cannabis in its various forms.This book documents both the risks and benefits of what is indisputably one of the world’s most important species. The conflicting claims for medicinal virtues and toxicological vices are examined, based mainly on the most recent authoritative scientific reviews. The attempt is made consistently to reflect majority scientific opinion, although many aspects of cannabis are controversial. Aside from the relevance to specialists, the general public should find the presentation attractive because of the huge interest today in marijuana. Unfortunately, society has become so specialized and compartmentalized that most people have limited appreciation of the importance of science to their lives, except when a topic like marijuana becomes sensationalized. This review of cannabis can serve as a vehicle for public education in the realm of science and technology. Indeed, towards the goal of disseminating the important information in this book to a wide audience, the presentation is user-friendly, concise, and well-illustrated in the hope that non-specialists will find the topics both informative and entertaining.

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Iterative Methods without Inversion presents the iterative methods for solving operator equations f(x) = 0 in Banach and/or Hilbert spaces. It covers methods that do not require inversions of f (or solving linearized subproblems). The typical representatives of the class of methods discussed are Ulm’s and Broyden’s methods. Convergence analyses of the methods considered are based on Kantorovich’s majorization principle which avoids unnecessary simplifying assumptions like differentiability of the operator or solvability of the equation. These analyses are carried out under a more general assumption about degree of continuity of the operator than traditional Lipschitz continuity: regular continuity.Key Features The methods discussed are analyzed under the assumption of regular continuity of divided difference operator, which is more general and more flexible than the traditional Lipschitz continuity. An attention is given to criterions for comparison of merits of various methods and to the related concept of optimality of a method of certain class. Many publications on methods for solving nonlinear operator equations discuss methods that involve inversion of linearization of the operator, which task is highly problematic in infinite dimensions. Accessible for anyone with minimal exposure to nonlinear functional analysis.

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Reflectance confocal microscopy enables lesions in skin to be examined without excision, but with improved diagnostic accuracy, assessment of dermoscopic-histologic correlation, assessment of surgical margins, as well as speed and convenience for the physician and patient. This extensively enlarged and updated text reviews the current and future state of the art for those involved with the diagnosis and treatment of skin tumors, with a greatly increased amount of material on the expected normal patterns of skin throughout life and on non-melanocytic tumors.

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This book focusses on a parallel approach that ensures successful acquisitions are strategic and cultural fits, which meet all synergy goals while at the same time optimizing and growing the current business. Busiensses must run effectively before they are built upon them through acquisition. These same tools that we use in the preparatory phase while optimizing our current business including Lean, Six Sigma and Theory of Constraints become the catalyst that will maximize business growth, cash flow and net profits for the expanded business in the long term. They are transferrable and form an integral part of "the glue" that holds the newly acquired company and the core business together.

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In recent years, novel families of materials have been discovered and significant improvements in classical thermoelectric materials have been made. Thermoelectric generators are now being used to harvest industrial heat waste and convert it into electricity. This is being utilized in communal incinerators, large smelters, and cement plants. Leading car and truck companies are developing thermoelectric power generators to collect heat from the exhaust systems of gasoline and diesel engines. Additionally, thermoelectric coolers are being used in a variety of picnic boxes, vessels used to transport transplant organs, and in air-conditioned seats of mid-size cars. Consisting of twenty-one chapters written by top researchers in the field, this book explores the major advancements being made in the material aspects of thermoelectricity and provides a critical assessment in regards to the broadening of application opportunities for thermoelectric energy conversion.

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This book explores the different types of police misconduct including the use of excessive force. It also explores what types of officers become involved in illegal misconduct, steps jurisdictions may take to prevent such problems, and discusses who should police the police. Also included is a historical analysis of police misconduct, discussions on the legal restrictions designed to prevent police misconduct, and steps that the jurisdiction may take to limit their liability. Ancillary material is available with course adoption.

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Global oilseeds industry is expected to expand in the future but would also constitute a platform for a variety of other products from processing waste such as protein meals and aromatic compounds. Edible Oils: Extraction, Processing, and Applications intends to present up to date technologies that are currently used for the extraction and refining of Edible Oils while proposing potential applications for its derivatives. This contribution pushes to consider market transformation driven by environmental concerns and customer’s envy to bring quality attributes, energy efficiency and waste disposal into the heart of innovation.This work is aimed at professionals and academics including researchers, engineers and managers engaged in food and green engineering disciplines and ambitions to stand as a reference for students and lecturers. The readers will find a wealth of knowledge about the fundamentals of unit operations such as extraction and separation while presenting concepts of biorefinery for product and value creation from certain edible seeds. Novelties includes novel approaches for green solvent development in extraction, and examples of life cycle assessment of production systems for certain vegetable oils comprising product, service and waste management systems. Furthermore, this book focuses attention to production, processing, and current applications of palm oil, as an important commodity in Asia and addresses global market changes and important factors that influence its future prospects.

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Adhesive bonding plays an increasing role in the forest product industry and is a key factor for efficiently utilizing timber and other lignocellulosic resources. As synthetic wood adhesives are mostly derived from depleting petrochemical resources and have caused increasing environmental concern, natural product and byproduct-derived adhesives have attracted much attention in the last decades. Although adhesives made from plant and animal sources have been in existence since ancient times, increased knowledge of their chemistry and improved technical formulation of their preparation are still needed to promote their broader industrial applications. The primary goals of this book are to (1) synthesize the fundamental knowledge and latest research on bio-based adhesives from a remarkable range of natural products and byproducts, (2) identify need areas and provide directions of future bio-based adhesive research, and (3) help integrating research findings in practical adhesive application for maximal benefits. This book covers information on a variety of natural products and byproducts and the latest research on formulation, testing and improvement of the relevant adhesives in fifteen chapters written by an international group of accomplished contributors. This book will serve as a valuable reference source for university faculty, graduate students, research scientists, agricultural and wood engineers, international organization advocators and government agency regulators who work and deal with enhanced utilization of agricultural and forest products and byproducts.

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For complex operating modalities and dimensionalities, the design and development of high-performance sensing and imaging systems represent the most direct and significant advances in the field of system analysis and signal processing. In this field, the core components are physical modeling, mathematical analysis, formulation of image reconstruction algorithms, performance evaluation, and system optimization. Acoustical Sensing and Imaging covers the full scope of these components, with an emphasis on the applications of system analysis and signal processing in acoustical sensing and imaging. Providing a unified theoretical framework, this book: Focuses on the resolution analysis in the physical modeling of the systems, conducting the analysis through the quantitative assessment of the spatial-frequency spectral coverage Addresses the key elements of signal processing, such as the design of the probing waveforms, image reconstruction algorithms, error reduction and removal, and image enhancement Formulates the image reconstruction algorithms based on the concept of coherent backward propagation, in the form of multi-frequency tomography Explains how to improve system performance, including the correction of quadrature phase errors prior to image reconstruction and enhancement with coherent wavefield statistics during the superposition of sub-images Presents several applications as examples of various operating modalities, illustrating the technical and educational significance of the field Acoustical Sensing and Imaging ensures a broad appreciation of the design concepts, analysis, and development of high-performance sensing and imaging systems.

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Maintaining the advanced technical focus found in Developing Essbase Applications, this second volume is another collaborative effort by some of the best and most experienced Essbase practitioners from around the world.Developing Essbase Applications: Hybrid Techniques and Practices reviews technology areas that are much-discussed but still very new, including Exalytics and Hybrid Essbase. Covering recent improvements to the Essbase engine, the book illustrates the impact of new reporting and analysis tools and also introduces advanced Essbase best practices across a variety of features, functions, and theories.Some of this book’s chapters are in the same vein as the previous volume: hardware, engines, and languages. Others cover new ground with Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, design philosophy, benchmarking concepts, and multiple client tools. As before, these subjects are covered from both the technical and best practice perspectives.This updated volume continues in the tradition of its bestselling predecessor by defining, investigating, and explaining Essbase concepts like no other resource. It also includes use cases that transform abstract theory into practical examples you can easily relate to your own Essbase environment.Illustrating the recent expansion of Essbase functionality, this book provides the up-to-date understanding you need to explore the full depth of the Essbase technology stack. Although the book presents detailed tutorial chapters that can be read on their own, reading the entire book will provide you with a similar understanding as some of the most experienced Essbase practitioners from around the world.

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Nearly half of the world’s adult population is either clinically obese or overweight. Excess weight increases risk for multiple other chronic diseases and represents a major global health issue. Weight gain results from an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure, which can only be corrected if the physiologic and neuroendocrine systems that have the potential to control energy balance are identified. The first edition of this book reviewed knowledge on the intake of micro- and macronutrients, food choice, and opposing views on whether or not there are mechanisms that control food intake. Appetite and Food Intake: Central Control, Second Edition contains all new chapters and serves as a companion to the first by reviewing current knowledge on neuroendocrine mechanisms that influence food intake and glucose metabolism, including environmental influences on their development, with an emphasis on recent progress in understanding forebrain and hindbrain control of ingestive behavior.In addition, there is a discussion on the benefits derived from novel models for exploring ingestive behavior and the progress that has been achieved due to new technologies. Although major progress is being made in understanding the complex interplay between different control systems, the limits of our knowledge are acknowledged in chapters that review the efficacy of current weight control drugs and the relative importance of fat free mass and body fat in driving food intake.

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From the splash of breaking waves to turbulent swirling smoke, the mathematical dynamics of fluids are varied and continue to be one of the most challenging aspects in animation. Fluid Engine Development demonstrates how to create a working fluid engine through the use of particles and grids, and even a combination of the two. Core algorithms are explained from a developer’s perspective in a practical, approachable way that will not overwhelm readers. The Code Repository offers further opportunity for growth and discussion with continuously changing content and source codes. This book helps to serve as the ultimate guide to navigating complex fluid animation and development. Explains how to create a fluid simulation engine from scratch Offers an approach that is code-oriented rather than math-oriented, allowing readers to learn how fluid dynamics works with code, with downloadable code available Explores various kinds of simulation techniques for fluids using particles and grids Discusses practical issues such as data structure design and optimizations Covers core numerical tools including linear system and level set solvers

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The transport sector consists of different modes of transport, each serving a growing demand for transporting people and goods. This (growing) demand on the one hand, needs expanding the systems’ capacity, and on the other hand, increasing the corresponding economic efficiency, effectiveness, and environmental and social friendliness. This implies development of a ‘greener’, i.e. a more sustainable transport sector. The book describes the current and prospective state of the art analytical modelling, conceptual planning, and multi-criteria evaluation of the selected cases of transport systems operated by different transport modes such as road, rail, sea, air, and intermodal. As such, the book is unique in addressing these three important aspects of dealing with transport systems before implementation of their particular components means by the selected cases. It will be particularly useful for readers from the academia and the professionals from the transport sector.

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Fundamentals of Ceramics presents readers with an exceptionally clear and comprehensive introduction to ceramic science. This Second Edition updates problems and adds more worked examples, as well as adding new chapter sections on Computational Materials Science and Case Studies. The Computational Materials Science sections describe how today density functional theory and molecular dynamics calculations can shed valuable light on properties, especially ones that are not easy to measure or visualize otherwise such as surface energies, elastic constants, point defect energies, phonon modes, etc. The Case Studies sections focus more on applications, such as solid oxide fuel cells, optical fibers, alumina forming materials, ultra-strong and thin glasses, glass-ceramics, strong and tough ceramics, fiber-reinforced ceramic matrix composites, thermal barrier coatings, the space shuttle tiles, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, two-dimensional solids, field-assisted and microwave sintering, colossal magnetoresistance, among others.

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Upconverting Nanomaterials: Perspectives, Synthesis, and Applications serves as a powerful instrument that explores cutting-edge research knowledge on the topic of upconverting nanosystems, while simultaneously providing the necessary fundamental background for nonspecialist readers. The various aspects of upconverting materials are approached both from a theoretical point of view, particularly upconverting phenomenon, and a practical one. By presenting synthetic strategies, functionalization, production of core shell structures and nanocomposites, this book supplies PhD students, researchers, and scientists with a wealth of ideas they can apply to different fields of research. Thirty-five renowned scientists from around the world have collaborated to produce 11 chapters that help to "make a voyage" through the most important aspects of UPNPs, including syntheses, mechanism, functionalization, and applications.

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Thermodynamic data of polymer solutions are paramount for industrial and laboratory processes. These data also serve to understand the physical behavior of polymer solutions, study intermolecular interactions, and gain insights into the molecular nature of mixtures. Nearly a decade has passed since the release of a similar CRC Handbook and since then a large amount of new experimental data have been published, which is now compiled in this book.The CRC Handbook of Phase Equilibria and Thermodynamic Data of Polymer Solutions at Elevated Pressures features nearly 500 newly published references containing approximately 175 new vapor-liquid equilibrium data sets, 25 new liquid-liquid equilibrium data sets, 540 new high-pressure fluid phase equilibrium data sets, 60 new data sets describing PVT properties of polymers, and 20 new data sets with densities or excess volumes. The book is a valuable resource for researchers, specialists, and engineers working in the fields of polymer science, physical chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, biological science and technology, and those developing computerized predictive packages.

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Software analysis patterns play an important role in reducing the overall cost and compressing the time of software project lifecycles. However, building reusable and stable software analysis patterns is still considered a major and delicate challenge. This book proposes a novel concept for building analysis patterns based on software stability and is a modern approach for building stable, highly reusable, and widely applicable analysis patterns. The book also aims to promote better understanding of problem spaces and discusses how to focus requirements analysis accurately. It demonstrates a new approach to discovering and creating stable analysis patterns (SAPs). This book presents a pragmatic approach to understanding problem domains, utilizing SAPs for any field of knowledge, and modeling stable software systems, components, and frameworks. It helps readers attain the basic knowledge that is needed to analyze and extract analysis patterns from any domain of interest. Readers also learn to master methods to document patterns in an effective, easy, and comprehensible manner.Bringing significant contributions to the field of computing, this book is a unique and comprehensive reference manual on SAPs. It provides insight on handling the understanding of problem spaces and supplies methods and processes to analyze user requirements accurately as well as ways to use SAPs in building myriad cost-effective and highly maintainable systems. The book also shows how to link SAPs to the design phase thereby ensuring a smooth transition between analysis and design.

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Light Scattering Technology for Food Property, Quality and Safety Assessment discusses the development and application of various light scattering techniques for measuring the structural and rheological properties of food, evaluating composition and quality attributes, and detecting pathogens in food. The first four chapters cover basic concepts, principles, theories, and modeling of light transfer in food and biological materials. Chapters 5 and 6 describe parameter estimation methods and basic techniques for determining optical absorption and scattering properties of food products.Chapter 7 discusses the spatially-resolved measurement technique for determining the optical properties of food and biological materials, whereas Chapter 8 focuses on the time-resolved spectroscopic technique for measuring optical properties and quality or maturity of horticultural products. Chapter 9 examines practical light scattering techniques for nondestructive quality assessment of fruits and vegetables. Chapter 10 presents the theory of light transfer in meat muscle and the measurement of optical properties for determining the postmortem condition and textural properties of muscle foods and meat analogs.Chapter 11 covers the applications of spatially-resolved light scattering techniques for assessing quality and safety of animal products. Chapter 12 looks into light scattering for milk and dairy processing. Chapter 13 examines the applications of dynamic light scattering for measuring the microstructure and rheological properties of food. Chapter 14 shows the applications of a biospeckle technique for assessing the quality and condition of fruits and vegetables. Chapter 15 provides a detailed description of Raman scattering spectroscopic and imaging techniques in food quality and safety assessment. Chapter 16, the final chapter, focuses on applications of light scattering techniques for the detection of food-borne pathogens.

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How Can Polymers Constructed From Living Organisms Help Eliminate the Disposal Issue?A unique category of materials called biodegradable polymers could help remedy a growing environmental concern. Biodegradable Polymeric Nanocomposites: Advances in Biomedical Applications considers the potential of biodegradable polymers for use in biomedical applications that include drug delivery, biosensors, and tissue engineering. Since biomaterials perform on a time-limited function and are designed to disappear from the body after use, the development of biopolymers could greatly reduce and eliminate the need for plastic products, most specifically those used in biomedical applications.Highlights Biomaterials and the Design and Application of BiomaterialsUtilizing expert research contributors from around the world, this book considers the benefits and limitations of a variety of biomaterials, such as biopolymers, ceramics, biodegradable nanocomposites, and natural products–based biomaterials. It explores the bio-nano-interface; the interaction between nanoparticles and biomaterials, explains the basic concepts and methods of biodegradable nanocomposites (BNCs), and highlights recent developments in polymer-based bionanocomposites. The book provides an overview of degradation properties and the mechanical properties of biodegradable polymers. It also breaks down the mechanical properties and biocompatibility of starch-based polymers, and outlines distinct advantages (biodegradability and nontoxicity) that make them suitable as medical polymer materials. In addition, it highlights the FDA-approved biodegradable polyester family and focuses on the state-of-the-art recent advancements in drug-delivery devices. Biodegradable Polymeric Nanocomposites: Advances in Biomedical Applications provides current knowledge on biopolymers, examines recent developments and trends, and considers future applications of polymers. Featuring the work of highly-qualified international researchers, this book addresses applications relevant to polymer and material science, as well as material, biomedical, and chemical engineering, and is of specific interest to polymer science engineers.

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Handbook of Visual Optics offers an authoritative overview of encyclopedic knowledge in the field of physiological optics. It builds from fundamental concepts to the science and technology of instruments and practical procedures of vision correction, integrating expert knowledge from physics, medicine, biology, psychology, and engineering. The chapters comprehensively cover all aspects of modern study and practice, from optical principles and optics of the eye and retina to novel ophthalmic tools for imaging and visual testing, devices and techniques for visual correction, and the relationship between ocular optics and visual perception.

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Monomial Algebras, Second Edition presents algebraic, combinatorial, and computational methods for studying monomial algebras and their ideals, including Stanley–Reisner rings, monomial subrings, Ehrhart rings, and blowup algebras. It emphasizes square-free monomials and the corresponding graphs, clutters, or hypergraphs. New to the Second Edition Four new chapters that focus on the algebraic properties of blowup algebras in combinatorial optimization problems of clutters and hypergraphs Two new chapters that explore the algebraic and combinatorial properties of the edge ideal of clutters and hypergraphs Full revisions of existing chapters to provide an up-to-date account of the subject Bringing together several areas of pure and applied mathematics, this book shows how monomial algebras are related to polyhedral geometry, combinatorial optimization, and combinatorics of hypergraphs. It directly links the algebraic properties of monomial algebras to combinatorial structures (such as simplicial complexes, posets, digraphs, graphs, and clutters) and linear optimization problems.

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Achieving the best aesthetic results in Mohs and other cutaneous surgery requires proper patient selection, careful surgical technique, and meticulous postoperative care. Yet despite the best efforts of both surgeon and patient, complications may develop, sometimes resulting in suboptimal or objectionable scarring.Mohs and Cutaneous Surgery: Maximizing Aesthetic Outcomes describes in detail the techniques and procedures that help achieve the most aesthetic results in cutaneous surgery. The book covers wound healing, surgical planning, intraoperative techniques, and complications. Also covered are surgical scar revision, dermabrasion, laser scar revision, neuromodulators and fillers, as well as topical and intralesional therapies for the improvement of scars.

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Biotechnology, particularly eco-friendly enzyme technologies, has immense potential for the augmentation of diverse food products utilizing vast biodiversity, resolving environmental problems owing to waste disposal from food and beverage industries. In addition to introducing the basic concepts and fundamental principles of enzymes, Enzymes in Food and Beverage Processing covers development of novel enzymes with desired properties and functions for use in food industries and use of enzymes as analytical tools for monitoring in food and beverage processing. It also details the application of enzymes in different food and beverage industries, recent advances in enzymology, functional foods, probiotics, and food additives. The book examines the scope, emerging enzyme technologies, and applications of enzymes in processing of various foods and beverages and in developing novel food products. It covers emerging enzyme technologies and enzyme engineering techniques for improved and enhanced performance of enzymes in food and beverage processing. The book discusses the scope for deriving new range of food products such as functional foods, nutraceuticals, and probiotics using enzymes as well as the scope for application of enzyme inhibitors and enzyme mediated biotransformation’s for improved enzyme processing of food and beverages.In the context of growing environmental problems and need for sustainable use of available natural resources, there is an increased need to implement valorization strategy in food and beverage processing industries which generates voluminous byproducts and wastes. Hence, the book also examines the use of enzymes in valorization of food processing wastes, besides the research gaps and future trends in the field that promote applications of enzymes. It examines the use of enzymes in food and beverage processing from the various food industries point of view and enables a deep understanding of the latest developments in modern food technologies and biotechnologies that you can use to meet ever-increasing consumer demands.

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Alternative energy sources are becoming increasingly important in a world striving for energy independence, clean air, and a reprieve from global warming. Solar cells, wind power, and biofuels are some of the competing alternative energy sources hoping to gain a foothold in our future energy mix, and the economic advantages of these technologies are continually increasing as costs are reduced and efficiencies increased. Alternative Energy Technologies: An Introduction with Computer Simulations explores the science and engineering behind a number of emerging alternative energy technologies, including polymer solar cells, algae biofuels, and artificial leaves. It also addresses the environmental need for these technologies. However, unlike its predecessors, this book employs simple computer models implemented within spreadsheet environments to simulate different aspects of the alternative energy technologies and therefore teach the subject matter. This unique approach: Provides a dual introduction to alternative energy technologies and computer simulation Elucidates the fundamental behaviors and complex interactions within the alternative energy systems Makes computer simulation straightforward and accessible to readers with no prior programming experience Featuring investigative exercises that deepen understanding and inspire further research, Alternative Energy Technologies: An Introduction with Computer Simulations makes an ideal introductory textbook for undergraduate students and a valuable professional reference for experimental researchers.

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The effects of the bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) family on bone formation are well documented, but the transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta (β) isoforms are much less studied. The product of 20 years of study, Induction of Bone Formation in Primates: The Transforming Growth Factor-β3 sums up editor Ugo Ripamonti’s research into the osteogenic activity of the three mammalian TGF-β isoforms, particularly in primates. It explores how the mammalian TGF-β isoforms have the potential to shed light on the apparent redundancy of bone induction signaling.The book unearths the profound and important bone inductive activity of the TGF-β3 isoform. It includes accounts of extensive research in non-human primates from craniofacial tissue regeneration, heterotopic tissue induction, and chapters on periodontal tissue regeneration and synergistic induction of bone formation. It also discusses the future clinical role of the TGF-β isoform, including in human studies.This book contributes to the fascinating history of BMP and TGF-β research at the intersection of molecular biology, tissue induction, bone regeneration, and craniofacial surgery. It provides a revolutionary awakening to new possibilities in skeletal reconstruction, tissue engineering, and molecular and cellular biology.

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